Review of
Instaread Summary of The Girls A Novel by Emma Cline
Four out of five stars
At first
glance, a novel based in any way on the dynamics of the “family” of charismatic
killer Charles Manson would appear to be problematic. The story of the Manson family
is one of power and control over females in difficult circumstances, the
control was so strong that the women were willing to commit murder for him.
After reading
this summary, the novel does not survive a second glance. The main character is
Evie, a woman that was associated with a Manson-like group when she was
fourteen and is now in her fifties. Evie encounters teenagers Julian and Sasha
that are passing through and looking to buy drugs. This triggers Evie to flash
back to her teen years and experiences.
With two tracks
and a great deal of complex plot to summarize, the summary moves at an
extremely rapid pace. One paragraph describes one aspect and then the following
often shifts to a different context or topic.
From the
summary, it is clear that the main theme of the book is the feelings of
isolation and strong uncertainty that exists in the fourteen-year-old Evie. She
considers her life so miserable that she willingly moves down a
self-destructive path where she joins a group that lives in an isolated filthy
house where nearly all of the people beg, borrow and steal to survive. That
part has promise, but the extension of this to the point where the girls are
convinced to commit murder comes across as a bit creepy and exploitative.
The opening
line of the summary is, “’The Girls’ by Emma Cline is a novel loosely based on
the events leading up to the Manson Family murders in the summer of 1969.”
Having read books about the Manson “family,” to me it is clear that the
association is more than loose.
This book was made available for free for review
purposes.
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