You've Reached Sam (You've Reached Sam, #1)

by Dustin Thao

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

This passage gets quoted by quite a lot by readers, and I understand why. It really embodies the complex feelings we all have at some point, from either a breakup or something else. For Julie, it was the death of the person she loved. Now that the book is out, Julie has been somewhat categorized as an "unlikeable character" due to her thoughts and behaviors that some readers find selfish. She skips his funeral, throws away his things, maybe wishes they never fell in love. The truth is grief is a complicated, nonlinear experience that can sometimes bring out the worst of us. Aren't we all a little selfish, especially during the hardest moments of our lives? Julie is far from perfect, and I love her for that.