When I was just a kid, I remember slipping into the living room to catch parts of a new TV movie called "Helter Skelter". And I remember thinking, "the Beatles song?" I'd heard (can't recall exactly how) that the movie was about this crazy weird guy who had somehow manipulated his followers into murdering a famous person, for reasons that could not be understood. I caught glimpses of a few scenes - long haired hippies, wild eyes - before being seen by my folks and booted from the living room. Not soon enough I guess, because I remember a few nightmares after that. All part of growing up. I don't think it scared me too badly. Nightmares about Bigfoot (yep, he walked my dreams) and the tree branch waving outside my window were probably worse, but that real life unexplainable lingered for a time. 
 I liked this book about The Girls, but that question had followed me into the reading. Why would people follow this man? Emma Cline's portrayal of the late 60's feels right (as if I'd know), but what makes this story truly authentic is its young girl protagonist lost on the brink of womanhood and identity. Evie I understood, and was drawn to her character. Not all of her decisions, or many of her thoughts, but her base makeup. Russell and the clan? No, I could not relate or find likeability with them. Maybe that's the point. There will not always be an identifiable explanation. Some things will always remain a Why? 
 "Already he'd become an expert in female sadness - a particular slump in the shoulders, a nervous rash. A subservient lilt at the end of sentences, eyelashes gone soggy from crying. Russell did the same thing to me as he did to those girls...Little ways of breaking down my boundaries. But maybe the strangest part - I liked it too." 
 "But Suzanne had nothing else: she had given her life completely over to Russell, and by then it was like a thing he could hold in his hands, turning it over and over, testing its weight." 
 I almost gave this 4 stars. It was close. But I thought of the other 4 star books I've rated, some very recent, that still speak to me in a variety of ways, and knew that this was not quite the same.