You've Reached Sam by Dustin Thao

By Lean and Love �� - December 02, 2022

Tittle      : You've Reached Sam
Author        : Dustin Thao
Pub Date : November 09, 2021
Pages         : 296
My Rating : ★★★

The Summary

When everything you love is on the line, how can you move on?

Julie, who is seventeen, has her entire future planned out: she will leave her little village with her lover Sam, go to college in the big city, and spend the summer in Japan. Then Sam passes away. Then everything is altered. Julie calls Sam's cellphone solely to hear his voicemail because she has to hear it one more time. Sam then takes the call.

If you were given a second chance to say farewell, what would you say?

My Review

This tale paints a fairly true portrait of loss. Every time I read about him and Julie, it actually hurt. I think it does a great job of examining loss. And being completely honest, however, I have no idea what to make of this one.

The idea has a lot of potential. The book's beginning and end were without a doubt its strongest points; regrettably, the middle did not nearly have the same impact on me. Maybe some of the phone conversations they would have were what confused me so much. Or possibly there are a lot of poorly done flashbacks? It was mostly fairly strange.

This book is short and written in a straightforward manner, so I virtually flew through it. Julie wasn't really a lovable heroine because of her impetuous, occasionally selfish behavior, which is all tied to how she is coping with her loss. Nevertheless, I enjoyed how honestly she was written.

Another thing I really appreciated was how the characters were able to sort of comfort one another as they dealt with the loss of their buddy. It shows that there will always be people at your side, so you don't have to go through sadness alone. They undoubtedly contributed significantly to the plot in my opinion because they stood out, had individual personalities, and were special. I felt appreciative to have them there.

It was undoubtedly far longer than it needed to be and, towards the middle, it began to sound the same. I truly think that this story may have been more profound and emotional if there had been an explanation for why things were happening the way they were. There were no explanations, so there was no opportunity to fill in the plot's gaps to deepen and build the story.

Nevertheless, reading it was still enjoyable. The epilogue and the last chapter are both very moving.

My ratings score:

★★★★★ Fantastic! Made me go through a lot of emotions & the entire book is incredibly beautifully done!

★★★★ Memorable! Despite its shortcomings, this book was incredible and taught us a lot.