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Cover of You've Reached Sam by Dustin Thao

You've Reached Sam

  • 320 pages · about 5 hours
  • First published 2021
  • 8 editions

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1 About this book

Seventeen-year-old Julie has her future all planned out—move out of her small town with her boyfriend Sam, attend college in the city, spend a summer in Japan. But then Sam dies. And everything changes.

Heartbroken, Julie skips his funeral, throws out his things, and tries everything to forget him and the tragic way he died. But a message Sam left behind in her yearbook forces back memories. Desperate to hear his voice one more time, Julie calls Sam’s cellphone just to listen to his voicemail.

And Sam picks up the phone.

In a miraculous turn of events, Julie’s been given a second chance at goodbye. The connection is temporary. But hearing Sam’s voice makes her fall for him all over again, and with each call it becomes harder to let him go. However, keeping her otherworldly calls with Sam a secret isn’t easy, especially when Julie witnesses the suffering Sam’s family is going through.

  • Romance
  • Grief
  • Children's fiction
  • Young Adult
  • Loss (Psychology)
  • Second chances
  • Family life
  • Forgiveness

2 What to expect

A young adult novel about grief with one magical element: a seventeen-year-old calls her dead boyfriend's phone, and he answers. The calls give her time to say goodbye, and the story follows her through guilt, memories of the relationship and the slow repair of friendships she has neglected. It is quiet and sad, more about mourning than about romance or about explaining the phone calls.

Good for readers who want: a young adult story about grief, first love, and a quiet, moving read.

3 About Dustin Thao

 

Dustin Thao is a Vietnamese-American author based in New York City. His works are rooted in contemporary young adult fiction, with elements of magic realism.

Bio adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0)

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