The Girls

by Emma Cline

[Amber (The Literary Phoenix)]

I think that The Girls was hugely over-hyped when it came out. For some reason, our culture is still morbidly fascinated with the Charles Manson murders. The Girls is loosely based on this event, following young Evie Boyd as she gets tangled up with a group of your women led by the mystical Russell who has a record coming out (probably by Christmas). Hype made this book out to be more of a masterpiece than it is in a literary sense. It’s still an interesting book, but it’s not quite of the “sell out all the bookshops” quality that it experienced at release. Good for Emma Cline though, really.

The thing that bothers me most about this book is the pacing, and this is something I mentioned in my original review back in 2016 – the gait of this novel is extremely lopsided. The first third drags and drags and drags until finally Evie connects with Suzanne and things take off. The end of the book moves so quickly that you’re a little stunned when it abruptly comes to an end. It left me with an unsatisfying taste that bothered me, leaving me wanting more even after I struggled to get into it in the first place.

Another place of possible contempt for the novel is Emma Cline’s writing style. She falls solidly into the realm of purple prose that I, personally, enjoy. However. Her clipped sentences and flowery phrasing are a thing that would turn off many readers who prefer a direct and sensible approach to things, rather than wafting through a hazy summer afternoon. I think approach in this case revolves around personal preference, but if nothing else, her abundance in visual language drags an already limping pace.

The story, though. Once you get sucked into the story – and it takes a minute – you really get sucked in. Evie’s time away from the ranch is filled with impatient monotony and even though the reader knows they are bad news… knows that Evie’s affections for Suzanne are not reciprocated… you’re anxious to get back to that place with its slow-building tension and gruesome end. I wouldn’t say Evie or any of the other characters in The Girls are particularly likable, but they are endlessly interesting.

One thing I appreciated this time around was the evaluation of women’s roles in this time and the contrast to the present and how little inherently has changed in intimate relationships. That parallels between Suzanne and Evie and Sasha and Tamar and Evie’s mother were so interesting, and the lines didn’t become clear to me until I neared the end of this re-read. I don’t typically go into books looking for messages on society or deeper meaning – I’m there purely for entertainment – so this face of The Girls was something new, and that’s one of the pleasures I take in re-reading books. Having just finished The Girls and discovered this, I sort of want to go back in and look for more commentary on repressed feminism and its consequences on personal, familial, and societal scales. Next time!

Generally speaking, The Girls is not going to be for everyone. It’s a piece of literary fiction that will appeal to those who like to dissect human nature, and will disappoint those interested in the Charles Manson story. It’s a lazy read too slow for the breach, but too depressing and heavy for a cozy winter afternoon. It’s a complicated book to recommend. Despite my misgivings on the reread, though, I ultimately enjoyed it.

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Original Review: 08/06/2016
4 Stars

The first few chapters were difficult to push through. Cline's writing style is so different than the traditional style. She writes in a lot of fragmented sentences, but once you get into it, the story flows. It is a memory; it is the story of a woman living with great fear and shame. It's actually quite good.