A review by aledamian
You've Reached Sam by Dustin Thao

dark emotional sad fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

 Julie had her life planned with her boyfriend Sam until he died in an accident, everything that they planned is coming down. Julie decides skip Sam´s funeral, throw away all his things and she tries to forget everything about him. In her yearbook she found a last message Sam wrote to her before he dies. So, Julie calls Sam one last time to hear his voice, but what she does not expect is to Sam answer the phone. A temporary connection, they have another chance to said goodbye to each other. Keep the calls with Sam as a secret won´t be easy especially when Sam´s family is in pain. 

To start I want to say this is the saddest book I have read this year. At the biggening we can see how Julie is trying to deal with pain and uncertainty about what the future without Sam will be but at the same time we see how she is decided to forget everything about him. But when she starts to call to Sam, she is decided that his dead is just a bad dream and he will come back soon, and start Julie codependence to Sam’s call, what is follow by depression. The author with his words makes you feel like the situation is really happening to you and that made me sad for a few days. He choice right words for describe how loss feels and how depression is. 

About the characters, Julie loves with all her heart Sam, but she is struggling with his lost and mourning in her own way, but other characters judge her about how wrong her way to feel pain and sadness was, when it is important that every person deal with their emotions in their own way, and neither is good or wrong, and sometimes that bother me. 

It was easy and fast to read. I think the only think that I don’t like was I felt the last chapter a little too fast and one think didn´t make sense to me, but I really love this book. 

If you think you need a good cry, this is the book that you are looking for. 
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