The Girls: A Novel
THE INSTANT BESTSELLER - An indelible portrait of girls, the women they become, and that moment in life when everything can go horribly wrong ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: The Washington Post, NPR, The Guardian, Entertainment Weekly, San Francisco Chronicle, Financial Times, Esquire, Newsweek, Vogue, Glamour, People, The Huffington Post, Elle, Harper's Bazaar, Time Out, BookPage, Publishers Weekly, Slate Northern California, during the violent end of the 1960s. At the start of summer, a lonely and thoughtful teenager, Evie Boyd, sees a group of girls in the park, and is immediately caught by their freedom, their careless dress, their dangerous aura of abandon. Soon, Evie is in thrall to Suzanne, a mesmerizing older girl, and is drawn into the circle of a soon-to-be infamous cult and the man who is its charismatic leader. Hidden in the hills, their sprawling ranch is eerie and run down, but to Evie, it is exotic, thrilling, charged--a place where she feels desperate to be accepted. As she spends more time away from her mother and the rhythms of her daily life, and as her obsession with Suzanne intensifies, Evie does not realize she is coming closer and closer to unthinkable violence. Finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize - Finalist for the National Book Critics Circle John Leonard Award - Shortlisted for The Center for Fiction First Novel Prize - The New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice - Emma Cline--One of Granta's Best of Young American Novelists Praise for The Girls "Spellbinding . . . a seductive and arresting coming-of-age story."--The New York Times Book Review "Extraordinary . . . Debut novels like this are rare, indeed."--The Washington Post "Hypnotic."--The Wall Street Journal "Gorgeous."--Los Angeles Times "Savage."--The Guardian "Astonishing."--The Boston Globe "Superbly written."--James Wood, The New Yorker "Intensely consuming."--Richard Ford "A spectacular achievement."--Lucy Atkins, The Times "Thrilling."--Jennifer Egan "Compelling and startling."--The Economist
BUY THE BOOK
These clubs recently read this book...
Community Reviews
“The Girls” is a decently interesting coming-of-age novel with some compelling characters, but a plot that feels a bit too thin for the length of the story.
This book was probably my favorite that we’ve read in our club so far. The details Cline includes about the period (early ‘70s) are meticulous as are the deep, melancholic characterizations of women living outside of themselves.
Synopsis of review: I liked it ok, writing was great (except for a few slow parts), but wanted to throw it across the room at the end (but didn't because it's my Kindle). WTF was the point?
Story: I'm all about the story, and I was lured in by the Charlie Manson-like story. Like so many others, I've read "Helter Skelter" and was obsessed with the gruesome tales of the murders. I was intrigued by the idea of looking at the group from inside one of the girl's mind. However, something just fell flat about Evie Boyd. The almost/wanna be/bit player and what it did to her, it just didn't ring true for me. The other various plot lines - the love story and the present day encounter with Julian and Sasha ended up being random trails that led to nowhere.
Writing: I really loved the writing in this book. The descriptions and imagery was so creative and sharp. I started noting phrases, like "The skylight filled the rooms with the hazy murk of an aquarium, the woodwork bloating and swelling in the damp. As if the house were breathing." or "They looked up from the bright wash of the kitchen lights like raccoons caught in the trash."; "The girl turned toward Julian, her face as blank as a spoon."; "I'd always liked her in a way I never had to think about, like the fact of my own hands."; " . . that sense of the endless enclosure, like picking for the lip of tape, but never finding it. There were no seams, no interruptions--just the landmarks of your life . . ." So, the descriptions are good. The pacing - ok. There are parts of the book where I got impatient. I always wanted to find out what happened next, even know what was going to happen, I wanted to find out how it happened and what happened after.
Characters: Hmph. So, there's Evie, and she is the only character of whom you get a full picture. The character of Suzanne is heavy with the filter of Evie. Other players are bit parts. Here mom and dad seemed like caricature divorced parents. At the end of the book, I felt like I didn't know Evie at all. Or, maybe I did and didn't want to accept that she was stuck at an adolescent 14 year old.
Learning: n/a - pure fiction, and not even based on any of the Manson facts.
Ending: Horrible. Even though I kept reading the book, wanting to find out what happens, at the end I felt like it was a waste of time. There was just some big hole where something significant should have been. I don't want to be too specific so that I don't reveal the plot, but how Evie's life was impacted (or lack there of) seemed like a big let down and kind of strange.
Entertainment: Um, I guess I'd give this book a solid 3. I can see some people liking it better than I did, but then others not so much. It definitely kept my interest, but I wish there was more.
Story: I'm all about the story, and I was lured in by the Charlie Manson-like story. Like so many others, I've read "Helter Skelter" and was obsessed with the gruesome tales of the murders. I was intrigued by the idea of looking at the group from inside one of the girl's mind. However, something just fell flat about Evie Boyd. The almost/wanna be/bit player and what it did to her, it just didn't ring true for me. The other various plot lines - the love story and the present day encounter with Julian and Sasha ended up being random trails that led to nowhere.
Writing: I really loved the writing in this book. The descriptions and imagery was so creative and sharp. I started noting phrases, like "The skylight filled the rooms with the hazy murk of an aquarium, the woodwork bloating and swelling in the damp. As if the house were breathing." or "They looked up from the bright wash of the kitchen lights like raccoons caught in the trash."; "The girl turned toward Julian, her face as blank as a spoon."; "I'd always liked her in a way I never had to think about, like the fact of my own hands."; " . . that sense of the endless enclosure, like picking for the lip of tape, but never finding it. There were no seams, no interruptions--just the landmarks of your life . . ." So, the descriptions are good. The pacing - ok. There are parts of the book where I got impatient. I always wanted to find out what happened next, even know what was going to happen, I wanted to find out how it happened and what happened after.
Characters: Hmph. So, there's Evie, and she is the only character of whom you get a full picture. The character of Suzanne is heavy with the filter of Evie. Other players are bit parts. Here mom and dad seemed like caricature divorced parents. At the end of the book, I felt like I didn't know Evie at all. Or, maybe I did and didn't want to accept that she was stuck at an adolescent 14 year old.
Learning: n/a - pure fiction, and not even based on any of the Manson facts.
Ending: Horrible. Even though I kept reading the book, wanting to find out what happens, at the end I felt like it was a waste of time. There was just some big hole where something significant should have been. I don't want to be too specific so that I don't reveal the plot, but how Evie's life was impacted (or lack there of) seemed like a big let down and kind of strange.
Entertainment: Um, I guess I'd give this book a solid 3. I can see some people liking it better than I did, but then others not so much. It definitely kept my interest, but I wish there was more.
3.5 stars!
I loved the characterization and relationships between the main characters. That was really the highlight of the book for me. I enjoyed that Evie was part of the group but always a little removed from it all. The dreamy quality of the writing really captured the haze of that time period and really of Evie's experience as an adolescent set adrift from the people around her. In a way, it reminded me of Sylvia Plath's The Bell Jar.
Something the author did really well was maintaining the dread of something bad that was inevitably going to happen through the whole story. You knew bad stuff would happen, but you just followed Evie and her naivety to the tragic ending.
I loved the characterization and relationships between the main characters. That was really the highlight of the book for me. I enjoyed that Evie was part of the group but always a little removed from it all. The dreamy quality of the writing really captured the haze of that time period and really of Evie's experience as an adolescent set adrift from the people around her. In a way, it reminded me of Sylvia Plath's The Bell Jar.
Something the author did really well was maintaining the dread of something bad that was inevitably going to happen through the whole story. You knew bad stuff would happen, but you just followed Evie and her naivety to the tragic ending.
See why thousands of readers are using Bookclubs to stay connected.