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
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
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Community Reviews
What Bookclubbers are saying about this book
✨ Summarized by Bookclubs AI
Readers say *The Girls* by Emma Cline features poetic, sophisticated writing and richly drawn characters set in a vivid, atmospheric 1970s backdrop. R...
I wanted to like this book. From the edgy and eye-catching cover art to the promising, up and coming author to the intriguing plot line; it had so much promise. But it just fell short, time and time again.
In an attempt to write deep characters, Cline just wrote clichéd one dimensional characters, none or whom I found particularly likable or relatable. The most I could relate to was an occasional emotion or thought-provoking sentence.
I finished the book and just felt so disappointed. Everything fell short - the characters, the plot, the climax. It was all just so "eh," and I walked away thinking "who cares?"
In an attempt to write deep characters, Cline just wrote clichéd one dimensional characters, none or whom I found particularly likable or relatable. The most I could relate to was an occasional emotion or thought-provoking sentence.
I finished the book and just felt so disappointed. Everything fell short - the characters, the plot, the climax. It was all just so "eh," and I walked away thinking "who cares?"
I’m between a 3 and a 4 but I’m feeling generous with a 4. I loved the book mostly it was written like a poem I thought. However the back and forth and nothing of the actual crime being fully laid out felt super lacking. The ending was so abrupt it was disappointing. However, I did enjoy the characters and the realness of the story and want to read more books about cults.
This is a debut novel by Emma Cline about Evie Boyd, a young girl in Northern California during the late 1960’s. She sees a group of girls in the park & is immediately drawn to their carefree dress, lifestyle & freedom. These girls are part of a small cult where they follow a leader named Russell. Evie never fully immerses herself in the cult. It’s summer time & she goes back & forth between the girls & her home. The 1st half of the story was slow & boring to me. But I was curious to see what was going to happen-I knew it was something violent. I thought the story was dark & creepy. Nothing great.
now that's a coming of age novel...the characters are so well explored, the writing is so poetic and sophisticated, mixing the past with the present so flawlessly. The fact that it is so heavily reliant on real life events adds a chilling dimension.
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