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Dustin Thao
Dustin Thao is the author of the popular young adult novel You've Reached Sam. His work often explores themes of love and loss with a heartfelt touch.
You've Reached Sam
Synopsis
Julie has spent the last year of high school planning a future with her boyfriend Sam — right up until the car accident that kills him. Weeks later, grieving and unable to move forward, she calls his phone one last time to hear his voicemail. Instead, Sam answers.
The calls are brief, unpredictable, and impossible to explain, but they give Julie something she thought she'd lost: more time with Sam. As the connection continues, she has to face what it's doing to her ability to grieve, and to the people around her — including Sam's mother and his best friend Oliver — who are moving forward without the secret she's keeping.
A quiet, character-driven novel about first grief and first love, told from alternating angles of holding on and letting go.
Genres
Characters
Julie ClarkeProtagonist
A high-school senior and aspiring writer whose boyfriend dies in a car accident; she begins receiving calls from his phone.
Sam ObayashiSupporting
Julie's boyfriend, a Japanese American musician who dies in a car accident before the story opens and answers when she calls his number.
Mika ObayashiSupporting
Sam's cousin and one of Julie's closest friends, grieving him in her own way and pulling away from those around her.
Oliver (You've Reached Sam)Supporting
Sam's best friend, working through his own grief while trying to stay close to Julie.
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