Title: Dear Evan Hansen
Author: Val Emmich, Justin Paul, Steven Levenson and Benj Pasek
Pages: 368
Publisher: Penguin
Release Date: 9th October 2018
Blurb from Goodreads:
Dear
Evan Hansen,
Today's going to be an amazing day and here's why...
Today's going to be an amazing day and here's why...
When a letter that was never
meant to be seen draws high school senior Evan Hansen into the Murphy
family's grief over the loss of their son, he is given the chance of
a lifetime: to belong.
He just has to stick to a lie he never meant to tell. That the notoriously troubled Connor Murphy was his secret best friend.
He just has to stick to a lie he never meant to tell. That the notoriously troubled Connor Murphy was his secret best friend.
Suddenly, Evan isn't invisible
anymore. And Connor's wealthy parents have taken him in like he was
their own, desperate to know more about their enigmatic son from his
'closest friend'.
As Evan gets pulled deeper
into their family, he knows that what he's doing may not be right,
but if he's helping people, how wrong can it be?
No longer tangled in his
once-incapacitating anxiety, this new Evan has a purpose.
He's confident. He's a viral
phenomenon. Every day is amazing. But when everything is in danger of
unravelling, he comes face to face with his greatest obstacle:
himself.
A simple lie leads to
complicated truths in this big-hearted coming-of-age story of grief,
authenticity and the struggle to belong in an age of instant
connectivity and profound isolation.
My Review:
*I received an eARC of this book
in exchange for an honest review. Thanks to Penguin Random House UK
Children's and NetGalley*
Evan
Hansen doesn't fit in at school and he doesn't really have any
friends. He takes pills to help with his anxiety and sees a therapist
who asks Evan to write letters to himself.
When
events lead to the parents of one of Evan's schoolmates thinking that
one of Evan's letters is actually a suicide note from their son
addressed to Evan, he can't bring himself to correct them. Things
start spiralling out of control and Evan finds himself in the middle
of a web of lies.
Can
Evan keep living a lie?
Will
the truth come out?
Dear
Evan Hansen is based on the musical of the same name, which I didn't
know much going into the book.
Evan
was a likeable and relatable protagonist, but there were a few times
when I wanted to reach into the pages and shake him for making the
things worse.
The
plot was interesting and I could easily believe how a lie could blow
up to something so big.
I
felt myself cringing as the lie progressed, because, inevitably, at
some point the truth would come out and Evan would be in big trouble.
I
liked the writing style but there were a couple of times where I had
to re-read a sentence because I thought I'd missed something.
I'm
interested in listening to the musical soundtrack.
Overall
this was an enjoyable read.
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