I have heard SO many people talking non stop about this book. This was the "it" adult book of the summer, if I am not mistaken. I joined Book of the Month Club on cyber monday because they had a super sweet discount code where you got a couple of extra credits for books. I had heard so much about it, and I am trying to get into reading more adult books, so I decided to give this one a chance.
This book takes place in northern Cali in 1969, and the main character is a 14 year old girl named Evie. I had heard before I got this book that this was fictional retelling of the Manson Murders which peaked my interest even though I knew nothing about them.
This book takes place the summer before Evie begins high school, which for her, is going to consist of a baording school. The beginning of the book, Evie has several friends that are around her age, which is cool. Only problem is that they end up having a falling out. This is where she runs into Suzanne at. They never really give me Suzanne's age, but I feel like she is MUCH older than Evie. Anyways, Suzanne's involved in a cult that a character Russell is in charge of. I hate to say it this way but I feel almost as if Suzanne may be Russells main bitch during this time. Most of the book is about the things that Evie does to get on the good side of these people so they will come to accept her as one of them, this mainly involveds lying and stealing things.
One thing that caused me to almost put this book down several times was the sexual content between Evie, a 14 year old girl, and other characters that would be much older than her (I'm talking 40 plus). This bothered me to the point where I felt dirty reading this book, and I'm not really a prude so if you decide to pick this one up, I would watch out for that.
This book takes place the summer before Evie begins high school, which for her, is going to consist of a baording school. The beginning of the book, Evie has several friends that are around her age, which is cool. Only problem is that they end up having a falling out. This is where she runs into Suzanne at. They never really give me Suzanne's age, but I feel like she is MUCH older than Evie. Anyways, Suzanne's involved in a cult that a character Russell is in charge of. I hate to say it this way but I feel almost as if Suzanne may be Russells main bitch during this time. Most of the book is about the things that Evie does to get on the good side of these people so they will come to accept her as one of them, this mainly involveds lying and stealing things.
One thing that caused me to almost put this book down several times was the sexual content between Evie, a 14 year old girl, and other characters that would be much older than her (I'm talking 40 plus). This bothered me to the point where I felt dirty reading this book, and I'm not really a prude so if you decide to pick this one up, I would watch out for that.
I didn't really connect with this book until I was less than a hundred pages from finishing it. The murders were supposed to be the climax of this book but I feel like they were really rushed though and that disappointed me. One thing I didn't get it, is that Evie knew excatly who did it when she saw the murders hit the news but she kept her mouth shut, and months later Suzanne went to her boarding school to threaten her about them. OBVIOUSLY they find out about them, and how she was with them on that fateful night but she didn't say anything. I want to know why she wasn't punished for knowing but keeping her mouth shut. The book kind of just eneded adruptly without telling me why that happened the way it did.
I LOVED the writing style in this book and because of that it's a strong 4.5 out of 5 stars for me, and I'm probably going to pick up Helter Skelter next year so I can really learn about this gruesome event in history.
"That was the part about being a girl, you were resigned to whatever feedback you'd get. If you got mad, you were crazy, and if you didn't react, you were a bitch. The only thing you could do was smile from the corner they'd backed you into. Implicate yourself in the joke, even if the joke was on you."
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