Author: Val Emmich
# of Pages: 368 (hardback)
Genre: YA, Contemporary, Realistic Fiction
Rating: ★★★☆☆
Synopsis: 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.
Review: “I had to die for them to notice I was ever alive” (191).
For some reason, I thought this book addressed an LGBTQ+ struggle. Although there is an LGBTQ+ character, the character's sexuality is not a main issue in this story.
This is a strange adaptation since it started as a play and was turned into book (instead of the other way around). Although I have not seen the play yet, I can imagine how this story would be more interesting as a musical than as a novel. The story is relatively mundane; Evan Hansen is an underdog high schooler who gets caught up in a lie that makes him more popular at his school.
What I do like about the story is how Evan struggles with his lie. Is a lie bad if it bring more good than harm? Although this idea to address this struggle comes from the original play rather than being Emmich's brain child, this conflict was well portrayed in the book.
However, this is not saying that the conflict is BETTER portrayed in the novel than the play. There is first person POV switching between Evan and Connor (although there are only a handful of Connor chapters). Although I wasn't as bothered by the POV switching as I usually am, it was still disorienting when the first POV change happened since the chapter was not clearly labeled. POV switching isn't so much of a problem for plays; I wonder if Emmich followed the layout of the play too closely.
If you're a fan of the play or you have any interest in reading this book at all, go for it! It's a relatively short read. However, if you're on the fence, maybe just watch the musical.
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