Thoughts on 3 YA novels : You’ve Reached Sam by Dustin Thao – Once and For All by Sarah Dessen – The Fashion Committee by Susan Juby
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You’ve Reached Sam by Dustin Thao
Genre : Contemporary YA
Stand alone
About the 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. Unable to stand by the sidelines and watch their shared loved ones in pain, Julie is torn between spilling the truth about her calls with Sam and risking their connection and losing him forever.
My Thoughts :
I liked this one. I loved how well Julie and Sam worked together. The book is just about 300 pages, so not very long, yet the author managed to create a believable relationship, which was essential since it is the focus of the story.
While I think the book explored grief and guilt in an interesting way, sadly it never had quite the impact I was hoping for. But grief varies so greatly from one person to another, there’s no wrong way to portray it; it’s simply that I didn’t quite connect with it.
I enjoyed the writing though, and while I don’t read much YA these days, I’ll be curious to see what Dustin Thao comes up with next.
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Once and For All by Sarah Dessen
Genre : Contemporary YA
Stand alone
About the Book :
Louna, daughter of famed wedding planner Natalie Barrett, has seen every sort of wedding: on the beach, at historic mansions, in fancy hotels and clubs. Perhaps that’s why she’s cynical about happily-ever-after endings, especially since her own first love ended tragically.
When Louna meets charming, happy-go-lucky serial dater Ambrose, she holds him at arm’s length. But Ambrose isn’t about to be discouraged, now that he’s met the one girl he really wants.
My Thoughts :
I’ve liked or loved every Sarah Dessen book I read so far, and while I wasn’t head over heels for Once and for All, I liked it.
I liked Louna and the setting, I thought it was a lot of fun and she was a great character. However, I couldn’t connect to Ambrose at all. Maybe it’s an age thing, but I didn’t think the way he was acting was cute or charming, just annoying (and to be honest, I thought the same of similar characters when I was his age too).
I also didn’t like the back and forth between past and present. It’s a device I usually enjoy, but here I felt it was taking away from the current story. I thought it would have been better if set entirely in the present, with Louna sharing her story through the narration.
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The Fashion Committee by Susan Juby
Genre : Contemporary YA
Stand alone
About the Book :
Charlie Dean is a style-obsessed girl who eats, sleeps, and breathes fashion. John Thomas-Smith is a boy who forges metal sculptures in his garage and couldn’t care less about clothes.
Both are gunning for a scholarship to the private art high school that could make all their dreams come true. And whoever wins the fashion competition will win the scholarship.
My Thoughts :
I’m sad that I didn’t enjoy this one more. The idea is certainly fun, and Charlie is a great main character. I loved her humor, and I thought her personality was very well developed. The way she acted and reacted made a lot of sense when taking into account everything she’d been through and I was rooting for her.
However, I did not enjoy John’s point of view. I was completely bored through it and thought it didn’t bring much to the story. I was also very disappointed that the two characters weren’t together much : I expected them to develop some form of relationship (not necessarily romantic), yet they barely interacted with each other. Unfortunate, because I loved Charlie and felt the whole story should have been told from her perspective.
