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A review by cousinrachel
The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle by Avi
3.0
2.5 stars
This book fooled me. It reeled me in and then let me down.
I really liked the intriguing opening scene of Charlotte having to travel by herself with a bunch of strange men and a captain of whom everyone who knew him seemed to be afraid. It also did a good job getting her somewhat snobby, upper-class attitude across, while also making her not unlikable, due to her naivete and meaning well despite her ignorance.
I thought it was cute the way Charlotte started hanging around the sailors despite herself, listening to their stories and struggling with the “impropriety” of her desire to get to know them. It was also - interesting - to watch her be manipulated by Captain Jaggery, so that when she saw him abusing the men she would not report it to her father. I was expecting a huge blow-up at the end where Charlotte realizes he's evil, and the sailors ganged up on him. I was also expecting camaraderie between Charlotte and her sailor friends/shipmates, to feel the mutual caring and fuzzies.
I did like that she was such a dynamic character. She was always focused on “doing the right thing” from beginning to end, but by the end of the book it had a very different meaning for her. Her mind expanded and she saw that the world wasn’t about all the superficial propriety that her family and society had imposed. Even her father
But the “friendship” that the back cover and midway point promised didn’t happen. It faltered, came up with a lame excuse for the shipmates not to come through when Charlotte was in trouble, and then when the smoke cleared everything went back to normal and they were all buddies again.
Charlotte gives the excuse that they must have thought Zachariah killed Hollybrass, and thus were willing to let Charlotte be hanged to protect Zachariah, because they had been friends with him longer. They were going to let their friend be killed to protect a murderer, and she just gets over it like it's nothing? Are you kidding me?
I think that they were simply cowards. They were afraid to stand up to Jaggery. Which is supported by their backing right down and whimpering like scared puppies when he killed their leader and made scary noises about how he was the captain and he’d have their heads and whatever. What an absolute letdown. Charlotte the sheltered little girl is the only one on the ship with any guts to defy Jaggery, and the men who have been socially trained to be tough and protect women are babies. If word got out that these “sailors,” these tough guys who braved storms, had watched while a teenage girl was about to be murdered, and they reached land, they’d probably get torn to pieces by a mob. Their inconsistency is especially irritating because they were all on their moral high horse about how she got people killed, when the reason for it was totally understandable.
And you know what else they did? When Charlotte tried to get the key to the muskets, but Jaggery was there because he knew about it beforehand, and then chased her around the ship shooting at her, they did nothing. They stood there waiting for her to take care of him. It’s lucky he fell off and drowned because otherwise Charlotte would have died and the rest would still be waiting for the “mutiny” that would never happen. I was expecting a grand showdown with a convoluted, nail-biting plot to get Jaggery. Not this limp nonsense that looks like it was made up because the author couldn’t figure out how to write his book after halfway through.
here wasn’t any camaraderie or fuzzies, besides the time they all cheered when she climbed to the royal yard and got back down and was inducted as a sailor. But that should have been the *beginning* of her friendship with all of them. Not the only evidence that it existed.
Good first act; second act was half-baked. This is the second Avi book I’ve read. Neither was as great as the hype, and I can’t understand why either won a Newbery.
This book fooled me. It reeled me in and then let me down.
I really liked the intriguing opening scene of Charlotte having to travel by herself with a bunch of strange men and a captain of whom everyone who knew him seemed to be afraid. It also did a good job getting her somewhat snobby, upper-class attitude across, while also making her not unlikable, due to her naivete and meaning well despite her ignorance.
I thought it was cute the way Charlotte started hanging around the sailors despite herself, listening to their stories and struggling with the “impropriety” of her desire to get to know them. It was also - interesting - to watch her be manipulated by Captain Jaggery, so that when she saw him abusing the men she would not report it to her father. I was expecting a huge blow-up at the end where Charlotte realizes he's evil, and the sailors ganged up on him. I was also expecting camaraderie between Charlotte and her sailor friends/shipmates, to feel the mutual caring and fuzzies.
I did like that she was such a dynamic character. She was always focused on “doing the right thing” from beginning to end, but by the end of the book it had a very different meaning for her. Her mind expanded and she saw that the world wasn’t about all the superficial propriety that her family and society had imposed. Even her father
Spoiler
wasn’t great like she remembered him, and was in fact not morally conscientious at all.But the “friendship” that the back cover and midway point promised didn’t happen. It faltered, came up with a lame excuse for the shipmates not to come through when Charlotte was in trouble, and then when the smoke cleared everything went back to normal and they were all buddies again.
Spoiler
The sailors are complete hypocrites. When Charlotte betrayed their mutiny plot they were only too happy to jump all over her, despite her repentance and apologies, despite the fact that she was a sheltered kid who was manipulated by the captain. Okay, so they said Zachariah had tried to convince her the captain was evil. Of course she didn’t believe him! The captain was an authority; she was raised to respect and obey authority no matter what, and her father's company owned the ship and employed Jaggery! Why would she believe Jaggery was a monster? They gleefully rubbed it in that two people had died partly because of her, but then when she was about to die, after she had proven her remorse and earned their friendship, they stood there watching!Charlotte gives the excuse that they must have thought Zachariah killed Hollybrass, and thus were willing to let Charlotte be hanged to protect Zachariah, because they had been friends with him longer. They were going to let their friend be killed to protect a murderer, and she just gets over it like it's nothing? Are you kidding me?
I think that they were simply cowards. They were afraid to stand up to Jaggery. Which is supported by their backing right down and whimpering like scared puppies when he killed their leader and made scary noises about how he was the captain and he’d have their heads and whatever. What an absolute letdown. Charlotte the sheltered little girl is the only one on the ship with any guts to defy Jaggery, and the men who have been socially trained to be tough and protect women are babies. If word got out that these “sailors,” these tough guys who braved storms, had watched while a teenage girl was about to be murdered, and they reached land, they’d probably get torn to pieces by a mob. Their inconsistency is especially irritating because they were all on their moral high horse about how she got people killed, when the reason for it was totally understandable.
And you know what else they did? When Charlotte tried to get the key to the muskets, but Jaggery was there because he knew about it beforehand, and then chased her around the ship shooting at her, they did nothing. They stood there waiting for her to take care of him. It’s lucky he fell off and drowned because otherwise Charlotte would have died and the rest would still be waiting for the “mutiny” that would never happen. I was expecting a grand showdown with a convoluted, nail-biting plot to get Jaggery. Not this limp nonsense that looks like it was made up because the author couldn’t figure out how to write his book after halfway through.
here wasn’t any camaraderie or fuzzies, besides the time they all cheered when she climbed to the royal yard and got back down and was inducted as a sailor. But that should have been the *beginning* of her friendship with all of them. Not the only evidence that it existed.
Good first act; second act was half-baked. This is the second Avi book I’ve read. Neither was as great as the hype, and I can’t understand why either won a Newbery.