When Evie Boyd first notices the girls, she sees them as ‘royalty in exile’ who seemed to ‘glide above all that was happening around them, tragic and separate’. Evie is fourteen and desperate to be noticed. In the Californian summer of 1969, Evie drifts into the world of Suzanne and the other girls who orbit around the charismatic Russell, whose languid charm hides a controlling monster.

The Girls is inspired by the real events that took place in August, 1969, when Charles Manson orchestrated the brutal murder of five people, including a pregnant Sharon Tate. These shocking murders were made more disturbing by the fact that they were perpetrated by young women, who appeared to have no remorse for their actions.

Cline has absolutely nails the desperate need of a young girl to feel a part of something bigger than an ordinary life. As she listens to ‘sorrowful forty-fives’ with ‘fanatic repetition’ she works herself into an emotional frenzy, imagining that she is aligned with the ‘tragic nature of the world’. She wants ‘all of life to feel that frantic and pressurised with portent, so even colours and weather and tastes would be more saturated’. She embraces the lifestyle at the ranch, and is thrilled to feel accepted as part of their family.

Evie’s parents are distracted, her father having run off with a younger woman, and her mother trying to attract another partner. It is easy for her to stay for long periods of time at ‘the ranch’ with Suzanne and the other girls, and finds herself falling under their spell. ‘It was the knowledge, perhaps, that I would do whatever Suzanne wanted me to do. That was a strange thought - that there was just this banal sense of being moved along the bright river of whatever was going to happen. That it could be as easy as this.’

It’s a disturbing read, as we know what happens, and we can see how Evie is enthralled by Russell and his followers, accepting behaviour she knows is unacceptable: ‘I told myself there were things I didn’t understand. I recycled the words I’d heart Russell speak before, fashioned them into an explanation. Sometimes he had to punish us in order to show his love.’

As a female reader, this book made me look back at my teenage years and thank my lucky stars that I didn’t fall in with ‘the wrong crowd’. If nothing else, The Girls is a cautionary tale. It really is a miracle that any of us survive that volatile combination of hormones, neediness and sense of invincibility.