REVIEWS - Dear Evan Hansen - Val Emmich

Genre - Young Adult Fiction

Summary:

Evan Hansen is in high school. He is a painfully shy teenage boy plagued with crippling anxiety. He doesn’t have any friends.

His therapist recommends that he writes letters to himself.

Evan has a crush on a girl named Zoe Murphy. Her brother Connor Murphy is a high school bully.

On the first day of a new school year, Connor confronts Evan.

Later that afternoon, Evan is writing his therapy assignment to himself and prints it off in the library. Connor finds it and is going to bring it to him when he notices that it mentions his sister Zoe. Thinking that Evan is mocking him, he pockets the letter and storms off.

Evan proceeds to lose his mind over how embarrassing this will be. The next day, he keeps waiting for the bomb to drop. He eventually gets called to the principal’s office, where Connor’s parents are waiting for him. Very confused, Evan approaches the Murpheys. They tell him that Connor has committed suicide, and they found the note that he wrote to Evan, which said, “Dear Evan Hansen.”

Connor’s parents think that Evan is their son’s only friend. So, they try to understand him better via Evan.

Evan is forced to play along with them. But his conscience keeps bugging him.

On the one side, he is now closer to Zoe and her family. On the other side, he is living on the edge of a knife because of the lie that it’s built on.

Can Evan gather enough courage to tell the truth?

Review:

The best part of the story is the imperfect protagonist Evan. The characterization is brilliant, and it is easy to connect with him. The writing is also very good. The story flows in even pace and keep us interested.

On the flip side, while Evan’s character was built properly, some of the other characters lack such credibility. Zoe, for example, felt like a half-baked character.

Overall, a good emotion filled YA read.

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