How to Build a Girl cover art

How to Build a Girl

 Preview

Get 30 days of Standard free

£5.99/mo after trial. Cancel monthly.
Try for £0.00
More purchase options

How to Build a Girl

By: Caitlin Moran
Narrated by: Louise Brealey
Try for £0.00

£5.99 a month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy Now for £8.62

Buy Now for £8.62

Season's Savings | £0.99/mo for 3 months

£5.99/mo after 3 months - terms apply. Cancel monthly

Now a film directed by Coky Giedroyc and starring Ladybird's Beanie Feldstein as Johanna Morrigan and Game of Thrones's Alfie Allen as John Kite

My name’s Johanna Morrigan. I’m fourteen, and I’ve just decided to kill myself.

I don’t really want to die, of course! I just need to kill Johanna, and build a new girl. Dolly Wilde will be everything I want to be, and more! But as with all the best coming-of-age stories, it doesn’t exactly go to plan…

A Number One Sunday Times bestseller in hardback and paperback, from the award-winning and Sunday Times bestselling author of How to Be a Woman.

© Caitlin Moran 2014 (P) Penguin Audio 2014

 Coming of Age Genre Fiction Literature & Fiction Movie, TV & Video Game Tie-Ins Funny Comedy Feel-Good Thought-Provoking Witty
adbl_web_anon_alc_button_suppression_t1

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
I love Caitlin's refreshing frankness but having read some of her other work there were moments of déjà vue.
The performance would be hard to top.

Beautifully written and performed.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Heartbreaking, mind bending, belly laughs a plenty. As a survivor of Wolverhampton in the 80s and 90s. I can tell you this book is bloody brill.

Fan bloody tastic

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
A supremely funny, filthy and clever book - and made one hundred per cent moreso by the flawless narration. Great stuff!

Fantastic narration of highly entertaining story

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
I struggled to get into this at first, the protagonist being a troubled teenager from the Midlands wasn't something I could immediately relate to.
However, once she creates an alter ego the story picked up pace and interest, and by the end I was disappointed to say goodbye to both Johanna and Dolly.

Picked up momentum in the second half

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Review: I've been wanting to read this book for ages. I bought it as my world book day buy either last year or the one before, and in the end I downloaded this on audiobook so that I could enjoy Moran's witty cynicism on the way to work and back. I don't know what I was expecting from this novel, I realised it was fiction and a story about a teenager but it was completely different from what I was expecting. As the book progressed though I heard a lot of the author and her own experiences at detailed in How To Be A Woman (one of my favourite books of all time) in it-great!

The protagonist in this novel is brutally honest and is also very aware of her family and where they sit within society. I really liked the different relationships she has with the different members of her family and how they vary. She obviously loves them to bits and is especially protective of her brother because he is referred to in almost every other simile she uses! I also love the fact that she was determined to be the one that got out, that got the career she wanted and that went after things no matter what.

There are some seriously funny bits in the book when 'Dolly' enters the world of work and discovers mosh pits, smoking and drinking. These events in particular really highlight just how young and naive she is not just because of her age but also because she is from outside of London, not famillliar with the big city. I really liked her take on relationships and sex, it reminded me of my teenage years and what I thought should have been happening and the reality of it all. This novel is brutally honest, there are some moments which are definitely not for the more sensitive reader but definitely one that is worth reading, especially for the feminists among us!

Interesting, gritty YA

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
See more reviews