THE INSTANT BESTSELLER • An indelible portrait of girls the women they become and that moment
in life when everything can go horribly wrong NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY The
Washington Post • NPR • The Guardian • Entertainment Weekly • San Francisco Chronicle •
Financial Times • Esquire • Newsweek • Vogue • Glamour • People • The Huffington Post • Elle •
Harper's Bazaar • Time Out • BookPage • Publishers Weekly • Slate 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. Finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize • Finalist for the
National Book Critics Circle John Leonard Award • Shortlisted for The Center for Fiction First
Novel Prize • The New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice • Emma Cline-One of Granta's Best
of Young American Novelists Praise for The Girls "Spellbinding . . . a seductive and
arresting coming-of-age story."-The New York Times Book Review "Extraordinary . . . Debut
novels like this are rare indeed."-The Washington Post "Hypnotic."-The Wall Street Journal
"Gorgeous."-Los Angeles Times "Savage."-The Guardian "Astonishing."-The Boston Globe
"Superbly written."-James Wood The New Yorker "Intensely consuming."-Richard Ford "A
spectacular achievement."-Lucy Atkins The Times "Thrilling."-Jennifer Egan "Compelling and
startling."-The Economist
