How To Be Famous- Caitlin Moran

WordPress has a new way to embed tweets…I’m not sure. I preferred the graphic side of screen grab and paste (as in my last review), but this is easier than either that or separately embedding each tweet, and it’s possible to edit the tweets to make them more like a ‘standard’ review. What do you think?

Synopsis

‘How to be Famous’ is the follow-up to ‘How to Build a Girl’ it continues the story of Dolly/Johanna, a teenager and music journalist from Wolverhampton living in London. In this book she is 19, and more adult than she was in the first.

Review

I had enjoyed the first book, but it felt very familiar after reading Caitlin Moran’s autobiographical stuff. This second book felt more unique, although I do get a very strong Caitlin Moran vibe from Dolly. That’s not a bad thing, I wish I could be Caitlin Moran’s friend

I felt like Dolly was more independent in this one, less defined by other people, although she still wanted others to like her. I found her even wise at some points. The way she got famous was sort of predictable, which at first I was a bit meh about, but as the story developed it become more than what it first appeared, and really made me respect Dolly.

This is teenage fiction, but it’s the type of teenage fiction certain parents might not love. There’s lots of sex, in sometimes quite graphic detail, there’s alcohol, and drugs and lots of cigarettes.

The sex bit is important. It’s about Dolly growing up and understanding sex and relationships, and for those reasons I wouldn’t want to stop teenagers reading it.