Wednesday, January 7, 2015

How to Build a Girl by Caitlin Moran

A 14-year-old misfit from the backwaters of England re-invents herself as a bitchy critic in the pages of a national music magazine: Johanna Morrigan, AKA Dolly Wilde, won me over completely. I listened to the Harper audio production of Caitlin Moran's How to Build a Girl, and now I'm sad. Because I miss Johanna. She is smart and funny and I miss her very much.

Voice narrator Louise Brealey perfectly conveys Johanna's sassy bravado, her lady sex adventurer exterior... and her interior qualms. This is a poignant, wonderful, coming of age tale.

Readalikes: The Girl Who Was Saturday Night (Heather O'Neill); A Complicated Kindness (Miriam Toews); and This Song Will Save Your Life (Leila Sales).

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