Before We Were Innocent

Secrets abound within the narrative. Each of the main characters keep secrets from one another, and although Joni emerges as most antagonistic of the three, the broader thematic construct of the novel argues that personality is a composite, for no one is truly good or truly evil. Even the characters who embody a more ethically oriented values system withhold information from one another. For example, Bess keeps her plans to leave the island and travel to a secluded vacation spot with Theo a secret from Evangeline, while Evangeline does not tell Bess that Joni, not Theo, told her about this plan for a romantic side trip. Similarly, Joni and Bess hide the truth of their whereabouts on the night of Evangeline’s death secret for years after the fact. Joni keeps more secrets than any of the other characters, however, for she hides the fact that she was present on the night of Evangeline’s death, and in 2018, she never reveals what she knows about Willa’s death. In a broader sense, her entire adult persona hides the true nature of her identity, for she is not a sympathetic, altruistic health guru but a calculating, business-savvy media star and a master manipulator with a temper.