Book Review — You’ve Reached Sam by Dustin Thao
Book Review — You’ve Reached Sam by Dustin Thao📕
A sincere, heartfelt examination of love, sorrow and the unfamiliar blessing of goodbye.🫀
I went with You’ve Reached Sam expecting a modern day YA romance. I was not ready to see my chest filled out and then filled in slowly and very tenderly with the most sadest kind of hope. The novel by Dustin Thao traces the life of Julie Clarke the moment her boyfriend Sam abruptly died: it is a beautiful story of how love lives on, how grief can redefine the world, how at times the most unthinkable to us is a phone call made on the other side of the grave: an opportunity to say what we could not say before.
Brief overview (so you can get an idea of what you are getting into)📖
Julie and her boyfriend Sam are seventeen years old, and they have some plans: college, moving out, future. then Sam gets killed in a car crash as he is driving to see Julie. A week following his death Julie (lacking sleep, desperate to hear his voice) calls his phone and to her surprise Sam picks up. The two engage in a strange, ghostly ritual of phone calls that allow them to re-experience the past and communicate things that cannot be said, however the phone calls do not last indefinitely. The dreadful process of mourning and its unruly phases, guilt, and painstaking process of recovery is examined in the novel as Julie walks the tightrope between clinging and letting go.
What I enjoyed (and why I have not forgotten this book)✨
1. The voice. The narration by Julie is both first-person and direct to the point - it is close but not melodramatic. Thao tells the story in a manner that allows you to experience the grief of Julie: the confusion, the flashbacks, the details (how a song can be a talisman). It is the simplicity of its prose that makes it so powerful, the emotional punches are not delivered in a heavy-handed manner. The book has been characterized by the reviewers as being heart-wrenching, beautifully written, and this is precisely accurate.
2. The key con was the phone calls. The notion that Julie can dial the phone of Sam and get him to pick the phone, and that they can only discuss so much is creative and heartbreaking. It provides the novel with a magical-realist feel without any emotional stakes that are anything but real. The calls are a figurative means that allows the reader to relive the good times and see the ugliness, unresolved relationships between the two. Such equilibrium between supernatural and ordinary sorrows is managed with dexterity.
3. The realism of grief. Thao does not hasten to clean up closure. He demonstrates the confusion, the anger, the illogical choice (Julie not going to the funeral), and the little things, which pass as survival. These are the moments that resonate and that is what makes the book a comfort, but a challenge at the same time. Critics and readers alike have been enamored by the way that the novel portrays the very messiness of it all.
4. The supporting cast. The individuals surrounding Julie, family, friends, Sam circle are developed in a way that they do count. They are anchors and sources of fracture in the healing process of Julie, which is representative of how real communities react (or do not react) to grief.
Best Parts (those scenes that made me cry, think and re-read)💫
The first answered call. That shot - Julie as she calls the number of Sam and he picks up - is simmeringly silent. It is all shock, relief, heartbreak and denial in a cluster. It establishes the emotional mood in the whole book.
Memory-drenched flashbacks. The scenes of Julie and Sam together, dancing, planning, little domestic scenes are written with such tenderness, it hurts. These flashbacks are Polaroid-like flashbacks, flashbacks that are brash and lighthearted, flashbacks that help to define the loss as well as its significance.
The slow realization. The strongest moments in the book are when Julie begins to realize that the phone calls are not equal to living in the presence of someone. Her methods of clinging, and then learning to hold onto memories in different ways, is devoid of vocal heartbreak.
Memorable quotes📝
Dustin Thao sprinkles the pages with lines falling like little facts. A few that stayed with me:
“We are two parts of a song. He is the music. I am the words.”
Now that the end is such agony, then I do not know whether it was worth all of this.
Releasing is not forgetting. It is a balancing act between moving forward and life, and looking back here and there, and remembering the people in it.
Both quotes refer to how Thao examines the act of trying to remember; it is not about deletion, it is about carrying.
Some of the things I would have preferred more.
There is no ideal book, and even the one that I love has sections that I would make amendments:
Extended back story of secondary characters. Although the protagonist is rather emotionally convincing, some secondary characters did not seem developed. I would have preferred a little bit of background about some of the friends of Sam - not to take away the story of Julie, but to give the town a little more depth.
Pacing in the middle. It has moments in which the rhythm declines, and we can find the repetition of calls cyclic. And yet, the repetition has a thematic purpose (grief is repetitive), and therefore, it is rather an observation than a true weakness.
Voice of other readers/critics.
Reviewers on sites such as Goodreads have pointed out the emotional weight and quotability of the book and many have remarked that it addresses grief in an honest and not simplified way. Some of the reviewers referred to the book as gut-wrenching and beautiful as Thao balances heartbreak and hope. This one hits the nail on the head, in case you are a person who likes an emotional journey that builds slowly.
Reasons as to why you should read (or not read) this book.
Read it when you like YA stories that are not afraid to sit in sadness; when you like character-driven stories, when you like small and bright scenes; when you want a book that does not only fix grief but also walks into its landscape to explore the world.
Pass over it when you are in need of a plot-saturated, breakneck-paced read, or require purely realistic fiction with no supernatural twist - the answered-phone premise is main and can be an acquired taste.
Concluding opinion, rating and to whom it applies.
I would rate You've reached sam 4.5/5 stars. It is a sensitive, conscientious book that does not leave quickly after reading. It is perfect to anyone reading the YA of the present day and is emotionally truthful about loss, and anyone who has ever had to say goodbye again.
And should you have a fondness for novels that are emotionally real, with a touch of the surreal (the kind that leave you sobbing after which you toil silently on), you will not easily forget this one. This is reflected in the praise of review outlets and independent bloggers: numerous refer to it as an emotional read on bereavement and memory, written with subtlety and sensitivity.
Check Ratings and Reviews on : Goodreads
Learn More About the Author on his official website: Dustin Thao
About Me👩💻:
Hello -I am the voice behind The Cosy Corner, Abi. This is a place where I can find a small escape into fashion, lifestyle and day-to-day inspiration. I blog about fashion, interior inspiration, beauty practices, creative lifestyle, whatever makes the days a lot more comfortable and even more confidence-giving, not to mention a bit happy. I would love to bring you stories that you will never forget when you close the book, and I wish to do so through book reviews such as this one.
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