The Girls - Emma Cline

Review by Coll
4 Stars

**I received this eBook via Random House and Netgalley in exchange for an honest review**

I am always a little worried when a book is being talked about as one of the most anticipated of the summer, for fear of being let down when I finally read it. Fortunately that was not the case with this book because I loved it. The Girls is the debut novel by Emma Cline, set in Northern California during the end of the 1960s, save for a few sections in the present. The story focuses around Evie Boyd, a young teenager who feels left out and unaccepted by friends and family, and is desperate to fit in somewhere. When she meets Suzanne, an older girl with an air of danger, she immediately wants to be a part of her life. In her desperation for acceptance by this new girl she is pulled into a cult, and because all she cares about Suzanne she does not realize the danger and violence she is spiraling towards.

There is a lot a want to say about The Girls and I know I cannot fit it all in to a review, but I will try my best. Right off the bat I want to express that this book is not always “easy” to read because of its sometimes disturbing plot.  That being said, I do think it is definitely worth reading. There were many points that I could genuinely relate to, that I think most girls in the world could. Evie is going through the time where you feel the need to impress boys even though they pay you no mind, and look a certain way to get attention, or act a certain way to be liked. Those years of hell are enough to break any girl, and this book shows how deep the hole is that you could go down if your emotions take you too far. 

The Girls escalates to a point that I am sure not many of us could relate to, when Evie is drawn into a cult. I know, a cult can become super unbelievable, but not in the case of this book. Cline really did it right, with the time period she used and how she structured her story. The 60s were such a tumultuous and rebellious time in which many dangerous cults did pop up, which gave an air of believability to this story. (I found myself thinking quite often of the similarities between the cult in the book and The Manson Family, which it seemed to be loosely based on.) Adding to the plausibility of the story was Cline’s writing style and the nature which she gave to her characters. If you put yourself in the shoes of a teenage girl, the girls in this story are the kind you would crave being welcomed by. The addition of an older man who shows interest in you (let’s say the leader of a cult) would make it so easy to attract a young girl with low self-esteem, so hungry for admission that she mistakes being preyed upon for her vulnerability as acceptance. Through Evie’s eyes you see the rise and fall of the cult, and the extreme and violent length its members are convinced to go to. 

Overall I thought The Girls was very well written. You connect with the characters and easily see their good and bad qualities, and are torn between hatred and love for several of them. At times the book did drag on a bit and it got slightly wordy. There are also a lot of secondary characters throughout the book, which became a little overwhelming at points. However, to me, the pros about this books definitely outweighed the few cons. So many times in this book Cline made me think back to being a teenager, feeling awkward and not important and wishing above all else to feel special and to fit in. It is both frightening and fascinating to read about a young girl going through that same thing and being dragged down to a level so dark. 

In the end I really did love this book. It was both brutal and beautiful and I found it hard to put down. Quite often the story is disturbing, but it is calling forth things that really occur in life that are not pleasant, so the book needs to distress the reader at times. I think this was an incredible debut novel by Emma Cline and give her props for taking such a chance with a story of this startling nature. I highly recommend The Girls as a thrilling, and at time unsettling, coming-of-age story that is well worth the read. 

“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.”

Interested in The Girls by Emma Cline? Check it out on Goodreads.