The Girls

I absolutely loved this book. Cults have always been something that has unsettled me, and reading about a girl that runs away from home to join one really intrigued me! Originally I listened to this book as an audiobook but I ended up enjoying it so much I had to buy a physical copy. This book reminds me a lot of the movie Charlie Says about the Charles Manson Cult. While the ending was not what I was expecting, it was still enjoyable.

Starts a little bit slow, but after the first 100 pages it becomes a little bit more engaging. It is about a cult but that is not the most shocking part of the story, check trigger warnings because it has a lot of graphic depictions. For me it is a summer read because the autor is really good at evoking the summer feeling through her narration. I did see a little bit of myself in the main character wanting to belong (at least when I was a teenager myself), but to the extreme.

2.5*** This was really weird. Really, really, really weird. But, it was a psychological thriller about a cult… so what was I expecting? I’ve heard so many good things about this book and I bought it when someone on TikTok said that it was “a good summer read.” …they weren’t exactly right about that. This book dragged on and on and on. It was painful to read for like… 70% of the time. Absolutely no 355 page book should only have 15 chapters. That’s insane. Please, if you’re writing a 355 page book, split the chapters into MORE THAN 15 PAGES; I promise you, more short chapters are way more enjoyable than long ones that seemingly never end. Maybe, if Cline had decided to not just make the chapters go on and on, maybe the plot would’ve developed not just at the very end of the book, in the last 2 or 3 chapters. That was really disappointing. Let’s not even start on how much I disliked the writing style. Sure, this book was basically plotless until the ending, I can say something, Emma Cline KNOWS how to effectively write a really disturbing point of view. This book was so incredibly weird. I felt like I was truly living in this story, as Evie’s thoughts and experiences were in utmost detail. Yeah. I’m still processing this book.

I didn’t love it but it was a decent read. The main character isn’t very like-able but it is an easy read with an interesting plot. Give it a go if you can find it at a good price. Also, the Author’s name is Emma Cline, not Klaina.