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A review by zaiphon
You've Reached Sam by Dustin Thao
emotional
reflective
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.5
The premise of "You've reached Sam" is a wonderful idea and some of the themes explored I really enjoyed. However, the execution and pacing continously fell short and I ended the story feeling a mix of being underwhelmed and frustrated.
We follow Julie through the beginning stages of grief after the death of her boyfriend, Sam. She is just a few months shy of graduation and her whole world and all her future plans are in turmoil. While I do understand the back and forth emotions Julie is experiencing is a legit reaction, there were a lot of times as the reader that I felt disconnected from how the author was attempting to portray these experiences. I personally felt that the pacing being all over the place was the cause of this. It isn't until you get closer to the end of the story do you realize where the author was going with this. Even though we are meant to feel deep empathy for Julie, I found it hard to do so at times because I didn't ever truly have a full sense of Sam and who he was. It was difficult at times to read the way Julie is describing her anguish or her longing for what could be because it came off more selfish rather than working through the feelings of hope, sadness, and anger with the discovery of getting to "reconnect" with Sam again. The romance didn't stick for me outsidd of a few scarce moments and because I couldn't get a strong indication of these characters outside of a simple foundation, some of the emotional scenes did not impact me as much as it was expected to.
There were a couple of scenes near the end that I did enjoy because it allowed the reader to step outside of Julie's chaos and reflect on how death and grief affects the other characters. It was also interesting to see a side from Sam that we were able to explore due to the circumstances of the story.
Overall, I was really expecting more and didn't feel emotionally connected as deeply to the characters as I hoped. It was an interesting concept, but it missed the mark too often to keep me fully engaged.
We follow Julie through the beginning stages of grief after the death of her boyfriend, Sam. She is just a few months shy of graduation and her whole world and all her future plans are in turmoil. While I do understand the back and forth emotions Julie is experiencing is a legit reaction, there were a lot of times as the reader that I felt disconnected from how the author was attempting to portray these experiences. I personally felt that the pacing being all over the place was the cause of this. It isn't until you get closer to the end of the story do you realize where the author was going with this. Even though we are meant to feel deep empathy for Julie, I found it hard to do so at times because I didn't ever truly have a full sense of Sam and who he was. It was difficult at times to read the way Julie is describing her anguish or her longing for what could be because it came off more selfish rather than working through the feelings of hope, sadness, and anger with the discovery of getting to "reconnect" with Sam again. The romance didn't stick for me outsidd of a few scarce moments and because I couldn't get a strong indication of these characters outside of a simple foundation, some of the emotional scenes did not impact me as much as it was expected to.
There were a couple of scenes near the end that I did enjoy because it allowed the reader to step outside of Julie's chaos and reflect on how death and grief affects the other characters. It was also interesting to see a side from Sam that we were able to explore due to the circumstances of the story.
Overall, I was really expecting more and didn't feel emotionally connected as deeply to the characters as I hoped. It was an interesting concept, but it missed the mark too often to keep me fully engaged.