You've Reached Sam
Ratings98
Average rating3.4
I was really hoping I'd love this and read it as quickly as everyone else is loving and reading it. Unfortunately, I could quickly tell that this was definitely not the case. Straight from the beginning I didn't like the writing style. It's too awkward and Julie uses too many uncontracted sentences (it is on the table instead of it's on the table).
In my opinion, if you do not contract, you tend to be more formal and uncontracted sentences are more often seen in fantasy novels and less so in young adult novels. I tend to sometimes not contract my sentences, but that's because I tend to write a bit more formal at times. So therefore, even though I use uncontracted sentences and often did when I was younger, most teenagers do not. It felt weird reading them.
I wanted to be sad and feel the same way Julie did but I couldn't get past the writing style and feel the same way as everyone else. The transitions from flashbacks to normal was also not written well, in my opinion.
I SOBBED LIKE A BITCH!!!!! I CRIED SINCE I OPENED THE BOOK...HOW CAN A BOOK MAKE U CRY THIS MUCH!!! THIS BOOK HOLDS A SPECIAL PLACE IN MY HEART❤️❤️ LITERALLY!!! I WAS SCREAMING CRYING LIKE SOMEBODY DIED!!! I DONT THINK ANOTHER BOOK CAN TOP SOMETHING LIKE THIS!!! THE MESSAGE WAS BEAUTIFUL...THE ENDING WAS BEAUTIFUL... THIS WHOLE FUCKING BOOK WAS BEAUTIFUL!!!! P.S. I CRIED 500 TIMES!! FROM THE BEGINNING, THE MIDDLE, THEN THE END!!! SOBBED THROUGHOUT THE BOOK!!!! IF ONLY THIS CAN HAPPEN IN RL SO WE CAN SAY GOODBYE TO THE PERSON FOR THE FINAL TIME❤️... I recently lost my cat 4 days after my birthday.. ya I understand she not a person but she was my best friend the only think that kept me alive when I was going through hard times!! But the thing was she was coming to me in the middle of the night to sleep in my bed... To sleep on my body but she collapsed on my bedroom floor!! This book was hard to read so if u lost somebody please be careful ❤️
“Sam's voice comes through the phone. “Hey—so, I'm not sure if I should do this ... Or if it will even work. I probably should have said this to you over the phone, but we ran out of time. Or maybe, the truth is, I was scared you would think of me differently ... That is, if you knew why I picked up the phone that first time—” He pauses. “Before we hung up, you said something that made me feel a bit guilty. You said I picked up your call that night because you needed me. I guess part of that is true. But that isn't the reason I answered.” A long pause. “The truth is ... I picked up because—because I needed you. I needed to hear your voice again, Julie. Because I wanted to make sure you didn't forget me. You see, I took you to all those places—like the fields, to see the stars that night—so that you'd always remember. So that whenever you looked up at the sky at night, you'd think of me. Because I didn't want to let you go yet. I never wanted to say good-bye, Jules. And I never wanted you to, either. That's why I stayed as long as I could. So don't blame yourself for anything. It was me that was keeping you from your life. Maybe it was a bit selfish of me. But I was just so scared you'd forget. I realize now I made it a lot harder for you to move on. And I hope you forgive me for that.” Sam pauses again. “Remember back in the fields, when I asked what you wanted ... if you could have anything? Well—I want those things, too, Jules. I want to be there with you. I want to graduate with you guys. I want to move out of Ellensburg, and live with you, and grow old together. But I can't.” Another pause. “But you still can. You can still have all those things, Julie. Because you deserve them. And you deserve to fall in love a dozen times, because you are kind and beautiful, and who wouldn't fall in love with you? You're one of the best things to ever happen to me. And when I think about my life, I think of you in it. You are my entire world, Julie. And one day, maybe I'll only be a small piece of yours. I hope you keep that piece.” Static comes through the line. “I love you more than you can ever know, Julie. I'll never forget the time we had together. So please don't forget me, okay? Try to think of me from time to time. Even if it's only for a moment. It would mean so much. You have no idea.” A long pause, followed by static. “I should go now. Thank you ... for not picking up the phone this time. Good-bye, Julie.”
^^that fucked me up BIG TIME!! A BITCH WAS HEARTBROKEN ༼;´༎ຶ ༎ຶ༽༼;´༎ຶ ༎ຶ༽༼;´༎ຶ ༎ຶ༽
Will I read this again?? HELL NAH WELL MAYBE
If you want something that will pull heart strings this is the book because boy was I bawling. This is a very good and easy read plus it's a stand alone!! He is a very good author :))
Meski baru berumur 17 tahun, Julie sudah punya rencana hidup yang tersusun rapi. Yang paling penting adalah pindah dan berkuliah di kota lain bersama pacarnya, Sam. Namun, Sam meninggal... dan segalanya berubah.
Julie hancur lebur. Dia berjuang melupakan Sam serta kejadian tragis yang menewaskan cowok itu. Dia ingin sekali merasakan lagi kehadiran Sam dan mendengar suara cowok itu. Sampai suatu ketika, di tengah keputusasaannya, dia menghubungi ponsel Sam.
Lalu, Sam menjawab telepon itu....
Julie tahu ini seharusnya mustahil, tapi suara yang didengarnya memang suara Sam. Tak ada yang bisa menjelaskan, Sam pun tidak. Keajaiban ini memberinya kesempatan untuk mengucapkan selamat tinggal.
Kuakui, awalnya aku agak sinis dengan YA ini. Dan aku tidak menyesal mencobanya karena ternyata cerita ini lebih baik dari yang kukira. Walau ada elemen surreal (biasanya aku tidak cocok dengan ini), dimana Julie bisa berkomunikasi dengan Sam walau Sam sudah tiada, menurutku Dustin menulisnya dengan baik.
Dari sana, cerita berkembang dengan bagaimana Julie berusaha menghadapi rasa kehilangan dan bergerak maju, sambil memanfaatkan kesempatan berharga untuk mengobrol dengan Sam. Novel ini menggambarkan proses berduka yang menyentuh dan penuh perasaan dengan cara yang unik.
Grief is different in every person. Some go through it fast, some clutch it for a few months and for others it stays with them throughout their life. We all have to find a way to make it a little less painful. In this case Julie found it though phone calls.
It was a sweet book and I'm appreciative of the focus on grief but I was so bored for like 90% of the book. I knew a lot of people love it so I wanted to finish it but I was somewhat disappointed because it was not nearly as emotionally intense as I expected... I didn't shed a single tear. I liked seeing the characters connect and grow together but it wasn't a huge selling point for me. The writing was overall good but it was just too dense in some points and the chapters were way too long. I also think that if the book had started earlier in the characters timeline I would've enjoyed it more because I would've been able to feel the devastation myself.
Alot of ppl cried over this book, and after i read the ending of it, i totally understood why. The thing that Sam said in the voicemail really got me sobbing.
This was a light grief, emotional story and I wasn't expecting to cry at the end at all.
I didn't connect to the characters very much, but still enjoyed the book anyway. I thought the pace was fine.
The magical elements of the book made it unique but extremely unsatisfying because we never get real answers about how it was possible to be calling dead people.
People do experience grief in many different ways, so yes, sometimes Julie was a little bit annoying, but like I said, overall I didn't mind.
Tato kniha je rozhodně originální a nápad se mi líbil, jen mi prostě přišlo, že uprostřed knihy se nic neděje. Začátek i konec se mi líbil, ale prostředek zkrátka pokulhával.
Oceňuju zpracování knihy a ta ořízka je nádherná.
Za mě 3,5/5 chtělo to prostě trochu víc
My heart... my soul... I want to give Julie a big hug and hold her close.
While I was reading this book I was thinking of all the stages of grief, of all the different ways a person will grief, and how a simple thing can make you feel guilty for a life for something you never controlled. And the way grief was lived through the phone calls was excellent as an idea, but I wish we had more clear imagine of the two of them together and more plot on Julie's life after.
Its really difficult to put a star rating on this book. I think the idea was good, the writing the same, but the story lacked interest and the way it was written didn't help me love the characters in it. There were moments that I was bored, but I never felt the need to DNF, but it was a slow read.
I have to give it to the author though, that his idea behind the phone calls was excellent and I would love to read more books by him as he grows into his writing style.
Niet echt mijn ding. Ik vond dat dit boek een achterliggende gedachten had, namelijk dat je niet alles voor lief moet nemen. Morgen is niet beloofd, dus maak er alles van. Het had een vreemde schrijfstijl vond ik...
I remember what it feels like to be young. I remember what it feels like to be a teenager, to be exact. Every single emotion felt like it was magnified, like my heart and my mind could not contain it. It felt like everything was too much. Like the whole universe was plotting against me.
Why me?
I tried hard to emphatize with Julie. I really did. Her boyfriend died, after all. The love of her young life is lost. I should feel her sadness, her grief, her disappontment, her loss. But I could not find it in myself to feel for Julie. The words are just mere... words. Nothing more, nothing less.
I don't exactly know why I should view the world from Julie's eyes. She's a bit too selfish, self-centered and very, for lack of word, colorless. She is the most boring main character I've ever stumbled upon. She's supposed to be a writer, but she is so lacking in personality it hurts my head.
This book is just not for me, I guess. I'm sure many could identify with the story, but not me. I just don't feel it.
“You never said good-bye...”“That's because I never thought I had to...”
I knew going into this book that it would hurt me. What I didn't realise was how profoundly it would touch me, even from the very first chapter.
This story explained grief in a way that I don't see too often in books, especially within the genre of Young Adult. People say that grief is handled differently by everyone but not too often is the truly ugly side of grief that is survivors guilt (even guilt in general) and the anger that comes with losing someone you love is spoken about in such a immeasurable way.
“Letting go isn't about forgetting. It's balancing moving forward with life, and looking back from time to time, remembering the people in it”
I've struggled with grief a lot in my life and I truly believe that this quote and the lesson that it teaches is something that we all need to hear. Making yourself feel numb and not allowing yourself to actually feel what's happening is so much easier than opening yourself up to the pain of what occurred. It's taken me years to understand that the pain is just a reminder that what we lost existed in the first place.
I haven't cried as hard as I have reading this book for a very long time. This was everything to me. I can't express how much I love this.
I haven't written a review quite this long in a while but I couldn't help myself. I needed to write down the intense feelings that this book made me feel. I was genuinely so surprised to learn that this was Dustin Thao's debut. I am so excited to read what comes next from this author.
”I miss you infinity.”
3.25 / the ending felt a tad bit rushed but it made me tear up nonetheless, although the ending is the only part out of the entire book that made me feel some sort of emotion
maybe it's just be though, books about grief don't really affect me much, i'm not sure why because it's not like i can't relate in some sort of aspect, it's just not as hard hitting is all.
It had everything to be a good book but for me the ending ruined it, they didn't give answers to the questions that I'm sure a lot of people, including me, wanted to know
Like how did Sam call her?
Where was he?
Why did she not receive notification while having the connection with him?
Good book but disappointed
[MY RATING] 8.9/10
[SOME SPOILERS AHEAD IN CHARACTER + OVERALL SECTION]
[PLOT, WRITING, WORLD-BUILDING & PACING]
- GAH THIS WAS SO GOOD AND IT MADE ME SOB SO MUCH bc i was imagining myself in her shoes and sobbing because if this happened to me and my boyfriend i'd probably be worse than her when it comes to grieving and just imagining him picking up the phone would never ever let me get over his death so JSBGSKRGAEWGEG
- i dont remember much bc i read this in 2022 but am writing the review only now but YEA ALL I RECALL WAS THAT I SOBBED ALOT AND I REALLY LOVED THIS BOOK and loved following the main character's grief journey while crying along with her.
- it was refreshing and great and overall i would reread this book whenever i feel like i need to cry and imagine that it's my boyfriend and I instead to cry more HAHAH
This book has a very interesting and engaging premise, but the actual writing and prose was boring. I had to force myself to keep reading and I would count down the pages until I let myself stop. Julie is also annoying and insufferable and there were way too many grammatical mistakes in the book.
This truly was a beautiful story, but it didn't make me cry as I expected to. I guess my expectations were a bit too high for this one.
4/5
une lecture émouvante et très addictive
J'ai beaucoup aimé l'histoire de Julie et Sam. Une belle histoire, une histoire déchirante le jour où Sam perd la vie emportant avec lui les rêves de Julie de partir de leur ville natale, passer l'été au Japon avant de rentrer à l'université ensemble.
Malheureusement tout cela s'écroule et Julie se retrouve seule, le cœur brisé d'avoir perdu son 1e amour.
Jusqu'au jour où Julie décide de passer un appel à Sam pour entendre sa voix sur le répondeur sauf que contre toutes attentes il répond !
Cette histoire était très touchante, entre rires et pleurs, tristesse et joie, on revit de beaux moments, des moments tristes, d'autres pleins d'amour et de tendresse. La question de deuil est très bien exploitée dans cette histoire grâce au petit côté fantastique et la souffrance de Julie bien retranscrite.
La plume de l'auteur est fluide, simple et pourtant pleine d'émotions et belle. Impossible de ne pas se prendre au jeu et de s'accrocher aux personnages, alors on pleure, on rit, et on espère au même rythme qu'eux. Mais l'histoire n'est pas seulement triste. C'est aussi un message d'espoir, un travail de reconstruction, une preuve de courage. Dépasser la souffrance et se concentrer sur le bon, se souvenir des belles choses.
Il y a pourtant bien un point qui ne m'a pas entièrement satisfaite dans cette histoire c'est le côté fantastique. À la fin du roman on ne comprend toujours pas le pourquoi du comment Sam a pu répondre au téléphone. J'aurai voulu plus d'explications sur ça malheureusement on en sait pas plus.
Malgré ça j'ai bien eu les larmes comme promis, j'ai fini le roman dans un torrent de pleurs et c'était chouette. Je recommande cette lecture, émotions garanties !
This read was indeed emotional and sad, yet not to the extent that it crushed my heart or even made me cry to that matter. However, i did love the whole idea that the characters got a chance to say a proper goodbye, since i believe Julie wouldn't have let go of the guilt she was bearing otherwise. Speaking of which, I also liked the commentary on grief and acceptance approached in this novel. I believe that Dustin Thao did an awesome job at portraying how messed up sorrow can get and delivered a raw and genuine depiction on that score.
About the main characters: Even though I understand Julie was grieving and blinded by sorrow, she still got on my nerves due to her rude behaviour and the way she treated her friends. I don't think she's that good of a person nonetheless, since she was acting selfishly and immaturely even when Sam was still alive. Anyways, i think that's just my own opinion on the matter. Sam on the other hand was a pure and selfless sweetheart