*** ARC provided by Netgalley via the publisher in exchange for an honest review. ***

Living in the UK means that I haven’t yet experienced the delights of the musical version of Dear Evan Hanson. However, I’ve heard a lot about this and that is really why I requested this book.

Unfortunately, whilst this is an okay book, it in no way lives up to the hype surrounding the musical. I definitely think that there are better books on the market about the same kind of subjects that are better. It makes me wonder why this book was needed, when people feel so much of a kinship with Dear Evan Hanson the musical. Does it add to the musical or am I being cynical if I think it was a chance to cash in on Dear Evan Hanson fans?

Overall, it’s not terrible. I have come away understanding some of the songs from the musical better (having not known the story beforehand) but really I wouldn’t recommend to others unless they’re a fellow die-hard musical fan.

I really enjoyed this! I wasn’t too sure when I started reading but it’s great. Interesting subjects and well written. Recommended.

Thought provoking read, how one mistake can lead to many more and all because you did not have the courage to confess to the first mistake. Loved this story, have not read anything from this author before, but, will be doing so from now onwards

I wasn't too sure with this book to begin with and kept starting it then putting it back down but I was mistaken as it turned out to be a really good story!!

Ok.

So apparently, this is the book that is based on the musical. The musical that I've never heard of.

It's an ok book.. . some kid at high school has anxiety and a broken arm. Some other kid signs his plaster cast . . theres a mix up with some paperwork kid number 2 commits suicide.

There are an awful lot of books like this at the moment and I'm sorry to say, this one does not stand out in any way.

Loved it! This book raises many relatable and important topics - we feel alone. Its told through the character Evan who finds that a few unrelated events and split-second decisions, spirals out of his control and leads to situations he could never have foreseen, some of them even good! He is challenged with social situations and has never felt he fits in but when this begins to change, he struggles with some internal dilemmas. I don't want to ruin the story. Just read it and go along for the ride delighting in its surprises, depths and unpredictability. It makes you feel good and realise what it is to feel human, with all our faults and flaws. An important book to read for all ages.

I was so excited about this book as I am such a big fan of the musical Dear Evan Hansen and I was so excited when I learned that they were coming out with a YA novelization of the story. The story sticks pretty close to the story line in the musical but is able to expand where the musical is limited. I think that readers will connect with Evan even more than they already do.

I enjoyed the way this book was written and loved the complexity of issues that it bought up. Makes for a very emotional read.

Would definitely recommend.

Very much a book about troubled teenagers who are not just troubled but need serious psychiatric help. One suicide and another young man pretending to be the victims (unknown) best friend. It is an interesting tale, a good read but it didn't grip me. I will be interested in the reviews for this book is to be made into a musical. Let's wait and see.........

I love this book. It's like a slow motion train wreck and you know you should look away but you just can't stop watching it happen. Here's this boy, this nobody, who people barely remember. This boy who is scared of social interaction and doesn't know how to be like everyone else. He feels alone. He feels unknown. He feels lost.

One chance encounter, one mistake, one misunderstanding and he tumbles head first down a rabbit hole of his own creation. He could have corrected Connor, could have corrected Connor's parents, but his own anxiety gets in the way. Then he just wants to ease their pain, make them happy but one questionable choice leads to another and another and another until his up to his neck in his own fantasy and he can't see a way out.

I loved Evan. Yes he made some choices that are morally...well, dark grey...but his desire to offer some kind of comfort to Connor's family is good. He just gets sidetracked by the popularity, the fame, the girl.

Do I think Evan is a good guy? Yes. Do I think he went about things in a terrible way? Yes. But his heart is in the right place...mostly.

I also loved having the bits with Connor. Watching this all unfold after he's gone. Starting to see what is really happening with Evan and seeing the symmetry with his own life.

What ever Evan's methods, you can't argue that the outcome was good. He helped the family when they were overcome with grief, he started a movement in Connor's name, he reached people (albeit totally unintentionally) and made them connect with the story. He provided some light in the dark. And even when it all came crashing down, when he was back to being afraid and alone...there was still the orchard, still the movement and it helped heal the Murphy family. In the end, it helped to start and heal Evan.

Also, someone needs to take me to see the musical. Like...right now.

I mean, I loved the show (bootlegs are useful) so of course I had to ask for the book for Christmas. It’s so twisted but it’s written (and performed) so well! Thoroughly enjoyed reading this.

Thank you NetGalley and Penguin Random House for providing me with a copy for review.

Dear Evan Hansen began life as a popular and beloved Broadway musical before becoming a novel this year. It follows Evan Hansen, a high school teen who has been on the outside his whole life, as he is thrown into the spotlight with a series of accidental lies about his friendship with Connor Murphy, a troubled classmate who has committed suicide. 

I was really excited to read this as I have liked the music from the musical for a while, but haven't been able to see it. It was great to be able to read it in novel form and understand the storyline much more, rather than just reading the wikipedia article for musicals I wish I could go and see.

It is a very deep and hopeful book that really shows the struggles that teens can face and shows people that they are not alone with it. Mental health is a very important topic, especially for teens who have so many pressures on them and are just starting to find their place in the world, so it is incredibly important that they have access to media that doesn't shy away from it.

Overall, I really enjoyed this novel and hope I can see the musical that created it one day.

I wanted to read this book to see if my teenage son would enjoy it but I found myself deep in the story and forgot why I was reading! Evan lives a difficult life - lonely at school and at home - until the death of his ‘friend’ Connor Murphy catapults him into a new family and new friendships. But his newfound fame and friendships are based on a lie and I wanted to read on to see how Evan could possibly get out of the situation, which was spiralling out of control. There is lots of teenage angst in this novel and it deals with the very sad subject of teenage suicide but there is a lot here to enjoy and to learn from and I would definitely recommend it.

Dear Evan Hansen is the novel based on the musical of the same name. It follows Evan Hansen who writes a letter to himself for a piece of homework given to him by his counselor. Connor, a mean guy, takes his letter and then commits suicide later that night. Connor’s parents then think that the letter that Evan wrote was Connor’s suicide note and that it was addressed to him. Connor’s family invites him into their home thinking that Evan was Connor’s best friend when in reality he actually wasn’t. This story is about Evan contemplating continuing on the lie that has been perpetuated by Connor’s parents or actually tell them the truth, and if he doesn’t, what consequences there will be.

I love the Dear Evan Hansen Soundtrack and can’t wait for it to come to the west end but it feels like it’s lacking the emotion that the musical has. I mean when the family finds out because of course they were going to, that was the only emotion that I saw from the book. It just felt lacking in comparison to the musical.

4 out of 5 stars.

Dear Evan Hansen,

Today's going to be an amazing day and here's why...

When a letter that was never meant to be seen by anyone draws high school senior Evan Hansen into a 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.

Suddenly, Evan isn't invisible anymore--even to the girl of his dreams. And Connor Murphy's parents, with their beautiful home on the other side of town, 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 swirl of anger, regret, and confusion, he knows that what he's doing can't 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. And a website. He's confident. He's a viral phenomenon. Every day is amazing. Until everything is in danger of unraveling and 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.

I know this book has been out for a little while, but like the uncultured swine I am, I have not yet seen the musical or read the book until now. And since I loathe most musicals, I don’t think I’ll be getting to this one any time soon. But I was curious about the book, so I went ahead and requested it on Netgalley.
In the beginning, I felt a lot of sympathy for the main character. Evan clearly struggles with a lot of social anxiety and he’s not good at speaking to people. He spends a lot of time in therapy and sort of watching the world go by from a safe distance.
However, I started to struggle with him as a MC quite early on in the book, around about the time that the plot started to get a bit stickier. There’s a lot of gripping tension here, but without giving away too much, I began to feel less like I understood Evan and his perspective. I get feeling like an outcast (woo boy, I get that feeling) but some of the lies he tells to keep himself in the limelight are super sketchy. At the start, I could sort of agree with it a bit because I knew Evan thought he was doing it for the right reasons, to help a family who were suffering, but it quickly descends into a region of selfishness. And my main problem with the book is that I’m not sure if this is how I am meant to feel, or not. Evan started out as a kind of cinnamon roll for me, but he quickly became problematic. I read many of his chapters feeling a strange mixture of uncomfortableness (because how many times do we feel a bit squirmy when someone is called out for a bad lie in front of you) and disgust. Some of what he does is really not okay. I suppose if this is the whole point of the book, which I suspect it is, to question this kind of behaviour, then cool. Job well done.
My other problem is how the other members of the school act when they find out about Connor. I’m not sure if I’m just overthinking this, but when I was at high school someone I knew committed suicide and it was handled very differently by students there. Yes, there were lots of people who suddenly felt very connected to that girl, to that point where they would talk about her as though they were friends, but they never got to the point where they thought to push their feelings on her family. It was still, in a way, respectful. The school in this book is more of a hyperbole, to the point where it became rather cringy and uncomfortable. Which again is probably deliberate but it left me unsure if I enjoyed the book or not.
Overall, I’m giving Dear Evan Hansen a 5/10 stars. I still can’t figure out if I enjoyed the book or not, if it was a clever critique of authenticity and grief, or if it was just one of those kinda meh YA books that you sometimes stumble across that aren’t quite self-aware. I would love to know what you all made of it, considering I haven’t quite made up my mind (you can leave comments in the comment section below). But yeah, I found myself really disliking Evan by the end of the book, despite being able to relate to him in some ways at the very start. And while the pacing was very fast and the book was easy to read, I just didn’t come away from it feeling awed.

Dear Even Hanson # Netgallery
Normally I am not a big fan of musicals but I had heard about this one and was interested to see how it came about from a book. Although Even intergrated himself into a family his meaning was good his persona was interesting and in some ways I thought he came across as a shy person oh don’t get me wrong. It definitely wasn’t all the time it was as you read between the lines it was just my personal impression of Evan. If you like musicals I definitely recommend you read this it’s a bit of a master class and definitely worth reading

Dear Evan Hansen,
Today's going to be an amazing day and here's why...

WOW!

I don’t read young adult fiction so surprised myself requesting this book. It was so good. One letter and a misunderstanding is life changing for Evan Hansen but brings a situation he gets deeper into, knows he should stop things developing further but can’t.

A fantastic read that I highly recommend.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for the ARC in return for an honest and unbiased opinion.

Following on from the huge success of the Broadway musical, Dear Evan Hansen summarises the story into a more accessible format.
Evan Hansen has always felt like he was on the outside. When one of his letters ends up in the wrong place at the wrong time, Evan finds himself fabricating a friendship with Connor Murphy, and suddenly he isn't invisible any more.
As Evan gets pulled into his lie, and becomes implicated in Connors family, he has to make a decision; help Connors family by maintaining the lie, or let everyone down. After all, how wrong can helping someone be?



I really wish I could say I loved this book. I love the musical, and go through phases of listening to it on repeat, so when this book became available I had high hopes for it, and was desperate to finally put a story to the songs I'd been listening to for months. But I just didn't fall for this like I had the musical.
Now, don't get me wrong, the book wasn't a complete flop for me. I loved finally learning about the story of the musical in a more rounded way, and I appreciated the references to certain songs in order for a link to be made, but I just didn't enjoy the writing.
Of course, my judgement of this is based on never having seen the musical, and I don't quite know what it was I was expecting when heading into this book. I knew the general plot points, and had a vague understanding of what was going to happen, but I felt let down when I finally put the book down.

A big theme in this book is mental health, and both Evan and Connor have obviously suffered with theirs. Myself having anxiety and depression, I was hoping I'd be able to relate to Evan, but this just didn't happen. Anxiety from his perspective wasn't handled properly, and was almost 'romanticized' and eventually overlooked completely. Sure, he was anxious and worried about his actions every so often, but his entire personality felt flat and pathetic. His mental health was his personality, and I was frustrated that his life revolved around feeling pathetic, angry towards his mother, and writing emails. There was nothing that made him stand out, which is the opposite vibe I got to the musical.
And of course Evan was not the only character I had issues with. Zoe was the stereotypical manic pixie dream girl, who was struggling with her emotions.
Overall, the only character I actually seemed to care about was Alana.
I don't know if the way in which these characters were written was why I didn't overly enjoy this book, but the writing was also pretty bland, and it's only saving grace was how quick I managed to make my way through it. If this had been more engaging, and allowed a more eclectic cast of characters, like the ones I was expecting from the musical, then this would have been a lot more enjoyable for me. And if I'm being honest, the only reason I gave this 3 stars was because it's based on a fantastic musical and allows it to be more accessible to everyone.

I guess if you'd like to get to know the plot, this does the job, but I think in future, I'll probably stick to the soundtrack.

Dear Evan Hansen – Val Emmich, Steven Levenson, Benj Pasek and Justin Paul
If you’re a fan of musicals like I am, you’ll know all about Dear Evan Hansen. Being based in the UK, I am desperately waiting for the show to come to the West End so I can finally see all the songs I love in context! Thankfully, I was sent a copy of the novelisation to tide me over until then!

If you are someone who likes going into stuff with no ideas whatsoever, come back to this after you’ve seen the show, like for real, don’t even look at the blurb if you don’t want to know what the story is about. You have been warned!

From the show’s creators comes the groundbreaking novel inspired by the Broadway smash hit Dear Evan Hansen. Dear Evan Hansen, Today’s going to be an amazing day and here’s why…When a letter that was never meant to be seen by anyone draws high school senior Evan Hansen into a 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.Suddenly, Evan isn’t invisible anymore–even to the girl of his dreams. And Connor Murphy’s parents, with their beautiful home on the other side of town, 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 swirl of anger, regret, and confusion, he knows that what he’s doing can’t 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. And a website. He’s confident. He’s a viral phenomenon. Every day is amazing. Until everything is in danger of unraveling and 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.

If you’re still with me, I’m guessing you’re already a Deat Evan Hansen fan or someone who likes knowing what they’re getting into (seriously, I sat next to a woman at Book of Mormon who didn’t realise it was a satirical look at religion. It was brutal.) I only had a brief understanding of what this story was abut – I had the soundtrack to go by – but now having read this, I want to see the show even more!

This story is a wonderful exploration of mental health issues among young men. Evan Hansen has an anxiety disorder, Connor Murphy, who narrates his own parts of the story, is lost and alone and has a debatable substance abuse problem. It explores how even the seemingly happiest families have issues and it takes a hard look at social media and how things can snowball.

Having read this and gotten a deeper insight into Evan’s character and Connor’s thoughts I am so excited to see the show. This novel will make the whole thing a much richer and more immersive experience. The novelisation is a wonderful addition to the story of Evan Hansen but even if you’re not interested in musical theatre or seeing the show, you’ll still enjoy it – it works just as well as a standalone story. It is well written and is heart breaking as well as charming.

If you’ve been here before you’ll know I like to give trigger warnings (I’d hate to recommend something that upsets anyone) while you might not think the promo posters for Dear Evan Hansen looks like something that would need trigger warnings, this does deal with themes of suicide and self harm so bear that in mind if those topics are difficult for you.

My final thoughts are that this is great, I’m even more excited to fight for tickets when it finally comes to the West End and I’m off to listen to the original cast recording now!

This is a book which is one of those hits or misses. Personally, I couldn't connect with the characters at all. The writing style was good, but the plot was really slow and I found myself skimming pages quicker than I could read them. Overall, I found this to be on the low end of my scale, sadly.

I came into this book knowing what to expect. I had read a plot summary when researching the play for a friend. I knew the contents, I knew the storyline and I knew the ending. Because of this, I was really excited when I was granted a wish on Netgallery and given a copy of this book to read. But now I am just left feeling guilty. 

I feel guilty because I had to DNF this book. I really didn't want to, but I did. Even though I knew what to expect from the plot, and knew how it ends, it didn't make it any less disturbing to me to read. I really struggled with this. At first, I struggled because I knew the plot, it took some of the mystery away from the read. However, that quickly turned to a struggle more about the plot, characters and writing style more than anything else.

Part of me did want to carry on reading, but for someone who found Tom McCarthy's Remainder one of the most disturbing books I've ever read, Dear Evan Hansen was a bit too much for me.

I have read disturbing books in the past such as The Handmaid's Tale, and gritty YA like Clean. But there was something else about this book that just made it too hard for me to read. I think it's because I have experienced the death of a loved one a couple of times in the past, and they were really hard times for me, so seeing what happens to the Murphy family made me feel really uncomfortable. 

I also really disliked Evan as a character. I know he's struggling with a lot, but there comes a point when he couldn't use his struggles as an excuse for what's he's doing any more, and it left me feeling angrier than anything towards him. And I don't want to read a book where I dislike all of the characters. I want to read a book where I can fight with the hero, where I want them to win. Not a book where I am rooting for the 'hero' to fail.

I also struggled with the writing style. It was so jumpy, moving between one topic to the next without taking a breath. It was like a stream of consciousness, not storytelling.

For me this book was a disappointment, I was really hoping for good things as I really enjoy the Dear Evan Hansen playlist on Spotify. All I can hope for is that it comes across on stage a lot better than it does as a novel.