[2] The book chronicles the evolution of the title character as she is pushed outside her naive existence and learns about life aboard a ship crossing from England to America in 1832.

The story starts in the early summer of 1832, as thirteen-year-old Charlotte Doyle prepares to take a voyage from Liverpool, England, to her family's home in Providence, Rhode Island.

After spotting a round-robin, a sign of mutiny, Charlotte warns Jaggery, who heads off the rebellion and kills its ringleader Cranick.

As the Seahawk enters a powerful hurricane, Charlotte falls from the ratlines and is saved by a man whom she believes is Zachariah, despite his apparent death.

He presents her with three choices (be disgraced by killing him, return to her proper place as a woman, or accept her fate), all of which she refuses, and flees Jaggery.

[3] At the start of the novel Charlotte is an upper-class teenage girl who becomes a member of the Seahawk crew thus complicating her gender and class identities.

[5] Owing to her experiences, first cooperating with, and then rebelling against Jaggery, Charlotte has changed by the end of the novel into an authentic version of herself, not merely reflecting what society expected of her.

[3] The book opens with "an important warning" and the narrator, Charlotte, defending the right to tell her story because it "is worth relating even if it did happen years ago".

[8] Cathryn Mercier in Five Owls review journal noted the "innovative mixture of history and fiction" and said the book was "expertly crafted and consistently involving, it is sure to excite, enthrall, and challenge readers.

[12] According to Anne Scott MacLeod, authors who "evade the common realities of the societies they write about" and "give their heroines freer choices than their cultures would in fact have offered", are misrepresenting history.

[12] The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle has been repeatedly listed as a core collection book for libraries, for middle school and junior high readers.

[18][19] A member of the Newbery committee that year felt the book deserved to win the Newbery Medal and described the book as being about "a spunky young lady [who] goes from polite idealist impressed by good manners and gallantry to a realistic young woman who comes to terms with the complexity of the 19th-century society in which she lives".

[30][31] Dakota Fanning was originally cast as Charlotte Doyle, but had to drop out as production was continually halted and she eventually grew too old for the part.

[32][33] DeVito returned to the subject in February 2013, saying he was looking for another young actress to star in the title role and scouting movie locations in Ireland.