She Treads Softly: What Have You Done?

Friday, October 3, 2025

What Have You Done?

What Have You Done? by Nicole Trope
10/17/25; 278 pages
Bookouture

What Have You Done? by Nicole Trope is a highly recommended psychological thriller. The prologue will immediately grab your attention and keep you reading to the twisty ending.

The Neighbors watch as two stretchers are wheeled out of a home followed by a handcuffed disheveled Juliet Cordell being led to the police car as she yells, "Are those my parents?" Jumping back several weeks, Juliet is released to her parents by the private psychiatric facility where she was sent for three months after a self destructive event. At the facility she suddenly recalls abusive actions from her parents when she was growing up. Her parents deny it ever happened, but Juliet resents them. She then meets Adam when getting coffee and they immediately connect as she shares her backstory with him.

Most readers will be able to tell in this fast-paced novel that something else is going on. There are clues and hints that there is much more to the story. Set any disbelief aside and keep reading for your reward. The narrative is presented in two parts and the second part, after Juliet's arrest, will flip the whole story and you will be richly rewarded with a crazy twist in the plot. While a few elements are predictable, the whole story is compelling and a wildly entertaining popcorn thriller.

As for the characters, none of them seem trustworthy. Not one. They are flawed, fragile, and feel a little off, but are also sometimes sympathetic. Trope uses her emotionally intricate characters to propel the plot forward, along with the questions and complications that will arise based on their actions. Their actions will keep you on edge and you will feel psychologically manipulated. The first part of the novel was okay, but the second part elevated it to something better.

What Have You Done? is a perfect choice for those who enjoy popcorn psychological thrillers. Thanks to Bookouture for providing me with an advance reader's copy via NetGalley. My review is voluntary and expresses my honest opinion.

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John Updike's six rules for reviewing:

1. Try to understand what the author wished to do, and do not blame him for not achieving what he did not attempt.

2. Give him enough direct quotation--at least one extended passage--of the book's prose so the review's reader can form his own impression, can get his own taste.

3. Confirm your description of the book with quotation from the book, if only phrase-long, rather than proceeding by fuzzy precis.

4. Go easy on plot summary, and do not give away the ending.

5. If the book is judged deficient, cite a successful example along the same lines, from the author's oeuvre or elsewhere. Try to understand the failure. Sure it's his and not yours?

To these concrete five might be added a vaguer sixth, having to do with maintaining a chemical purity in the reaction between product and appraiser.....Review the book, not the reputation.... Better to praise and share than blame and ban. The communion between reviewer and his public is based upon the presumption of certain possible joys in reading, and all our discriminations should curve toward that end.