The Plot (from Goodreads):
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.
My Review:
I don’t know why I thought this was a thriller–that’s what I get for not reading descriptions or reviews before reading! Checking Goodreads after, though, the reviews are shockingly varied.
The Girls is a meandering historical drama about a girl lured into a cult by love–but not love for the leader; she’s attracted to one of the other women who is a member of the cult. I enjoyed the exploration of Evie’s POV as she told the reader her story of her time in the cult.
Maybe I missed something, but I have no idea what the point of the present-day chapters was. I think those could have been removed entirely. Admittedly I did put this one down for a long time before finishing the final third, so maybe I’m just forgetting why it was relevant.
I’m happy to have removed this from my TBR shelf as part of the #backlistbooks23 challenge, but I’m not sure I’d recommend it.
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