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  • The Girls

  • By: Emma Cline
  • Narrated by: Cady McClain
  • Length: 9 hrs and 44 mins
  • 3.9 out of 5 stars (776 ratings)
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The Girls cover art

The Girls

By: Emma Cline
Narrated by: Cady McClain
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Summary

California. The summer of 1969. In the dying days of a floundering counterculture, a young girl is unwittingly caught up in unthinkable violence, and a decision made at this moment, on the cusp of adulthood, will shape her life....

Evie Boyd is desperate to be noticed. In the summer of 1969, empty days stretch out under the California sun. The smell of honeysuckle thickens the air, and the sidewalks radiate heat.

Until she sees them. The snatch of cold laughter. Hair long and uncombed. Dirty dresses skimming the tops of thighs. Cheap rings like a second set of knuckles. The girls. And at the centre, Russell. Russell and the ranch, down a long dirt track and deep in the hills. Incense and clumsily strummed chords. Rumours of sex, frenzied gatherings, teen runaways.

Was there a warning, a sign of things to come? Or is Evie already too enthralled by the girls to see that her life is about to be changed forever?

©2016 Emma Cline (P)2016 Audible, Ltd

Critic reviews

" The Girls is a brilliant and intensely consuming novel - imposing not just for a writer so young, but for any writer, any time." (Richard Ford)
"I don't know which is more amazing, Emma Cline's understanding of human beings or her mastery of language." (Mark Haddon)
"Emma Cline's first novel positively hums with fresh, startling, luminous prose. The Girls announces the arrival of a thrilling new voice in American fiction." (Jennifer Egan)
"Emma Cline has an unparalleled eye for the intricacies of girlhood, turning the stuff of myth into something altogether more intimate. The Girls destroys our ability to consider violence a foreign territory, and reminds us that behind so many of our culture's fables exists a girl: unseen, unheard, angry. This book will break your heart and blow your mind." (Lena Dunham)

What listeners say about The Girls

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  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars

Awful

This was so bad that I couldn't finish the book, despite perseverance. I hated the main character (Evie) both as a child and adult and could not empathise with her at all. When I say "main" character, she was basically the only character. The other "Girls" were all completely dippy and spaced out (no thanks to the narrator) and could barely utter more than three words at any given time.
The lowest point for me was when Evie (a 14 year old child) was about to be raped by an overweight, ageing rock star and all she was apparently concerned about was the state of her knicker elastic! It was then I decided I could take no more!

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23 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

The human side...

I thought this was a wonderful book. However, it is not a thriller, or a study of murder. If you want that get Helter-skelter, which is also wonderful.
This is a coming of age book, which just happens to use the (Fictionalised and renamed) Manson family murders as a narrative device to pull you through the book.
It is really about a mother-daughter relationship and then about female friendship, and then ultimately about first love. It handles all the characters believably and their interactions show genuine insight into the human condition.
There is excellent imagery in nearly every paragraph and the prose keeps the story moving at a nice pace.
I would recommend this to anyone who likes good writing as much as they like a good story.

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15 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

Look out helter skelter She's coming down fast

A recreation of a crime anyone over fifty knows well, from the point of view of one of the groupies; with a recreation of Charles Manson and acolytes that is very good, but what is best about this book is the representation of the neglect some children suffer through their parents absolute disregard of their mental needs, while they tried to find their life after divorce. I think that it is the best recreation of a period that began the narcissistic race that created the first me generatio. Many people remember the age of aquarius as a freedom festival but in reality it was blind leading the blind into all kinds of unsavory experimentation among adults that totally forgot the responsibilities of parenthood and indulged in fairly self destructive practices. That affected children with all kinds of neglect and abuse.

The writer captures that very well and imagines many of the period idiosyncrasies very well, she is also a very good writer that manages to explore a young woman's sexuality without fear and in fresh ways, the violence is not titillating or overly emphasized but the moral dilemmas and the struggles and guilt are represented in a very real form.

I enjoyed the book but being from the same period, some of the plot was evident to me before it fully developed, and removed any kind of surprise. The characterizations were very good and the mood was well executed, making it more of a social study than a crime thriller.

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14 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Uncomfortable and compelling

This reworking of the Manson Family saga takes the concept from a different perspective. The focus is really more on the powerlessness of some of the female characters and their readiness to be manipulated. It captures characters with an often ugly realism. I found the story engaging though it is primarily focused on the mundane elements of the individuals lives, thankfully not focusing too heavily on the gruesome. In many ways it's the everyday material that creeps you out most!

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11 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Dreamy with quiet, sad dread

Where does The Girls rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

It ranks highly, it's a good book that is well suited to the audiobook format.

What other book might you compare The Girls to, and why?

It feels quite unique but has a shadow of the growing dread and pervading sense of guilt found in We Need To Talk About Kevin.

Which scene did you most enjoy?

The flashback scenes were fascinating but Evie's first encounter with the 'girls' stands out in particular.

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

Evie and her reflections on her father were particularly poignant.

Any additional comments?

A surprisingly subtle meditation on womanhood, the disappointment of youth and guilt, with an almost incidental but seductive cult story triggering it all.

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9 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Beautifully written, engaging novel

Where does The Girls rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

I have read ones that were much more engaging and important to me but it is quite good.

Who was your favorite character and why?

I don't think I had one.

What does Cady McClain bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you had only read the book?

I'm not sure she adds anything. I like her voice and accent, a nice narration but not outstanding.
The only thing that was a bit annoying is that she pronounces each word so eloquently that there are these awkward mid-sentence gaps all the time. A bit like she's narrating for foreign students of English, to make sure each word is understood. Even when one word begins with the same consonant that the previous one ended in, she insists on pronouncing both with the same clarity. In the real world no-one speaks like that. No-one says things like "Susan's smile", or "climbed down", or "suspicious squint" with both the ending and beginning s's and d's in the middle pronounced clearly and separately, with a weird little gap in between.

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

The whole process of how Evie got emotionally trapped was very disturbing. I'm not sure if her breezy attitude to her first sexual encounters, as nasty as they were, was realistic. I could understand how a 14 year old would explain things to herself the way Evie did but it comes across if at the time it didn't even really affect her much.

Any additional comments?

All in all very nicely written, very good narration and describes very believably and realistically how a young girl might get trapped in a sect.

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7 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Excellent, chilling...

Having listenend not too long ago, to "Helter Skelter" this was a well-timed book for me. Giving the perpective of what compells seemingly ordinary young people to join a cult - and drive them to the extreme. Very well written & told. This one captured and kept my attention until the very end.

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7 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars
  • LJ
  • 01-10-16

Strange and Nothing-y

Any additional comments?

This is a strange one to review. It is well written and evoked the feeling of summer, and the era really well. The narrator, I felt, was good. But the story seems to build up and build up, tension rises, and you're waiting ... and then it fizzles to nothing. No real climax as the story's narrator isn't actually present for it. I realise that that is done to keep her in our good books, but it makes for a poor ending.
Worth a read/listen, but don't expect too much.

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6 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    1 out of 5 stars

Bit dull

A bit disappointed. This book has been raved about but I'm struggling to work out why. There is a constant jumping back and forth which makes it difficult to follow what timeline you are in and the story is really about not a lot.

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5 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

A gripping story, hiding contemporary themes

What made the experience of listening to The Girls the most enjoyable?

I bought this book after reading the number of reviews that praised Cline's storytelling, and was certainly not disappointed. What I hadn't expected though where the thought-provoking insights into issues of contemporary feminism that felt as relevant to my own life as to this extreme story.

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5 people found this helpful