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How to Build a Girl

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How to Build a Girl

By: Caitlin Moran
Narrated by: Louise Brealey
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Summary

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.

 Literature & Fiction Funny Comedy
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Critic Reviews

Rude, big-hearted, wise-cracking novel (Christina Patterson)
Brilliantly observed, thrillingly rude and laugh-out-loud funny (Helen Fielding)
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)
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)
spirited coming of age novel romps from strength to strength…I’m a Moran fan (Lionel Shriver)
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
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
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
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)
All stars
Most relevant
As usual, Caitlin Moran published a piece of brilliance. Hilarious and heartbreaking, it should be mandatory reading in high school. Couldn't put it down.

Amazing

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Would you listen to How to Build a Girl again? Why?

I'd definitely listen to How to Build a Girl again because it was so well read by Louise Brealey. She did all the accents of each character so well and so consistently. I really felt I was there with Johanna as she went through her often agonising experiences of teenage life. Every minute of Caitlin Moran's story was delicious to listen to. Not once did I feel like fast forwarding through filler because there is none.

What other book might you compare How to Build a Girl to, and why?

I guess all the music references reminded me a bit of Hi Fidelity by Nick Hornby but this storyline is completely different.

What about Louise Brealey’s performance did you like?

I just fell in love with the main character, Johanna, who is telling the story. Louise Brealey's performance was so believable.

Did you have an emotional reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

I wanted to hug the main character and tell her everything is going to be alright and that I totally understand what she is going through. I laughed for a good part of this book. So, so funny!

Any additional comments?

Highly recommend for anyone, particularly if you were a teen in the early 1990s and love indie rock. Everyone is mentioned from Courtney Love, Manic Street Preachers, NWA and the Smashing Pumpkins plus so many more. While you can't hear the music on the audiobook you can still feel it through the words. Plus this book is hilarious. Did I mention this book is super funny?

Fabulous story I could relate to

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This is not my usual genre for reading/listening. Although I often have an eclectic taste in books, I usually avoid gritty reality. Please read to the end of this review for all my enthusiasm about the book, as these early words are more by way of explanation.

I don't recall exactly why I bought this book initially, but clearly something clicked in my head. Maybe it was the title combined with the blurb - who knows, but I am so glad that I did.

The story spans about five years during the late 80s and early 90s England, hopping between Wolverhampton and London. Whilst I didn't really partake of the indie music scene that the main character, Johanna Morrigan, revolves around, I grew up in that world being only about three years older than her. The story is spot on with the details and the thinking of that era, it read exactly like a genuine personal history, with all the honesty of adult retrospection.

I will not spoil your reading by including details, but I will say that it triggered any number of emotions as I continued to listen: cringing, laughing, gritting teeth in the face of adversity, sorrow and even tears. Caitlin Moran has written a book that starts as a slow burner, generating mild intrigue, but soon builds the story (just like the main character builds herself) to a powerhouse of observations, questions of morality, honesty, and above all, love. This is not a romance with an HEA, rather a coming to terms with reality: 'growing up'.
Bravo, Ms. Moran.

Slow burner, but in a great way and it builds!

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Great story and the narrator does a good job, except for her interpretation of John Kite's voice which I found a bit distracting.

Great story

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Such vivid story telling. Unmissable.
Brealey’s reading does not hold anything back and catapults the reader through the richly intense teenage world of Johanna in the most authentic, unapologetic, relatable and bravely honest way. Love every minute!

Rich, intense, intimate, hilarious!

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