Brilliant character, uproariously rude and funny shenanigans. Feminist slant and coming of age of our heroine never feel heavy handed and it’s great to wallow in some 90s Britpop nostalgia. Cracking read

I loved Catilin Moran’s ‘How to be a Woman’ a few years ago. I haven’t read ‘How to Build a Girl’ and didn’t realise that this new one was a sequel, but I think it stood well as a stand-alone.

Dolly Wilde (real name Joanna Morrigan) is a 19 year old journalist who works for a major music magazine (sounds unlikely but Moran started writing for Melody Maker when she was 16). She lives alone in a London flat (also sounding vey far fetched but this was the mid-90s when property in the capital was more affordable) and has a secret crush on John Kite, an old friend of hers who is now a famous musician.

The Britpop era of the mid-90s is lovingly recreated in all its boozy, laddish glory. It’s crude and filthy in places, but warm and funny as well and, if you can forgive the incessant name dropping, the 90s nostalgia is very enjoyable. There are obviously a lot of characters from How to Build a Girl cropping up in this sequel and I understand from some who have read both books that there are some plot inconsistencies between the two, however I enjoyed it as a stand-alone, nostalgic trip down memory lane.

Before I begin, I have quick point to make: despite the fact that nothing on the internet warned me that How to be Famous was a sequel, it is one; a follow-on from the apparently immensely successful How to Build A Girl which I hadn’t read and now, which I have absolutely no plans on reading. Although I suppose the book not being the first in the series wouldn’t actually bother anyone whose enjoyment of How to be Famous wasn’t encumbered by the plot of the novel and its unrealistic, inhuman characters.
Because, although I follow Caitlin Moran on Twitter and laugh along to her feed, I found How to be Famous near-intolerable. Instead of offering sharp insights into the nature of the mid-1990s Brit Pop scene, it followed a girl (who was supposed to be 19 but instead read like a character of 13) incessantly mooning over a guy who doesn’t even appear in that much of the book.
And when he does, he comes off as a total arsehole.
I know, I know. I have been there. We all have. But until I saw it on paper, I didn’t realise just how annoying we must come off as to everyone around us. It’s like in the second third or so of Mean Girls, when Cady won’t shut up about Regina: "I was a woman possessed. I spent about 80 percent of my time talking about Regina. And the other 20 percent of the time, I was praying for someone else to bring her up so I could talk about her more. I could hear people getting bored with me. But I couldn't stop. It just kept coming up like word vomit."
I have never used a quote in a book review. Never. Especially not one that isn’t from the book that I am talking about. But, in my relatively short not-career, a quote has never seen so apt.
And, because of this constant mooning and the general attitude of How to be Famous’ protagonist, no matter how many curse words, and drugs, and sex, Moran added to novel, it still came across as juvenile.
Like a bad 90’s sitcom or those Girls in Love books by Jacqueline Wilson. I mean, do ADULTS like this even exist? If they do, I wouldn’t want to meet them.

A laugh out loud book. What more can you want sex, drugs, music and London. Brilliantly funny. Revenge is sweet

Shortly after I was sent a copy of How to be Famous I was lucky enough to see Caitlin Moran talk about it in Edinburgh. She is truly one of my favourite writers, having previously enjoyed some of her other works including the prequel 'How to Build a Girl'.

The book continues the story of Johanna (aka Dolly) , a fantastically funny and intelligent writer living in the Britpop-mad era in 1995. It follows her trials and tribulations with love, sex, family, friends and alcohol. The story is so down-to-earth you cannot help but imagine that it really happened (and I'm sure a lot of it did!).

It's brilliant having a coming-of-age story written from a Dolly's point of view (and written by the amazing Moran), living and working in a very male-dominated environment. As soon as I finished the book I just wanted to go back and reread it all again. So very powerful and I'm grateful stories like this exist for today's young women.

I can’t possibly say how much I LOVE THIS BOOK without sounding like a hysterical teenage fan-girl - something that Caitlin Moran dwells on a lot during her musings in ‘How to be Famous' but which she goes on to explain is the best thing ever. The entire book is full of gems, and I will fan-girl about it endlessly to anyone who is willing to listen until the next chapter about Johanna/Dolly/Caitlin comes out and I hope that will be very soon indeed, because I need more (please, if that’s ok, Ms Moran).

Why do I love it so much? Let me count the ways...

For a start, Dolly/Johanna is so funny, brave, and so flipping lovable throughout and there is so much wisdom and downright truth in her monologues and observations about life, music and the nature of fame that I was quite often left gobsmacked with empathy. There are fabulous standout quotes on more or less every page and Dolly/Johanna’s friends and family are all brilliantly entertaining characters, especially her black sheep mid-life crisis Dad. The action is set at the height of the obnoxiously laddish ‘Brit-Pop’ era in the 1990’s and Ms Moran addresses the perennial feminist issues facing her heroine in the most satisfying and delicious way imaginable. There are so many layers to this book; I know I am going to have to read it again and again to discover more treasures.

My only personal criticism is I don’t really like or trust John Kite, (Dolly’s love interest) - he doesn’t ring true somehow, but then I’m sure we will see how their relationship pans out in the future.

Five stars are not nearly enough. Well done Ms Moran. I love you.

Many thanks to the publishers and to NetGalley for letting me read and review this brilliant piece of work.

Thank you to Netgalley, Ebury Publishing & Caitlin Moran for my ARC of How to Be Famous.
Anyone who knows me, knows that Caitlin Moran is one of my favourite people in the whole world who I don't actually know in person. After picking up How to Be a Woman in a charity shop years ago I fell fast and hard for her blunt, brilliant and hilarious but serious approach to feminism.

How to be Famous is the sequel to Moran's How to Build a Girl another of my firm favourites. So I was expecting great things, and it definitely delivered. We catch up with the main character Johanna or 'Dolly' as she's now known. Now 19, Jo has made it in the world of being a music journalist but after sleeping with her boss and being treated badly for it, she decides its time to see what the rest of the world has to offer.

It's 1995 and Brit Pop is at large, feminism is only just starting to rear its head and Dolly is having to navigate the problems that are now thrown her way. From public sex shaming, drugs, rock n' Roll, sleeping with a friend, watching her best friend and love interest take the world by storm and managing misogyny in the workplace, it's a hard world for a 19 year old girl to be. But somehow this bittersweet novel is also extremely funny and fun! It's like you're learning things but having fun at the same time. What I love most about Moran's books, fictional and none fictional is that they make you sit up and say hold on that's exactly the way women are treated in this world and it's not bloody on!

I really hope that there is more to come in this series, I can't wait to see what Dolly does next!

I enjoyed this book in part but quite early on I realized that this novel is aimed at a much younger reader sadly it wasn't for me sure but sure there are people out there who like these kind of novels not my cup of tea sorry

⭐️⭐️⭐️ ok stars.

This was an ok book. Easy enough to read however it really didn’t live up to my expectations.

I’ve read other books by the author but this one felt a little like she was trying too hard to be funny.

The main character was annoying and dare I say a bit unlikeable and many times I found myself thinking what a nightmare she would be if I ever met her.

The love story angles were a bit off, again the writing was too forced and obvious and a bit clunky.

Overall an average 3 stars

An amazing read, but honestly what else can you expect from Caitlin Moran?
Another fab outing which will make you laugh and tear up, feel good and transport you back to the 90's in the midst of britpop. Memorable characters who jump to life off the page, can't recommend it enough.

A well-written and laugh out loud humorous book..Delivered in an authoritative Wolverhampton tone Recommended.

I asked to review this book based on knowledge of Caitlan Moran, but no real experience of her. I found the book amusing and entertaining, but probably missed nuances within it as I enjoyed it as a light read, yet on reflection, sometimes the subject content perhaps should have made me think more deeply.

Whether I would have had more empathy for the characters had I been female, I don't know, but I didn't find myself caring too much whether things went right or not for them. Having said that, as a middle aged male, I am probably not the right target market for the book. I will be interested to read my wife's take on the book.

I am a big fan of Caitlin's column. This book lived up to my expectations. I really enjoyed this book. I laughed a lot. This is a funny and in some parts poignant look at life. The songs mentioned brought back a lot of memories.

Thank you to Netgalley for my copy.

"Girls should smile, when they think about their sex lives. That is the greatest wish I have for them."

I requested this as an ARC, just assuming it would be more of Caitlin's essays, which I really enjoy. Once approved, I saw that it was actually classified as YA fiction, and fully prepared myself to give it a try and then to inform Netgalley that unfortunately this is not my thing.

To my surprise I really enjoyed it, packed with the author's trademark, irreverent sense of humour it swept me away to 1990's London and the the rise of Britpop. Her books may not be for everyone - filled with LOTS of sex, drugs and rock n roll (not to mention the swearing), but what you need to know is that she can write. This little story is full of amazing ideas, energy and real issues.

There were many giggles, but also some ugly crying when we got to the crux of the story. At its core this is an ode to teenage girls and young women. I loved her article explaining why teenage girls are the most important fans of all. She also takes a look at sexual inequality and things like slut shaming and sex videos, which is probably even more valid now than in the 1990's.

Make no mistake, this book is far from perfect - for one thing, the hero John Kite is just way to perfect to be believable, but it was so different than anything I've ever read that I just got sucked up in this whirlwind story.

I would like both my children to read this when they older (but being Afrikaans, and thus a bit conservative I'm not sure what that age should be? Maybe 25 😃)

Bridget Jones goes backstage with “famous “ people and takes up Pop Journalism. There are some really funny bits to the book, it captures the Britpop Ets of the 90’s very well however for me it misses the mark.

I didn’t really warm to Dolly , I found her a bit boring to be honest. However, if you are looking for a tale of a smart talking late teen in London it is worth a shot

This is the strangest book imaginable.

There is a blog entry here on the first novel featuring her heroine Johanna Morrigan, How to Build a Girl (now being made into a film, and apparently there will be a trilogy) and I am going to quote from it to describe Moran:
This is Caitlin Moran’s brand new novel, as opposed to the anthology of her feature pieces (Moranthology) or her memoir/feminist tract (How to Be a Woman) or her sitcom pilot (Raised by Wolves). Of course this one is fiction, and the narrator has a different name. But it’s clear that Moran takes her material where she can find it, which is in her own early life. As everyone (in the UK anyway) must surely know, she grew up on benefits on a council estate in Wolverhampton, in a loving but dysfunctional family: father on Disability, no money at all, random education, endless siblings. She was obviously extremely bright, and well-read (via libraries), and she became a music press writer very young, and is now one of the best-paid journalists in the UK. (For an illuminating interview with her, click here.)
The story is probably a very good picture of life in London in the mid-1990s for someone who was working in the music business, and is nicely nostalgic about life before widespread internet coverage and mobile phones. (She was doing well to have a laptop in 1995: it would have been quite expensive, and there wouldn’t have been much networking on it.)

So Johanna has family troubles – an annoying father who comes to stay – and she can see that the atmosphere where she works is very anti-women, and that the whole world of sex and relationships is complicated. The story rumbles along – the man she fancies, the horrible man whom she sleeps with, the new friend she makes, a wild potential popstar with some idea of mentoring Johanna.

It is all very readable, but somewhat rambling. And, the thing about Moran is that she normally has a clear idea which parts of her life are deeply relatable, and which aren’t. But here she doesn’t seem to realize how very exceptional her late teens were, and how very different from everyone else’s. She has Access All Areas at all the best pop concerts, and it’s a metaphor for her life: she may moan on about having no money, but she has a very lucky time. (Of course Johanna is fictional, but if your name is Moran and you give your heroine the name Morrigan, you can’t really complain about people drawing conclusions…)

She fills the book with what she’s good at: funny articles about life, about people, about relationships, and sex, and music and the people who make it. It is very entertaining, though very slightly feels like recycling when she fills pages with Johanna’s articles and other writings.

Then there is a sudden dramatic swerve – finally signs of a plot - into the results of some not very good sex with a not very nice man (I am trying not to spoiler here, but it is not the top 3 bad-results-in-novels you would think of). It is a form of slut-shaming, and this is really unusual and different, and not something I have seen in a novel before, and Moran handles it well, if in an increasingly bonkers and unlikely way. She has a thesis in there about young women and pop music and sex that I found very interesting: it is not complete or polished, but I have been thinking about it on and off ever since finishing the book.

There are some nice clothes:
There she was. Cigarette in mouth, dressed in junk-shop glam – leopard-skin fur coat, pearls, thighs, blue suede boots – striding across the stage as if she were about to start a fight.
Suzanne finally emerges, fully painted, in jodhpurs, riding boots, ornate Victorian blouse and ratty sheepskin coat. She looks like Virginia Woolf managing a football team….She applies lipstick with her cigarette still in her mouth – something I’ve never seen before or since.

Red curlytoed Moroccan slippers, a black silk jumpsuit unbuttoned to show a denim bra, and dark purple eyelids.
Today I am wearing a floor-length, red-and-gold-sequinned sari skirt bought at a jumble sale in Wolverhampton for 50p, a black polo-neck jumper, a leopard-skin fake-fur jacket, and my forehead is covered in stick-on bindis. I look like the drag queen Divine, trying to get cast in a Bollywood movie.


[this outfit is for a JOB INTERVIEW, and makes it clear that cultural appropriation hadn’t been thought of in 1995.]

I ripped through the book: it is absurd and weird, very readable, and likely no-one would have got it published if not her with all her success to give her a platform. But I don’t mean that as an insult: there should be more different ways of writing books, and publishers can seem to have a limited view.

How to be Famous does not resemble the way anyone else writes their novels. But then maybe she is creating a new kind of book… good for her.

The top 2 pictures (apart from the book cover) are from a website called Britpop News, quite the archive of the era. The first picture includes Pulp singer Jarvis Cocker; the second is a band called Lush.

The third photo, also from the era, is of Kate Moss and is that Naomi Campbell?

I like Caitlin Moran as a columnist and as a strong voice for young women, and a lot of that comes through in this book.It continues the story of Dolly Wilde,a young music journalist and her experiences in London in the early 90s.It gives a very authentic depiction of the time in which it 's set and thé way of life of a young woman then.
This is at heart a romantic,feminist novel which I am sure will resonate with women in their 20s,but maybe less so with anyone older than that!
Thanks to NetGalley and to the publisher for sending me this advance copy to review without prejudice.

How To Be Famous, Caitlin Moran

Review from Jeannie Zelos book reviews

Genre:, General Fiction (Adult) Women's Fiction

Gah, I can't believe it, Caitlin is described as “feminist sensation” in publicity blurb and then this book gets stuck in that old, dated, “women's Fiction” category. Why do we do this? Moan about equality and then prop it up with stereotypes about what men will and won't read!!
Anyway, that over, what about the book. I was so keen to read this, love the rockstar trope, and though my era was a decade or so before the story and setting really appealed to me. Sadly it didn't work out though. I found Johanna's voice, brash and grating, found her to be pretty shallow as a character. I didn't finish the book though, couldn't get past the forced humour and to me, artificial feel of it. Maybe if I'd read more I would have seen hidden depths to her but the story just wasn't working. A shame as flipping to the end I can see that there's a serious and very pertinent issue with the comedian.
I think for me this book was trying to deliver too much, a romance with rockstar theme, a snippet of recent history in a kind of biographical way, the humour – which fell so pushed on me (I felt it was telling me: go on – laugh dammit, its funny, even when I was left mystified) and then the feminist sex issue with Jerry. That happens to men too though, and is one of my pet hates, when something is seen as exclusively the province or issue of one sex only. It's also a power issue not just a sex one and recent political news had burst out just how serious this is in the media industry.

I can see others love this story, that's great, we all have different tastes and there's books to suit all out there. This just isn't one for me though.

Stars: Two, I wanted to like it, expected to like it but...

ARC supplied by Netgalley and publisher

Over the past year I’ve been half expecting a big scandal to emerge in the music industry given the tales of sordid sexism and exploitation that have emerged from the film and television industries. Moran’s book “How to be Famous” addresses many of these themes.

Described as semi-autobiographical fiction it is set in cocaine fuelled Britpop era London. The music industry is dominated by powerful men and the Indie band (all men!) is king. Johanna Morrigan has escaped her family life in Wolverhampton and is living her dreams in a small flat in London. She works for a trendy music publication and travels all over the place to interview “the famous”.

Secretly in love with the singer John Kite, Jo is starting to make a name for herself in the industry and on the verge of becoming one of “the famous” herself but not always for the reasons that she wanted. It soon becomes clear that fame is not the route to happiness that she and her peers had imagined.

This is one of those rare books that makes you want to laugh loudly while simultaneously cringing and weeping bitter tears. It is a story of finding your feet in a society that thinks you should sit quietly at home completely ignoring your sexuality.

I highly recommend a quick trip to Caitlin’s website http://www.caitlinmoran.co.uk to find the playlist that accompanies this book. Immersing yourself in Jane’s Addition, Portishead and Nick Cave will make you feel like you are there with Jo and her friends enjoying nineties London in all its boozy glory.

Supplied by Net Galley and Ebury Press in exchange for an honest review.

#HowToBeFamous #NetGalley

UK Publication Date: Jun 28 2018. 320 pages.

I enjoyed “How to be a Woman” along with all Caitlin Moran’s journalism. But I loved this book. It is funny, often hilariously so. But it is so much more than that. The scene in New York where they discuss where songs come from (and poetry and books) as well as Dolly’s letter to John are beautifully, heart-rending written. The words in this book made me want to sing, to shout, to laugh and to cry. Moran is a word-wizard. I can’t really describe the book but it captures 1990s London, the music “scene” (will I have to put a dollar in the cliche jar?) and friendship, as well as love. It has both the best and worst sex any woman could imagine, written for women who have all wanted it to be over, and never wanted it to end. I love this book and will read it again and buy it again and again for everyone I can. Buy this book (in case I don’t know you) Don’t buy this book (if I know you because you will be getting it for Christmas). Thank you for this book.