Justin Paul (1)Recensioni

I am legit still processing this book, so I will write whatever pours out, it might be the ramblings of a reader or a true heartfelt review. I will begin with I joined an additional reading challenge in one of the groups I am on here on Goodreads, we had some prompts to choose fun but overall to just read as many books as we can.

I have so many books and therefore enlisted the help of my daughter to help me choose books for these prompts/ my June TBR pile. The prompt she chose this book for was a book related to music and although this book doesn't per say have to do with music it is based of a musical so eh, it fits.

I started this today around 10ish in the morning I think and finished a little after 10 pm. This was an amazing read, I mean I literally couldn't put it down but between my household duties I did and then kept going.

Dear Evan Hansen is about suicide, the repercussions of suicide, the lies one teenager falls into but must keep up with and the fall out. Val Emmich did an amazing job taking us on this journey of two boys that cross paths and how it impacts them and everyone around them.

What one lie can spiral into, what as parents we fail to see or assume to know about our children, drugs and homosexuality and lack of understanding our children can really impact them.

I couldn't put this book down it took me on a whirlwind of emotions, as a parent, as a person who has suffered from depression for so long and as a person that has lost loved ones to suicide.

“I wish that everything was different. I wish that I was a part of something. I wish that anything I said mattered, to anyone. I mean, let's face it: would anybody even notice if I disappeared tomorrow?” How many of us have had that same thought crossed their mind? I can sit here and honestly tell you it's probably a thought that has crossed my mind more times that I'd like to admit to but it has.

I am so glad my daughter chose this book for me, I am still in my feels about it but I do recommend and will give it the 5 stars it deserves, there is nothing I could ask for better in this book.

Because this book does talk about suicide, drugs, death, homosexuality please search if it would have triggers for you before reading.

If you ever find yourself in a situation that it feels there is no way out, there is help, please reach out to the following links below or google for your near by Suicide prevention hotline. You are not alone!!

https://www.thetrevorproject.org - an organization providing crisis intervention and suicide prevention services to LGBTQ youth

988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline
Languages: English, Spanish
Hours: Available 24 hours >

The language of this song goes beyond the music and cuts right to the heart.

Unfortunately, I really didn't enjoy this one, but am giving it two stars because a) I'm sure I'm at least 35 years older than the target audience and b) the ending had some touching moments.

But, honestly . . .
- Do 17 year old's talk, think, or act like Evan Hansen? I didn't know any like him when I was growing up. Nor when my sons were seniors in high school. He seemed like he was more like a 14 year old.
- Is the reader supposed to like the protagonist? It was a pretty big lift. I don't need to like characters as a general rule, but I at least need to empathize with the choices they are making. Or love hating them and not just finding them annoying.
- What exactly did Zoe find attractive (at least initially)?
- The juxtaposition of wit and suicidal kids didn't work for me at all.
- The Jewish character struck me as stereotypical (I'm Jewish so take that for what it's worth). Not a major issue, but didn't make me like the book more.
- A memorial Orchard was the best thing these kids could come up with to do to honor the book's victim? Does this sound like something high school kids would come up with?



I am done, done, done with YA. I am clearly too old for it.

2 and a half stars. I went into this without having seen the musical or listening to the soundtrack. I knew a brief synopsis and thought it would be so something I would be into but...it wasn’t really. I liked parts of it and understand where it was trying to go but I really feel like it lacked heart. Since I’ve finished reading it, I’ve listened to the musical soundtrack and I think that had what the book was missing.

2 and a half stars. I went into this without having seen the musical or listening to the soundtrack. I knew a brief synopsis and thought it would be so something I would be into but...it wasn’t really. I liked parts of it and understand where it was trying to go but I really feel like it lacked heart. Since I’ve finished reading it, I’ve listened to the musical soundtrack and I think that had what the book was missing.

I got hooked on this novel from the beginning because I so wish I had the means to see the musical. In the middle I got a bit bored because I thought I knew what would happen, and I had to work up the energy as I approached part two of the book. Once I got back into the story, I didn’t put the book down and finished it two hours later. It’s a tale that every can find sympathy with. We don’t all have the same struggles as Evan, but we all face those anxieties from time to time, and sometimes longer.

I really hope a film comes from this, too.

2.75

At its worst, Connors suicide is a plot device and Connor himself is a prop.

At its best it is commentary on how you can never really know someone. How the awkward kid can both be sad, struggling to make it through and an opportunist. How Connor could be something more than his actions. How social media can make us think we know those answers when we don't, because it's all so surface level. That there is so much commonality in our differences.

The problem is Connor stayed surface level. So I'm afraid, in many ways, the former is the truth that stands out the most.

I liked the idea. I liked that it made me think. Unfortunately the execution left a bad taste in my mouth.

Oh gosh, this one grabbed me right away. Evan Hansen deals with anxiety and doesn’t have friends. His therapist has his write letters to himself as a way to work on communication. When a bully at school steals the letter, Evan panics for days…. until Connor turns up dead ☹ and his parents believe his last words were to Evan, and that Evan was Connor’s only friend. From this point on, Evan is trapped in a cycle of wanting to make things right and not knowing the way out. Complicating things is Connor’s sister, Zoe, who Evan has had a crush on all along, and who suspects the truth. A sad and well-written tale.

Trigger Warnings: suicide

Please excuse typos/name misspellings. Entered on screen reader.

Don't think about it too long. Because the heart and the humor (of which there is plenty) will buckle under the weight of how inappropriate this story really is. The deeper Evan digs his hole, the harder it is to root for his redemption.

My review of this book can be found on my YouTube Vlog at:

https://youtu.be/N-vcFvk3T4A

Enjoy!

I'm on the record as not being a particularly big fan of the musical Dear Evan Hansen. I always found Evan to be a super unlikable character (what with the whole lying to a grieving family for the entirety of the musical thing) and so that made it a bit hard to fully connect with the, admittedly interesting, plot. But my bigger problem with the musical was the songs. I just didn't like them. They didn't work for me. They didn't feel like they were serving the story and they just sorta brought everything down. So, when I saw that Hachette Book Group was publishing a novelization of the musical, I figured I'd give it a shot. I did like the plot of the musical, and novels often make even the most unlikable character sympathetic in ways that more visual mediums aren't able to. I'm happy to report that while Val Emmich's novelization of the musical still has that one pretty big flaw in relation to Evan as a character, the novel is far more enjoyable than the musical is.

This book is a really good, engaging, quick read. It takes a little bit of time to fully hook you into the story, but once it does, you won't want to put it down. There are two major things about this novel that make it better than the musical, for me. The first is the way the story is told. Emmich utilizes a first-person point of view for the prose, literally taking us into Evan's mind as he experiences the events of the story. The musical does this, too, to a degree, but a visual medium can never take us as deeply into the mind of a character as a novel can. While many of the things that make Evan so unlikable (and unrelatable) to me are still present in the book, they're softened a bit by the prose. Emmich does a great job at capturing just how debilitating anxiety can be. How it can feel like something pressing against your chest so hard that it feels like you can't breathe. How you can slip so far down a spiral just by doing (or thinking about) one small thing. While I still can't remotely identify (or sympathize) with Evan's actions in the novel as they relate to literally lying to Connor's family, the prose does help you see his point-of-view and understand why and how he's gotten himself into this situation. The other major thing about the novel that elevates it above its source material is the inclusion of a series of interludes from Connor's point-of-view. They're all set after his death and feature Connor witnessing and reacting to various things in the novel. We find out a lot about Connor through this selection of short interludes. They make up maybe 10% of the book, but they're honestly the best parts of the book. Connor is way more likable than Evan is and it's so nice getting a brief insight into his mind, even if it's after he's dead.

Like I've mentioned, the novel still has a lot of the problems that the musical has. Thankfully, next to nothing related to the songs from the musical is present in the novel. There are a few bits where I think they're quoting or referencing a lyric, but they make sense in the context of the novel and it's not at all distracting. However, the bigger problem is Evan Hansen. While I (and many others) can relate to his anxiety, his feelings of loneliness, and a lot of his other characteristics, the part that always loses me (and many others) is the way his lie is portrayed. Both the stage show and the novel say his lie is an awful thing, but it seems like they never wanna actually prove that. He's not punished at all for it (though the epilogue of the novel does show how the aftermath of his confession has eaten away at his mind some) and so it rings a bit hollow. Yes, he loses Zoe and the comfort of the Murphy family, but he also gains his relationship with his mother back and essentially loses nothing else. The musical and the novel both paint his lie as something that ultimately brought the Murphy family closer together, which, sure, I can see how it did that, but wow does that seem to be a watering-down of how utterly traumatizing it must have been too. It's really hard to root for a lead character who spends the entirety of the novel literally lying to the grieving family of a dead kid that he's pretending he was friends with.

While I feel like there are elements of the musical (and the novel) that do a lot of good for mental health awareness, I feel like Evan's actions really reflect negatively on those with similar disorders to his. Most people with anxiety and/or depression would never do something like he did. Most people with anxiety and/or depression just do their best to get by, mostly trying to be kind to others and all that jazz. I can see why people identify with Evan's struggles because aside from the whole lying to a grieving family thing, his struggles are really relatable. I just worry that the fact that Evan never gets any kind of real comeuppance for his actions is a bad message that overshadows the really good message of the story. Yes, nobody should ever feel alone. Everyone should feel like life is worth living and that things will get better. Much of this novel (and the musical it's based on) are devoted to that idea, and the idea of the Connor Murphy Project is probably the best thing to come out of Evan's lie. The thing is, it's an equally important message that you shouldn't do half the stuff Evan does in this story. You shouldn't lie to a family for months. He should have come clean immediately before he did so much damage. He should've been punished in some way for it. Or, at least, more time should have been devoted to him dealing with the aftermath of coming clean about it so that that point could have been gotten across. I mean, I'm not looking to see his life get ruined by this (as I think that would also dilute the nice message of "things getting better" that the novel and musical are trying to present), but I do think there should have been more of an acknowledgment as to how awful what Evan did was. As it is, it just sort of feels like the novel (and the musical) is waving it away, trying to whitewash it as much as possible so that Evan still feels relatable and not like an awful person. But here's the thing: if you do an awful thing, it's not excused by the fact that you have a mental illness. The novel (and the musical) seem to try to excuse Evan's behavior with his anxiety, but it doesn't work that way. I wish that aspect was better communicated through the novel.

At the end of the day, Dear Evan Hansen is still a really good story. Yes, the main character is super unlikable and does a pretty despicable thing (and is never really punished for it), but the journey of the story is a really interesting one. Even with all its problems, the book is still a really good examination of what living with anxiety is like. The additions it makes to its source material are welcome ones and make the story far more engaging than it was on stage. It's not a difficult read and Evan does feel like a real person, which is always important for these first-person YA novels to pull off. If you liked the musical, you'll like the book; it takes everything that was good about the musical and makes it better. If you didn't like the musical, I'd encourage you to give the book a try anyway. You still might not like it, but, on the flip side, you might end up like me, someone who doesn't like or sympathize with Evan at all and really dislikes the music from the musical, but enjoys the plot of the musical enough to really get into the book. It's super flawed and leaves a lot to be desired, but I enjoyed it well enough.

3.5 wands out of 5.

i loved this book! i had so many emotions ranging from sadness to frustration to humor, so it was a rollercoaster (in a good way)!

**a lot of people have problems with it not living up to expectations after the musical, but i have neither seen the musical nor heard its soundtrack. i do want to soon, though!**

Lies, upon lies, even for a "good" cause, are still lies.

I dragged my feet over this one, even in the reading of it. Given the subject matter, I couldn’t add it to a school library collection without reading it first,, and enough students have asked for it that I finally decided it they shouldn’t have to wait.
Opening with what is effectively a suicide note from an as-yet-unnamed character, Dear Evan Hansen depicts a boy with debilitating social anxiety whose therapist has set him the task of writing positive letters to himself. On the first day of his Senior year, Evan writes an honest not-so-positive letter to himself describing his despair about his social invisibility and inability to interact with others. A couple of days after he leaves the letter in the school printer, it is found in the possession of a boy (Connor) who has committed suicide. Since it was addressed to him, Connor’s parents assume they were friends and a fictional friendship is born.
A lot of the book is a critique about outsourcing parenting: “But you see, any time my Mum got a glimpse of the raw me, she couldn’t take it. There’d be so much fear in her eyes. There was love too - I saw it. But the fear… that’s what stuck with me.” Connor tells us from beyond the grave. “My mother preferred to delegate. She treated me like one of her home renovation projects. Hire help. Call in the specialists. The best in the business. Let’s get this kid fixed up.” Meanwhile, Evan is exasperated with his nurse-Mum’s sudden attention: “One suicide and suddenly my Mum’s paying all this attention.” Neither of these scenarios seems especially real, and I resent the sense that all it takes is good parenting to make suicidal thoughts vanish.
Although the book tackles grief/guilt -which are intertwined well here - from a variety of angles (Connor’s Dad’s denial, his Mum’s effusive attempts to woo Connor’s ‘best friend’, Evan’s Mum’s continual checking up on her son, the whole school’s obsession with a boy they’d ignored), the only reaction that seemed real to me was Connor’s sister, Zoe, who is a jazz musician.
“Why should I play the grieving girl and lie?
Saying that I miss you an my
World has gone dark without your light?
I will sing no requiem tonight”
The emotional complexity of Zoe’s song (is it from the stage show?) seems to hold a truth that is missing from other characters’ reactions.
This could only be an American book. So much about owning your feelings and being authentic and carrying on through isolation and the need to validate the lives of those around you. Important, probably, since the readership is pretty much the real-life version of the people that Evans’ fictional ‘The Connor Project’ reaches. Kudos for the original concept (not many of those around these days), but the telling of it was underwhelming for me, with the characters coming across as banal and one-dimensional, and little to recommend the writing style – not even the inclusion of letters, SMS conversations and song lyrics.
Now that I’ve read it – I know why they’re asking for it. Teens will relate closely to Evan and Connor’s generalised anxiety about be absent from the world they inhabit, but If you want to read about grief and the impact of suicide – go read Beautiful Mess, which makes lots of the same points but with great characterisation and some lovely writing. If you’re feeling lonely, though, and invisible, and worry that today might be your last, or you know someone who you think may be feeling that way, then Dear Evan Hansen is for you. 

I've listened to the soundtrack for the musical a few times and like a couple of songs, but haven't heard it enough to piece together the story. It's a tough book to read in the sense that it deals with a lot of heavy topics - from suicide to severe anxiety to lying and having life consequences for actions, to basic high school drama.

I enjoyed this book because it shows what it is like for teens who may have anxiety or may feel like they don’t belong. It was a sad premise, but overall there were some great moments. Evan Hansen was put in a tough spot and I couldn’t have done what he did, but it made me feel like I was there deciding with him on his choices.

oof

if i could review this lower i..probably would honestly. full disclosure: i do know and love the musical, but i approached this book as a standalone novel because i think that adaptations should work on their own, you know?

but wow... i could not get through this. i got to page i think 62 and just stopped. for a variety of reasons, but mostly i just could not get through evan's inner monologues. i understand that he tends to go on tangents and ramble, but it was just hard to wade through. and evan is like???? really mean???? in his head?? it was a lot

i do know how things pan out and change throughout the story, because someone i was with skimmed the rest of the book while i was in the room and gave some updates, and i'm just a bit confused by some of the character choices and development, as well as the structure, but since i didn't read through those parts, i can't comment more on them.

i might try to finish this at some point but man. it's rough.

I didn't love this one like I had hoped I would. To be fair, I am not the target audience for this book. I have never seen the musical or heard any of its songs so I was pretty clueless going in. I can't tell you how this book compares to the musical but this story does stand on its own. Maybe a younger audience will enjoy this one more than I did but I spent a large part of the book wanted to pull these kids to the side and give them a mom talk. It was a pretty easy read and I am glad I gave it a try.

It all starts with a letter. Evan doesn't have really any friends and has a hard time getting through each day. As a part of therapy, he writes letters to himself to put things in a positive outlook. Connor picks up the letter and takes it from Evan. He dies with that letter in his pocket and suddenly everyone thinks that Connor and Evan were great friends and everything grows from there.

One of my biggest pet peeves is lying of any kind. Unfortunately, this book is packed with lies. Instead of letting Connor's parents know the truth behind the letter he lets them think that he was really friends with Connor. He then proceeds to expand on that lie and becomes a big part of Connor's family's life. He even starts dating Connor's sister whom he has had a crush on for a very long time. Almost everything that Evan does in this book is a lie or is tied to a lie and I have to tell you that I had some issues with it. I just felt like Connor's family had enough to deal with without being manipulated by Evan.

There were some things that I did like in this book. I liked that the story is told from two different points of view. I expected Evan's point of view but the second one was a bit of a surprise. The point of view that I didn't expect was really my favorite part of the book. I thought that those sections of the book were very well done.

I listened to this book and I thought that the narrators did a good job with it. The female narrator listed did a couple of song segments worked into the story and the males handled the two points of view. I thought that they both did a great job representing their character. Their voices were very pleasant to listen to for long periods of time. I think that I liked the story a bit more because I decided to listen to the audiobook.

I think that a lot of readers are going to like this book a lot more than I did. The book does touch on a lot of important issues but I couldn't get past all of the deceptions.

I received a digital review copy of this book from Little, Brown Books for Young Readers via NetGalley and borrowed a copy of the audiobook from my local library via Overdrive.

I'm really not sure how I feel about this book. It's such an unusual premise. Are you supposed to like Evan, feel sorry for him or what?

If you loved the musical Dear Evan Hansen, this book is a must read. It took me longer to read than normal, since I kept it safe at home and couldn't carry it with me, but if I'd had the time, I would have read it in one sitting. It's a very well done book! It'd be a great gift idea for anyone who loved the show, too.

My first impressions were that this is another “whiny kid” YA book. What I mean by that is it tries to make the character identifiable and relatable by immediately making him an social outcast with no friends and low self-esteem… except that every YA story is like that, so it gets grating. It’s as cliche as the “bully” trope (which this book also has). But the problem is… it works. He feels like I felt back then, struggling to break out of a shell, anxious and depressed all the time. I can’t imagine how easy it is to stay in your fortress after cable modems and wireless connections. But I’m digressing.

There are typical YA topics like suicide and social stature. As I read on, it didn’t really get better. One thing about introverts is that we don’t say much, but we put a lot of weight in what we do say. That means we act with integrity when we speak. No hemming or hawing. No lies. And we have a dedication to the truth, to the point of correcting others just to have something to say. Evan Hansen doesn’t act like this. He picks up an idiot ball and runs with it to the end of the novel.

In fact, I might say that this is the quintessential YA novel. But that’s not a good thing. I mean that in the sense that this book throws all the typical ingredients in the pot and what comes out is pizza. You can’t really ruin pizza, but you can make it unexciting. Just another reheated concoction that everyone else makes.

Let this soak in a bit before I write a true review. Right now I'm only thinking about the ending and a review of that won't be good.

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.

Evan Hansen creía varias cosas:

Que jamás superaría sus ataques de ansiedad.
Que a nadie le importarían sus problemas.
Que nunca lograría conectar con alguien.
Que siempre se sentiría vacío, excluido y decepcionado.
Que a la gente solo le importa aparentar en las redes sociales.
Se equivocaba en todas.

Todo empezó con una carta que salió del corazón y cayó en manos erróneas... para acabar en una auténtica revolución por un mundo más amable.

Ahora Evan tiene la oportunidad más importante de su vida: no solo de ser reconocido, sino de decir lo que importa, crear vínculos, dejar huella... e incluso entender ese curioso fenómeno llamado amor.

This novelization of the hit Broadway show is packed with laughter and tears. Evan suffers from crippling anxiety and finds each day a struggle to "engage." Without giving too much away, something happens to throw a spot light on Evan but it's predicated upon a lie. Trouble ensues. A heart-worthy look at teens and social issues... surprisingly funny (Evan is 'king' of the "wait...what?" reaction; Jerad is the sardonic side-kick who says the outrageous things we'd all like to say) the book is best when it focuses on Evan's growth and self-realization. It falters when the plot turns to tidying up the messy situation (the doing-good stuff). Similar, at least to this reader, to "Me and Earl and the Dying Girl" but with a happier, G-rated ending.