Baboon butt ( )

I adored Moran's "How to be a Woman", and giggled helplessly all the way through.
This book is less funny, more sad in the end, as Johanna Morrigan struggles through a life of poverty and her father's alcoholism and somehow, despite it all, succeeds in spite of herself.

Moran's voice is strong throughout and she really gets the mentality of a teenage girl, confused and lacking self-esteem. I felt like cheering when she got places, empathized when she failed.

At the end, I still wasn't sure if she'd got there. If she was safe. I felt an itchy sense of foreboding, but maybe that's because as a parent, I know how things can slip off track.

That said, I found myself laughing myself senseless over a few scenes, and feeling the truth of others. That in itself is the problem - at times Moran is telling the story, at times she is offering her wisdom as the author. It's all a bit confusing - switching between a 14 year old voice to a world weary and given to pithy sayings adult takes a bit out of the story.

Still, a fun, quick read and a window into life. I loved the snail-racing...reminded me of what we often had to do for amusement. ( )

Kept me reading, but there's not a lot of depth of subtlety. ( )

I had heard so many good things about this book, I had to give it a read. While I understand the praise it has gotten and agree with a lot of it, I think my expectations overshadowed the book for me.

How to Build a Girl centers on Johanna Morrigan as she invents a new version of herself that she dubs "Dolly Wilde." Unlike Johanna, who is awkward and chubby and whose family lives on her father's disability benefits, Dolly Wilde is a cool music reviewer who wears all black and is a self-proclaimed Lady Sex Adventurer. It's a coming of age story about a girl who is doing everything she can to help her struggling family and herself, if only by masking the things she doesn't like.

I think we can all relate to the embarrassing and foot-in-mouth moments throughout this book. We've all made bad jokes and messed up the name of a band we mentioned to seem cooler. We've all tried to seem sexy, and aloof, and misunderstood. There were moments in this book that I was full-on cringing because of the honesty in portrays. I really think if I had happened on this book earlier in life, I would loved it. ( )

Written in the same vein as Louise Rennison's Confessions of Georgia Nicholson and Rae Earl's My Mad, Fat Diary (albeit for a much more grown up audience), this novel was a pretty glorious romp through the English Midlands and London as a teenager - even if it fell a bit short of the mark. Moran's Joanna aka rock and roll Dolly Wilde is decidedly more adventurous and gritty than either of the aforementioned protagonists, but she is no less mature and some of her more raucous behaviour can be viewed as more startling than charming due to her lack of boundaries. It's not easy to feel anything but horrified as she digs herself deeper into a pit of chaos and poor decisions. Teenagers are bound to get wrapped up in some form of high jinx, but Dolly is in far over her head, and I was almost surprised that she managed to pull herself out of it before the consequences got too dire. The realism definitely works to Moran's benefit though, as we can't help but keep reading to see if everything ends in roses or disaster - thankfully we get roses at the finale, quite literally in fact. The first half of the story is what really got me into the book, as I can definitely sympathise with Joanna's need to distinguish herself in a small town, but her solution of gaining employment as a music journalist (yay - kudos) quickly devolves into a booze and sex-filled escapade that comes off as a bit desperate in terms of shock value. Yes, she must go down this dark and troubled path before gaining some insight into the realities of the world and herself, but at times it comes off as expected and cliche (and not at all charming, like the more innocent novels in this vein). Overall it was an entertaining read, but nothing can quite top Angus, Thongs, and Full-Frontal Snogging in my heart! ( )