I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for my unbiased opinion. 
 The Girls is the story of Evie (now in middle age) looking back at herself as a 14-year-old girl in 1969, getting drawn in to a cult because of how much she admired and wanted the attention of one of the girls in it, Suzanne. Evie's parents are recently divorced, her dad now living with his girlfriend and her mom mostly absent as she tries to win the affections of a new boyfriend; this leaves Evie with almost no parental guidance for her summer before high school. After Evie and her best friend get in a fight, Evie has nothing to fill her time until she meets Suzanne and is invited to start spending time at The Ranch. There, Evie quickly falls into a lifestyle it's hard to imagine any 14-year-old should (drugs, sex) or would want to (eating half rotten food, a general lack of hygiene) take part in. 
 The story itself was extremely disturbing at times. However, it was very well written. My main complaint is that while I like the idea of Evie looking back as an adult at her time with the cult, the parts of the story that took place in the present took me out of the story. I didn't feel like Julian and Sasha added anything to the story.