After humiliating herself badly on local TV, 14-year- old Johanna Morrigan has no choice but to stop being Johanna Morrigan. She invents Dolly Wilde, a hard drinking, fast-talking, Goth Girl and Lady Sex Adventurer. By sixteen she's smoking, getting drunk, working for a music paper, and dropping out of school. Who has time for school when the real world has already opened its arms and pulled you through? But what if she's built Dolly Wilde with a fatal flaw? What if she doesn't want to be Dolly forever? Can she ever go back to being Johanna?

HOW TO BUILD A GIRL by Caitlin Moran dredges up the absolute misery of being an overweight teenage girl. There are moments of acute embarrassment so painful I almost had to stop reading. Almost. Even while I cringed on the inside, I had one hand over my mouth because I was laughing so hard my husband kept giving me worried looks. Johanna "Dolly Wilde" is, without a doubt, one of my favorite characters. She's self- destructive, smart, insecure, talented, and passionate. Many have experienced that moment when we wished we could be anyone but ourselves, but Johanna doesn't just wish, she completely re-invents herself. She's relentless in her quest to be someone else, someone people remember, who they talk about, who people want to know.

After the laughter subsides, you really begin to appreciate Caitlin Moran's skill as a writer. She is absolutely hilarious, but more than that she's written a thought-provoking novel that touches on the universal theme of self-discovery? Can a person re- invent herself? Can she be someone else? Or is the person she was always lurking under the new exterior? The biggest question, for me, was is it re-invention at all? Is there already a kernel of that other persona inside? The wonderful thing about HOW TO BUILD A GIRL is that the answers are there, but every reader will find what they need from the story. There is depth to this story that will let you come back to it again and again, always finding a new truth about life.

HOW TO BUILD A GIRL will appeal to a wide audience because it's not just about one teen girl's struggle to re-invent herself into a Lady Sex Adventurer. It's the story of hope and heartbreak we each faced or will face to discover who we are. It's about not giving up even at our worst moment and it's about our surprising ability to change.

All seriousness aside, HOW TO BUILD A GIRL is truly laugh-out-loud funny. I laughed so hard in Chapter 20 I cried, and then I tried to read it to my husband but couldn't stop laughing long enough to get through a paragraph. Johanna/Dolly's voice is sharply witty, crass, and absolutely perfect. This is without a doubt one of the funniest and delightfully well- written novels I've read this year. You really should read HOW TO BUILD A GIRL. You'll laugh until you can't see the words straight, cringe in humiliation alongside Johanna, and read the final page with a smile and a sense of regret because the story had to end.