A review by jarvvis
How to Build a Girl by Caitlin Moran

adventurous emotional funny hopeful informative lighthearted reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

So.

• I liked this well enough, it got me into Skinny Puppy, so that’s one point in its favour. 
• Its genuinely funny and I’m a sucker for people talking about music. 
• But there’s a lack of any real substance that weakens it. Every meaning and revelation is surface-level and explicitly stated. 
• I wish that future Dolly stopped coming in to explain subtext, or, if Caitlin was really married to that idea, double down and make it an obviously retrospective novel. 
• It also got a bit tiresome at times, partly because Dolly is the only consistently present character in the whole thing. Her family, her situationship with John Kite and her coworkers only appear intermittently, and I found myself wanting for them (especially her gay older brother, Krissi, who I would have read a whole other book about). 

How To Build A Girl is something of a one woman show, but by page 250 of 340, I felt like I had plumbed the depths of both Johanna Morrigan and Dolly Wilde. I’d recommend The Buddha of Suburbia and some Pulp over this but it did give me a giggle.