Reading for Me

During my most recent library trip, I decided I was in the mood for some Young Adult fiction. I hadn’t done any advance research and didn’t have anything in mind. Unfortunately, scanning the shelves led to unsatisfactory finds. (I’m going to have to try again to see if the selection is really that poor!) As I was heading to the circulation desk, a book caught my eye on the bottom of the new selections display – Dear Evan Hansen by Val Emmich with Steven Levenson, Benjamin Pasek, and Justin Paul. I immediately recognized the last three names as the team behind the hit Broadway show of the same name. I had just found my next read!

Dear Evan Hansen is the story of a high school senior, Mark Evan Hansen, who often feels unnoticed and overlooked. He avoids crowds and shies away from the public eye. While visiting his therapist (just to make his mother happy!), Evan is instructed to write daily letters to himself. While they are meant to focus his attention on the positive aspects of life, Evan is also told to simply be truthful about how things are going.

After a particularly trying day that included an encounter with the school recluse and bully, Connor, Evan heads to the computer lab to write his feelings. “Dear Evan Hansen,” he begins and lays his feelings of hopelessness and frustration with life on the line. As he prints the letter, he discovers that Conner is also in the lab. Before Evan can get to the letter, Connor has already retrieved it from the printer, read it, and leaves with the letter in his possession.

While Evan waits for his world to be destroyed by Connor sharing the personal letter with the public, Evan’s world takes a sharp turn. Connor has committed suicide and his parents found Evan’s letter. But they don’t think the letter was written by Evan! Instead, they assume that Connor was preparing to share his feelings with his best friend, Evan Hansen.

What can be done? Evan must decide between telling the truth and admitting to his own embarrassing circumstances or he can create a facade that will bring relief to Connor’s grieving parents while making Evan an overnight sensation and hero! Dear Evan Hansen beautifully examines the conflict between fact and fiction by those teens who feel they are not noticed by anyone and the guilt that comes with the lies.

Perhaps one of my favorite passages from the novel comes in the Epilogue. Since I am certain it will not spoil important plot points, I want to share it here to let you see the beauty of the narrative and to let you think about the quote’s important message.

It reminds me of that saying: “The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.” I guess that means we’re just products of whoever made us and we don’t have much control. The thing is, when people use that phrase, they ignore the most critical part: the falling. Within the logic of that saying, the apple falls every single time. Not falling isn’t an option. So, if the apple has to fall, the most important question in my mind is what happens to it upon hitting the ground? Does it touch down with barely a scratch? Or does it smash on impact? Two vastly different fates. When you think about it, who cares about its proximity to the tree or what type of tree spawned it? What really makes all the difference, then, is how we land.

–Dear Evan Hansen by Val Emmich, p. 334

Go to your local library or bookstore and pick up a copy of this book about love, loss, and the power of friendship. Most importantly, remember that none of us is truly alone!

This post has been challenging to write. Why? I finished reading Insurgent while on vacation with my parents last week. When I closed the novel, I found myself asking “What am I going to say about THAT?” I don’t know. Even as I am beginning to write this post, I don’t really know what I’m going to say. This may be an interesting review for all of us….

Insurgent continues the story of Tris and Tobias’ love affair in their dystopian world. As war looms, our young heros face the issue of figuring out who they can trust and who is telling them the truth. Themes of loyalty, forgiveness, freedom, and independence course throughout the work. As a work of fiction, however, I found myself unimpressed repeatedly. The plot simply seemed to circle on itself and never move forward. I was no longer drawn into the story as I was in Divergent and discovered that I kept reading because of my commitment to the previous novel. As I neared the end, I began to question if I really wanted to read the final novel in the trilogy. I don’t have the confidence that the story and writing will grab my attention again. Part of me wants to read it just to complete the cycle; the other part of me hears my former literature teacher telling me to walk away from a bad read without guilt because there are so many good books awaiting my attention. We will just have to see what the future holds.

I’m rather shocked that this has been my response to Insurgent. The reviews for the book were tremendous. The book appears at first glance to be the kind that I will thoroughly enjoy. I can’t really put my finger on what it was about the second installment of the trilogy that turned me off so badly, but I can’t really come up with anything good to say about the reading experience.

So I’m taking a departure from young adult fiction for a while and returning to more familiar territory. I wanted to immerse myself in several different books in hopes that SOMETHING would re-ignite a passion for reading at the moment. So what am I reading right now? I’m working my way through 3 books — which is rather unusual for me!  I am reading The First American (H.W. Brands), The Finishing School (Joanna Goodman) and Ballplayer (Chipper Jones). Hopefully I’ll have a new reading review on one of these books by the end of the week. Now I’m going back to my reading chair and diving into a book.