You've Reached Sam

Author : Dustin Thao

Review by: Sanjeevni Kumari

No. Of pages : 304

Rating: 4/5

"If the ending is this painful, I don't know if this was worth it at all."

Imagine the love of your life dying and blaming yourself for it. Imagine them dying and being able to do absolutely nothing about it. But imagine the love of your life dying, and somehow, you can still talk to them. Sounds surreal? Because it is!

You've Reached Sam is a novel that revolves around two highschool lovers, Sam and Julie.

When Sam dies, Julie gets numb to everything around her. She starts slipping into this never ending cycle of depression and sadness, to the point where she misses Sam's funeral.

This sadness is what drives her to pick up her phone on a random lonely day and call Sam, just so she can hear his voice for one last time. But envision her surprise when she realises that Sam picked up the call. He's indeed talking to her.

This novel perfectly captures the shattering heartbreak a person goes through when they

lose their loved ones. It talks not just of the heartbreak Julie goes through, but also of the

process where she recovers from it and finds her footing in the real world. It talks of every

aspect from how Sam's death affects her, how she's completely submerged into talking to

him all the time while distancing herself from the rest of the world, back to how she helps

herself get out of it and make sense of the world around her. Mixed with a bit of unrealism, You've Reached Sam is a perfect read for you to cry your heart out to.

The best part of the novel is that it teaches you how to live your life with that pain. How to let the heartbreak go, but still keep that person in your heart. I believe there is a small part of Julie that will always love Sam. After all, first love does hit you differently, doesn't it? But in the end, the novel teaches you how to let go of that unwarranted guilt and that it is okay to move on. Many of us who have lost our loved ones do not often realise it, but it is, infact, okay to move on. You do not have to hold onto them, just simply cherish their memories.

Wishing you lots of power and strength!