3

You've Reached Sam

Dustin Thao

Review:

This was a no for me. It just felt so two-dimensional. I had no feelings towards the story and thought the first chapter was better than the entire rest of the book combined. I feel like if this was a romance instead of a tragedy, it would have been perfect, but because it wasn’t, it felt wrong. It was almost too light for the story itself. I also hated the main character and thought she was making way too many excuses. I understand she was grieving, but that doesn’t give you the right to cut off and insult everyone around you. The gay representation was horrible and seemed like it was just thrown in there for the diversity factor. This was one of the few times that the cover was just too good for the book. There was almost nothing I liked about this book.

Trigger Warnings:
Racism, Grief & loss depiction (theme), Death of a boyfriend, and Car accident

Synopsis From Book:

Seventeen-year-old Julie 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 things, and tries everything to forget him and the tragic way he died. But a message Sam left behind in her yearbook forces back memories. Desperate to hear his voice one more time, Julie calls Sam’s cellphone just to listen to his voicemail. And Sam picks up the phone. In a miraculous turn of events, Julie’s been given a second chance at goodbye. The connection is temporary. But hearing Sam’s voice makes her fall for him all over again, and with each call it becomes harder to let him go. However, keeping her otherworldly calls with Sam a secret isn’t easy, especially when Julie witnesses the suffering Sam’s family is going through. Unable to stand by the sidelines and watch their shared loved ones in pain, Julie is torn between spilling the truth about her calls with Sam and risking their connection and losing him forever.
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