The Girls - Emma Cline

Random House, June 14, 2016.

Four Stars

It is the end of the 1960s in northern California, and 14-year-old Evie Boyd is bored. She just had a fight with her best friend over a boy, and now she faces a summer spent alone. As she drifts through the park one hot afternoon, Evie meets a group of carefree girls, exuding excitement and risk. One of these is Suzanne, and Evie’s budding friendship with her soon leads into a dangerous obsession.

Evie follows Suzanne and the other girls back to their home at an eerie, rundown ranch. The free-living, utopian community is led by the charismatic Russell – the cult leader is a thinly veiled version of Charles Manson. He draws people into his unusual lifestyle, and to Evie it is exotic and enthralling. She is desperate to be accepted – by Russell, by the community, and most of all by Suzanne. Meanwhile, Suzanne worships Russell, and seems threatened by his interest in Evie.

At the ranch, food is scarce and often scavenged through dumpster-diving. The girls’ children (many of whom have been fathered by Russell) roam free, dirty and wild. Comparatively harmless crimes such as trespassing escalate into home invasions, and small acts of violence lead up to one unthinkable act that will destroy the harmony of the group. It is psychologically mesmerizing to watch Russell control the girls – many of his followers came from bad backgrounds and only know abuse, but others have good lives at home and remain because of their adoration for Russell.

Evie is the child of divorced parents, and her mother is drifting through life with little interest in her daughter’s whereabouts. Evie idolizes her dad’s new girlfriend, until she realizes that Tamar is just a girl, too. Although the cult makes for a fascinating backdrop to Evie’s summer, this novel is ultimately a coming-of-age story, with the main theme being a young girl’s desperate need to fit in. The cult setting is a shocking extrapolation of this idea, showing its worst and most dangerous iteration.

The novel is actually narrated by Evie in flashbacks – in middle age, she is at a loose end in life, living at a friend’s beach cabin while she searches for work. When the friend’s teenage son and his girlfriend show up unexpectedly, they tease out the story of her time in the cult. Evie also sees herself in the young girlfriend – a girl who will do anything for love, or what she thinks is love. Despite Evie’s association with the cult, she was always at its periphery, on the fringes of big events, looking in. She manages to avoid the consequences that other girls in the cult faced after its dissolution – but its existence has still shaped every aspect of her life, and she wishes to set a better example for this girl.

The Girls is far from action-packed, but it moves along at a steady pace. Every move made by Russell and the girls becomes heavy with meaning, and it is atmospheric and tense because we know that something horrible is about the happen – I couldn’t put it down. The writing is lush and poetic – it is often overwritten and sometimes even nonsensical, but it is always lovely and enjoyable. As I became immersed in the story, the language developed seamlessly. This is an intense and powerful debut novel, and Emma Cline is an author to watch, especially after her newly signed three-book deal. I look forward to more from Cline.

I received this novel from Random House and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.