THE GIRLS BY EMMA CLINEBook Review

Hi everyone, today I'm here to do a book
review of "The Girls by Emma Cline. This is probably a book that most people have
heard about or seen around. It's got a lot of hype this summer, it's sort of the "it"
book of the summer this year. And rumor has it the author, whose only about 25 or
26-- and this is her debut-- received a seven-figure advance for this novel
which is huge.

The story follows a girl named Evie Boyd, who is 14 years old. It's
set in the summer of 1969, and she is sort of lonely. Her parents are getting a divorce; she
doesn't really have a lot of friends; and one day at the park she sees these girls
who are sort of rugged and not like people she really knows. And she's
entranced by them.

And she gets swept up into their world, and essentially, it is a
sort of Charles Manson-inspired story. It's not actually the Manson murders and
the story really isn't even about the murders. This book is really about with this one
girl who gets swept up into this community of people and how she's really
infatuated with them and kind of the power and the seduction that she falls
prey to in this group of people. So like I said the book focuses much
more on Evie and her sort of coming of age, and her as an older woman reflecting on
that summer when she was 14.

So we do get snippets of her in the present day reflecting on this time period, and then we
move back to the time period when she was a young girl and influenced by these
people. I don't want to give anything away about what happens in the story as far as the Charles Manson inspired parts, but I
will say that this book is much less about that than I was expecting, and much
more about sort of the experiences of being a girl and growing up. And obviously that's not something that
I can relate to specifically, but I feel like the author did a really great job
of convincing me what that was like, at least for this girl's experience.
Obviously it's a very extreme situation, where not every 14 year old girl is
getting swept up into cults, but it is in the 60's and she is kind
of given a lot more freedom than maybe kids today would be given. She really
captures the essence of the 60's.

I know the writing is something that
might turn a lot of people off because it's very fragmented. She writes in a lot
of snippets, just describing things and basically compiling a lot of broken
sentences into paragraphs. It did take a while for me to adjust to
that, but once I did I really loved it. I thought that the writing was beautiful
and anything by Emma Cline that she writes in the future I will definitely
pick up.

And while the story itself wasn't my
favorite, I think that she hangs a lot of beautiful prose and a lot of interesting
themes and ideas on kind of a weak plot, but I did think that overall it was an
enjoyable really entertaining read. I'm going to try to find a quote to read because I
think it really expresses how the author writes and it might give you an
idea if you want to pick this book up. This quote is not spoilery at all, it's
just an example of how the author kind of muses on themes like life and death. It says: "Death seemed to me like a lobby
in a hotel.

Some civilized well-lit room you could
easily enter or leave. A boy in town had shot himself in his finished basement
after getting caught selling counterfeit raffle tickets. I didn't think of the gore, the wet
insides, but only the ease of the moment before he pulled the trigger. How clean and winnowed the world must have
seemed.

All the disappointments, all of regular life with its punishments and
indignities, made surplus in one orderly motion. I think the writing is really beautiful.
She has a lot of those sort of musings, some aphorisms, things like that that I
personally really enjoy. I think if it lacked any of those moments of the older
character reflecting on her younger years and kind of imparting her wisdom
that she gained over the course of her life, I think it would have lacked a lot of
depth and that would have made me enjoy it a little bit less. Because as a whole
like I said the plot wasn't amazing to me.

But the character studies, the
writing and the atmosphere that she creates was really beautiful. So overall
I really enjoyed this and I think I gave it like a four stars. Something I would
definitely recommend although there is a lot of adult content, so if that makes
you uncomfortable I would just say maybe wait until you're
ready to read this or just be warned that there is some adult material in
this book. I got this book from Book-of-the-Month Club, which you guys
know probably for watching my videos that I love.

And actually recently they
gave me a custom code, so if you use the code WELLDONEBOOKS when you sign up
you get 30% off a three months membership. If you've read this please
let me know your thoughts in the comments below. I'd love to hear it. I know this book has been kind of
polarizing.

Some people love it some people hate it. It got a lot of hype. I think books that get
a lot of hype end up being kind of polarizing. And I think that's really interesting and why
I enjoy reading them, but I really liked it.

So again let me know your thoughts in
the comments below. I hope you enjoyed this review, and I
will see you in my next one. Bye!.