How to Build a Girl

by Caitlin Moran

What do you do in your teenage years when you realise what your parents taught you wasn’t enough? You must go out and find books and poetry and pop songs and bad heroes - and build yourself.

It’s 1990. Johanna Morrigan, 14, has shamed herself so badly on local TV that she decides that there’s no point in being Johanna anymore and reinvents herself as Dolly Wilde – fast-talking, hard-drinking Gothic hero and full-time Lady Sex Adventurer! She will save her poverty stricken Bohemian family by becoming a writer – like Jo in Little Women, or the Brontes - but without the dying young bit.

By 16, she’s smoking cigarettes, getting drunk and working for a music paper. She’s writing pornographic letters to rock-stars, having all the kinds of sex with all the kinds of men, and eviscerating bands in reviews of 600 words or less.

But what happens when Johanna realises she’s built Dolly with a fatal flaw? Is a box full of records, a wall full of posters and a head full of paperbacks, enough to build a girl after all?

Imagine The Bell Jar written by Rizzo from Grease, with a soundtrack by My Bloody Valentine and Happy Mondays. As beautiful as it is funny, How To Build a Girl is a brilliant coming-of-age novel in DMs and ripped tights, that captures perfectly the terror and joy of trying to discover exactly who it is you are going to be.

• ISBN10: 0091949009
• ISBN13: 9780091949006
• Publish Date: 3 July 2014
• Publish Status: Out of Print
• Out of Print: 10 August 2021
• Publish Country: GB
• Publisher: Ebury Publishing
• Imprint: Ebury Press
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 352
• Language: English

Reviews

[Amber (The Literary Phoenix)]

Re-reads are such an interesting experience, because my experience comes in one of two flavors - nostalgic delights, or completely different emotive experiences.  Oh, and occasionally the "what did I see in this book?", which is not the case here.  The first time I read How to Build a Girl, I laughed and laughed and laughed to tears.  I had no idea what to expect and I was delighted.  This time, I listened more solemnly.  Partially because of the gravity of the world, and partially because I did not expect the book.  This time, I had memories and expectations of the book.  I still liked it, but it didn't rock me with hilarity.

This time, I found myself more conscious about the relationship between Johanna and her father.  I found myself following more of the human-level storylines, rather than just being tickled by the writing.  I appreciate the multifaceted aspects of the novel and how easily Caitlin Moran weaves together personal aspects with Johanna's wit.  The writing is very good.

And the narrator is utterly fantastic.

______________________________

Original Review:
2/9/2018 - 5 Stars

“Explaining why you love something is one of the most important jobs on earth.”

Well.

Now because of this book I take an immense extra pleasure in discussing a good novel.  A good book wraps you up in a warm, cozy blanket and gives you magnificent hot cocoa and homemade chocolate cookies and says in that soft, familiar voice: "I love you."

How to Build a Girl by Caitlin Moran punches you in the face with a dildo and makes you listen to The Cure on repeat until either your brain explodes or you are in love.  It is not subtle.  It is not sweet.  It is amazing.  I have never read a book that makes me laugh in the morning and want to join the protagonist in a broken, messy cry at night.

Johanna Morrigan has absolutely no idea who she is, therefore, she will make herself.  She makes Dolly Wilde, named for Oscar Wilde's niece.  Dolly is trouble.  Dolly is unpredictable.  Dolly is a Lady Sex Adventurer.  Dolly has a continuous inner monologue during her "sex adventuring" that is most reassuring and congratulatory ("how lucky he must be!") because she must be happy, because she is doing The Right Things... right?  Johanna is most refreshing because she is funny and hopefully optimistic and she is finding her way.

I wish I met Johanna when I was 16.  We both come from families who survived solely because of government benefits.  We both sought escape in writing.  We both grew up with our parents' music and hopelessly rebelled. We both have good relationships with our siblings.  To be a bit frank, we also both believed that Cosmo had all the answers to "How to please your man!" and that the favor would never be returned.

This coming-of-age story is so raw, daring to discuss things like female masturbation and the difficulty of being a woman in the workplace (even in the 90s).  I felt, at the very end of this story, that things were just beginning.  Imagine my thrill when I learned the sequel is due later this year!

I wholeheartedly recommend How to Build a Girl.  Prepare yourself for something rough and untraditional, but honest.  And the audiobook?  Brilliance.

[clementine]

I read Moran's two novels out of order, which didn't really seem to hinder my comprehension or enjoyment either way. (They both work as standalones.) I felt pretty much about this one as I felt about the other: it's very funny in a cheeky, irreverent way and compulsively readable. The 90s setting is rendered in a very robust, satisfying way. (I really love media set in the 90s, I guess because I was born in the mid-90s so don't actually remember any of that decade even though I feel I have a claim to it.) The writing itself isn't anything spectacular, and there's still the lingering "ironic" racism that is a cloud over Moran's work in general. I'd categorize this as a fun, feminist-adjacent vacation read, but nothing too intellectually strenuous. I bet the upcoming film will be really fun!

[Michael @ Knowledge Lost]

Take to trip back to the 1990s, a time I am all too familiar with; the music was great but being a teenager was not all that it was cracked up to be. Johanna Morrigan is a fourteen year old who is unhappy with her life. That was until she decided to reinvent herself. By sixteen she was a sharp tongued goth, aspiring music journalist who went by the name Dolly Wilde (named after the socialite). How to Build a Girl is the debut novel by Caitlin Moran who is more popularly known for her views towards feminism in books like Moranthology and How to Be a Woman.

I will be honest; the only reason I picked up this book was because it was often described as The Bell Jar if it was written by Rizzo from Grease. I’m a fan of The Bell Jar and this was enough to get me curious about this novel. I can’t say I have ever been a fan of Caitlin Moran or her view points but I think her underlying message that no one should be judged for being who they are is something I can get behind.

Moran has made it clear that this is far from an autobiographical novel; her parents were never like Morrigan’s parents. However there is an element of this novel that probably reflects her teenage years. I think the teenage years are often a journey of self-discovery and reinvention and this was the main reason I wanted to read this novel.

It doesn’t matter if I agree with Johanna Morrigan’s choices and decisions; this was about her finding herself. The whole notion of self-discovery being similar to reinventing yourself is an interesting one and I enjoyed watching Dolly Wilde evolve into the person she wanted to be. Her parents and family often got in the way and tried to unintentionally (or maybe it was intentional) mould her personality. This was just an interesting journey to watch evolve.

I’m not going to talk about the feminist views within this book, it is not my place to agree or disagree. How to Build a Girl reminds me of the TV show Girls (or what I have seen of it) and if you are a fan of this show then maybe you will enjoy the novel. My biggest problem with the book was not with the feminist themes but with the writing itself; it never seemed to work for me and I felt like the intent was to shock rather than tell a good story. It is a shame, the premise is excellent and I could have enjoyed the book if more time was spent improving the proses and editing.

I wanted to love this book; the whole coming of age, self-discovery, and sexual awakening topic has always been an interesting one to me. This book started off with the best intentions but it lost its way, both in plot and writing. The rise and fall of Dolly Wilde (the character in this book, not Oscar Wilde’s niece) was worth reading but there is so much in the middle that could have been taken out and the novel would have ended up being less than a hundred pages. But these are my opinions; there are people that loved this book, I wasn’t one of them.

This review originally appeared on my blog: http://literary-exploration.com/2014/09/24/how-to-build-a-girl-by-caitlin-moran/

[lovelybookshelf]

This book is a wild and crazy ride, but it's so much deeper than that. Johanna carries the burden and anxiety of her family's poverty. We are privvy to her thought process as she works through her deepest inner conflicts. Her revelations are profound, sometimes sad, always enlightening. Read my full review of this title at A Lovely Bookshelf on the Wall.