Dear Evan Hansen

The audiobook was really well done, with the Broadway actors reading Evan & Connor & singing for Zoe. What listening to this made me realize, that I suspected from the play, is that I don't actually like the story. I enjoyed the Broadway spectacle and the songs, but I find centering Evan's story over Connor's kind of gross. The book, written by the authors who wrote the book for Broadway, give voice to Connor's side of the story more, but even that was not enough for me to enjoy this story a second time through.

While I love some of the music and themes and moral questions brought up in the play and in this book, I think there are much better ways to talk about mental health, sexuality, and suicide. It's a fine starting point and was for me when I was dealing with suicidal thoughts, but now analyzing the work from a different point of view, it could be better.

I got an ARC of this with some skepticism, mostly because like...is a YA novelization of a musical really necessary? I totally get the behind the scenes/making of type of book for musicals–I definitely remember poring over my copy of the Rent book before I was able to see the show live.

ANYWAY. I haven't seen Dear Evan Hansen but I have listened to the cast recording and generally like it, and I read the Wikipedia summary because just from listening to the recording I was like “oh wait what's happening?!”

So I started reading this and felt a little cringey, but in a way that seems fairly authentic to its social anxiety-ridden narrator, Evan.

And then things started happening from the POV of Ghost Connor and I was like WTF??? Is...is Ghost Connor in the musical??? I started asking a friend who has actually seen the show and she was like.......no. I described what all was happening in the book and she said it sounded like the book was trying to address criticism of the musical, namely that nobody actually knows anything about Connor. Except that it's kind of the point that nobody knows anything about Connor, so to set him up as this sympathetic queer ghost who killed himself because his kinda-boyfriend didn't text him back, which it turns out his kinda-boyfriend was just DOING YARDWORK AND DIDN'T HAVE HIS PHONE..........anyway it's a lot????? I think it's also trying really hard to expand on Evan's POV about why he does the objectively shitty things he does, which...again I feel like the information we get from the musical itself is probably enough? You get the sense of how he's swept along with what's happening...I don't think we need a whole bunch more inner turmoil TBH.

IDK, this is fine. Teen fans of DEH are going to be hype for it. I'm not sure it stands on its own as a novel for readers who don't care about the musical?

I read this book because I badly want to see the musical, but it's unlikely I'll have the opportunity anytime soon. So, I figured I'd read the novel to get the full, fleshed-out story, and then listen to the soundtrack so it makes more sense. So, as a tl;dr, let me say this:

If you love musicals, DON'T read this book.

If you have no intention of seeing the musical or don't care about musicals in general, maybe read it, it's fine.

When I first finished this, I had given it a 4-star, (probably closer to a 3.5, but I round up), but, unfortunately, this book doesn't exist in a vacuum, and after watching a review by someone who has seen the musical, reading the wikipedia page, and listening to the soundtrack, I bumped it down to a 3-star. Just barely a 3-star.

It's competently written, and the overarching narrative is compelling, heartbreaking, and bittersweetly satisfying, but this is owed to the core story of the musical, so it's hard to give it too much credit for that and ultimately, the efforts to fill out the musical to fit a novel seems to have diluted its impact, and some of the choices of what to add in are not quite so effective.

There is a subplot in the novel that, from what I can tell, was not present in the musical, and it kind of undermined some of the main themes of the story, and also had the VERY uncomfortable feel of a “bury your gays” trope that I found real disappointing and frustrating. Meanwhile, other characters are somewhat underdeveloped and just kind of get dropped in or disappear for huge stretches. I can see how this can work in a musical, because of the condensed nature of the format, plus they have the benefit of getting a song or two to express themselves and assert their importance to the story. In a novel however, it just feels a little bare and halfbaked.

Some other changes to the characters seem to have been made to shoehorn in some references to the songs from the musical. While reading it without having much knowledge of the musical, it seems fine, if a little awkward at times, but in retrospect it's a pale imitation and just dampens the emotional impact.

It's not a bad book or poorly written by any stretch, and in fact I would love to read more by this author and where they go with their own ideas and stories. I just think it had a hard act to follow, and didn't quite live up to its parent piece of art, like trying to catch lightning in a bottle twice in a row.

So, if you're interested in this musical, but don't have the opportunity to see the show, I recommend giving this book a miss. The Wikipedia synopsis does a good job of summarizing the plot, and indicates which song happens when in the story, and the songs are incredibly rich, expressive, and affecting, so I actually encourage you to read the wiki instead and listen to the soundtrack as you go.

I did that after reading this book, and just sat on the edge of my bed, reading the synopsis on my iPad, listening to the soundtrack on my headphones and basically full-body sobbing (and loving every moment of it). If you've ever been touched by depression, anxiety, or suicide, there's so much in this musical for you to grab onto. It's truly a powerful, emotional story.

It was quite incredible how laden each song is with emotion, and I was just punched in The Feels over and over. To be fair, I ~ L O V E ~ Ben Platt, and he could reduce me to tears by singing the alphabet, but even the cast members I wasn't familiar with blew me away with their emotive and powerful deliveries.

But, if you have no interest in musicals, but you're curious about the story, then, by all means, give this book a go. Like I said, it's not at all a bad book, and you may enjoy it (like I did... before I explored the musical).

———

Audiobook note:

I listened to the audiobook while reading. It was totally fine, but I didn't quite love the narrator/Evan Hansen. I believe Ben Levi Ross was an understudy and in the US Tour cast. He was fine, but when he'd do the voices for other characters, it took me out of the story a bit, and he just wasn't quite as engaging as I'd have liked. It would have been cool if Ben Platt had been available/interested in doing it.

Connor was read by Mike Faist from the original Broadway cast, and he was fantastic. There was a brief bit of singing from Mallory Bechtel, who I think has taken over the role of Zoe, and it was lovely, but it did seem shoehorned in.