Book Review: What Has Become of You

Growing up is a tricky thing. Not everyone can or wants to do it. I know I’ve clung onto many things from my youth as I’ve been ripped into the world adult life, kicking and screaming. I think that is large part of the new novel from author Jan Elizabeth Watson. What Has Become of You features two captivating leads who both are having issues with growing up. One is Vera Lundy, a 39 year old English teacher, new to an all girls high school, and the other is 15 year old Jensen Willard, a strange girl whose writing in class reveals her as a talented, troubled young person.

Vera sees a bit of herself in the young miss Willard and takes a shine to her as she begins to teach her new students Catcher in the Rye. The class discusses the way Holden Caulfield sees the world, and how it relates to their own paths growing up and a recent tragedy in the town, which leads to more writing from Jensen, some of which is highly troubling for Vera to read. Things start to spiral out of control when a student winds up dead and Jensen goes missing, and fingers begin to point in Vera’s direction.