The Girls ~ Emma Cline

The Girls by Emma Cline has been a book I have wanted to read for so long. As an avid lover of true crime, this book has always intrigued me as I knew it was loosely based on Charles Manson and his family cult. A case that has always fascinated me. So when I saw it in my local library I knew it was about time I picked it up.

We follow fourteen-year-old Evie Boyd who is desperate to be noticed. It’s 1969 and the empty days of summer stretch ahead. Until she sees them. The girls. Suzanne with her jet black hair at the centre of it all. If it wasn’t for her Evie probably wouldn’t have followed them back to the decaying ranch that day. Did she not see what was coming? Or did she know there was no way of turning back?

The premise of this book really intrigued me as it was fascinating to see an outsider’s opinion on what the Manson cult may have been like and how easy it was to be intoxicated by the lifestyle they were leading. It showed just how easy it was for the youth of the late 60s to fall into such a world without even realising it. Cline has taken us on the trajectory that the smallest crack in our stability can be used to derail us further from the truth.

I loved how throughout the flashbacks to her youth we also see Evie in the present having to live with what she went through and how that has affected her adult life. Cline has created this fictional truth to show just how far a young girl will chase danger in order to fit. I gave The Girls by Emma Cline a 3.5⭐️ rating.

M🌸