61 pages • 2 hours read
Shari LapenaWhat Have You Done (Adler and Dwyer, #0.5)
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2018A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Themes
The Consequences of Secrets and Deception
Content Warning: This section of the guide discusses murder, sexual harassment, sexual assault, child abuse, and trauma.
As the events surrounding Diana’s death are slowly revealed, it becomes clear that several characters in the novel are hiding information from the police, their friends, and their families. As these secrets come to light, the consequences of their decision to deceive impact those around them in different ways.
Shari Lapena builds suspense in the novel surrounding three suspects in Diana’s murder: Joe, Cameron, and Brad, each of whom hides secrets, but none of whom is guilty. Joe asks Roddy to lie to give him an alibi, then reveals in his point-of-view sections that he has been stalking several young girls, sometimes hundreds of miles away. Although he is not guilty of harming Diana, his past eventually catches up with him, as what he describes as “sheer shitty luck” links him to Diana and uncovers a murder that he did commit elsewhere (275). For Joe, the consequences of his lies are his return to New York and his arrest for murder.
Unlike Joe, Cameron is entirely innocent in Diana’s death. However, out of fear of being incriminated, he lies to the police several times. His lies then lead to further investigation into him, which in turn leads to increased suspicion. As a result of his secrets, he throws his parents’ lives into turmoil. They are faced with a unique decision when they believe he is guilty: to lie further for him to protect him or to tell the truth. Both choose the former, with his mother not revealing how late he came home and encouraging his father, who actively does what he believes is to help Cameron destroy evidence. This decision causes them distress, as Cameron’s lies and their actions make them believe that their son is capable of murder and prove to themselves that they would do immoral and illegal things to protect their family. This internal conflict and the struggles of this family would have been avoidable if they had not chosen deception when first speaking with the police.
While Brad is also innocent of Diana’s death, he is guilty of sexual harassment and sexual assault toward the teenage girls he teaches. Not only does he lie about his actions, but he also forces Principal Kelly to lie to the police to protect him through blackmail. As a result, he destroys not only his own life—as he is arrested at the end of the text—but also the life of his fiancée, Ellen. His lies ruin their marriage, his career as a teacher, and the girls he harassed and assaulted. Similarly, his lies and his blackmail of Kelly also have a major impact on Kelly’s life. After he fails to address Diana’s allegations and his own decision to deceive the school and the police about what occurred, he sees the ruin of his career, his marriage, and his internal guilt that he potentially has “Diana’s blood on his hands” (211), believing that he could have enabled Brad to kill Diana by not reporting the allegation.
As Joe, Cameron, Brad, and Kelly lie to the police, Paula represents what is morally right. She convinces Kelly to do the right thing by coming forward with the truth—despite the consequences he will face for his deception. Paula, then, is a moral compass for Kelly and an alternative to secrecy in the novel, as she recognizes what was wrong with Diana’s initial accusations and other survivors coming forward—the predatory behavior of Brad—and champions honesty.
The Complexities of Sexual Assault Allegations
In addition to Diana’s murder, a key conflict in the text is between Brad—and the sexual misconduct he commits—and his teenage female survivors. Through Diana’s point of view after her death, as well as the characters of Kelly, Brad, and Paula, Lapena examines the issues with society that people deal with when they attempt to report sexual assault.
The first issue Diana faces is the issue of believability. When she first reports Brad’s actions, when he touches and looks at her and then waits for her outside the shower, Brad makes it clear to her that no one will believe her. He threatens her, saying, “Don’t tell anyone about this. They’ll never believe you anyway. I’ll say you invited me in for a look,” which Diana then acknowledges that she “didn’t tell, just as he expected” (196). Brad uses his position of power to exploit the dynamics of his relationship with Diana, making her believe that there is no point in reporting him as no one would believe her anyway. When Diana comes forward to Principal Kelly, this turns out to be true, as he not only does not take action against Brad but also does not fully record her complaints or show them to anyone.
A second issue surrounding Diana’s assault is her concerns over how it will impact her personal life. She thinks of how Cameron would react—either with rage or by blaming Diana herself as if she invited Brad in some way to harass her. Ellen shares this idea of victim blaming after Brad tells her that Diana’s attractiveness was somehow responsible for her murder—a thought that appalls Ellen’s parents. This is another common problem with reporting sexual assault, further complicating the issue and making it difficult for people to report; they fear that their lives will be too impacted by the allegations, ruining personal relationships and even leading to blame being placed on them.
Similarly, when Taylor finally admits to her mother, Paula, that she was also sexually harassed by Brad, she claims that her embarrassment is what kept her from revealing the truth. The stigmatization of sexual assault as embarrassing or somehow the fault of the survivor is another complication that results in sexual assault being underreported and mishandled.
Each of these issues faced by survivors of sexual assault and harassment in the novel—believability, impact on their personal life, victim blaming, and embarrassment—are highlighted in the novel to convey the issues in society surrounding sexual assault reporting. Just as Principal Kelly makes a change in the novel—realizing that he mishandled the situation and should have believed Diana—Lapena provides hope. If more people acknowledge these issues and change them within themselves, there is hope to destigmatize sexual assault and eliminate these complications to allow for safe and effective reporting and consequences for perpetrators of sexual violence.
The Impact of Tragedy on Communities
The setting of the novel, the small town of Fairhill, Vermont, plays a key role in the novel as it presents a community shaken by Diana’s tragic death. Several of the characters express their shock that something like this could happen in such a small community.
One major impact of Diana’s death is the fear that is instilled in many of the characters. Paula repeatedly connects Diana to her young daughter, just as Roy connects it to Ellen. Both wonder what it would be like to be Diana’s mother—having lost their daughter in a way that they never thought possible. As a result, Paula repeatedly tries to connect with her daughter and figure out what is wrong with her, realizing after Diana’s death that she is not close enough to her daughter. For Riley, after she is texted back by Diana’s killer, she becomes afraid to even be home alone. She forces Evan to search her entire house with her, and her parents request that there is always a police car outside their home. The tragedy of Diana’s death leads to fear and uncertainty for the characters in their previously comforting community.
Another impact of Diana’s death is the grief her mother, Brenda, faces and her friend, Riley, who struggles to move forward with life. Each time Evan and Riley visit Brenda, they note how she has become further depressed, refusing to work, take care of herself, or even leave her home for groceries. Similarly, Riley becomes fixated on the Ouija board and the idea of ghosts, believing that contacting Diana one last time will help find her murderer, give Riley closure, and allow her to move on with her life. While it is left ambiguous whether the Ouija board actually called upon a ghost or if contacting Diana would work, for Riley, the idea of ghosts symbolizes her inability to give up the past and move forward with her life, ultimately facing the impact that Diana’s death brought on her and the rest of the community.
For Ellen, Brad, and Principal Kelly, Diana’s death also directly impacts their futures and careers. While they are innocent of Diana’s death, Brad and Kelly face punishment as a direct result of their actions—the truth that the investigation of Diana’s murder brought about. Ellen sees the future of her marriage and her comfortable home in Fairhill ruined due to the tragedy surrounding Brad’s actions. No longer happy in her community, she ultimately decides to move away and start a new life, choosing to heal from her former fiancé’s deception and predatory actions.
While the setting contributes to the tragedy of Diana’s death, and the closeness of their community amplifies the consequences, living in Fairhill is also an advantage for some characters. As Brenda grapples with her daughter’s death, Evan and Riley regularly help her, go to the store for her, tell stories with her, and comfort her in her grief. Additionally, Paula’s connection with Principal Kelly allows her to convince him that he needs to do the right thing—something that would not be possible if it weren’t for their close-knit community. Similarly, despite their small school allowing Brad to target multiple girls and keep them quiet once they’ve experienced his harassment and assault, it also allows the girls to find support in each other, with more survivors coming forward as they realize they are not alone, ultimately bringing Brad to justice. In this way, Lapena presents not only the impact that tragedy can have on a small town but also the ways that they can overcome it.
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