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The Monsters of Templeton
by
Lauren Groff (Goodreads Author)
On the very morning Willie Upton slinks home to Templeton, New York (after a calamitous affair with her archeology professor), the 50-foot-long body of a monster floats from the depths of the town's lake. This unsettling coincidence sets the stage for this debut novel. With a clue to the mysterious identity of her father in hand, Willie turns her research skills to unearth
...more
Kindle Edition, 394 pages
Published
February 5th 2008
by Hachette Book Group
(first published 2008)
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Community Reviews
(showing 1-30)
Oops, I forgot to add this to "Currently Reading" while I was reading it. That is my fatal Goodreads flaw.
Anyway, I breezed through this book in a couple of days; it is a very quick, smooth read, heavy on plotting, which keeps the pages turning. However, I think its self-seriousness undermines its credibility, oddly. In the end, I found the book awfully pretentious. The pretense in question? Pretending to be "serious literature."
The novel revolves around grad-student-gone-wild Willie Upton, who ...more
Anyway, I breezed through this book in a couple of days; it is a very quick, smooth read, heavy on plotting, which keeps the pages turning. However, I think its self-seriousness undermines its credibility, oddly. In the end, I found the book awfully pretentious. The pretense in question? Pretending to be "serious literature."
The novel revolves around grad-student-gone-wild Willie Upton, who ...more
I had fairly high hopes for this being a fun, quality read. Nuh-uh. It has more than a slight whiff of 'chick lit fluff' about it unfortunately. While her descriptions have visual flair, the overall tone of this novel is cutesy and contrived. The multiple narrative perspectives seem forced, with several just feeling like tacked-on filler (ex: the running group. hello/why?) The main character is ultimately confronted (gently, of course!) as being the self-absorbed, spoiled brat/snob that she clea
...more
Made it 2/3 of the way through, skimmed the rest. How this was written by the same author as the breathtaking Fates and Furies I'LL NEVER KNOW.
May 01, 2008
Jason
rated it
did not like it
·
review of another edition
Recommends it for:
people who like funny names. I mean you, Dr. Jingles!
"Read" isn't fair. And neither is my reason for giving up so quickly. But I winced when I hit a woman named Piddles (Sweeney, I think), and the appearance of Zeke Felcher sealed the deal. As my old, venerated writing instructor Fister McBunghole used to say, it is very, very hard to write funny or silly names.
I was already getting a case of fatal whimsy. So now you have a choice: trust me or Stephen King, or (one of) the Michelle(s) on this site who wrote a fine, generous, thoughtful review bel ...more
I was already getting a case of fatal whimsy. So now you have a choice: trust me or Stephen King, or (one of) the Michelle(s) on this site who wrote a fine, generous, thoughtful review bel ...more
Ugh...This was a struggle to get through and I really tried to give Groff a chance. I like family sagas and historical fiction but for me I have to be rewarded with characters (at least one or two) that bond me with the process of keeping track of family trees, scandals and secrets that almost always go with the territory. The "Monsters of Templeton" is definitely not a "Gone with the Wind" or "The Thorn Birds" variety of family saga. You might want to throw in a smidgeon of the weirdness of "Ge
...more
Jul 01, 2008
Rita
rated it
did not like it
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
hated,
didn-t-finish
I started this book twice and just couldn't get into it either time. The first time was ON vacation and I figured there was just so much going on in my real life that I couldn't be sucked into the plot of this book.
The second time was right after I finished reading The Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, which isn't really fair because anything would pale in comparison to that.
But, while Oscar Wao was a book about tragic characters chained to their ancestral past, which branched out in snarly directions ...more
The second time was right after I finished reading The Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, which isn't really fair because anything would pale in comparison to that.
But, while Oscar Wao was a book about tragic characters chained to their ancestral past, which branched out in snarly directions ...more
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it,
click here.
Dec 12, 2009
William Herschel
rated it
did not like it
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
unfinished
Bah! This was too hard to get involved in. There were too many shifts in the style of writing and it was getting confusing.
I have simply lost patience for books like this. I do not feel like forcing myself into a book anymore when I know it is just not going to work out.
I have simply lost patience for books like this. I do not feel like forcing myself into a book anymore when I know it is just not going to work out.
I must admit I didn't read it, at least not much of it. It just couldn't grab my attention long enough to put me past the "gone to far to stop now" point, which in itself says something considering some of the things I've read before. Maybe it's a literary masterpiece, my loss.
That's a "NO" for me on this one. Many reasons, but reciting them here would force me to remember the wasted potential and the whiny, unlikeable narrator, and the pretension and dullness and the ... please don't make me.
Feb 24, 2009
Rose
rated it
did not like it
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
absolute-crap,
abandoned
I gave it my best shot, but I really had to stop and put this one down. Just couldn't get into it although I tried hard.
Em português: http://alerdesde1500.blogspot.com/201...
I'm so dam mad about this book!
I bought it in my trip to Budapest last month and, as I love so much the city, I really wanted to love this book as much and make it a perfect pair... but of course, with one star, that's not what happened!
I had good expectations about this book.
The story seemed nice, a mixed of classic with a fine line of fantastic.
So, I start reading it, ignored the the narration on the 1st person (something I don't appreciat ...more
I'm so dam mad about this book!
I bought it in my trip to Budapest last month and, as I love so much the city, I really wanted to love this book as much and make it a perfect pair... but of course, with one star, that's not what happened!
I had good expectations about this book.
The story seemed nice, a mixed of classic with a fine line of fantastic.
So, I start reading it, ignored the the narration on the 1st person (something I don't appreciat ...more
Lauren Groff has become an NPR darling after Richard Russo sang the praises of Groff's latest novel, Fates and Furies. I have not yet read Fates and Furies, but I found The Monsters of Templeton to be a disappointment.
It weaves two narratives, a present-day one and a historical one. The historical one quickly becomes tedious, with a sprawling cast of characters who come and go without leaving much of an impression. This historical narrative is supposed to cast light on the present-day one, of co ...more
It weaves two narratives, a present-day one and a historical one. The historical one quickly becomes tedious, with a sprawling cast of characters who come and go without leaving much of an impression. This historical narrative is supposed to cast light on the present-day one, of co ...more
Apr 05, 2010
Jill
rated it
did not like it
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
waste-of-time,
historical-fiction
I was really excited to read this book. It sounded like it would be so interesting. It takes place in the same region I was living in at the time, and includes some local folklore I had become privy to. I had such high hopes....
Reasons why I hated this book:
-The main character is both unbelievable and totally unlikable and unsympathetic. It was like the author hadn't decided what direction to take her character so she just took her in all directions. Willie Upton is both the poor, outcast, town ...more
Reasons why I hated this book:
-The main character is both unbelievable and totally unlikable and unsympathetic. It was like the author hadn't decided what direction to take her character so she just took her in all directions. Willie Upton is both the poor, outcast, town ...more
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it,
click here.
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it,
click here.
The protagonist of this book is really into herself. This isn't of itself a literary crime--it can be interesting to read about a person with an inflated sense of self-worth. No, the problem here is that all of the other characters in the book, not to mention the author, seem to share Willie's sense that she is the bee's knees. You can't turn a page without someone noting that Willie is really beautiful, and desirable, and smart. It gets irritating, especially as it is difficult not to conclude
...more
This book is a flagrant self-insert dripping with misogyny and racism. The whole book is literally the narrator going on and on about how all the men want to have sex with her or want to be her father figures, and how all the women are jealous, petty bitches. She uses racist tropes like the "seductress slave" as well as other rape tropes being referred to as affairs or indiscretions. Oh, and let's not forget her casual fatphobia. Constantly describing overweight characters' jowls and other body
...more
I was really disappointed in this book. I absolutely LOVED Fates and Furies and immediately ordered this book to get more of Lauren Groff but I didn't like it at all. I can't believe the same person wrote both books. I did not like the back and forth between present and past. Some of the past was hard to follow and I didn't get how it was relevant and the present was rushed and at times corny. It felt drawn out and was so disappointed at he ending. Once I realized how it was ending I almost didn
...more
The book suffers from an identity crisis of massive proportions- the prose read as if it itself has MPD. Terribly jumbled, wholly contrived and often confused (not confusing, but confused as if the book were struggling with a sexual identity crisis), the book lacks purpose and direction. Those are things I can forgive if the prose is gorgeous, but in this case it was remedial and the author fancied herself a literary giant while writing it but should have realized she was a B rate Ann Packer. If
...more
I had high hopes for this book. The cover was awesome, the blurb on the back included a lake monster(!!) and mystery. I unfortunately found it super slow... I kept expecting something to happen, so I would read a few more pages ( come on...any page now...) then a few more (there's gotta be something exciting that happens, I know it!) but alas, nothing does. I kept getting confused with her family tree going back generations, id have to skim back (who was that again?) when I just wanted to go for
...more
Apr 08, 2009
Melissa
rated it
did not like it
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
screw-it-i-m-not-finishing
I give up. Two tiny words can explain this book and will also the way you will feel when reading it: listless and boring. Like reading somebody's horribly mundane research and geneaology. After a while I just quit caring who in the crap her father really was. I was kinda hoping the monster would come back to life and destroy the whole town and everyone in it. At least that would have been interesting and probably more believable than the horrible characters and their whiny, petty existence.
I so ...more
I so ...more
I have never in my life experienced pain the way I experienced it while reading this book. I hated the main character and continued to read it for the sole purpose of having someone in the book tell her to grow up and get a life. What was up with the stupid make-believe lake monster??? It has been a month since I read the book and I still haven't figured out the symbolism...I think the author had a great thesaurus. I mean, she must have spent a lot of money on it because she pretty much over des
...more
I was greatly disappointed in this book, but that may just be my male perspective talking. A promising concept and a wonderful metaphor for a dying town goes otherwise to waste as Groff gets too swept up in the minutiae of her main character's "finding herself" theme. The male characters--especially the joggers, who are asked to carry several pages on their own, come across as somewhat hollow, much like the high school bully turned into horny lecher.
I simply found the whole thing to be an exerc ...more
I simply found the whole thing to be an exerc ...more
If possible I'd give this book half a star. Sorry to be so critical but truly one of the worst books I've ever read. I tried several times in the past two years to finish this book but could never get through it. This time I forced myself to read beginning to end. But I came close to quitting (again) many times.
This became only the second book (Terror by Dan Simmons being the first) that I skipped pages and pages at a time, with no consequence to following the story.
I thought this book had a lo ...more
This became only the second book (Terror by Dan Simmons being the first) that I skipped pages and pages at a time, with no consequence to following the story.
I thought this book had a lo ...more
This book is an absolute disaster.
Groff is clearly a gifted writer and the plot had potential, but it was overambitious, resulting in a sloppy, confusing, manic story that is difficult to keep track of and oscillates between compelling page turner and useless drivel from chapter to chapter.
I blame the editor more than the author for how poorly this book turned out. Groff has plenty of talent, but was clearly missing the crucial personage of a competent editor to organize it into a cohesive nov ...more
Groff is clearly a gifted writer and the plot had potential, but it was overambitious, resulting in a sloppy, confusing, manic story that is difficult to keep track of and oscillates between compelling page turner and useless drivel from chapter to chapter.
I blame the editor more than the author for how poorly this book turned out. Groff has plenty of talent, but was clearly missing the crucial personage of a competent editor to organize it into a cohesive nov ...more
I gave it a valiant effort mostly because I liked Groff's authorial voice. Her characters are slightly quirky but I didn't find them especially endearing. And I don't really care about a woman's search for her father. And although there are some interesting images (photos, family trees, etc) sprinkled throughout, if you make the mistake of looking at them before you read along you end up finding out too much about where the story is going. And spoilers are not beneficial to making a book compell
...more
I tried, I really did, twice. And then again in an audio version. I wanted to like this becuase it starts out with a dead sea serpent. But it cheated on mebecame a contempary drama of some chick's bad choices, angst and search for her real father. In her selfish wallowing she neglects her friend who is dying of lupis. I could not bring myself to care about her. If she redeems herself in the end, so what.
This book really didn't live up to its review in Good Housekeeping. It tells the story of a college student who returns to her small hometown pregnant and heartbroken... well, that at least is what the book starts out as. Instead, it turns out to be a convoluted explanation of her bizarre genealogy and the just as strange history of the small town. Instead of compelling, I found it boring and disjointed, as well as surprisingly crude. No recommendation here.
I am so sorry to say this was a total waste of my time.
There is so much she could have done with this book. Instead she wallowed in illicit affairs and "bad" ancestry. There are no monsters, other than the sea creature in the lake (small harmless role in the plot). Granted, the monsters were easily the ancestors, but again they were harmless to the plot, because she did nothing with them.
There is not enough time to read stupid books! Does anyone know how to avoid them?
There is so much she could have done with this book. Instead she wallowed in illicit affairs and "bad" ancestry. There are no monsters, other than the sea creature in the lake (small harmless role in the plot). Granted, the monsters were easily the ancestors, but again they were harmless to the plot, because she did nothing with them.
There is not enough time to read stupid books! Does anyone know how to avoid them?
| topics | posts | views | last activity | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Free Books, .99 &...: Giveaway - The Monsters of Templeton, by Susan Groff | 2 | 41 | Jul 16, 2013 10:48AM |
Lauren Groff was born in Cooperstown, N.Y. and grew up one block from the Baseball Hall of Fame. She graduated from Amherst College and has an MFA in fiction from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Her short stories have appeared or are forthcoming in a number of journals, including The Atlantic Monthly, Ploughshares, Glimmer Train, Hobart, and Five Points as well as in the anthologies Best Amer ...more
More about Lauren Groff...
Her short stories have appeared or are forthcoming in a number of journals, including The Atlantic Monthly, Ploughshares, Glimmer Train, Hobart, and Five Points as well as in the anthologies Best Amer ...more
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“When I was small and easily wounded books were my carapace. If I were recalled to my hurts in the middle of a book they somehow mattered less. My corporeal life was slight the dazzling one in my head was what really mattered. Returning to books was coming home.”
—
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“Amor animi arbitrio sumitu, non ponitur; we choose to love; we do not choose to cease loving.”
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