Description
Set in early 1990s England, How to Build a Girl follows 14-year-old Johanna Morrigan, who reinvents herself after a humiliating appearance on local television convinces her that being “Johanna” is no longer an option. She becomes Dolly Wilde: outspoken, rebellious, determined to educate herself through music, books, and experience.
By sixteen, Dolly is writing for a music magazine, drinking too much, smoking heavily, and navigating her first sexual and emotional experiences. But as her new persona grows more extreme, Johanna begins to realise that the identity she has built may be flawed — and that reinvention comes with consequences.
Funny, sharp, and uncomfortably honest, How to Build a Girl is a coming-of-age novel about class, ambition, self-invention, and the messy process of learning who you are allowed to be.
