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A review by simplythegirl
You've Reached Sam by Dustin Thao
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
lighthearted
mysterious
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.5
I have super mixed feelings about this book. For one I am super sick of pixie dream girl cliche. YA authors (especially men authors- I'm looking at you John Green) always write young women like this: isolated whimsical kind of person then don't really give her any redeeming qualities or make her three dimensional. Julie seems more like a device to explore grief and talk about Sam than a real character. If you want to read a book about an obssessed pixie dream girl who gets even more obssessed over her boyfriend once he dies only to vaguely find closure then read on.
Julie doesnt seem to have much of a life outside of Sam even before he died. For one most of her friends are ones she met through him. The only people who don't rely on Sam's connection is her family and of course shes not close to them. The story is about her grief and moving on which I think was handled alright I really love the different portrayals of grief but the timing is super rushed. The magical realism is also really neat but as soon as others are able to talk to Sam I lost a lot of interest in the whole concept.
I think this quote shows what a lack of power Julie has throughout the book and how the book is so Sam centric when the summary leads readers to believe Julie is an autonomus character.
"He always loved having Sam around. Mr. Lee said he brought in good luck. 'What did I bring in?' I once asked him. "You brought in Sam."
Overall I really liked the portrayal of grief and most of the characters especially Oliver but Julie definitely got on my nerves. There are a lot of moments where she acknowledged her mistakes and how she should change and be less selfish then never does it until Sam pushes her to do so. She acknowledges she should be there tor Mika then only foes it when she promises Sam she will. I think it's dumb that Julie's only solution to get Mika to not be upset at her was to show her she could call Sam.<endspoiler That seemed like a big step for something where there should have been other solutions.
One small thing that really got on my nerves was Julie acknowledging she only thought professional script writers got to where they were because of nepotism(privileged life) when the professor talks to her about classes she can take at her mom's college, which are typically reserved for seniors, but he shows an interest because her mom: a professor at that school brags about her writingand Julie doesnt even blink an eye at her own priveledged life.
I also wish that the author expanded more on some of the cultural rituals of grieving death. This book is definitely a guilty pleasure though.
Oliver, Tristan and Mika seemed like really neat characters and it really bummed me out we didnt get a lot of time with them. I think the author really should have spent a little more time on the epilogue. The grief was the entire book so it felt frustrating to get so little after going through so much of Julie's journey, at least she's dating so that's good.
Pros: overall cool characters, the writing style flows well, the imagery is cute, the magical realism is sweet, great depiction of grieving and the ways people may grieve,
Cons: too many clichés, selfish characters, the timing is bad, unrealistic situations (I don't mean the magic part), a lot characters aren't three dimensional
I gave it 2.5 stars for the pros and the fact that I'm not the target demographic for this YA book
Julie doesnt seem to have much of a life outside of Sam even before he died. For one most of her friends are ones she met through him. The only people who don't rely on Sam's connection is her family and of course shes not close to them. The story is about her grief and moving on which I think was handled alright I really love the different portrayals of grief but the timing is super rushed. The magical realism is also really neat but as soon as others are able to talk to Sam I lost a lot of interest in the whole concept.
I think this quote shows what a lack of power Julie has throughout the book and how the book is so Sam centric when the summary leads readers to believe Julie is an autonomus character.
"He always loved having Sam around. Mr. Lee said he brought in good luck. 'What did I bring in?' I once asked him. "You brought in Sam."
Overall I really liked the portrayal of grief and most of the characters especially Oliver but Julie definitely got on my nerves. There are a lot of moments where she acknowledged her mistakes and how she should change and be less selfish then never does it until Sam pushes her to do so. She acknowledges she should be there tor Mika then only foes it when she promises Sam she will. I think it's dumb that Julie's only solution to get Mika to not be upset at her was to show her she could call Sam.<endspoiler That seemed like a big step for something where there should have been other solutions.
One small thing that really got on my nerves was Julie acknowledging she only thought professional script writers got to where they were because of nepotism(privileged life) when the professor talks to her about classes she can take at her mom's college, which are typically reserved for seniors, but he shows an interest because her mom: a professor at that school brags about her writingand Julie doesnt even blink an eye at her own priveledged life.
I also wish that the author expanded more on some of the cultural rituals of grieving death. This book is definitely a guilty pleasure though.
Oliver, Tristan and Mika seemed like really neat characters and it really bummed me out we didnt get a lot of time with them. I think the author really should have spent a little more time on the epilogue. The grief was the entire book so it felt frustrating to get so little after going through so much of Julie's journey, at least she's dating so that's good.
Pros: overall cool characters, the writing style flows well, the imagery is cute, the magical realism is sweet, great depiction of grieving and the ways people may grieve,
Cons: too many clichés, selfish characters, the timing is bad, unrealistic situations (I don't mean the magic part), a lot characters aren't three dimensional
I gave it 2.5 stars for the pros and the fact that I'm not the target demographic for this YA book