outside reading

3. What is the central theme of the novel? What values and ideals does the novel promote?
Promise Not To Tell, a suspenseful novel by Jennifer McMahon shows the central theme of seeking the truth. It all starts when the protagonist, Kate Cypher, moves back up home where she has to take care of her mother who has Alzheimer’s. On the first day of her arrival she comes to find out that Opal’s (her niece) best friend Tori got murdered the night before. Not only was it that she got murdered but it was the way she got murdered. Kate’s past best friend, Del, got murdered the same exact way Tori did, and is still unsolved. Now that Kate’s past is rushing back into her life, she needs to find the truth of Del and Tori’s death, and stop all of it before it gets to Opal. Not only that, but her mother has been showing signs of Del being around which leads Kate to seek what is truly going on.
Back in 1971, Kate and Del were together all the time outside of school. The only time they were not together was when they were in school. Del was known as the “Potato Girl” because she smelled bad and always wore the same clothes (only because of her father not caring for her the correct way). Kate felt ashamed talking to her in front of the popular girls, so she would tell the girls all about Del. One day everyone was picking on Del and Kate did not do anything about it. Del escaped and Kate tried chasing after her to apologize but she had a rock in her hand and Del thought she was going to hurt her. That was the day Del got murdered. In the end, when Kate found out it was Zack (her mother’s past lover). Also, she found out Zack was the one who gave Del the sheriff’s star and that he loved her and that’s why he killed her. Even more, Del loved a boy her age named Mike, who gave her a tattoo of the letter M on her chest. After Zack had killed her he cut off the tattoo that she had and kept it with him all through the years and even took his sheriff’s star back. He wanted to save her from her squalid family life but since he found out about Mike he realized for her, it was not worth trying to win him back.
The reason for Tori’s murder was because at night, when Tori and Opal were hanging out, Tori was wearing Opal’s sweater. Zack wanted to kill Opal because she had taken the Sheriff’s star from him. Zack wanted it back because he knew it would be huge evidence towards Del’s murder. Another thing about Opal is not only is she Kate’s niece but, she is also Del’s half sister. Del’s father had raped Opal’s mother. Obviously, she kept the baby but did not want her daughter to know anything about her “family.” When Kate moved back home to take care of her mother, Opal was having weird dreams of Del and asked Kate about her. Opal’s mother found out and forbid Opal from seeing Kate. Opal went missing for a few hours and suddenly the ghost of Del went into Kate’s mother’s body and showed Kate the way to find the truth and save Opal. As an ending result, Kate found Opal and saved her before it was too late, and more importantly found the real truth of Del and Tori’s death by stopping the killer and found out why Opal was really involved in the murder.