Oh my gosh, this book is absolutely hilarious. I couldn't stop laughing. I couldn't put it down. I started reading it while walking home from the library. It's a great insight to what it's like when you're growing up as a young woman. I would have been very shocked by this book if I'd read it when I was younger, it's very blue, but it just works so well for the main character and her story. There needs to be a soundtrack to this book.

My teenage years were wasted in pursuit of being a “professional” groupie, (whatever that is - probably one with a second-gen rockstar cooking inside of her,) so I knew this book was for me. I received this in a giveaway from HarperCollins, which I'm glad for because I'm pretty sure it's not out in paperback. I'm just not the kind of person who can fork out for fresh-off-the-shelf hardcovers anymore. To my pubescent heart's dismay, this book isn't about a groupie, but it does follow a teenage girl who gets swept up in “the rock and roll circus” as she calls it. Johanna Morrigan – working class girl from Wolverhampton turns herself into Dolly Wilde – boozy, bitchy music critic in pursuit of wild, sex adventures and eventual, totally feminine autonomy. It's pretty cool.

I'll start off by saying this book was mad funny. I read the first three chapters in between midterms, a really stupid timing choice on my part, and read the rest of it in a day. It was very quick and daring, and kept me laughing so much I'd set it down to take a piss, and notice I'd read through 100 pages without coming up for air. As a teenager there was nothing more I wanted than to be where things were happening, where everything was bright, and in a world where I was desirable. Johanna was a character that mirrored so much of who I was at that age. Don't tell the PTA on me, but I highly recommend this to teenage girls, (especially those who spend their weekends online reminiscing about the Libertines.)

I really wish this had been around when I was younger mostly because it would have been insurmountably useful for me to see this fantasy of a glittery, gutter indie-rock world deconstructed. When Johanna has this firmly reflective moment where she decides she doesn't like the girl she's built she says:

“It's a million times easier to be cynical and wield a sword, than it is it to be open-hearted and stand there, holding a balloon and a birthday cake, with the infinite potential to look foolish.”

When I was younger I thought being strong meant being mean. I knew the world wasn't meant for girls, and I knew being breakable was not an option. So, I turned into a really bad person for a really long time, in the same fashion Johanna does. She's so caught up in pulling off the starring role as this completely unrealistic character she's created, that she does anything the people around her can convince her to. She defaults to being filthy and ultimately breakable. Johanna's crash-and-burn was a flowery glimpse into what growing up, and realizing that you've got to destroy what destroyed you is all about.

I was also really into her family. Through all the wild, unbelievable, disgusting things she was experiencing, the scenes of Dolly's world always wrapped up with a return to Johanna's family. She was left trying to make sense of this new person she thought she had become, within the familiar confines of the lives of those who had built the old one. I was super drawn to her brother Krissi who I found totally mysterious and endearing. (Dear Caitlin Moran, give Krissi a book.)

I didn't give this book five stars because it wasn't life-changing to me, meaning it wasn't like insanely great. The writing wasn't heave-and-ho amazing, but whatever. It was great for what it was, which was a quick little book full of jokes that reminded me what it felt like to grow up. While there was little emotional takeaway, I did have fun while reading it. Overall this was a pretty good read. Don't be put off by the Lena Dunham quote on the cover.

Shocking, laugh-out-loud-funny, heart-breaking, and vividly honest about many forbidden topics, the novel was a huge surprise. I tore through it in one day. It reads like a memoir, with a strong sense of hindsight making 14 -17 year old Dolly/Johanna self-aware beyond her years (and self-destructive behavior), but it's fiction. I can't remember where I got the recommendation, or if I just spotted it on our library's shelf (it seems an odd choice for our small New England town!), but I'm going to be recommending it widely. While the sexual details feel over-the-top at first, Moran's clear-eyed assessment of how her character uses sex is both insightful and troubling--and some of the description had me weeping with laughter. Most notable, though, is Moran's ability to depict a family that's struggling to survive on the edges of the lower middle class: her insights into the impact that poverty has on all their lives and her simultaneous emphasis on the love that keeps them all surviving make the book unusual, refreshing, and memorable.

I want to read her "How to Be a Woman" ASAP!

I was so nervous to listen to this because I have read reviews on the author's brand of White Feminism. She is also compared to Tina Fey, Chelsea Handler, and Lena Dunham, who are all White Feminist Celebrities I loathe.

Despite that backdrop, I really, REALLY loved this. It was funny, sad, gritty, hard, and really lovely. It is absolutely not an intersectional experience. It is limited to the protagonist's cishet white privilege, and I think that's why this probably works better than Moran's feminist manifesto does/did. She's writing from her experience rather than telling people how to do Feminism who also have to deal with racism, homophobia, transphobia, etc. (Again, I haven't read her memoir but I read Roxane Gay's review and essay, so I think I'm good).

Another aspect that really hit me was the protagonist's struggle with her family's poverty. The cyclical nature of it, trying to dig your way out as it continues to build, and all of the baggage the comes with that.

I'm really glad I read this, despite my misgivings about the author.

I want to give it less than two stars bc the plot and writing itself was just not good. But then I think of the few things Morgan did thoughtfully and decide to leave it at two.

Buyer beware, the only thing I highlighted came at 93%. Yes, it took that long to connect to the novel.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't this just Moran's [b:How to Be a Woman|10600242|How to Be a Woman|Caitlin Moran|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1405909800s/10600242.jpg|15507935] slightly (barely) rewritten? More autobiographical than fiction, it leads to a repetitive and limited main character and unremarkable (maybe, again, because I've already heard it) story of growth and development. Moran's bare honesty peeks out from this otherwise endless self-essay with its barest mask of fiction, and her humor survives the exhausting life-advice rambles, but this book is overall a disappointment.

Funny, honest and extremely readable. A very enjoyable book about the pains of trying to grow up into somebody you like. Not groundbreaking like 'How To Be A Woman', but a good read nonetheless. Easy to lose yourself in for a few days.

Caitlin Moran is the friend I’ve always wanted. The working class, British, crass as a drunken sailor, funny version! This is her fictional story about Johanna Morrigan a friendless teenager in working class Wolverhampton, looking for an escape from the dregs of her town, but also an answer to her family’s financial woes. She finds the solution in her love of writing when she is hired at a music review magazine, however to thrive she must create a new persona for herself. Dedicated to her task of self-invention, Johanna becomes Dolly Wilde and begins a rock n’ roll style adventure into the life of her new persona. Think of her as a cheekier and more vulgar mix of Jenny Lawson (author of Let’s Pretend This Never Happened), Laurie Notaro (It Looked Different on the Model) and Chelsea Handler (Uganda be Kidding Me). Graphic bedroom detail and language warning for more sensitive readers.
-Lisanne

This book is hilarious & sweaty.

I don't know how else to describe it but it's just so great.