You've Reached Sam by Dustin Thao

  Assalamualaikum, good day dearest!

Title: You've Reached Sam 

Author: Dustin Thao

Pages: 293

Genre: Romance, Young Adult, Fantasy

Publisher: Wednesday Books

Year published: 2021

ISBN: 9781250836748

Blurb:

A heartfelt novel about love and loss and what it means to say goodbye.

Seventeen-year-old Julie Clarke has her future all planned out - move out of her small town with her boyfriend, Sam; attend college in the city; spend a summer in Japan. But then, Sam dies. And everything changes.

Heartbroken, Julie skips his funeral, throws out his belongings and tries everything to forget him. But a message Sam left behind in her yearbook forces memories to return. Desperate to hear him one more time, Julie calls Sam's cell phone just to listen to his voice mail recording. And Sam picks up the phone.

The connection is temporary. But hearing Sam's voice makes Julie fall for him all over again, and, with each call, it comes harder to let him go.

What would you do if you had a second chance at goodbye?

I have been wanting to read this book ever since it became oh so popular on Instagram. What intrigues me the most was the concept of having phone calls with the dead and also the theme of moving on.

While some people find it as a tear-jerker and a very very sad love story between Sam and Jules, I rather think it was quite normal or maybe I should say that it was very close to reality. I mean, they were high schoolers and if it was not death, they might have drifted away into the adulthood, or maybe they might be together until the end, who knows. But yeah, he died very unexpectedly.

It was quite hard for me to find my pace reading this especially when it begin with so much griefs and sadness from Jules that she started to think of her memory with Sam. The writing style on the flashbacks make me quite dizzy from being in one scene and abruptedly changed to another. It took me quite some time to reach the point where Sam  answered Jules's called for the first time. From then on, it was a smooth sailing.

While I don't entirely loves Jules (there's something about her character that I can't explain prevent me to love her further), I personally love her character growth. From a very angry, depressed person that lashed out when being called on to a person that could stop and think and try to understand that there were other people that would be as affected as her with Sam's death and trying to help and reconnect with them. I also loves the supports that her friends; Yuki, Jay, Rachel gave her. 

The phone call concept was also very nicely done and explained. Well, some part of it anyway because we can't know everything to it, right? And to be honest, I actually expect myself to cry a bucket reading this because well, we all know the ending between Sam and Jules but surprise surprise, I am rather well and not shed a tear. I find it rather bittersweet (or maybe because all those IG reels had spoil it for me?). Alas, it was a good and nice read for me. 

-thes