Youโ€™ve Reached Sam

Youโ€™ve Reached Sam

Jun 29, 2022

๐Ÿ“ ๐‘ฎ๐’†๐’๐’“๐’†: Romance, Contemporary, Young Adult

I have no idea where to begin with this. To call it brilliant would be doing it a disservice. This is not a perfect book, it is raw and emotional - qualities that I fell deeply in love with from the very first page. A flawed main character that is still in the journey of self-discovery, Julie may not be the kindest, most selfless or most empathetic. No one in the real world can be. Iโ€™ve read reviews that called out Julie on her selfish behaviour, her lack of manners, and her failure to be perfect etc. - yet no one is perfect and we need to stop asking fictional characters in contemporary fiction (or any form of fiction) to be. The journey to adulthood, coupled with grief and loss can be an immensely difficult journey for anyone and this hit close to home. While I may disagree with some of the things Julie says or does, I still feel for her.

Reviews that have given this book a lower rating also criticised the โ€œflatโ€ and โ€œone-dimensionalโ€ side characters. To me, they were never meant to be perfect as well. This is a story about grief and loss and in case anyone has forgotten, most of the side characters are dealing with the loss of Sam as well. The processing of grief is never universal, some choose to seclude themselves while others choose to lash out. Not everyone can be as empathetic youโ€™d want them to be in the face of grief. Asking fictional characters who very much reflect real-life reactions to grief is then ironically very unempathetic of the reader themselves.

I found myself in tears and snot in the final 10 pages. In these final pages, I understood and empathised with the emotions of the main characters as they came to their unique resolutions for grief. With some raw writing and vivid imagery, this book has touched my soul deeply. Iโ€™ve never been this heartbroken yet fulfilled.

๐Ÿ–‹๏ธ ๐‘ญ๐’‚๐’—๐’๐’–๐’“๐’Š๐’•๐’† ๐‘ธ๐’–๐’๐’•๐’† : In his death, Sam asked for only one thing, and that was for us to remember each other. Yet here I am trying so hard to forget.

๐‘ถ๐’—๐’†๐’“๐’‚๐’๐’ ๐‘ฝ๐’†๐’“๐’…๐’Š๐’„๐’•: A WordWanderlustโ€™s โญ๏ธโญ๏ธโญ๏ธโญ๏ธโญ๏ธRead

By YZ @wordwanderlust

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