Dear Evan Hansen

Dear Evan Hansen 
by Val Emmich and Steven Levenson
Poppy, Little, Brown and Company, 2018. 358 pages. Young Adult Fiction.

Evan Hansen is not a popular kid at school; in fact, he doesn’t really have friends at all and feels mostly invisible. He struggles with depression and his therapist recommends he write letters to himself to work through his feelings, they start “Dear Evan Hansen”, and contain his deepest, sometimes darkest secrets and emotions. When a troubled classmate, Connor Murphy, commits suicide and one of Evan’s letters is found and mistaken for a suicide note, a chain of well-meaning lies and exaggerations digs Evan into a hole that just gets deeper and deeper the more he attempts to cover up the mistake without hurting anyone.

This book is a novelization of the hit Broadway musical by the same name. I listened to the audio book, which I’d recommend because it incorporates a few songs from the musical into the story. I enjoyed learning more about both Connor and Evan’s backstories; it felt like the novel was a good opportunity to get to know the characters in a more meaningful way than you get with only the play. This book stands alone well without knowing anything about the play, too, and explores the topics of grief, teen suicide, and depression in an approachable and hopeful way.

RC