You've Reached Sam

This book and it's characters fell flat for me, I was annoyed at the main character and I really didn't like the way the emotions between Sam and Julie were explained and not shown.
I guess I now know that I don't like romance books where there are no possible outcome in which the characters in love could end up together (when one is dead). This feeling of dullness also showed it's face when I read another book of the same type(If I stay), although this one had a chance of recovery because the “dead” character was in a coma. The same memory based love story didn't engage me at all and I couldn't feel the emotions of the characters in both this book and If I stay. Towards the end, I was so annoyed I had to force myself to finish it even though I was reading it in the audiobook version.
So I guess maybe I would recommend this book to someone who also loved If I stay.
Meanwhile one of my favorite book is PS:I Love You from Cecelia Ahern which treats of a similar subject but in a way that I really felt deeply for in every bone of my body.
Either way I didn't like this book and after all the hype it received I was expecting a lot more...

Solid 3 stars. It wasn't bad necessarily but I wasn't a big fan of Julie and the way she acted in spite of everything. I found her to be quite selfish and rude (especially to her also grieving friends and family???) and although I know part of that was her grief that she needs to get over, even after that I just didn't care for her character. (Like when she claimed that the reason she decided to hang out w her grieving friend is because she “has empathy because she's a writer”??? And only bc he offered to pay??? Then she proceeds to buy THREE SCOOPS OF ICE CREAM??? Grief doesn't make u entitled and greedy). Her relationship with Sam also felt slightly flat, like I didn't really feel the sadness or the yearning between them. Their conversations were really cheesy and felt superficial. I liked the side characters much more and cared more about their relationships with Sam than Julie's - although even with Mika and James who get to speak to Sam the emotion felt... off? I was really disappointed by the lack of explanation behind the phone calls too. My heart aches at the concept of this book but the execution unfortunately just did not do it for me. That being said though I probably definitely would have loved it if I had read it when I was 16 and can understand why people would love this book, but there were just a few too many things that bothered me and I was disappointed that it didn't make me cry like it promised to. So yeah. 3 stars.

i really wanted to love this, but sadly, no. the writing was most of the time extremely unimpressive except for a few beautiful lines which then stuck out awkwardly amongst all the boring writing. the main character was extremely flat, the flashbacks to her relationship did nothing because they were such cliche events and conversations that could have been pulled from any YA romance. Overall this entire book was relentlessly underwhelming and cliche.

I found the main character annoying and I just couldn't get past that. Great concept though and the cover is beautiful!

Plot: ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Characters: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Pacing: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️



So emotional.

This book deals with grief in such a realistic way.
I lost my father when I was a child. I never got to say goodbye and that eats at me everyday. I still need that closure. I need to speak to him again just like Julie did with Sam in this book. If I could ring my father now just to say the word “goodbye” I would.

I wasn't prepared for this book. It sent me spiralling. It shows how short life is and how at any moment you could just die. What happens when we die? No one knows and that's just so scary to me.
If I were to die young, I would just be a memory to those who loved me. If I were to die right now, I would forever be 22 years old in my loved ones memories for decades. I would be a passing thought in 20 years, I would be somewhat forgotten.

Do we move on and try and stop the grief when someone we loved dies? Or do we carry them with us for the rest of our lives and forever be somewhat sad? Death is natural, just as natural as eating, sleeping, breathing but why is it the hardest thing to deal with?

I lost my father and I'm currently losing my mother to illness and this book just reminded me that I have another chance to say goodbye and spend more time with loved ones. Life happens and its crazy and unpredictable and we could all become Julie one day.

Something to take away from this book is to live everyday without regrets. This is harsh but you could die any minute. LIVE YOUR LIFE.


—

In a less serious topic here, the two main characters share the same name with my pets hahaha
Julie is the name of one of my cats and I have a dog named sam

3.5/5 stars

This is a rating I'm gonna have to sleep on and whether I'm gonna round it up or down. But anyways, I'm sad.

Maybe the message of the book is to help people who have lost dear ones, but the way the story is carried out, i was hoping that the events would change where the one character never died or resurrects

Julie and Sam have planned everything. Where they will live, where they will go to college, and all the little details that go into building a future. But the night Sam dies in a car accident, Julie gives up all hope for any future without Sam. Drowning in grief, Julie refuses to attend his funeral and sets herself on a path to forget everything. Until one night Julie calls Sam, desperate to hear his voice once more. And he picks up.

You’ve Reached Sam has the potential to be a powerful story about overcoming the loss of a loved one. And at the start of the novel, I loved the concept of Sam and Julie maintaining their connection beyond the grave. But the emotional connection wasn’t always present for me. Julie’s relationship with Sam is shown through flashbacks and moments where Sam and Julie reminisce over the phone. I wish there had been more of a foundation for their relationship. Watching the slow build-up of love and the sudden loss of it would have made a heavier impact.

However, the repercussions of Julie missing Sam’s funeral and the subsequent memorials for him made a huge impact on the story. Every character who had a connection to the couple shared their various opinions on Julie’s actions. And many in their own grief mistook her suffering as negligence. Witnessing Julie navigate through her various relationships and struggle to come to terms with her impact on them was complex and well done.

Sam’s phone calls showed firsthand how Julie was in denial over his death. How she wanted so desperately to never lose him. But the magical realism of the phone calls didn’t follow the flow of the story. It wasn’t just Julie’s progression through grief influencing them. Sharing her secret seemed to have the greater impact. Each time she gave a piece of her secret conversation away, it became harder to reach out to Sam. And yet Julie wasn’t moving forward to closure as quickly as the phone calls were. The ending left me wanting for more, and wishing for a tidier closure.

If you are looking to see if this type of fiction is right for you, pick up You’ve Reached Sam. It does not go as deeply into the stages of grief as some other YA novels, and you’ll be able to see if it is something you’d like to continue reading.

This is the first book this author has written and let me tell you, he hit it out of the ball park!!!!!!! It was a home run & an absolute 5 star. This beautiful story between Julie and Sam made me sob uncontrollably.. Although the story is written in present day, we do get to see glimpses of the relationship between Julie & Sam prior to his death. As Julie mourns the loss of Sam she decides to call his cellphone, just to hear his voice one last time but is shocked when he actually answer his cellphone. Julie & Sam quickly fall back into their routine of talking every day. At some point in time they both realize that this could not continue to go on forever & that it needed to end so they could both move on in life & in death. It was extremely difficult for me to see them make that final decision. Thank you NetGalley & Wednesday Books for giving me an eARC. I 100% recommend this book.

I was immediately drawn to this book after reading the synopsis and seeing the gorgeous cover, and I had high expectations for this one, but the story didn't quite engross me as I was expecting.

I understand that people have different ways of grieving, but some of her actions just came across as insensitive and selfish? She claims to be close with Sam's family, but she completely stops talking to Sam's mom and brother, who she claims to be very close with, and only talks to his cousin because Mika makes the effort.

The writing was easy to get into, and I did enjoy the flashbacks of how they met and their relationship developing, but I just didn't feel like the characters were fleshed out well. I couldn't empathize with Julie, and I couldn't see Sam beyond a memory. Although we were getting flashbacks, it just seemed like we were seeing a memory, and not Sam actually still alive. (I don't even know if that makes sense to you but I don't know how to explain this any better right now bc I'm running on 3hrs of sleep