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Summary
Summary
From the show's creators comes the groundbreaking, bestselling novel inspired by the hit Broadway show 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 griefover 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.
Author Notes
Val Emmich is a writer, singer-songwriter, and actor. He has had recurring roles on Vinyl and Ugly Betty as well as a memorable guest role as Liz Lemon's coffee-boy fling, Jamie, on 30 Rock. His debut novel, The Reminders , was a B&N Discover selection that Library Journal called "quirky, touching and addictive."
Steven Levenson is the Tony Award-winning playwright of Dear Evan Hansen. Other plays include Days of Rage, If I Forget, The Unavoidable Disappearance of Tom Durnin, and The Language of Trees. In television, he was a writer and producer on Showtime's Masters of Sex and co-creator of the limited series Fosse/Verdon (FX). Upcoming film projects include the adaptation of Jonathan Larson's tick, tick...boom!
Benj Pasek and Justin Paul are the Oscar, Grammy, Tony, and Golden Globe-winning songwriting team behind the Broadway musicals Dear Evan Hansen and A Christmas Story, The Musical. Their film projects include: The Greatest Showman , La La Land, Trolls , and Aladdin as well as the upcoming live action musical Snow White and original animated musical Foster .
Reviews (2)
School Library Journal Review
Gr 7 UP-Evan Hansen is a "shoulder shrug" of a high school senior, taking medication (somewhat as prescribed) for anxiety, and following his therapist's instructions to deliver pep talks in the form of letters to himself. Those familiar with the Tony Award-winning musical know what comes next: a letter left on a printer falls into the wrong hands. When Evan's barely-even-acquaintance Connor takes his own life, the letter is found, and people assume the two were secretly close friends. Further complications include Evan's crush on Connor's sister, Connor's welcoming and heartbroken parents, and faked emails that take on a life of their own. Evan knows he should put the brakes on the deception, but somehow the time is never right, and he barrels on ahead. Connor adds information in some chapters, speaking in the first person after his death. Narrators Ben Levi Ross and Mike Faist, as Evan and Connor, are convincingly teenage, though they sound quite similar. Mallory Bechtel sings occasionally as Zoe. VERDICT Evan's angst-ridden, often wry narrative is spot on for older teens, and explores the ideas of finding your community and contributing to it. Consider for high school libraries, especially where there is interest in the musical. Connor's ability to communicate and observe after death is counter to the reality of suicide, and may warrant a heads-up to school counselors.-Maggie Knapp, Trinity Valley Sch., Fort Worth, TX © Copyright 2019. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
New York Review of Books Review
Told in verse interspersed with prose, their stories illuminate an Arizona town divided by political and racial tensions, and at times "People Kill People" reads eerily more like nonfiction than fiction, particularly after the first anniversary of the Charlottesville riots: Ominously, there's an upcoming pro-immigration rally, and protesters are planning to be there too. Hopkins weaves in other contemporary political battlegrounds as well, including homelessness, racism and sexual assault, even mentioning recent acts of violence like the 2016 Pulse nightclub mass shooting. The mystery of which character will be killed propels the book forward, but it becomes increasingly uncertain as the plot develops. Hopkins, the author of several best-selling Y.A. novels in verse, including "Smoke" and "Crank," makes all too clear that any of them could fall victim, as well as be motivated to pull the trigger. Yet her essential message - guns make the killing all too easy - will reverberate with readers long after they put the book down. IN UNCLAIMED BAGGAGE (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 379 pp., $18.99; ages 12 and up), Jen Doll's big-hearted YA. debut, 16-year-old Doris is a buoyant, outspoken feminist who yearns to break out of her Alabama town's conservative bubble. Nell has grudgingly moved there with her family from Chicago, where her boyfriend still lives. Grant is a former high school football star with an alcohol problem. What brings them together is a summer job at Unclaimed Baggage, a store that sells items found in lost airport luggage. The story unfolds at the start of a sweaty summer, with temperatures and unsolicited opinions running high (particularly those of the busybody Mrs. Stokes, a church youth group director who admonishes Doris, "We women must behave as God intended"). At work, Doris, Nell and Grant have to sort other people's baggage, keeping the good stuff to sell (a vintage "Titanic" movie poster) and discarding the rest (including, humorously, a sex toy). Doll breezily alternates among the voices of her likable characters as they move toward new discoveries, new romance and unexpected adventure. There are more serious threads as well, as challenges like racism, mental illness, sexual assault and substance abuse enter the plot. Though what brings these characters together is a job that seems like the height of randomness, they soon realize its deeper meaning - they each carry their own baggage, after all, and by beginning to share it, they solidify a friendship. "JUST BE YOURSELF. Yeah. Sure. OK." Evan Hansen, an anxious loner who feels invisible walking his high school's hallways, knows these words are easier said than put into action. But that changes when a letter he writes to himself, intended for no one to read, ends up in the hands of a family faced with the suicide of their son, Evan's anguished classmate Connor MurphyThat's the setup for DEAR EVAN HANSEN: The Novel (Little, Brown, 389 pp., $18.99; ages 12 and up), by Val Emmich with Steven Levenson, Benj Pasek and Justin Paul, which flips the usual formula by adapting the wildly acclaimed musical of the same name into a book. The authors - Emmich is an actor and novelist ("The Reminders"), and Levenson, Pasek and Paul are the team behind the musical - use a first-person narration that inserts readers directly into the psyche of Evan, who struggles to decide how best to handle the escalating misunderstanding caused by his letter. It may be impossible not to find pieces of yourself reflected in Evan's loneliness and yearning to be accepted. As the Murphys come to believe Connor and Evan were secret best friends, what at first seemed like a harmless fib quickly spirals into a complicated lie Evan can't escape. Yet it's not all bad: Evan goes from being an outcast to finally being noticed - by the Murphys, his peers and even his crush, Connor's sister, Zoe. His anxiety only deepens with the pressure of social media, which further forces Evan and his fabrication into the spotlight. The book, of course, can't offer the glamour and theatrics (or the music!) of Broadway, but it still captures the heartbreaking experience of searching for connection. Evan's character may have been born for the stage, but his earnestness and relatability sing through the book's pages. A WINDOWS-DOWN, feet-on-the-dashboard summer road trip is as American as softserve vanilla ice cream. But in Patrick Flores-Scott's debut, american road trip (Holt, 323 pp., $17; ages 12 and up), Teodoro "T" Avila, a Latino high school student whose family has been hit by the 2008 housing crash, is sure it's a less than ideal way to spend the summer. His audacious sister, Xóchitl, tricks him onto the road in an attempt to save their older brother, Manny, an Iraq vet struggling with PTSD. Their drive down the West Coast toward New Mexico is fueled by sacrifice and fierce, unconditional sibling love. Above all, T says of his siblings, "I want them to be safe." Written in T's vulnerable, observant voice, "American Road Trip" holds true to classic road-trip themes like the emotional power of singalongs and unexpected detours, but it also wades into the darker waters of mental illness with both realism and sensitivity. Along the way, Flores-Scott provides rich slices of Latinx culture - like making tortillas with cheese and a green chile that "stings so sweet I jump out of my seat" - that pave paths for T's self-discovery. Striking a balance between heavy subject matter and lighthearted humor, Flores-Scott isn't afraid to dive into the deep end, then come up for a blissful gulp of air. LIKE MANY TEENAGERS, Darius Kellern, the protagonist of Adib Khorram's darius THE GREAT IS NOT OKAY (Dial, 314 pp., $17.99; ages 12 and up), feels as if he doesn't belong. The self-described "fractional Persian" (on his mother's side) is bullied by jocks, struggles with his weight and has little in common with his father other than a shared depression diagnosis and a love of "Star Trek." But when his grandfather's illness prompts a family trip to Iran, Darius begins to see himself differently. Though Darius's relationship with his father is still strained in Iran and his grandparents (judgingly) question why he needs medication, things start to look up when Darius meets Sohrab, a boy who lives next door. They play soccer and hang out, confiding in each other about their "father issues." Darius even embraces being called Darioush, the Persian version of his name. For the first time, he has a true friend - one who knows "what it was like to be stuck on the outside because of one little thing that set you apart." Yet the more at ease he feels, the more apparent it is that he eventually must go back to his life in Portland, Ore. As a teenage outcast story, "Darius the Great Is Not Okay" may seem familiar, but it's layered with complexities of identity, body image and mental illness that are so rarely articulated in the voice of a teenage boy of color. Khorram writes tenderly and humorously about his protagonist's journey of self-acceptance, making it hard not to want to reach through the pages, squeeze his hand and reassure Darius that he is, in fact, going to be O.K. TAYLOR TRUDON is a former editor at MTV News and The Huffington Post.
