Dear Evan Hansen

 Shirley J.           Young Adult Fiction                           How letting a lie survive allows it to grow    

Dear Evan Hansen: The Novel by Val Emmich, Steven Levenson, Benj Pasek and Justin Paul 368 pages

Wow!  Things can take off in the twinkling of an eye and that is exactly what happens to Evan Hansen.  Evan has some mental issues he is working out with his therapist.  His therapist asks him to write himself a letter each day starting out:  Dear Evan Hansen, today is going to be an amazing day and here's why...Sounds simple enough but when the highschool outcast/Goth dude/also mental issue having guy gets the Dear Evan Hansen letter from the printer at school and just as he was handing it to Evan, said Goth/mental/outcast dude starts to read it then takes off with it because Evan has mentioned the guy's sister.  The guy being, Connor Murphy.  Now he thinks Evan is f-ing with him.  He flips out.   Evan is beside himself.  He thinks Connor is going to belittle him over social media and the whole school will know the fanciful letter he wrote and he will be an even bigger school pariah than he currently is.  Evan stresses over the situation.  Connor kills himself and when his body is discovered, Evans letter is in his pocket and his family thinks he wrote his suicide note to Evan and they must be besties.  Connor's parents confront Evan at school and freaked out and humiliated, Evan doesn't tell them the truth that he himself wrote the letter and their son Connor merely stole it from him.  A time goes on the grieving parents keep wanting more and more information from Evan about their friendship, grabbing onto any glimmer of hope they can glean from whatever words, emails, time spent with each other that Evan can share with them.  Evan's mother is a nurse who often works double shifts trying to support herself and Evan since his father left and divorced her to marry a younger woman.  The plot thickens it goes from bad to worse to over the edge.   A good book and a good film.  I recommend this to middle-schoolers on up to let them know how things can blow out of proportion even if you don't mean for them to.