Dear Evan Hansen by Val Emmich + Steven Levenson, Benj Pasek and Justin Paul

Dear Evan Hansen follows our main character Evan, an outsider teenager suffering from anxiety. His therapist encourages him to write himself letters to enhance his confidence; so Evan does. That is until a letter Evan wrote is read by a grieving family and suddenly Evan isn't invisible anymore; he is given the chance to belong as long as he lies and says his fellow classmate who recently passed away was his best friend. Evan has a new purpose, a website and is full of confidence until the danger of his secret starts unraveling and Evan has to face his greatest obstacle: himself.

**I was given an Advance Readers Copy by Hatchette Book Group in exchange for an honest review**

I actually really enjoyed this book.

To start off, the writing is great; it wasn't poetic or anything like that but it was entertaining. 

Contemporaries aren't really my thing, theres only a handful of contemporary novels that I really enjoy and Dear Evan Hansen may just be one of them.

Right off the bat, something I noticed is that contemporary novels with mental illnesses tend to romanticize the illness. But I never found that situation in Dear Evan Hansen. Sure, there is a love interest but it doesn't tie in with Evan's anxiety and I really loved that idea.

I haven't had the opportunity to watch the musical just yet as it isn't available in Toronto until early 2019 but from what I know about the musical and the content of the soundtrack, they sound vastly similar.

With that being said, the authors do a great job at portraying all the characters in the musical. From a book to an adaptation seems a little hard to portray since readers have a distinct view of how they believe the characters look like.

From adaptation to novel, may seem a little easier but I feel like can fail if not well executed. 

Val Emmich and the other writers do a fantastic job at being more descriptive, more intuitive at bringing Evan and his mom and Connor and everyone else in that musical, to pages and I quite enjoyed that. 

I've seen the original cast and when reading this book, I feel like I still have that opportunity to make up the characters' visualizations in my head and I like that. I don't see Evan as Ben Platt. I see Evan as my own version of Evan in my head and I really like that concept.

I also absolutely love how well the emotions were drawn out in this book as well. I've talked to people who have seen the musical, I've watched interviews as well and I know this musical is meant to pull at your heartstrings.

The authors do a phenomenal job at creating this almost-atmospheric setting where I feel like I with Evan. I laughed out loud while reading this - yes, I've received many weird looks because of this. But I also cried. That's really important when you bring a musical to pages. 

Dear Evan Hansen is honest, and intriguing.

In the introduction of the advance readers copy, I believe the publisher said she wanted this book to be the new coming of age story. Like Holden in The Catcher in the Rye or Ponyboy in The Outsider.

I'm on that boat with her.

I wasn't diagnosed with depression and anxiety until my first year of high school, and obsessive compulsive disorder until my first year of college, yet I knew I've had those "symptoms," those feelings for years prior.

This book not only gives readers a brand new coming of age story, but for some, a book to relate to.

Almost like, "Wow, Evan's hands get sweaty and he stutters when he talks and his mind is all over the place, but hey, me too."

And yet, Evan overcame the storm in a way, that means, I can too.

Overall, I loved Dear Evan Hansen. I thought it was enjoyable, entertaining and overall just amazing.

If you ask me, I highly recommend you purchase Dear Evan Hansen when it hits the shelves on October 9th.