Potentially the best book I'll read in 2016. It gave me that elusive "book tingle"--when a book is so good, it feels as if it was written for you. Emma Cline is a true talent, and has evoked the quiet rage of girlhood in a way that I've rarely seen before. The Girls is a book I wish I could have written. 
 My one criticism: The writing is, at times, "too clever." Her style may be an acquired taste. Cline uses words in an unconventional way, leading to meandering descriptions that are at times confusing. Some sentences have so much ornament, it distracts from the content. Other sentences end abruptly, meant to evoke a blunt, joyless tone. An example: 
 The dark maritime cypress packed tight outside the house, the twitch of salt air. I ate in the blunt way I had as a child--a glut of spaghetti, mossed with cheese. The nothing jump of soda in my throat. 
 Every word is so carefully picked over, you can see the writer writing. I was almost too conscious of Emma Cline, and found myself focusing on her clever language gimmicks rather than on the plot. 
 Still, the writing is beautiful, the characters are evocative, the content is compelling, the atmosphere of a dusty, fraught summer is palpable. The Girls is damn near perfect.