Dear Evan Hansen

 Dear Evan Hansen, 

Not only am I a book enthusiast I also adore musicals and theater! Dear Evan Hansen is a musical with a soundtrack that is simply incredible. I was so unsure about reading the book in case it took away the musical theater aspect of it however, this book has been one of my best reads so far!

This novel was honestly beautiful it more or less left me speechless much like the song 'words fail' words really do fail to describe my love for this novel. When Connor Murphy tragically takes his own life in the possession of a letter written to Evan Hansen, can Evan have the courage to tell everyone that they weren't friends and Evan wrote the letter himself? Or will he feed into he lie until it id too late?

Evan, the main character begins to live a life that is not his. He slowly grows closer to the Murphy family as he convinces them and everyone else that he was best friends with Connor. He helps the Murphy family with their grief and he makes them feel like their son is still there. You could say Evan replaced Connor physically. The Murphy's treated him like their own which what causes us as readers to feel the upmost sympathy for the Murphy family. We learn what loving, welcoming and caring people they are and as I was reading I was getting frustrated at the fact Evan and Connor were not friends, in fact they very rarely spoke. 

As Evan continues to feed into the lies, he starts living the life he has always dreamed of, all of a sudden every day is amazing. Although he eventually learns that the truth needs to come out which comes with many consequences. The broken relationship with the Murphy's, the end to his romantic relationship with Zoe (who is also Connor's sister) and the end to be being 'popular' so to speak. As much as there is sympathy lying with the Murphy family, there is also sympathy with Evan. You see the Murphy's are very family orientated in comparison to Evan's family and so maybe Evan simply wanted to feel the family love that he never has. His mother tries she really does yet it is not until near the end of the novel that she is finally showing Evan the love he has always needed and wanted. As for his dad however, he never sees him so it is no surprise that when Larry Murphy starts becoming a father figure to Evan that he doesn't want to let that bond go.

There are certain chapters in the novel where we are hearing Connor's point of view of everything going on. In my opinion I sense a lot of regret from him. He regrets taking his own life as he sees his heartbroken mother, he regrets taking his own life as he sees Evan becoming his replacement. The irony is, Evan at the start of the story writes in one of his letters 'because today all you have to be is yourself' yet he does the complete opposite.

Overall, the novel as a whole is a five star! I tried to make this post as spoiler free as I could because it is too good of a read to have big spoilers!! What I love about it too is that as you are reading you can picture/hear the soundtrack and pinpoint where each song is meant to be which makes it even more engaging and interesting. As always, I am going to leave you with a quote from this incredible read 'All you gotta do is just believe you can be who you want to be'