Synopses & Reviews
The
New York Times bestselling author hailed as “the UK's answer to Tina Fey, Chelsea Handler, and Lena Dunham all rolled into one” (
Marie Claire) makes her fiction debut with a hilarious yet deeply moving coming of age novel.
What do you do in your teenage years when you realize 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.
Its 1990. Johanna Morrigan, fourteen, 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 Bröntes — but without the dying young bit.
By sixteen, 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 kinds of men, and eviscerating bands in reviews of 600 words or less.
But what happens when Johanna realizes 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. How to Build a Girl is a funny, poignant, and heartbreakingly evocative story of self-discovery and invention, as only Caitlin Moran could tell it.
Review
"Moran's characters are huggably, aggressively real, her setting-1990s Wolverhampton and London-touchable, and her depiction of growing up well worth reading. One heartily hopes there's more where this came from." Booklist
Review
"It's rare to find such a brash, hilarious teenage heroine, unapologetic and open about her own sexuality. Moran's coming-of-age novel is both poignant and laugh-out-loud funny." Library Journal, starred review
Review
"The best stuff in How to Build a Girl is the same as the best stuff in How to Be a Woman: the attitude, the fearless confessional honesty, the Moran persona itself, with its big heart and unabashed appetite for all of life's pleasures." Laura Miller, Salon
Review
"It's rare to find a book that tells the story of adolescence in a way that's both hilarious and honest. This is one of the many reasons why we're so damn in love with How to Build a Girl." Nylon Magazine
Review
"The wise and hilarious Moran makes her first foray into fiction with How to Build a Girl, and the novel is everything her fans will expect it to be...cheeky, intelligent, thought-provoking and laugh-out-loud funny." Shelf Awareness
Review
"A feminist coming-of-age tale.... Johanna is an irrepressible narrator, telling a mostly-true and funny tale of survival and success." Washington Post Book World
Review
"A feminist coming-of-age tale....Johanna is an irrepressible narrator, telling a mostly-true and funny tale of survival and success." Joanna Scutts, Washington Post Book World
Review
"Rallying cries will always have a place in a yet-unfinished movement like feminism, but sometimes storytelling is more effective. The fictional Johanna Morrigan never drops the F-word, but readers can see she's asking all the right questions." New York Times Book Review
Synopsis
Now a major motion picture starring Beanie Feldstein
The New York Times bestselling author hailed as "the UK's answer to Tina Fey, Chelsea Handler, and Lena Dunham all rolled into one" (Marie Claire) makes her fiction debut with a hilarious yet deeply moving coming of age novel.
What do you do in your teenage years when you realize 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, fourteen, 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 Br ntes--but without the dying young bit.
By sixteen, 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 kinds of men, and eviscerating bands in reviews of 600 words or less.
But what happens when Johanna realizes 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. How to Build a Girl is a funny, poignant, and heartbreakingly evocative story of self-discovery and invention, as only Caitlin Moran could tell it.
About the Author
Caitlin Moran was named the Columnist of the Year by the British Press Awards in 2010, and Critic and Interviewer of the Year in 2011 for her work at the Times of London. You can follow Caitlin on Twitter @caitlinmoran.