Summer Reading: The Girls

Emma Cline's debut novel, The Girls, was the next selection on my summer reading list. It tells the coming-of-age story of Evie Boyd and her involvement in a Manson-like cult in San Francisco during the summer of love. In present-day, Evie is a middle-aged woman in between jobs and staying at the beach house of a friend. When his son unexpectedly visits with his girlfriend, Evie sees a hunger in the girl which reminds her of her younger self and begins relating her experiences in the cult as a cautionary tale. In the late 1960s, Evie is a bored 14-year-old, alienated from her friends and neglected by her divorced parents, when she sees a group of older girls and is enthralled by their unconventional behavior (which includes digging for food in a dumpster). She is eventually drawn into their orbit, which includes the charismatic leader Russell who fancies himself a musician, and begins experimenting with sex, drugs, and rock and roll while living at a communal ranch. When a promised record deal falls through, Russell has the girls go to the house of the musician, who promised the aforementioned deal, to commit a grisly murder much like that of Sharon Tate. To be honest, I had a very difficult time finishing this book because nothing much happens until the expected ending and, without giving anything away, this ending is quite anticlimactic. Evie, an in-and-out member of the cult, is a first-person narrator so most of the other characters are very thinly drawn and I would have liked to have known more about Suzanne and Russell and their motivations. Cline's writing style is overly-descriptive and sometimes it is a bit too much, almost like style is more important than substance. I didn't hate this novel but I didn't like it as much as other people do.

Have you read The Girls?  What did you think?