The Girls cover art

The Girls

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The Girls

By: Emma Cline
Narrated by: Cady McClain
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About this listen

California. The summer of 1969. In the dying days of a floundering counterculture, a young girl is unwittingly caught up in unthinkable violence, and a decision made at this moment, on the cusp of adulthood, will shape her life....

Evie Boyd is desperate to be noticed. In the summer of 1969, empty days stretch out under the California sun. The smell of honeysuckle thickens the air, and the sidewalks radiate heat.

Until she sees them. The snatch of cold laughter. Hair long and uncombed. Dirty dresses skimming the tops of thighs. Cheap rings like a second set of knuckles. The girls. And at the centre, Russell. Russell and the ranch, down a long dirt track and deep in the hills. Incense and clumsily strummed chords. Rumours of sex, frenzied gatherings, teen runaways.

Was there a warning, a sign of things to come? Or is Evie already too enthralled by the girls to see that her life is about to be changed forever?

©2016 Emma Cline (P)2016 Audible, Ltd Coming of Age Crime Crime Thrillers Fiction Genre Fiction Literary Fiction Thriller Thriller & Suspense Women's Fiction Exciting Heartfelt Tear-jerking Suspense

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Critic reviews

" The Girls is a brilliant and intensely consuming novel - imposing not just for a writer so young, but for any writer, any time." (Richard Ford)
"I don't know which is more amazing, Emma Cline's understanding of human beings or her mastery of language." (Mark Haddon)
"Emma Cline's first novel positively hums with fresh, startling, luminous prose. The Girls announces the arrival of a thrilling new voice in American fiction." (Jennifer Egan)
"Emma Cline has an unparalleled eye for the intricacies of girlhood, turning the stuff of myth into something altogether more intimate. The Girls destroys our ability to consider violence a foreign territory, and reminds us that behind so many of our culture's fables exists a girl: unseen, unheard, angry. This book will break your heart and blow your mind." (Lena Dunham)
All stars
Most relevant
According to the blurb, The Girls was quite the hit when released a few years ago. At the time I avoided it: books about murder aren’t my thing. This one was inspired by the Manson Family’s crimes, in particular the 1969 murder of Sharon Tate which happened when I was old enough to be aware of it and young enough to be plagued by nightmares.

Anyway, after loving a couple of Cline’s short stories and having completely forgotten what The Girls was about, I bought the audio on a whim. Whoops.

But against all expectations, it was excellent. Rather than glorifying a grisly series of murders, it’s a nuanced study of teenage angst and vulnerability. Evie lives in N California, is 14 and something of an outsider; ‘I was an average girl and that was the biggest disappointment of all.’ After a chance encounter with three girls, she becomes infatuated with them and is drawn into their cult, spiralling into a dream-like existence of sex, drugs and crime. Cline does a brilliant job of balancing Evie’s distaste at the squalid lifestyle with her willingness to embrace it in a desperate need to belong.

’Back then I was so attuned to attention. I dressed to provoke love, hugging my neckline lower, setting a wistful stare on my face whenever I went out in public that implied many deep and promising thoughts, should anyone happen to glance over.’

A secondary timeline introduces Evie in middle-age when she meets a friend’s son and girlfriend. In part it’s a musing on Evie’s adolescence, but more significantly a subtle observation on how the desire to be accepted can lead to manipulation and abuse. The more I’ve reflected on The Girls, the more powerful I’ve found this secondary timeline. Both are heartbreakingly, stomach-churningly relatable, but it’s the relative everydayness of the second one that delivers the gut-punch.

As a word of caution, given the curious Shatner-esque style of narration, I’m hesitant to recommend the audio. There were. Pauses. In the most unlikely places and it was somewhat. Distracting. But it’s entirely possible this is a thing, in the way uptalk emerged in the 80s and is now normalised.

A solid four. Stars.

Excellent

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Lonely and misunderstood teen gets in with a bad crowd in the hippy days and gets led astray. Sadly there's nothing new in the story, the characters or the insight which made for a rather dull listen. The main character is somewhat insipid, dazzled by the hair of a popular girl. I just couldn't get into the mindset of her or the others and it just felt like a cheap imitation of a real life tragedy. An easy listen with a decent narrator but really not worth the effort.

Underwhelming 'Manson inspired' tale

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a story to shock, sadden and fill you with hope in places.
I found I wanted to shake Evie at times but then I cheered her on
a good listen recommend ed

powerful sad gripping

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I thought this was a wonderful book. However, it is not a thriller, or a study of murder. If you want that get Helter-skelter, which is also wonderful.
This is a coming of age book, which just happens to use the (Fictionalised and renamed) Manson family murders as a narrative device to pull you through the book.
It is really about a mother-daughter relationship and then about female friendship, and then ultimately about first love. It handles all the characters believably and their interactions show genuine insight into the human condition.
There is excellent imagery in nearly every paragraph and the prose keeps the story moving at a nice pace.
I would recommend this to anyone who likes good writing as much as they like a good story.

The human side...

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Any additional comments?

This is a strange one to review. It is well written and evoked the feeling of summer, and the era really well. The narrator, I felt, was good. But the story seems to build up and build up, tension rises, and you're waiting ... and then it fizzles to nothing. No real climax as the story's narrator isn't actually present for it. I realise that that is done to keep her in our good books, but it makes for a poor ending.
Worth a read/listen, but don't expect too much.

Strange and Nothing-y

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