Book Review -How to Build a Girl, Caitlin Moran, Harper, 2014

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I’m going to put my hands up and confess I didn’t read this book when it first came out, due to bad reviews.  Actually, I got it from my local library - definitely saves me £££ on my reading habit! – read a few pages, put it down and forgot about it for a while.

Now I have to tell you the reason the reviews put me off.  Having read Moran’s iconic How to Be a Woman and discovering a book that was actually my bible.  Anyone who wants to understand me just has to read that book.  The reviews gave the impression that this was pretty much a fictional copy of How to Be a Woman, at first I didn’t see the point of reading what many critics had lambasted as a copy of a copy.

Curiosity got the better of me though, and I am so glad it did!  Having grown up in West Somerset, always dreaming of escaping from a small town where everyone knows your name and your business – not always a good thing – I could totally relate to Caitlin Moran’s fictionalized version of herself; Johanna Morrigan who lives on a council estate in Wolverhampton, loves music, and dreams of city life.

Moran writes with humour, about Johanna’s attempt to reinvent herself as Dolly Wilde, music journalist and ‘Lady sex adventurer.’  This is a coming of age book, and I love how issues which are often taboo, such as female masturbation – women do it as well as men.  Get over it world – are written about with gusto.  More serious issues are embraced too such as living on a low income, the class divide, and female equality – the belief that promiscuous men are glorified, yet women who embrace their sexuality are vilified.

Once I had rediscovered How to Build a Girl, I couldn’t get enough of this book.  Would suit Caitlin Moran fans, if you’ve read How to Be a Woman ok there are no massive shockers here, but the writing and refreshing honesty are a breath of fresh air.  Lesson learnt; don’t follow the crowd and make up your own mind – both with this book and in life!

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