Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

Unavailable
The Girls: A Novel
Unavailable
The Girls: A Novel
Unavailable
The Girls: A Novel
Audiobook9 hours

The Girls: A Novel

Written by Emma Cline

Narrated by Cady McClain

Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

3.5/5

()

Currently unavailable

Currently unavailable

About this audiobook

THE INSTANT BESTSELLER • An indelible portrait of girls, the women they become, and that moment in life when everything can go horribly wrong

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.

Editor's Note

Summer reading…

Approachable enough for the beach, Cline’s debut has been simultaneously lauded by literary critics for its beautifully wrought sentences and by glossies for its gripping premise.

LanguageEnglish
Release dateJun 14, 2016
ISBN9780147524003
Unavailable
The Girls: A Novel
Author

Emma Cline

Emma Cline (Sonoma, 1989) es licenciada en Bellas Artes, y cursó un máster en escritura creativa en la Universidad de Columbia. Ha trabajado como lectora para The New Yorker, donde también ha publicado textos de ficción, igual que en las revistas Tin House, The Paris Review (que en 2014 la consideró merecedora de su Plimpton Prize) y Granta (que en 2017 la seleccionó entre los Mejores Novelistas Americanos Jóvenes). Las chicas, su primera novela, se publicó en cuarenta países, ganó el Shirley Jackson Award y fue finalista del First Novel Prize, el National Book Critics Circle Award y el LA Times Book Prize; el reputado productor Scott Rudin planea adaptarla a la gran pantalla. En Anagrama ha publicado también la nouvelle Harvey. Fotografía © Megan Cline

Related to The Girls

Related audiobooks

Coming of Age Fiction For You

View More

Related articles

Reviews for The Girls

Rating: 3.5740409974130243 out of 5 stars
3.5/5

1,121 ratings121 reviews

What did you think?

Tap to rate

Review must be at least 10 words

  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Die Autorin Emma Cline ist selbst 1989 geboren, hat aber mit diesem 1969-er Roman eine recht plausible Darstellung der Zeit und der Mentalität gegeben. Evie ist vierzehn, die Eltern frisch geschieden und sie selbst mega unsicher, ganz normal für diese Alter vielleicht. Doch sie hat eben niemanden, der ihr Orientierung gibt, die Eltern haben mit sich zu tun und die einzige Freundin ist auch nicht sehr loyal. In dieser Unsicherheit gerät sie an die „Girls“, eine Gruppe Mädchen mit langen Haaren, verlotterten Kleidern und freien Manieren, die in einer Art Kommune mit dem seltsamen Russell leben. Unter ihnen ist auch die ältere Suzanne, der Evie verfällt. Als die Dinge aus dem Ruder laufen, merkt es das Mädchen viel zu spät und erst die erwachsene Evie reflektiert die Dynamik und die Schuld.Ein wirklich cooles Buch, das sich gut liest und sehr spannend ist!
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    A very interesting book about young girls and cults. Would have liked more information/back story on the main character’s life
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Cline's writing amazed me. She writes in a way that immediately grabbed me and I love the phrasing and choice of words. The Girls is a bit raw. The drugs, sex, and violent were clearly a match to the Manson family. I was put off by the sex scenes, but because the writing was good, I kept reading, and I'm glad I did. This isn't a book I'll to recommend to everyone, though.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    What to make of this? A story that is close to the Manson cult but still like a poor man's version of it, I kept waiting for bigger events but they never came. A more realistic story in that sense, and very truthful to a bored good girl's journey into not so good company. Sometimes you only need a nudge. And sometimes it's only by a thread that you escape from a point of no turning back. I liked this, but it was slow at times and I kept expecting more of it. Again, the hype worked against the book.
  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    I suppose I should know better than to get excited about a debut novel that arrives pre-packaged with heaps of critical praise and almost-awards (“Finalist for X award/prize”). I began reading Emma Cline’s book with high hopes—a narrative inspired by the Manson family murders, The Girls is the story of Evie, a lonely fourteen year-old misfit desperate for friends and emotionally neglected by her divorced parents.She then finds Suzanne, a confident and brash young lady who intrigues Evie, mainly because she embodies everything that Evie wishes she were. But instead of a compelling and macabre tale of Evie’s seduction into a murderous cult, instead we get a melancholy and ruminative account of Evie’s failure to find a place for herself at the “ranch” where Suzanne and Russell (the Manson-like figure) live with the other outcast denizens who gravitate toward filthy free love.The adult Evie tells her story framed by a present-day interstitial narrative that tries too desperately to develop a storyline parallel to the allegedly shocking events of Evie’s past. Poor Evie winds up as a mere tangent to the cult’s outrageous crime, doomed to the periphery of significance. And while I didn’t absolutely hate the novel, Cline’s prose often veers closely to that same tangential purgatory. Evie’s account of the conversations that took place at the ranch could just as well describe Cline’s own writing:“We could talk about the moment for hours. Turn it over in conversation: the way the light moved, why someone was silent, dismantling all the layers of what a look had really meant. It seemed like something important, our desire to describe the shape of each second as it passed, to bring out everything hidden and beat it to death.” (pp. 199-200)Proceed with caution.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Fantastic first novel and the first first novel in ages that actually makes me want to read a second. Razor sharp insights into the simultaneous power and impotence of teenaged girls.

    A book about being female written by a women shouldn't seem so unusual and yet...

    The framing story set in the now may have been a little on the nose, but overall this was a fine and mature piece of work.
  • Rating: 1 out of 5 stars
    1/5
    I thought this book was going to be really good because I’m interested in cults, but it seemed to be little more than a slow-moving fictionalization of the Manson murders.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    I'm torn about this book. The writing was very unique and keeps you on your toes because the author doesn't fall back on generic and familiar words and synonyms. At times I found the writing refreshing and startlingly honest, but at other times I felt the author was purposefully creating disturbing images just to make the reader flinch. I felt driven to finish the story until the almost very end when I felt a little deflated. The story didn't seem to go anywhere for me and I found the ending anti-climactic. For the most part the writing is intriguing and very unique but be ready to squirm a little if you decide to pick up this novel.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I loved and loathed this all at the same time. It speaks so honestly to the sexism and sexualization faced by young girls and the deep insecurities they struggle with as a consequence that I found myself both drawn to and repulsed by it. I felt deeply uncomfortable at times with the raw reality of the story. It's definitely not a book for everyone, but if you can make it through the discomfort and disgust, it speaks truths worth hearing.The audio is well-performed and deeply credible. Cady McClain brings *a lot* to the story with her narration.A word to the wise, don't come into this book expecting it to be a thriller, you'll be disappointed. It's a dark coming of age story—character driven, not plot.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    This book inspired by the Manson murders received some excellent reviews, particularly noticing the authors phrases and use of language. I didn't enjoy this unrelentingly dark book. The coerced sexual scenes with the 14 year old protagonist were very disturbing. Much of the book was cringy, with descriptions of scabs and things. And Evie, the protagonist, was not even the most interesting person in the book.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    To sum up a book with words is hard.....words explaining words....explaining emotions.....explaining logic. ....explaining reasoning.....explaining intent......But this is exactly what Evie, the main character, did in writing this story about her life....
    I'm very impressed by this first novel by Emma Cline, loosely based on the Manson family and the late 60s, Northern California scene. I like the use, almost overuse, of nouns, and verbs to explain scenes and moods.....it helped me to believe that Evie is so much deeper, more educated and capable of so much, but rather decides to follow people so different from her past and upbringing. Her infatuations with so many other characters, helped us to better comprehend her emotional changes and states....as do her relationships with Suzanne, Russell and Mitch.
    I look forward to reading more work from Emily Cline. There is an obvious depth of emotion in her use of words and ideas that I hope she will continue to use in future novels as well as she has done here. Recommended.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Oh boy what to even say. The beginning of the book was very slow and I was put off a bit by the wordiness. The story line drew me in and by the end of the book I couldn't put it down. It left me feeling a bit overwhelmed and saddened by the susceptibility of the girls and Evie's emotional scars. 4⭐️
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I listened to this book which was narrated by Cady McClain. She was tolerable as a narrator but there was not much differentiation between the voices. It was moderately interesting because it was obviously based on the Manson family murders which took place in 1969 and which dominated the news at the time. However it did not really grab me as the 14 year old girl who was the central character did not seem completely believable. I don't mean that she was an unreliable narrator just that her experiences do not accord with what I remember at the time. I was a 16 year old in the summer of 1969 and I lived in a rural area in Canada and yet I had much more supervision than she seemed to.Evie met some of the girls of the family while she was hanging around in the school break between Grade 8 and Grade 9. She was the only child of a recently separated couple; the father had moved in with his youngish secretary and the mother was experimenting with new boyfriends and classes and cooking styles. Neither seemed to take much interest in what Evie was doing. Evie got more and more drawn into the commune and was soon spending most of her days and quite a few of the nights there. She took money from her mother's wallet to give to the family who otherwise subsisted on gleanings from garbage dumpsters and handouts from friends. One of these friends was a well-known musician who hung out with the family and often had sex with some of the girls. On one occasion Evie and the woman she looked up to, Suzanne, went with the musician to his house for a night of drugs and drinking and sex. Everything crashed down for Evie when she took Suzanne and some of the other girls into a neighbour's house which was empty but then the female owner came home. She caught Evie and reported her to her mother. Evie was then shipped off to her father for two weeks and avoided the rampage Suzanne and some of the rest went on. I guess you have to give Cline full marks for coming up with a new way of looking at this series of crimes but I still don't buy that a 14 year old would have gotten in that deep.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    I haven't read a single review before reading this book. Here's my thought on this "cult": Manson much?

    Here I was, reading along, trying to get through this book (keyword: trying) and I keep thinking it sounds familiar. Oh that's why, I've read Helter Skelter. The similarities are undeniable. I get that a lot of books are based off true stories but I think this would have been a lot better had it been a bit more original.

    That was a lie. The main character, Evie, actually did it for me. I wanted to feel sorry for her, I really did. I was a 14 year old girl once. I didn't join a cult though, oh wait...neither did she. She was the stray cat, coming around looking for attention at the last place anyone talked to her. Just begging for acceptance and sitting on the sidelines. I mean, it might be harsh and I do get it. Teenagers want to be accepted. They will do anything if it means being a part of something. I do feel for her a little as well. Obviously she felt like she wasn't getting the attention and respect she needed at home and wanted something more. The teen years are the hardest of your life. Finding yourself and your place in the world isn't easy. I just didn't care for her. Even as an adult, it's like she really didn't grow at all.

    The book was ok. It definitely was not what I had expected. Maybe it was over hyped for me. I'm not sure. I love books about cults. I find them incredibly interesting. This just felt more of a coming of age story for me and I was really disappointed. I give it 3 stars because I was torn on the review. I think there might be more to the story than what I was reading into, but I'm not about to try it again to find out.
  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    'The Girls' reminds me for some reason of a few books I've plowed through by Jonathan Franzen. I appreciate the writing but don't give a crap about the characters. Emma Cline's book is obviously based on the Manson cult and I certainly realize it's an uphill battle to make a character involved in any of that, fictional or not, sympathetic. If that's the case, then why write it? The introspection of the main character, both as an adolescent and in the present day, is interesting and the writing solid, but there's no there there.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Great debut novel. A strangely sad and perverse coming of age story that highlights the fragility and vulnerability of the teenage girl persona.
  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    A special thank you to NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

    Before requesting, I read other people's reviews of the book and was intrigued by Cline's debut which is a fictional account of a cult murder. Unfortunately, I didn't like the book and am in the minority with my less than glowing review.

    Our narrator is Evie, who is either her 14 year-old self in 1969, or her adult self in present day. I felt that as a character, the main character, Evie wasn't overly deep or robust and came off as very one-dimensional. I wasn't sure if Cline purposely wrote her this way so that Evie would be more of an unreliable narrator (because she wasn't present for the actual event), or because she's supposed to be 14, but I felt detached from Evie, and therefore also detached from the story. The narrative was such a slow build that I almost gave up on the book several times. I expected to be more mesmerized by Susanne since Evie seemed to be more enamored with her rather than the so-called charismatic leader, Russell, but again, I was not and didn't see the attraction.

    The story lacked in any originality. It was like reading an account of the Manson family with lovelier prose. I would definitely pick up another book by this author, she is a beautiful writer, but this particular book wasn't for me.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    3.5 out of 5. I feel I would of enjoyed The Girls more if I hadn't read about the Manson killings, because this book is basically just a fictional retelling of what happened except from a girl's point of view who got sucked into the cult. It's an interesting book and Evie's character is aware and makes observations about the crap women, especially adolescent girls, have to deal with. I wish more of the story focused on Evie and her insights and not on the Mansonesque factors.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I waited so long for the price of this book to come down, before finally renting a copy from the library, that I forgot the plot. But why I really wanted to read Emma Cline's novel was to get a sense of time, of atmosphere - which she delivers in spades.In late 60s California, neglected teen Evie Boyd falls in with 'the girls', a group of trashy yet charismatic strangers in town who live in a sort of cultish commune out in the sticks. They are obviously bad news, but Evie becomes obsessed with the dark-haired Suzanne and can't stay away. Then the nightmare begins. Evocative and compelling, Cline weaves a clever tapestry of memories and sharp observation, skipping back and forth between young Evie and her older, isolated self. The reader is lulled into comprehending why, like battered wives, Evie and the girls would be drawn to such a life of poverty, hunger and crime, all for the sake of one man. The characters are all clearly drawn through the eyes of a teenager, from the newly divorced mother trying to regain her youth to the motley crew of lost souls out at the ranch. A disturbing summer read.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Fictional novel based heavily on the Manson Family murders. Psychological novel that considers the relationships and motivations of the female members of this murderous cadre. Well written and with a great sense of claustrophobia in sections.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    I had wanted to read this for a while, and that may well be why I was left feeling somewhat disappointed by the read. I looked forward to the book ending on more than one occasion. I didn't enjoy the way the author had written the past vs. present parts, and they were not fluid for the reader at all.
    As for this being 'loosely based on the Manson murders', I hated that part. I have been quite fascinated by that, as well as with the whole cult phenomenon in the late 60's, but this was so loosely fleshed out that it seemed disrespectful and almost lazy to take that story and use for this novel. I also didn't even feel like the relationship between the two girls was even fully explored enough to make that the centerpiece of this book. I enjoyed the backdrop of this book and all that, what with the time period, but having such high hopes for this book, I felt like so much more could have been done with it. Cline's writing can be so poetic, it seemed like a waste for a book that seemed to skim over such big topics.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Evie Boyd is just a girl of fourteen years if age. The year is 1969, Evie is out in the park and spots some girls. Suzanne Parker is one of the girls and Evie is instantly drawn to her. Suzanne is different, she lives with a group of people on a ranch. They live very freely under the guidance of Russell.I have seen this book floating about and didn't really know much about it. Then I discovered the story is loosely based on the Manson murders. I don't know a great deal about the Manson family, just the basics. This book isn't about Charles Manson and what he did, but a fictional account of a cult and a murder and a young girl.I really enjoyed this book. Evie tells the reader her story of how she meets Suzanne and gets involved with the cult. It's quite a dark book which delves into how the cult spend their time. Evie wants to be involved, will let the men use her and wants to be part of. I had to keep reminding myself that although its adult Evie telling the story its fourteen year old Evie wanting the way of life.The book is very compelling and even if the reader doesn't know about the Manson killings it's clear where the story is going. I did find myself wanting to pick the book up to read a bit more, see what was going to happen next.This is an excellent read and for me something different.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    This book reads as if it was written by someone from the Manson Family. The stories are eerily similar. A good read, but if you know anything about the Family, you pretty much know this story.
  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    I did not care for this book. It had a lot of hype, but when you read the reviews a lot of people have the same complaints; too over created and just a copy cat of the manson story. I did not like any of the characters, sort of was disgusted by Evie. She was just a worm of a person. I felt that Cline was trying to hard to create this world, this story, and it completely overshadowed anything good in the story. Very disappointed in this book.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Although loosely based on the Manson cult, this story mainly focuses on a young, disenchanted and very naive young girl, Evie, who is in and out of the cult as the mood suits her. As such, I found it more interesting than if it had been a complete rendering of the whole sordid Manson tale. It's an OK book.
  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    Meh. Plodding and overworked.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    I started this book thinking that it would be more of Evie's involvement with the infamous murder group. I felt that the main plot was really all about teenage angst. There were allusions to her time spent at the ranch, but nothing like the book intro inferred. Language was very flowing and the book was worth the read.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    In the summer of '69, a teenage girl, Evie, becomes caught up with a cult based on the Manson family.But it is a mistake to think this is a novel about Charles Manson. The title says exactly what this novel is about: the girls (and women) and the trap that our society sets for them, the trap of defining our self-worth and identity solely through the presence of a man. All of the female characters in this novel have fallen into this trap: Evie herself, her mother, her father's girlfriend, her friend Connie, the teenage girl she meets as an older woman, and especially the girls living with Russell (the Manson character). And the men themselves, concerned only with themselves and their own desires, are universally unworthy of this female subjugation. Well, not all men. There is, briefly, Tom, who is able to see the commune with clear eyes and tell the truth about it, but Evie wills herself to blindness nevertheless. When that trap is taken to extremes, when the girls relinquish their sense of self so completely that they will do anything their man tells them to, it inevitably ends in violence, but who are the victims? Other women, primarily, and young boys--not just the one who is murdered, but also the boy living at the commune. This is a modern American fable.But Evie herself is not in thrall to Russell as these other girls are. The person who captivates her is Suzanne. When she first sees Suzanne, Evie thinks she is completely free, that she does not care what anyone else thinks about her. Of course, we later see that this is very much a false impression, but this is what attracts Evie to Suzanne in the first place. And we wonder, as we see Evie in her middle-aged incarnation, lonely and alone, if she had just managed to break herself free from the trap and find herself a Suzanne who had also gotten free, might she have found happiness?
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    The premise is hardly original, but this take on Charles Manson - or, more specifically, the story of a girl drawn into a cult member's orbit - is written with such skill that any misgivings melt away within a few pages. The story builds, inevitably, to The Murders and keeps the reader guessing over the narrator's involvement right to the last minute. I'll definitely be looking out for more from Cline.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    On a warm August night in 1969, the news of a series of murders in California flashed on my small television screen. At first the news reported that perhaps it was a hate crime involving the Black Panther but that was Charles Manson's idea.This fictional account of the Manson family told by a former cult member who escaped the trance of another psychopath who ordered the murder of a famous musician similar to Dennis Wilson of the Beach Boys. The girls of Russell's Ranch are also social outcasts who are easily manipulated into committing murder and being sexual objects. The Age of Aquarius created a runway society who enabled men to control poor self loathing woman for their own purposes.