The Monsters of Templeton

What an amazing, creative and outright original book! (And it was Lauren Groff's first novel, too.) This is a two-dimensional story; one part takes place in the present day, while the other takes place some 200 years ago.Wilhelmina Sunshine Upton, who goes by Willie, is 28 and working on her PhD in anthropology at Stanford. After a passionate affair with her adviser in the tundra of Alaska when they are on a dig, she is pregnant and returns home to Templeton, New York. This idyllic town with a very large lake that is hundreds of feet deep, is modeled on Cooperstown. The day a bedraggled Willie rolls into town, a dead prehistoric "monster" surfaces on the lake.Willie's mother, Vi, is an aging hippie-turned-born again Christian, who has always told Willie that her father was one of three men with whom she lived in a house in San Francisco in the '60s. It turns out that isn't true. Willie's dad is a man who lives in Templeton. Willie now has a quest: Find out the name of her father.Fasten your seatbelts, reader. You are in for a ride. Monsters aren't the only thing in Templeton. And some monsters aren't quite as easy to see as the one that came out of the lake.P.S. Lauren Groff should get some sort of award for the characters' names. Here is just a sampling: Marmaduke Templeton, Noname, Minnie Phinney, Primus Dwyer and Asterisk Upton…just to name a few. And they are as quirky and original as their names!

I decided to read this book because I adored Fates and Furies. Groff is a talented writer and I enjoy the voice she brings to her characters and stories. That being said, this particular story didn't appeal to me much. I liked the characters, Groff does quirky well, but the plot just didn't do anything for me.The story is about a woman who returns home after things in her life fall apart. Upon her arrival, she learns that her mom had lied to her about her origin story and that her father (who she never knew) had lived in their small town their entire life. So she goes on a quest to learn who her father is by reading a bunch of historical documents because her mom refuses to just tell her.The story is told from the perspective of the protagonist mostly, but also from the perspective of her ancestors who she's reading about when trying to piece together her complicated family tree. This is where the book loses me. Groff does a good job of giving each person a distinct voice, but there were just way too many people for me to keep track of. I honestly couldn't remember who was who and how they were connected most of the time. Perhaps this is a me problem and I wasn't reading closely enough, but it was taking more effort than I was interested in giving.I much preferred the protagonist's story in the present. She's returned to her weird, small town after things in her academic, cosmopolitan life don't go as planned (no spoilers). She's meeting up with people from her past who have changed (or not) and her present self is reconciling her relationship with those people who she's now changing her views on. She has a unique relationship with her mother that I enjoyed a lot. The mom in general is pretty funny (we get a chapter from her perspective which was entertaining).The town itself is bizarre. It reminds me of Stars Hollow from the Gilmore Girls but stranger with quirky characters and offbeat randomness. The relationship between the unusual mother and daughter duo only accentuates the Gilmore Girl vibe. I mean this to be complimentary because that's probably the best part of the book for me.Really the part I don't like about this book is her quest to find her father (at least the way it was done) which is unfortunately the main premise of the book. I just found myself getting lost and losing interest in some of the ancestor stories.

"The Monsters of Templeton" is an amazing read! The title hits home on so many levels that it's sometimes a bit confusing. Don't let that scare you. If you were bright enough to buy the book, you are bright enough to never ignore Laura Groff. Her imagination is as close to perfection as anything possibly can be. Her descriptive language and skill will steal your breathe, as you pause briefly, with the book laid upon your chest, and contemplate the sentence, paragraph, chapter that seems to have been painted in all the wrong colors, on purpose, for in the colors you are used to expecting, you lose your way as to what it could mean if you looked at it, really looked at it, in a different way. Lauren Groff is a thrill, and "The Monsters of Templeton" is a read you shouldn't allow yourself to skip.

I love Lauren's multiple approaches to fleshing her story out. I'm always caught by surprise by new things that pop up from different characters' perspectives - which is awesome, because EVERYTHING in life is seen in many unique ways, & no one ever really knows 100% of any situation. Lauren's characters are wonderfully multifaceted themselves, & it's very engrossing & fun getting to know them. I have read - so far - one other book by Lauren Groff, "Fates & Furies" - which I also love. I look forward to reading more by her. :)

'The Monsters of Templeton' is the story of Wilhelmina 'Willie' Upton (not Cooper as it says in the synopsis) who returns to her home town of Templeton, where her mother, Vivienne lives. Vivienne and Willie's family history is a big part of Templeton. Willie has returned home because she has found herself in trouble and needs to get away from her troubles. Willie is surprised when her Mother tells her truth about her father, Willie having been told by Viv that she was unsure who her father was is more surprised to find out that her father is a resident of Templeton and she has to find out by herself who he is.Willie begins to explore her family history and as she does she finds out more and more about her ancestors and their secrets.I started reading 'The Monsters of Templeton' at the start of the year and for some unknown reason I just could not get into the story, so I put it to one side. This time, however, when I started reading, I became quickly engrossed by the story and enjoyed it from beginning to end. The characters are very well written, they are realistic and flawed. Willie's history is interesting and I enjoyed finding out more about her family and the discovery of who her father is.There is something mystical about Templeton and I loved that there was a monster in the lake and how he/she appears throughout the book.A wonderful book.

The writing style and storyline is pitched somewhere between a standard lightweight woman's novel (I am resisting using the term 'chick lit') and a more considered tone and deeper content. Sometimes the plot in the present day continuum seemed a bit clunky and forced whereas the stories from the past were more gripping - perhaps because they were vignettes complete within themselves and did not require being woven together to form a continuous thread? The themes were involving enough and the characterisation was evolved enough so that I had a sense of different personalities and story arcs. The main 'character' is perhaps the town itself (Templeton). At times I felt there was a bit of smugness attached to the ideas of family history,duty and belonging and the contrast with friendships old and new. I would recommend it not as a "must read" but as a "could read and enjoy".

This was an excellent novel, a glorious mixture of humour and drama, with engaging characters and just enough fantasy to prevent it being a typical story of a girl returning to a small town and discovering her roots. There's an ingenious use of characters from the novels of James Fenimore Cooper, some thought-provoking musings on the moral basis of early settler life as the identity and nature of the real monsters is revealed, and a delightfully heartwarming ending. Four stars rather than five because the writer's first-novelist status shows in the lack of differentiation in some of the voices in the sections of back history. But a book I am glad to have bought, and will happily reread.

predictable novel about people I had no particular interest in

A cracking family saga with wonderful elements of the supernatural.Great characters with a satisfyingStory.I am very glad I looked out for this.