The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle by Avi

TRUE CONFESSIONS is a fantastic story of betrayal and redemption. Perhaps most sinisterly of all is when she takes tea with the captain and he tells her to be his eyes and ears and to inform him if she ever spots a round robin: And she's given several warnings from the crew- including the gift of a knife from the preacher/cook Zachariah. The other two families she was supposed to be traveling with have mysteriously dropped out. Men refuse to work as porter for her luggage once they find out the name of her ship and its captain. She's also such a laughable prude definitely, she is the type of girl who would be the villain in anyone else's story but her own. When we meet her, she is dressed to the nines and about to board a ship to return to her New Englandian family from English boarding school. Charlotte Doyle is a very proper young miss, class-conscious and prone to airs. One of my favorite literary tropes is spoiled heroines who end up undergoing a redemption arc.

Instagram || Twitter || Facebook || Amazon || PinterestĪs you may know, I'm doing a project where I reread some of my adolescent favorites, so when I saw a copy of THE TRUE CONFESSIONS OF CHARLOTTE DOYLE sitting in a little free library, I knew I just had to pick it up and give it a read because this was one of my favorites as a young teen. It's because 10 year-olds recognized how AWESOME it is. There's a reason this book won a Newberry, and it's not because 30 year-olds recognized how historically inaccurate it is. The trajectory itself was the excitement! The strong-willed woman in an implausible fight against sinister forces greater than her. Ten year-old Isaiah doesn't give a damn if it's implausible that the lace-frilled, permed and buxom Charlotte reject her social mores, jump on a ship and start swabbing and mizzen yard-arming.

I also read some of the other reviews here for this book, and I have to say, on behalf of ten year-old Isaiah, that you're missing the point. And it has a heroine! And she's good for something besides good manners! Either this is way out of character for me, or perhaps as a ten year old I wasn't a cranky misogynist (unlikely). But for several years after I just started to read YA novels, I thought this book was the epic shit. I can't believe how completely I had forgotten it. This book just flashed into my mind this evening unbidden.

The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle by Avi