Scan barcode
A review by wordswoods
The Girls by Emma Cline
5.0
Review for class
The Girls: a tale of (mis)understanding
Emma Cline’s The Girls follows Evie, a fourteen-year-old girl, during the summer of ‘69 in California. One day, Evie meets Suzanne, a young woman so interesting she can’t help but hope they meet again. When they do, the meeting sets off a chain of events that will change her life forever.
Whether you think it an accurate portrayal or not, this story is based on the infamous Manson murders that took place in the 1960s; the time of hippies, runaways and cults gone wrong. In this story about hope and adolescence, about the margins of society and the inner workings of a cult, we follow Evie as she discovers one and becomes part of it, but at what cost?
At the beginning of the novel, Evie appears to be your typical adolescent: insecure about her changing body, in love with her best friends’ brother and continually fighting with her parents. Bored and lonely, she comes across a beautiful dark-haired girl in town, Suzanne, and when they meet again, she learns about her intriguing life on a ranch. Evie follows her to the ranch and quickly falls in with the ‘family’ that has formed itself around Russell, a mythical musician at the center of the cult. The story then focuses on life on the ranch, where Evie experiences this new way of living and wants nothing more than to fit in. Near the end, Evie is forced to leave and has to piece her life back together again, grappling to return to normality.
The story doesn’t just take place in the past, however. Evie narrates the story as she is older, implementing powerful commentary in the novel. This retrospective narration foregrounds her views on the girls, on insecurity and body image and essentially, on how all this just happened so easily back then. The blend of past events and mature remarks makes for a unique mix, making it a story about naivety, about the lives of lonely and misunderstood youth and about how early experiences can have long-lasting consequences.
Emma Cline turns the events of a cult into a tale of understanding with her powerful poetic language. She displays Evie’s thoughts clearly and focuses on relationships and feelings rather than plot, which makes it easier for the reader to understand events, characters’ motives and what’s more, how this could’ve happened to anyone.
Because of the nature of the cult, another prominent theme in the story is sex. A teenager herself, Evie is discovering her own sexuality and being part of the cult simultaneously disturbs and helps along this process by playing with themes like consent and the power of erotic attraction, being infatuated or in love with someone.
At the core, The Girls is indeed an adaptation of the events of the Manson murders, but centering that element reduces this story to just another retelling. The novel’s unique power lies in the retrospective narration, showing us the inevitability of events once the chain had been pushed into action. The novel almost begs readers to understand how all this could’ve happened, how easily Evie could’ve gone off the rails and how it was never about Russell; it was always about Suzanne.
Reread March/April 2017
If at all possible, I loved this even more than I did upon first reading it, so I upped the rating. Psyched to discuss this in class in a while!
Read November 2016. I got this book through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
Watch my video review here.
The Girls is hard to define, but I would primarily call it a historical/literary fiction novel.
It follows our protagonist Evie, who's 14 years old at the beginning of the novel. She is your typical adolescent who is struggling with her changing body, fighting with friends and her parents, who are divorced. One day, she meets Suzanne: a young woman who just seems so interesting, she can't help hope they meet again. When they do, it will change her life forever.
The novel takes place in the sixties. We aren’t really introduced to the world this story takes place in, but soon enough we discover that we are in America.
The characters are slowly introduced over the course of the novel. Though talked about sufficiently, I still only have a vague image of her mother, father and stepmom, though they must have played a significant role in Evie’s life. Better rounded are characters she meets throughout the novel, like people who live on the ranch and best friend Connie. We do really look through her eyes, though: characters aren’t all described as in-depth as I’d like them to be, but it is sufficient because Evie describes them as she sees them.
There are various relationships in the novel: Evie’s relationship with her parent-figures, her school friends, friends on the ranch and the complex relationship with Russell and Mitch. I’d say that the descriptions of the relationships are what intrigued me the most; they don’t just describe what Evie feels, but, because the novel is really a retrospective narration, it’s more like the older Evie is trying to make us understand how she could ever love this people, how this ever got so out of hand.
The plot of the novel is basically the story of how Evie came to meet Russell and the people who live on the ranch until she was no longer a part of that group. At the end, of course, something happens that makes her leave permanently.
This is a loose retelling of the story of the Manson murders. I heard this just before I read this novel and didn’t really know much about these, so I did some research to be able to understand this better. I would, however, consider this a spoiler, because it does mean you will know the overarching plot once you know what it is about.
The first part of the novel focuses more on the characters and relationships, while the second part of the novel focuses more on the plot. This didn’t bother me, but it is worth mentioning, seeing as there is a very significant shift.
Evie tells this story retrospectively. This means that the biggest part of the novel is told through the eyes of ‘young Evie’ and she sometimes comments on stuff in a tone of ‘I would later find out..’
Some chapters, however, do take place in the here & now, where she is staying at a friend’s outhouse in the countryside and is visited by his kid and his kid’s girlfriend.
I couldn’t really figure out the significant function of the goings on in the present, except for a little parallel that is drawn. These chapters of course build the framework, so she know the narration is done retrospectively and understand this in its entirety.
Trigger warnings for: violence, explicit descriptions of (unwilling) sexual intercourse.
I thought The Girls was a very powerful story. I gave it 4 out of 5 stars.
The Girls: a tale of (mis)understanding
Emma Cline’s The Girls follows Evie, a fourteen-year-old girl, during the summer of ‘69 in California. One day, Evie meets Suzanne, a young woman so interesting she can’t help but hope they meet again. When they do, the meeting sets off a chain of events that will change her life forever.
Whether you think it an accurate portrayal or not, this story is based on the infamous Manson murders that took place in the 1960s; the time of hippies, runaways and cults gone wrong. In this story about hope and adolescence, about the margins of society and the inner workings of a cult, we follow Evie as she discovers one and becomes part of it, but at what cost?
At the beginning of the novel, Evie appears to be your typical adolescent: insecure about her changing body, in love with her best friends’ brother and continually fighting with her parents. Bored and lonely, she comes across a beautiful dark-haired girl in town, Suzanne, and when they meet again, she learns about her intriguing life on a ranch. Evie follows her to the ranch and quickly falls in with the ‘family’ that has formed itself around Russell, a mythical musician at the center of the cult. The story then focuses on life on the ranch, where Evie experiences this new way of living and wants nothing more than to fit in. Near the end, Evie is forced to leave and has to piece her life back together again, grappling to return to normality.
The story doesn’t just take place in the past, however. Evie narrates the story as she is older, implementing powerful commentary in the novel. This retrospective narration foregrounds her views on the girls, on insecurity and body image and essentially, on how all this just happened so easily back then. The blend of past events and mature remarks makes for a unique mix, making it a story about naivety, about the lives of lonely and misunderstood youth and about how early experiences can have long-lasting consequences.
Emma Cline turns the events of a cult into a tale of understanding with her powerful poetic language. She displays Evie’s thoughts clearly and focuses on relationships and feelings rather than plot, which makes it easier for the reader to understand events, characters’ motives and what’s more, how this could’ve happened to anyone.
Because of the nature of the cult, another prominent theme in the story is sex. A teenager herself, Evie is discovering her own sexuality and being part of the cult simultaneously disturbs and helps along this process by playing with themes like consent and the power of erotic attraction, being infatuated or in love with someone.
At the core, The Girls is indeed an adaptation of the events of the Manson murders, but centering that element reduces this story to just another retelling. The novel’s unique power lies in the retrospective narration, showing us the inevitability of events once the chain had been pushed into action. The novel almost begs readers to understand how all this could’ve happened, how easily Evie could’ve gone off the rails and how it was never about Russell; it was always about Suzanne.
Reread March/April 2017
If at all possible, I loved this even more than I did upon first reading it, so I upped the rating. Psyched to discuss this in class in a while!
Read November 2016. I got this book through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
Watch my video review here.
The Girls is hard to define, but I would primarily call it a historical/literary fiction novel.
It follows our protagonist Evie, who's 14 years old at the beginning of the novel. She is your typical adolescent who is struggling with her changing body, fighting with friends and her parents, who are divorced. One day, she meets Suzanne: a young woman who just seems so interesting, she can't help hope they meet again. When they do, it will change her life forever.
The novel takes place in the sixties. We aren’t really introduced to the world this story takes place in, but soon enough we discover that we are in America.
The characters are slowly introduced over the course of the novel. Though talked about sufficiently, I still only have a vague image of her mother, father and stepmom, though they must have played a significant role in Evie’s life. Better rounded are characters she meets throughout the novel, like people who live on the ranch and best friend Connie. We do really look through her eyes, though: characters aren’t all described as in-depth as I’d like them to be, but it is sufficient because Evie describes them as she sees them.
There are various relationships in the novel: Evie’s relationship with her parent-figures, her school friends, friends on the ranch and the complex relationship with Russell and Mitch. I’d say that the descriptions of the relationships are what intrigued me the most; they don’t just describe what Evie feels, but, because the novel is really a retrospective narration, it’s more like the older Evie is trying to make us understand how she could ever love this people, how this ever got so out of hand.
The plot of the novel is basically the story of how Evie came to meet Russell and the people who live on the ranch until she was no longer a part of that group. At the end, of course, something happens that makes her leave permanently.
The first part of the novel focuses more on the characters and relationships, while the second part of the novel focuses more on the plot. This didn’t bother me, but it is worth mentioning, seeing as there is a very significant shift.
Evie tells this story retrospectively. This means that the biggest part of the novel is told through the eyes of ‘young Evie’ and she sometimes comments on stuff in a tone of ‘I would later find out..’
Some chapters, however, do take place in the here & now, where she is staying at a friend’s outhouse in the countryside and is visited by his kid and his kid’s girlfriend.
I couldn’t really figure out the significant function of the goings on in the present, except for a little parallel that is drawn. These chapters of course build the framework, so she know the narration is done retrospectively and understand this in its entirety.
Trigger warnings for: violence, explicit descriptions of (unwilling) sexual intercourse.
I thought The Girls was a very powerful story. I gave it 4 out of 5 stars.