Author: Caitlin Moran
Publisher: Ebury Press
Star rating: * * * *
If there's one thing you need to know about Caitlin Moran, it's that her writing is absolutely outrageous.
Strident feminist and long running columnist for The Times, How To Build a Girl is Moran's first fictional venture, published in September of 2014.
And yes, it might just sound like another generic, probably-going-to-be-alright title dealing with the perilous journey of 'growing up' and 'finding yourself'. But this book... well. It's unique to anything I've ever read before- in the best possible way.
But firstly, I'd like to introduce our protagonist.
Dolly Wilde is young and outrageous. 'The livewire'. Obsessed with music, sex and booze, she's dripping with eyeliner and paid by the word. Dolly's the girl that Johanna Morrigan became when she'd had enough of being herself, and decided to build her own girl. Top hat and all.
She's a quirky character, and it's not hard to see where Moran plucked her inspiration from, with heaps of similarities stemming from her own working-class, council house dwelling adolescence. In fact, parts of this novel really are so similar to anecdotes from Moran's memoir How to be a Woman, despite the fact that this novel is entirely fictional.
There seems to be a lot of Caitlin in Johanna Morrigan, and that only makes her character all the more honest.
One of the stand out characteristics of Moran's writing is that she doesn't feel the need to mince her words, which is a nice way of saying that she talks about sex a lot, and isn't afraid to cut out the naughty bits. Moran's frank in a way that a lot of writers are afraid to be, and it actually makes me feel like I can see right into Johanna's head, cogs-a-whirring.
We often hear about Johanna's family (which is vast), her friendships (or lack of) and her love life (which to start, is often with herself). Growing up is tough, and Johanna is trying to decide what sort of woman she wants to be, and where she wants her life to go.
As with much of Moran's writing, this book has a large helping of feminism to deliver as well, in that a woman should never feel that a man's needs are above her own. In this world, equality is key-even in the bedroom. Oh Johanna.
But most importantly to me, this book reinforces the concept that we should always be to true to ourselves. It takes her a while, but that's something that Johanna eventually discovers, as we all do.
Still, I wish I was cool enough to wear a top hat like Dolly Wilde.
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