Bookish Brews Snapshot
You've Reached Sam by Dustin Thao
While trying to cope with the loss of her boyfriend Sam, Julie tries to call him to listen to his voice on his voicemail but instead of his voicemail, he picks up. Now she must deal with how to live her life with this second chance they have been given to say goodbye.
❤️🩹 Trauma and Healing ✨ Low Conflict 🌱 Character Growth 😭 Emotional
- Genre: Contemporary, Young Adult
Book Review
Emotional, lovely, sweet, grief-filled, beautiful, hard
You’ve Reached Sam was such a wonderfully sweet read. The writing was wonderful, and fit the story so well. It made me sad right from the beginning, but full of a real understanding of handling grief. It was one of those wonderful books that does magical realism so right. It uses the fantastical only to enhance the real feelings of grief and moving on, and it was so sweet.
The story is about a young high school girl named Julie, who is struggling to grieve and move on from the death of her long term boyfriend, Sam. Through the struggle in trying to cope with the loss of Sam, she tries to call him to listen to his voicemail… and he picks up. Now Julie must deal with how to live her life with this second chance they have been given to say goodbye.
Though this book is naturally really sad, considering the main topic is about getting over the death of the love one. But what I really enjoyed was that the writing went with it so well. The writing was light, and so it let you fill in your own emotion into the story. We all know grief in some way, and we all grief different, and Dustin Thao really gave us the space to do that. It all worked together in such a great way, I absolutely adored it.
Another thing that I really loved that goes along with the writing was that Thao really was able to navigate the use of cell phones in writing so well. Which is huge, considering how the entire plot centers around that. I was a little nervous going in about that, as I feel that the book industry hasn’t really universally gotten good at incorporating cell phones into novels yet. It’s way too often that I see some weirdly formatted text in a book that is pretty underwhelming. But even though the main characters were speaking on the phone, it didn’t feel that way at all. Amazing work!
Naturally the best part for me was the representation! Most of the cast is Asian and it makes me so happy. I loved seeing Julie’s friends pass her cut fruit and green tea kitkats. It just filled me with so much joy! I also loved that Mika wasn’t incredibly familiar with their family traditions and customs, because I can relate to that a lot. It goes along with that feeling of unbelonging that a lot of Asian Americans feel, and I was glad it was mentioned.
As for the story, I don’t want to say it was predictable, because that has a bad connotation. But it was predictable in the best way. It was obvious before I even started the book that this connection was going to be used as a metaphor for moving on and coping with loss, but it was still a joy to read. I think this book is a great book to help teens understand loss and moving on. I am really glad this book exists, and it was just what I needed to read!
You’ve Reached Sam is an incredible book about teens dealing with grief and loss. The writing matches the story perfectly, and navigates the digital theme incredibly. The characters are diverse and rich, and the friendships are beautiful.
Book Aesthetic
