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A review by julieannereads
How to Build a Girl by Caitlin Moran
5.0
Caitlin and I go way back to my teenage years of spending time on a Saturday morning with my grandparents who religiously bought and read The Times newspaper. Moran has always been one of my favourite journalists in the way in which she writes; she's like a friend telling you naughty stories knowing you're going to giggle the entire time. Moran was a fabulous influence on me in my teen years and I loved her blunt, no-nonsense political writing. To say that I was excited to read this novel was an understatement!
Working class, poor, 90's Wolverhampton is where our story starts, with our protagonist Johanna Morrigan. Johanna is overweight, obsessed with having her first kiss, well-read and quite the misfit. She has a singular friend outside of her close-knit family of 7, Violet, an older lady who lives with her two cats.
We're taken on a roller coaster of hilarity throughout the first section of the book; Johanna barking like Scooby Doo on national television out of nerves after winning a poetry competition, deciding to become a completely different person - Dolly Wilde - and becomes a writer for a music magazine, D&ME. After a love-struck first 'proper' review, she decides to only write about bands she hates after criticism from her boss.
The ending is my favourite as Johanna has realised she doesn't like who she's become and at this point in the story Johanna is responding as an older version of herself explaining that you can tear apart what you've done and become someone new, taking things from each iteration of yourself and overtime really becoming who you want to be - this is my take away from the novel and honestly, I really genuinely enjoyed it because of this ending. Showing the audience that you can be anything, you just need to go through a few versions of yourself before getting there.
Moran has written a novel which is so relatable to any woman in their later teenage years or early adolescence. It's an all encompassing coming of age novel and I was hooked from the first page. Perhaps it's because I could relate to Johanna's start in life, but I genuinely and thoroughly enjoyed How to Build a Girl - I read it in two days but easily could have finished it in one sitting.
Working class, poor, 90's Wolverhampton is where our story starts, with our protagonist Johanna Morrigan. Johanna is overweight, obsessed with having her first kiss, well-read and quite the misfit. She has a singular friend outside of her close-knit family of 7, Violet, an older lady who lives with her two cats.
We're taken on a roller coaster of hilarity throughout the first section of the book; Johanna barking like Scooby Doo on national television out of nerves after winning a poetry competition, deciding to become a completely different person - Dolly Wilde - and becomes a writer for a music magazine, D&ME. After a love-struck first 'proper' review, she decides to only write about bands she hates after criticism from her boss.
The ending is my favourite as Johanna has realised she doesn't like who she's become and at this point in the story Johanna is responding as an older version of herself explaining that you can tear apart what you've done and become someone new, taking things from each iteration of yourself and overtime really becoming who you want to be - this is my take away from the novel and honestly, I really genuinely enjoyed it because of this ending. Showing the audience that you can be anything, you just need to go through a few versions of yourself before getting there.
Moran has written a novel which is so relatable to any woman in their later teenage years or early adolescence. It's an all encompassing coming of age novel and I was hooked from the first page. Perhaps it's because I could relate to Johanna's start in life, but I genuinely and thoroughly enjoyed How to Build a Girl - I read it in two days but easily could have finished it in one sitting.