There's a lot of—shall we say—bending the truth in Entwined. Azalea and her sisters deliberately keep their dancing a secret from their father as long as they're able to, and Keeper keeps a lot of his past a secret from the girls—though he also outright lies to them when he says that he knew the High King D'Eathe and was locked up by him. Even Clover, who's harmless and sweet, keeps her affection for Fairweller a secret (both to evade her sisters' teasing because none of them like Fairweller, and to avoid angering her dad, who's overprotective that way).
We can draw a firm line between the girls' deceitfulness and Keeper's deceitfulness, though: theirs is relatively innocent although selfish, since they just want an outlet for their dancing and their sadness, while Keeper's lies are motivated by his desire to gain his freedom so he can kill everyone in their family. Yeah—just a bit of a difference there.
Questions About Lies and Deceit
- Do you think the girls should have vowed to keep the pavilion a secret from the King? Why or why not?
- When did you realize that Keeper was keeping secrets from the girls?
- Was Mr. Bradford's sneaky solution to get around the oath too deceitful, or a good example of fighting fire with fire?
- Can you think of anyone in the book who hasn't lied or kept a secret?
Chew on This
Keeper's lies are so effective because he interweaves truth with deception.
One of the messages of Entwined is that keeping secrets is bad.