The Girls A Novel
Author: Emma Cline

Girls - their vulnerability, strength, and passion to belong - are at the heart of this stunning first novel for readers of Jeffrey Eugenides' The Virgin Suicides and Jennifer Egan's A Visit from the Goon Squad. — — 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 thought this was a pretty engrossing fictionalized account of the Manson family and how he was able to influence young girls to end up committing the vilest of crimes. The story is told from the perspective of a young girl, Evie Boyd, who sees one of the girls, Suzanne, at a park and becomes infatuated with her. She ends up traveling with her to the ranch compound where she ends up meeting Russell, the Charles Manson character, and the others including children and more young women who seem totally devoted to Russell. Evie lives in Petaluma, California, which is located near enough to the ranch where she can return home and make her mother believe that she has been staying with a school mate. However, at one point she goes with Suzanne and one of the other girls on a home invasion of one of her neighbors in Petaluma and is recognized by the owner. Her mother ships her off to stay with her father but Evie soon leaves and rejoins the "family" on the ranch. Russell is trying to get a record deal with Mitch (who is the fictionalized Dennis Wilson of the Beach Boys - see more about him at this link and his relationship with Manson). Well the record deal falls through and that is when Russell sets his girls out to take revenge.



Overall, I found this novelization quite compelling. However, I wasn't sure why all the names were changed as well as the location. This novel takes place in Northern California while the actual ranch and murders of the Manson family took place in Southern California near L.A. I did like the way Cline used Evie as the narrator and how she was enraptured with Suzanne and the others. The story has alternating narratives between the present when Evie is middle aged to the past when Evie was 14 back in 1969. The novel does portray most males as pretty much without merit and easily manipulated by females. This was especially true for Mitch. Even Russell came across as pretty weak-minded and only out for himself. Being a male reader, I did not especially like that aspect of the story but I would still give this a mild recommendation. And of course it made me want to read more about the Manson family. I guess I'll have to read Helter Skelter at some point.

Sending to spoiledrotten in NJ...a wishlist tag. Enjoy!

Thanks so much for the tag. The book has arrived safely in NJ!