The Girls by: Emma Cline

Genre: Historical Fiction
Published: June 14, 2016 by: Random House
Pages: 355
Rating: 2/5 stars

In late 1960's California, lonely teenager Evie Boyd is looking to belong somewhere. When she sees a group of girls in the park, she is automatically enthralled by their carefree sense of self, and becomes especially fascinated with Suzanne, a charismatic older girl who takes Evie under her wing. But Evie doesn't know that Suzanne and her crew are apart of a soon to be infamous cult, and when she eventually meets their leader, she is thrown into a world of unspeakable violence, that will haunt her into her adult years.

I needed a cold shower after reading this book. It is about the Manson cult, and was equally disturbing as it was absolutely frustrating. I hate to sound insensitive when writing this review, because at the end of the day, Evie is not to blame for everything that happened to her given the fact that she was just a child, but some of the decisions she made throughout the novel were so unbelievably stupid and I feel like she never really realized how messed up of a situation she was in! For these reasons, I found it hard to root for her.

I think this novel romanticized the cult aspect just a little bit. The way that the author writes is very dream-like and descriptive, and because of this, a lot of serious things seemed glossed over. There is also a lot of sexualization of teenagers in this novel, so I would not go into this if you're looking for a light read.

I do think that looking at this novel from a sociological perspective was its only saving grace. I have learnt about cults in a few sociology classes, and I do think this book could be interesting to those studying that element of belonging, especially in teenagers. There was something interesting in this book, but it didn't make me forget all of the disturbing content.

I don't think a chapter goes by that doesn't include something triggering, so trigger warnings wise, beware of sexual assault of minors, drug use, violence and murder. So in conclusion, it was a delightful novel!!! (sarcasm)

Like I said, if you're a sociology student, this could actually be interesting, but the characters were extremely unlikable and I couldn't get past all the content.

Have you read The Girls? What did you think?

Emily @ Paperback Princess