The Girls by Emma Cline is an indelible
portrait of girls and of the women they become (cover blurb).
Northern California, 1960s – Evie Boyd is a bored teen who comes across some
free spirits in the park. She’s drawn to their sense of freedom and danger.
She’s in thrall of Suzanne, the older girl, who accepts her into the group.
Happy to have friends, a place to hang, and a wide-eyed look and participation
in drugs, drink, and sex, Evie is grateful for the attention. She finally feels
like she belongs to something. Her parents are newly divorced and are finding
their way with new relationships. Evie, ever the good girl, rebels and it seems
to her like no responsible adult in her life really cares.
Russell is the charismatic cult leader. The group squat on a
ranch, dumpster dive for food, and count on theft for money. Evie in her
desperation to be accepted does not realize she is coming closer and
closer to unthinkable violence, and that moment in a girl’s life when
everything can go horribly wrong. (cover blurb). While the story
(think Mansons) seems familiar, Cline does a superb job of creating fresh
characters, giving us a past and present perspective, and a slightly different
spin. The writing is fresh and vivid.
p. 28 All that time I had spent readying myself,
the articles that told me life was really just a waiting room until someone
noticed you – the boys had spent that time becoming themselves.
p. 276 Her planning wasn’t actually about making
anything different – she was just rearranging the same known quantities,
puzzling out a new order like life was an extended seating chart.
p. 281 Whatever instincts they’d ever had – the weak
twinge in the gut, a gnaw of concern – had become inaudible.
The Girls by Emma Cline is a tight taut read.
You’ll hold your breath at times and exhale loudly at the end.
