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The Girls

by Emma Cline

Other authors: See the other authors section.

MembersReviewsPopularityAverage ratingMentions
3,2522463,823 (3.53)89
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.… (more)
  1. 10
    Cruel Beautiful World by Caroline Leavitt (KatyBee)
  2. 00
    A Fatal Inversion by Barbara Vine (shaunie)
    shaunie: Similar doom-laden atmosphere with something horrible about to happen in the summer heat - but whilst Cline's book is this year's must-read Vine's book is far more tense and exciting.
  3. 00
    Machine by Susan Steinberg (susanbooks)
  4. 00
    Girls on Fire by Robin Wasserman (susanbooks)
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» See also 89 mentions

English (235)  Spanish (3)  Dutch (2)  Italian (1)  Swedish (1)  German (1)  French (1)  Catalan (1)  All languages (245)
Showing 1-5 of 235 (next | show all)
I'm not entirely sure how i felt about this book. I have recently listened to a podcast about manson and his family but this was somewhat intriguing to be taken inside the mind of a young girl who got sucked into this atmosphere and these beliefs. It certainly made me think. ( )
  RisqueGypsy | Sep 8, 2023 |
I couldn't have loved this more in the end. I found the initial chapters beautifully put together but just a touch too mannered, but then, once Evie comes into contact with the ranch, the book comes absolutely alive. It moves at this sinister, unstoppable lope and there is no description, word, or character that is spare to its purposes. Despite what reviewers and other readers say, for me it ends at precisely the right place. It's been ages since I read something I so wholeheartedly admired - I can't recommend it highly enough. ( )
  Helen.Callaghan | Aug 28, 2023 |
Puoi trovare questa recensione anche sul mio blog, La siepe di more

Le ragazze è uno di quei romanzi che mettono in difficoltà chi vuole scriverne una recensione: non sono brutti, ma lasciano al lettore quella sensazione di insoddisfazione della quale è difficile ricercare la causa. Il tema è interessante, la storia fila, eppure non è abbastanza a farne un romanzo che si imprime nella memoria.

All'inizio pensavo fosse per lo stile: tutto quel melodramma, quella purple prose che sembra promettere chissà quali profondità e che invece è solo vuota di certo non depongono in favore de Le ragazze. Eppure lo stile non è un motivo sufficiente a renderlo insoddisfacente: alla fine sotto quei giri di parole ci sono concetti interessanti e, parlando di adolescenza, un certo grado di retorica può essere confacente al tema.

Poi ho pensato che la colpa fosse imputabile allo scarso carisma dei personaggi, soprattutto Russell e Suzanne, che ci aspetteremmo essere molto affascinanti per irretire nuove giovani persone nella loro cerchia e per indurle a fare qualsiasi cosa, non importa quanto immorale. Di sicuro la storia ne avrebbe tratto giovamento, visto dire che qualcuno è carismatico non è la stessa cosa che mostrarlo: l'impatto sulla mente del lettore, nel secondo caso, è decisamente maggiore.

In realtà, quello che rende il romanzo insoddisfacente è il suo mancare l'obiettivo, che non è mostrare il disperato bisogno di un'adolescente di far parte di un gruppo, ma dimostrare quanto possa essere devastante insegnare alle ragazze a compiacere i ragazzi in modo che questi si accorgano di loro e possano dar loro quel posto nel mondo che credono essere incapaci di trovare da sole.

Ho apprezzato tantissimo che Cline ci mostrasse come questa "competizione" per gli uomini (e i ragazzi) crei gelosie e invidie che spaccano qualunque rapporto tra le donne (e le ragazze) di questo romanzo, lasciandole sole e a rischio di perdere se stesse in rapporti squilibrati (che magari sembrano un sogni idilliaci, ma ben presto si rivelano realtà crudeli).

Peccato che alla fine questo importante tema portante venga lasciato a se stesso: Cline ci lancia indizi e riflessioni in proposito lungo tutto il romanzo, ma si dimentica di farli convergere, di unire i puntini per consegnarci la denuncia di un sistema educativo che sa solo consegnarci padroni incapaci di accettare qualunque rifiuto e serve pronte a tutto per non perdere i favori del loro despota. ( )
  kristi_test_02 | Jul 28, 2023 |
3.8
Some excellent writing, but the story didn't exactly light a fire. ( )
  Mcdede | Jul 19, 2023 |
Brutal and true to the core of how girls can feel and be. Set against a backdrop of a familiar landscape, The Girls reveals dark secrets we rarely let out.

So much of The Girls feels like it's part of any woman. We often feel powerless yet we are stronger than we ever let on. What we put ourselves through when it comes to other girls and what we put other girls through is at the heart of this story. It touched me to the core.

( )
  Chanicole | Jul 6, 2023 |
Showing 1-5 of 235 (next | show all)
The Girls works a well-tapped vein in literary fiction: the queasy exploration of how young women with crippled egos can become accessories to their own degradation. Joyce Carol Oates and Mary Gaitskill are masters of this theme. Cline’s contribution is a heady evocation of the boredom and isolation of adolescence in pre-internet suburbia, in houses deserted by their restless, doubt-stricken adult proprietors where “the air was candied with silence.” The novel is heavy with figurative language; Cline has a telling fondness for the word “humid.” Not all of this comes off effectively (Evie’s mom makes Chinese ribs that “had a glandular sheen, like a lacquer”), but most of it does (Evie, dazzled by her father’s girlfriend, thinks she has a life “like a TV show about summer.”)
added by Nickelini | editSlate, Laura Miller (Jun 7, 2016)
 

» Add other authors

Author nameRoleType of authorWork?Status
Emma Clineprimary authorall editionscalculated
Cosgrove, LizDesignersecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
McClain, CadyNarratorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Mendelsund, PeterCover artistsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed

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I looked up because of the laughter, and kept looking because of the girls.
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The sun spiked through the trees, like always—the drowsy willows, the hot wind gusting over the picnic blankets—but the familiarity of the day was disturbed by the path the girls cut across the regular world. Sleek and thoughtless as sharks breaching the water.
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(Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)
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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.

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