Name: Beth Bartholomew's review of The Girls by Emma Cline
Item: The Girls
Rating: 4.5
Author: Beth Bartholomew

Emma Cline

** The Sunday Times Top Ten Bestseller ** ** The New York Times Top Ten Bestseller ** The UK's best selling hardback debut novel of 2016 Selected as a Book of the Year 2016 in the Evening Standard, Observer and The Times California. The summer of 1969. In the dying days of a floundering counter-culture a young girl is unwittingly caught up in unthinkable violence, and a decision made at this moment, on the cusp of adulthood, will shape her life.... 'This book will break your heart and blow your mind.' Lena Dunham Evie Boyd is desperate to be noticed. In the summer of 1969, empty days stretch out under the California sun. The smell of honeysuckle thickens the air and the sidewalks radiate heat. Until she sees them. The snatch of cold laughter. Hair, long and uncombed. Dirty dresses skimming the tops of thighs. Cheap rings like a second set of knuckles. The girls. And at the centre, Russell. Russell and the ranch, down a long dirt track and deep in the hills. Incense and clumsily strummed chords. Rumours of sex, frenzied gatherings, teen runaways. Was there a warning, a sign of things to come? Or is Evie already too enthralled by the girls to see that her life is about to be changed forever?

The Girls

Mesmerized by a band of girls in the park whom she perceives as enjoying a life of free and careless abandon, 1960s teen Evie Boyd becomes obsessed with gaining acceptance into their circle. Evie, grateful for their charismatic leader's attention, the sense of family the group offers, and the assurance of the girls, is swept into their chaotic cult existence. As things turn darker, her choices become riskier. A wonderfully written debut novel about the harm we can do, to ourselves and others, in our hunger for belonging and acceptance. --

A Novel

Clara Gauthier

At that age, I was, first and foremost, a thing to be judged, and that shifted the power in every interaction onto the other person.

She patted me, smiling so her face seemed to crack and reveal the full flush of her need. Part of me did feel all right, or I was confusing familiarity with happiness. Because that was there even when love wasn't—the net of family, the purity of habit and home. 

L. J.

Death seemed to me like a lobby in a hotel. Some civilized, well-lit room you could easily enter or leave. A boy in town had shot himself in his finished basement after getting caught selling counterfeit raffle tickets: I didn't think of the gore, the wet insides, but only the ease of the moment before he pulled the trigger, how clean and winnowed the world must have seemed. All the disappointments, all of regular life with its punishments and indignities, made surplus in one orderly motion.

So much of desire, at that age, was a willful act. Trying so hard to slur the rough, disappointing edges of boys into the shape of someone we could love. We spoke of our desperate need for them with rote and familiar words, like we were reading lines from a play. Later I would see this: how impersonal and grasping our love was, pinging around the universe, hoping for a host to give form to our wishes.

I waited to be told what was good about me. I wondered later if this was why there were so many more women than men at the ranch. All that time I had spent readying myself, the articles that taught me life was really just a waiting room until someone noticed you—the boys had spent that time becoming themselves.

Alli

We were like conspiracy theorists, seeing portent and intention in every detail, wishing desperately that we mattered enough to be the object of planning and speculation. 

I waited to be told what was good about me… All that time I had spent readying myself, the articles that taught me life was really just a waiting room until someone noticed you - the boys had spent that time becoming themselves.

Chloe Heisserer

I was only just starting to learn how to rig certain information with apology. How to mock myself before other people could.

Implicate yourself in the joke even if the joke was always on you.

Alithea

This book emanates summer vibes and a glimpse into life in the 60s. The storyline is quite a disturbing and dark one, but one Cline has balanced with the beauty of her writing and intimacy of getting to know our young main character who is on a messy path in her life. I felt immediately drawn in my the hypnotic storytelling and loved the interchanging of present day to the past, really showing how time can change but the same mistakes can be made, just in different ways. I loved this, highly recommend it as a summer read! 

Beth Bartholomew

Ryan Mateyk

Yes, it's about a young girl in a Manson-inspired cult, but I found this moreso a weirdly relatable reflection of a troubling time in one's youth. I see lots of complaints of this being overwritten but I didn't find it so on audio!

Kinda good, but mostly made me want to reread Helter Skelter. Even though it's called "The Girls", she doesn't spend a whole lot of time developing the knock off Manson girls as characters, which was disappointing. Also so sick of authors just saying "she was magnetic, I was drawn to her. We understood each other" as shorthand for establishing female friendships. Like give me one reason to think these girlies like each other!! Show me a conversation where they talk about the Beach Boys or whatever, give me SOMETHING 

Regan Martin

absolutely crazy shit i loved it the whole vibe was very good and also impossible to put down

Lindy

This book frustrated me so much because there's bright glimmers of good ideas and interesting insights, but you have to look for them between a lot of nonsense. It's like Random House was so anxious to sell copies (because even the worst, most exploitative books about Charles Manson sell copies, so there's no way this wouldn't) they decided to rush the editing process, resulting in a subpar product. 

Here's the alterations I would have suggested:

First of all, the prose is overwritten. Stuff gets repeated with slightly different phrasings. There are sentences which serve no purpose other than for the author to show that she did research into the time period. There's a lot of filler. I think about one third of the total word count could have been cut. 

I would have eliminated the framing device of middle-aged Evie looking back on her adolescence. It just didn't work. The parallels the author draws between Evie/Suzanne and Sasha/Julian are clumsily done and don't provide any additional information or insight into the character. Additionally, while the immediacy of new emotions is congruent with the self-preoccupation of teenagerhood, older Evie is not at all self-aware or reflective about this, despite the phrase "at that age" appearing several times per chapter in the first third of the book. 

I realize no one wants to get sued by Brian Wilson, hence the pseudonyms, but I feel like it's a cop out to write a book so obviously about the Manson cult down to the barest details and then change all the names. Lord knows there were enough other cults in that time and place, and I don't know, it gives the impression that Cline is both both afraid to write audaciously and not particularly creative. So I'd suggest either inventing a cult or revising "Mitch's" role. 

I found the portrayal of female homosexuality to be outdated, tawdry, and yes, offensive. It's 2017; I don't want to read books where a young virginal girl's attraction to another woman draws her into a lifestyle of depravity. I got serious Heavenly Creatures vibes from the whole Evie/Suzanne dynamic. Or who knows, maybe the author just watched that Dr. Phil episode about the Skylar Neese murder and got the idea to throw in a side of lesbianism for bonus sensationalism. I don't even know how to salvage this.

Finally, I wish the author had done more with Evie's mother's character. There were themes I wish had been developed (like Evie's simultaneous revulsion for and desire to protect her mother), and I felt as if she had an unfinished arc.

In conclusion, The Girls is sensationalist pulp that is trying really hard but not quite achieving more.

Kendall McClain

Completely appropriate reaction to a first lesbian situationship

I don't know whether I am becoming more cynical or whether I am developing higher standards. The writing was good but this was so miserable, at no point could I understand why Evie was enamoured with the titular girls (more like girl, singular). Yeah, she thought Suzanne was pretty and she discovering lesbianism but at no point did she really seem to have rose tinted sunglasses or be absolutely enthralled by her.

This is the third time I am saying this this year but when you are writing a novel about obsession and enchantment, you really need to achieve a similar effect on the reader. And maybe Evie's obvious loneliness and desire to be wanted resonated with some. I, however, had hobbies when I was 14yo's, even with my working-class background, and I liked the few friends I had and liked using my brain. Thus, to me Evie just comes off as a bored rich person (as per my livetweeting: "how are you going to have a pool in your house and be jobless?" Could not be me).

Following up "Cultish" with this novel (the former gave me the idea to read it in the first place) and with "Cultish" giving much more nuanced ideas on what pushes people into cults, I guess I was setting myself unrealistic expectations. Here is what "The Girls" could have explored through Evie's story: the rise of cults during times of societal turmoil (which was touched upon as part of Evie's context but our girl is so self-absorbed, even for a 14yo, that it just never ties into the story), not just the desire to belong but the desire to be someone else moulded by someone who has all the answers, THE ACTUAL TITULAR GIRLS. 

The last one is the one that really gets me - the girls are really mostly Suzanne, since the rest of the named girls barely get a couple of lines. We are told that it was seeing the girls (plural) that drew Evie's attention in the first place and that it was the girls (plural) that the media was obsessed with. OK, so what was so interesting about them?

God what a tiresome effort. Is this how you guys who saw "The Idol" (all three of you) felt like? And this doesn't even have Jennie Kim on it.

I don't know whether I am becoming more cynical or whether I am developing higher standards. The writing was good but this was so miserable, at no point could I understand why Evie was enamoured with the titular girls (more like girl, singular). Yeah, she thought Suzanne was pretty and she discovering lesbianism but at no point did she really seem to have rose tinted sunglasses or be absolutely enthralled by her.

This is the third time I am saying this this year but when you are writing a novel about obsession and enchantment, you really need to achieve a similar effect on the reader. And maybe Evie's obvious loneliness and desire to be wanted resonated with some. I, however, had hobbies when I was 14yo's, even with my working-class background, and I liked the few friends I had and liked using my brain. Thus, to me Evie just comes off as a bored rich person (as per my livetweeting: "how are you going to have a pool in your house and be jobless?" Could not be me).

Following up "Cultish" with this novel (the former gave me the idea to read it in the first place) and with "Cultish" giving much more nuanced ideas on what pushes people into cults, I guess I was setting myself unrealistic expectations. Here is what "The Girls" could have explored through Evie's story: the rise of cults during times of societal turmoil (which was touched upon as part of Evie's context but our girl is so self-absorbed, even for a 14yo, that it just never ties into the story), not just the desire to belong but the desire to be someone else moulded by someone who has all the answers, THE ACTUAL TITULAR GIRLS. 

The last one is the one that really gets me - the girls are really mostly Suzanne, since the rest of the named girls barely get a couple of lines. We are told that it was seeing the girls (plural) that drew Evie's attention in the first place and that it was the girls (plural) that the media was obsessed with. OK, so what was so interesting about them?

God what a tiresome effort. Is this how you guys who saw "The Idol" (all three of you) felt like? And this doesn't even have Jennie Kim on it.

syadrina

Hannah

“You wanted things and you couldn't help it, because there was only your life, only yourself to wake up with, and how could you ever tell yourself what you wanted was wrong?” 
Wow Emma Cline has done it again, my second read of her books and oh my god she’s so good at what she does, of the two I think the guest was my favorite but I also absolutely loved this one it’s filled with longing for a sense of belonging and impending doom among other things. I am fully invested in all of Clines characters and I think she is able to combine storytelling and character building beautifully. Many a midsommar vibe probably because it’s about a cult but really good book.

Melissa Palmer

Book #81 Read in 2016
The Girls by Emma Cline

Evie is a young teenage girl who joins a Manson-like cult. She experiences sex, drugs and rock and roll with them. But they take an evil turn. Will Evie be able to put this group of people behind her? This was a good read (and has made me want to read Helter Skelter, which I've put off doing for years) but in my opinion, the ending was a bit abrupt. I wanted more follow up. That being said, this was a good read and I recommend it.

idk I was either bored or disgusted with most of this book. I don't think this book was for me. I hate having to read / listen to multiple SA scenes. I almost DNF’d but the overall popularity of this book made me think that maybe the ending was really good? Wish I would’ve stopped and read something else tbh.

i wanted to like this, but i didn’t. i dont mind a character driven story, but i have to be able to connect with the characters and this was not the case

Danyella Barajas

Moth

To be honest, I wish I could give a huge review for this book. But the thing is, when I like books, it's hard to write pages of notes and details. Most of my notes are that I enjoyed this book, that I enjoyed the lyrical-ness of it. The story almost feels real and that you could look up these names and find them, along with the horrible story that makes them famous. Because the story is horrible, and yet written beautifully. A young girl, a cult, a murder, and how she's tied into it all. This isn't a book for the faint hearted, which I learned the first night which I had nightmare after nightmare about until I made myself pick up another book to read at night instead, because even when it didn't speak of the horribleness to come, it did fill you with an anxious energy at knowing what was to come. Because in those first few pages, that author tells you exactly what happens, you just don't know it until you read the end and you go back and re-read that section.

That was most likely the ONLY flaw I saw in this book. I didn't understand the opening at all or what the author was trying to tell me. But I was horribly interested because I did have this unanswered question of what any of it meant. It had been well written, but I had no context at that point to understand it. Which can be a bit off putting to some people. In which I say - stick with it. It'll make perfect sense and you'll find the right rhythm of how the author pulls you through the timeline at first so you get an understanding just where this story is going.

A few trigger warnings - Murder, cults, sex with an underage person, drugs, abuse, cutting, abusive relationships, unhealthy relationships, and probably a lot more I'm drawing a blank on at the moment.

My one hope is that this doesn't get looked at with rose coloured glasses. This is not a love story. In any shape or form. The main character falls for another, but it isn't love. Not in healthy sense. It's one part obsessive, one part harmful, all parts bad.

Lisa Sepulveda

I came into reading this novel knowing I was it was Based off of the Manson family and the Murders they committed. I was Pleasently surprised with the approach that Emma Cline took with this story. The fact is that she focused on the lives of mansons female followers and dove head first into just how these young women were seduced into this lifestyle by this monster. All in all I love this story it have been holding my breath at moments and kept me enthralled to he very last page. it mixed my love of true crime and fiction and I would highly recommend this to those who are looking for a little bit of both.

Jazelle H

Wonderfully honest and innovative prose, creating a distinctive narrator's voice, but not my kind of plot.

THE WORLDWIDE BESTSELLER If you're lost, they'll find you... Evie Boyd is fourteen and desperate to be noticed. It's the summer of 1969 and restless, empty days stretch ahead of her. Until she sees them. The girls. Hair long and uncombed, jewelry catching the sun. And at their centre, Suzanne, black-haired and beautiful. If not for Suzanne, she might not have gone. But, intoxicated by her and the life she promises, Evie follows the girls back to the decaying ranch where they live. Was there a warning? A sign of what was coming? Or did Evie know already that there was no way back? 'A coming-of-age tale like no other ... the book of the summer' Grazia

Wynter

This book transported me into the summer of 1969 - that dreamy freedom and self-destructive abandon of the West Coast glamour. The fictionalized account of the Manson-like cult turns the plot up a notch, as a young girl is trying to find her place in life amid her parents' separation and isolation from peers. A story that keeps you in its world long past the last page has been turned.

heleen de boever

Really wonderfully evocative language, especially in its depiction of girlhood and teenage angst, but I wish the choice of subject matter wasn't quite as trite (although Cline handles it well). I'm excited to see what she releases next.

Lacy W

First Thoughts
Words are most likely going to fail me with this review but I will try my damndest to bring you guys a great review and convince you all to read this. I loved every single minute of this book and I now want to read all the cult books. I even want to go watch cult documentaries, which is something that I can’t always stomach. 

This book is just absolutely beautiful. It’s beautiful in the way it’s written. It’s beautiful in how the story is told. Yes, it’s dark and yes, it’s so very graphic. But I couldn’t help but love it and love everything surrounding it. 

The Plot
I’m not sure how to classify the plot or describe it in a way that will do it justice. It was very character driven. It surrounded the character, Evie. But also it was leading up to this big event. The story was told through past chapters and present chapters, which was unique and I enjoyed it a lot. Evie is telling the story of how she became part of a cult without realizing it was actually a cult. I found that I enjoyed the cult part better than her present life. The cult life was more interesting and had more going on then her present adult life. There was more substance there. The adult Evie was just sad and lost, not knowing what to do or where to go next.

The Characters
Evie was the main character, as you might have gathered. I enjoyed her a lot as whole but I really loved teenage Evie. She was complex and flawed. She made horrible decisions and a lot of the time I wanted to shake some sense into her. She was a typical teenager (in the past chapters). I also gathered that Evie was bi. I don’t believe it was actually stated that she was bisexual but it was very much obvious to me that she was. She was very much in love even borderline obsessed with a girl from the cult, Suzanne. But she was also into several guys. It was beyond refreshing to see teenagers explore their sexuality.

Trigger Warnings
Praises aside, this book is graphic as hell. I’m talking super graphic and not for the faint of heart. I’m just going to list out all the trigger warnings. Beware, it’s a long list: weight shaming, parental neglect and abandonment, inappropriate student/teacher relationship mentioned, underage drinking, abuse (parental), drug use, sexual assault on a minor (repeadeted), and use of the word r*tard.

Final Thoughts
Overall, this was a fantastic book. It is very closely based on the Manson murders and the cult, at least that is the vibe I got from it. I don’t know how accurate it is or if the book was actually even based on it. Regardless of that, this book is definitely one you should not sleep on despite it being a few years old. If you can get past all the trigger warnings, I have no doubt many of you would enjoy this.

Heather shane

Once I started the book it was really hard to put it down. I was completely engulfed. This incredible story will just draw you in and you'll be so sad it's over. Book hangover for sure.

Meghan Navoy

A pretty good fiction read, I enjoyed it. The book is a historical fictionization of the Manson cult/murder. Since I listened to an in depth podcast of that story I had a good idea of which character was supposed to be which person. A quick and easy read.

Jeannette Ordas

This should have been a quick read for me, but the story stalled for me after the first quarter. The middle took me forever to read, luckily the end was as quick to read as the first. The language is a bit shiny in places and the parallels between older Evie and teenaged Evie should have been a bit more interesting.

Haylie

This one was a little slow at the start, but once you hit Part Two things really started to kick off. Wonderfully written and truly shows the complexities of female friendship that I found much more engaging than the other, more infamous, plot that occurs (which is why I believe Cline actually wrote this book...that insight into how women can be consumed by others is not something a guy could write). 

Four stars only because I wasn't really a fan of how the conclusion was written. For 300 pages or so there's an established line from past and present perspectives from Evie. Intermixing in the final part was a little meeeh.

Amy Thibodeau

This book was beautifully written and captured some of the conflict and cruelty of what it can feel like to be a teenage girl. In some ways, it reminded me of The Virgin Suicides by Jeffrey Eugenides--a book I loved. 

This novel is about a teenage girl who feels isolated and invisible and finds herself taken in by a group that's loosely based on the Manson family. Her insecurity and her desire to be seen lead her to the edge of something dark. 

This is an excellent summer read. The story is compelling and the narrative has a lot of forward motion, but Cline also uses lovely, evocative language that really captures a particular kind of malaise. I can't wait to read whatever she writes next.

Thanks to the publisher for providing me with an advance review copy.

Alithea &
The Girls by Emma Cline

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