A review by silverstalk
The Girls by Emma Cline

4.0

This is the fourth novel I've read of this year's Shirley Jackson Award nominees, and it's definitely the best yet. The inside of Evie's head is gritty and dreamlike. When I first started, I was irritated by the repetitive tempo of the prose ("So-and-so did this, her noun verb-ing adjective-ly, the adjective of her noun verb-ing with grandiose descriptive noun."). Every paragraph is chalk full of sentences structured identically, one after the other. Some of the language is also insanely over the top. By the time I reached halfway, though, I was able to accept it as a quirk of Evie's internal dialogue--not just lazy composition. She's naive and emotionally voracious. The predictable rhythm brings that out.

Synopses call the group Evie falls in with a cult, but aside from having a leader they're all devoted to, it really doesn't fit the cult motif. They're more like cranky hippie minstrels with a shared worldview. Regardless, Cline is really good at tapping into the machinations of groupthink. All of them are vivid and distinct while alone with Evie, but when Russell's around, their shared devotion melds them into an eerie, preening (and stinky!--the olfactory descriptions in this book are intense) mass. Suzanne is the perfect Manson family archetype. I imagined her like a prettier Patricia Krenwinkel. The image of her drawing a heart on the wall in blood will stay with me.

For now, I'm rooting for Cline to win. I'm really glad I read this.