How to Build a Girl by Caitlin Moran

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...Read more

Reviewed by lovelybookshelf on

5 of 5 stars

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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.

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Reading updates

  • Started reading
  • 16 August, 2014: Finished reading
  • 16 August, 2014: Reviewed