As readers, I know we sometimes sabotage ourselves before reading heavily hyped books by peeking at reviews and buying into the excitement before even starting page one. 
 And such was probably the case for me when I read The Girls by Emma Cline, a novel that I've seen heavily hyped by many of my favorite respectable bloggers, whose opinions frequently tend to align with my own. 
 That's not to say that The Girls wasn't a worthwhile piece of fiction. A modern retelling of the Charles Manson group (or at least a tale loosely based on such), The Girls does an awesome job really showing a young teenager's struggle on the process of self-discovery and self-actualization against the backdrop of a cultish group that preys on her innocence and entices her to join their isolated life of terror and seclusion. 
 The Girls, though, really doesn't place as much focus on the actual events of the Manson Family as I think I was expecting. Instead, the story concentrates mostly on Evie's reflection of as an older, wiser woman on the horrific events of her past, along with the realization that her stance in the publicized murders was largely due to chance, and not to any morality or sense of individuality that the other 'Family' members failed to possess. 
 The alternation between Evie's youth and later years really added a level of contemplation that made the story feel important and more worthwhile to me as a reader. That said, I wasn't overly impressed with the authors overly detailed writing style, that was beautiful but still felt strangely choppy and long-winded simultaneously. And while I will nearly always choose character development over plot intricacies, I think that the events surrounding the Manson case are interesting enough that a little more focus on the plot would have been highly appreciated. 
 Overall, I can't give The Girls less than 3.5, because it is a genuinely *good* piece of fiction, I think. At the same time, though, I don't really see myself putting this one on top of any favorite lists unless I reread it at a later date and find it a bit more enjoyable.