You've Reached Sam

“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.”