Northern California, during the violent end of the 1960s. At the start of summer, a lonely and thoughtful teenager, Evie Boyd, sees a group of girls in the park, and is immediately caught by their freedom, their careless dress, their dangerous aura of abandon. Soon, Evie is in thrall to Suzanne, a mesmerizing older girl, and is drawn into the circle of a soon-to-be infamous cult and the man who is its charismatic leader. Hidden in the hills, their sprawling ranch is eerie and run down, but to Evie, it is exotic, thrilling, charged—a place where she feels desperate to be accepted. As she spends more time away from her mother and the rhythms of her daily life, and as her obsession with Suzanne intensifies, Evie does not realize she is coming closer and closer to unthinkable violence, and to that moment in a girl’s life when everything can go horribly wrong.
I have been looking forward to this book since I saw it on NetGalley in about January. Unfortunately, back then, it was only available in the United Kingdom and Australia, so I waited patiently {or planned on moving to one of those places for a month to get it, whatever}. And the moment they emailed me to get a copy, I did. I seriously spent a few days hoping and praying that I would get this book, and when I did, pure euphoria. Good thing the book was just as amazing as I imagined.
Poor Evie. Her parents are divorced, her father is living with his young co-worker, her mother is changing every day, and her best friend decides that they shouldn't be friends anymore. Enter Suzanne and Russell, plus a troop of mesmerizing young girls and boys that want to help Evie be happy. They also want her to conform to their non-rule rules, and she is only too happy to oblige.
This book is told in two different time periods: when Evie was young in the 1960s and now, when Evie is in her forties and trying to figure out what her life is about. Now Evie is a mess masquarding as an adult. She's staying in her friend's house while he's gone and comes into contact with his son, a complete jerk of a young adult that treats his girlfriend like a sex doll. Evie sees a lot of herself in the young girlfriend, and that brings on the memories of her days with Russell and the others. She had been a young girl then, too, right around fourteen, "uncertain how to move, whether I was walking too fast, whether others could see the discomfort and stiffness in me." Young Evie is the embodiment of every awkward teenager ever.
But then she spots Suzanne and her entire world changes. Suzanne is not glamorous in the way we think now, but with her straight hair, honest smile, and enviable body for a fourteen year old girl, Suzanne is everything that Evie wants to be. They become friends, or whatever passes as friends with a girl like Suzanne. Suzanne helps Evie come out of her shell, to understand that they were different, these girls. As Evie says, in what is possibly my favorite and the most heartbreaking line in the book, "We all want to be seen." They would go out places in bikini tops and cutoffs, offending the general public, but knowing that their "hatred only made us more powerful."
As the story goes on, Emma Cline sprinkles her narrative with a sly wink to women, an inside joke about all the men we've every rolled our eyes at. Evie recalls an incident with a filmmaker that made her feel less than a person, like she wasn't in charge of her own life. She says, "None of this was rare. Things like this happened a hundred times. Maybe more. The hatred that vibrated beneath the surface of my girl's face - I think Suzanne recognized it. Of course my hand would anticipate the weight of a knife. The particular give of a human body. There was so much to destroy." The girls in this book are treated like nothing more than scenery by the men around them. The moment where Evie first meets Russell is hard to read and you're immediately disgusted by him. There are no men in this book that you hope Evie ends up with, because they're all terrible. But that doesn't mean the women are angels. They commit an unspeakable act of horror, and although Evie might not have been involved, the fact that she could have been is what keeps her up at night.
Look, I could go on and on about this book for another million words, but I can't accurately convey how this book made me feel. When I said I had to process this story, I really meant it. I'm still not sure how I completely feel about The Girls, but I know I love it. I know that when it comes out next week, I'll most likely buy a hardcover copy so I can share it with my only-hardcover-reading boyfriend. I want everyone to read this book and make up their own minds and have an experience with Evie. Because you do. You live right alongside Evie as she grows up with these girls, makes mistakes, finds her confidence.
Why are you still here reading this nonsense? Go! Get this book!
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