You've Reached Sam

A smart, forward-thinking, practical girl, Julie Clarke is the story’s protagonist and she functions as the heroine who needs to change and grow into a better version of herself. She’s intelligent, quiet, creative, and thoughtful. As a natural planner, Julie wants a safe, secure life and responsibly takes steps to reach her goals, such as attending her dream college. Before Sam’s death, Julie is organized, practical, and studious. Afterward, she is distracted, irrational, and lost; she falls behind in school, isolates herself, and can’t cope with the unplanned.

Although Sam adores her and praises her many positive qualities, her flaws include her concentration on the future, inflexibility, and inability to cope or face conflicts. Julie works to correct these areas by learning that she cannot control or plan for everything, a lesson Sam tried to teach her while he was alive: “Sam kisses me on the cheek. ‘You know, Jules, you can’t always plan out every detail, though. There will always be things we can’t prepare for,’ he says. ‘You have to live in the moment sometimes. Let life surprise you’” (192). Despite multiple characters, such as her mom, Sam, and Mika, telling Julie that she needs to live in the present and accept the unplanned, she cannot stop thinking about the lost future with Sam.