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?‎