How to Build a Girl (Paperback)
  • How to Build a Girl (Paperback)
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How to Build a Girl (Paperback)

(author)
£12.99
Paperback 352 Pages
Published: 09/04/2015
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'...rowdy and fearless ... sloppy, big-hearted and alive in all the right ways' - The New York Times 

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.

Caitlin Moran's sequel to How to Build a Girl, How to be Famous is available to order now.

Publisher: Ebury Publishing
ISBN: 9780091949013
Number of pages: 352
Weight: 239 g
Dimensions: 198 x 126 x 21 mm


MEDIA REVIEWS

Brilliantly observed, thrillingly rude and laugh-out-loud funny - Helen Fielding

A Portnoy's Complaint for girls… when I see this book described as "laugh-out-loud funny" I feel affronted; it could make you laugh out loud with one hand tied behind its back, while wanking itself off to fantasies of Satan. Laughing out loud is just the start - Zoe Williams, The Guardian

spirited coming of age novel romps from strength to strength…I’m a Moran fan - Lionel Shriver, The Times

This isn’t a sleek, slick novel, but it is a rambunctious, raw-edged, silly-profound and deeply relatable guide to what your worst mistakes can teach you, and it has much to offer teenagers both actual and inner - The Independent

I have so much love for Caitlin Moran - Lena Dunham

Binge-read all of #HowToBuildAGirl in one sitting. Even missed supper. A first - Nigella Lawson

She writes with breathtaking brio…Moran shows her shining soul — which is even more remarkable than her wit — when she writes about being young, looking for love and the utter vileness of the class system . . .almost every page has something on it which makes you smile, makes you sad or makes you think — often all three at once, in one sentence - Julie Burchill, The Spectator

A riotous read with jokes galore cut through with lightly handled serious observations about the nature of poverty and the challenges of emerging female sexuality. It is also stunningly rude… - Sunday Express

Exuberant, funny coming-of-age tale with a highly-literate, resourceful Wolverhampton teen at its centre. As building girls goes this is one alternative instruction manual every woman should read - Daily Express

The self-conscious agonies of precocious yet sensitive Dolly ring painfully true, while the witty sex scenes, boozy anecdotes and one-liners make this great fun… - Sunday Mirror

An exuberant coming of age novel in DMs and ripped tights - Tatler

So funny it hurts. How to Build a Girl is Adrian Mole meets Fear of Flying. I predict they’ll be tears a plenty – both of laughter and excruciating recognition – on sun-loungers this summer - Harper’s Bazaar

Moran is a brilliantly funny writer, and How To Build A Girl is brimful of jokes - FT

This very British (and very naughty) coming-of-age novel will have you in literal hysterics! - Company

terrific - funny, honest and deliciously rude - Alice O'Keefe, The Bookseller

This is going to be a bestseller…A sharp, hilarious and controversial read - The Bookseller

I laughed aloud at this funny, outrageous story of a girl from Wolverhampton council estate who reinvents herself as Dolly Wilde - Woman & Home

as irreverent, amusing and vibrant as Moran herself - GQ

rowdy and fearless ... sloppy, big-hearted and alive in all the right ways - New York Times

Ms. Moran['s] ... funny and cheerfully dirty coming-of-age novel has a hard kernel of class awareness ... sloppy, big-hearted and alive in all the right ways. - Dwight Garner, New York Times

there’s so much real feeling too. Johanna’s vulnerability and bravado, as she moves out of her world and falls in love is beautifully done’ or ‘ and running through it all, with a visceral power that most writers should envy, is the shame and grinding anxiety of being poor - Sunday Times

Moran also writes brilliantly about music, and especially about what music can do. She carries Johanna through this novel with incredible verve, extravagant candour, and a lot of heart. Johanna is … a wonderful heroine. A heroine who cares, who bravely sallies forth and makes things happen, who gives of herself, who is refreshingly unashamed. She’s so confident, it’s glorious - The Independent on Sunday

an entertaining read, with Moran in fine voice – hilarious, wild, imaginative and highly valuable…Moran is in danger of becoming to female masturbation what Keats was to Nightingales… - Barbara Ellen, The Observer

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“You cannot but love Johanna aka Dolly Wilde”

After having read How to Build a Girl I found out that I missed out an Caitlin Moran. I apparently missed How to be a Woman and therefore started reading How to Build a Girl without any expectation. I was pleasantly... More

Paperback edition
Helpful? Upvote 126

“5/5”

How to Build a Girl. Where do I start? This is a story we're all familiar with: coming of age, the question of who we are and where we belong in the world, the pursuit of self-discovery. This is the tale of a... More

Paperback edition
Helpful? Upvote 63

“”

Although this isn't quite as good as How to Be a Woman it is still immensely amsuing and packed with Moran legendary wit and cutting sarcasm. Here we follow Johanna through the formative years of her mid to late... More

Paperback edition
Helpful? Upvote 61

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