The New York Times bestselling author hailed as “the UK’s answer to Tina Fey, Chelsea Handler, and Lena Dunham all rolled into one” (Marie Claire) makes her fiction debut with a hilarious yet deeply moving coming of age novel.
What do you do in your teenage years when you realize what your parents taught you wasn’t enough? You must go out and find books and poetry and pop songs and bad heroes—and build yourself.
It’s 1990. Johanna Morrigan, fourteen, has shamed herself so badly on local TV that she decides that there’s no point in being Johanna anymore and reinvents herself as Dolly Wilde—fast-talking, hard-drinking Gothic hero and full-time Lady Sex Adventurer. She will save her poverty-stricken Bohemian family by becoming a writer—like Jo in Little Women, or the Bröntes—but without the dying young bit.
By sixteen, she’s smoking cigarettes, getting drunk and working for a music paper. She’s writing pornographic letters to rock-stars, having all the kinds of sex with all kinds of men, and eviscerating bands in reviews of 600 words or less.
But what happens when Johanna realizes she’s built Dolly with a fatal flaw? Is a box full of records, a wall full of posters, and a head full of paperbacks, enough to build a girl after all?
My Rating: 3.5/5
I found this book in a store that was having a closing down sale and had some vague memory of hearing of it before so I picked it up and I am so glad I did as this book was unlike anything I have previously read.
I loved the family dynamic in this book especially between Johannah and her siblings.
This book was a little crude at times and sometimes I found this hilarious and other times it made me cringe. For example, after reading the opening paragraph I questioned whether to keep reading but I am happy I did because I enjoyed this book so much more than I thought I would.
There were so many music references in this book which apart from The Beatles ones most went straight over my head. The references to The Beatles though were constant and really well done and I loved that there seemed to be at least one reference to them per chapter as they are my favourite band of all time.
No comments:
Post a Comment