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The Monsters of Templeton

by Lauren Groff (Goodreads Author)

3.58 · Rating Details · 15,764 Ratings · 2,450 Reviews

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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Sep 15, 2008 Will Byrnes rated it liked it · review of another edition

The author, a native of Cooperstown, NY has written a love tale to her town, renamed Templeton. The name was a nom de place used by James Fenimore Cooper for the town in his book The Pioneers. Wilhelmina (Willie) Upton has returned to town, pregnant, distraught, at a turning point in her life. Her mother had kept from her the name of her father, substituting a fable that fit the era of her conception. But Vi, her mother, is willing to offer hints, leaving it to Willie to apply her research skill The author, a native of Cooperstown, NY has written a love tale to her town, renamed Templeton. The name was a nom de place used by James Fenimore Cooper for the town in his book The Pioneers. Wilhelmina (Willie) Upton has returned to town, pregnant, distraught, at a turning point in her life. Her mother had kept from her the name of her father, substituting a fable that fit the era of her conception. But Vi, her mother, is willing to offer hints, leaving it to Willie to apply her research skills to complete the task. This quest provides the structure for the novel, as Willie peels back layer after layer of the town’s history in search of her father. The characters and stories she turns up cover centuries, from the time the first white man decided to make a town at this location to Willie’s present day experiences. The characters are often (but not always) interesting and surprising. Groff offers a sufficient supply of the unexpected to keep the tale interesting and the story moving forward.

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Lauren Groff - image from Squarebooks.com

The central image of the story is the monster of Templeton. Of course the real monsters are some of the humans who lived there. The monster serves as pretty much a purely literary device. What lies hidden grows over time into something substantial. Once a secret is exposed, new secrets take its place. This is not a sci-fi or horror story by any stretch, although there are occasional elements of the supernatural.

I enjoyed the book, although I did not love it. There were too many characters to give more than a few of them real life, and Groff spreads her attention widely. Groff has been a short story writer and this book reflects that skill. Like Louse Erdrich’s Plague of Doves, it does sometimes seem as if the author was looking for a way to weave together a few disparate elements. Overall, a nice read. I believe she will write tighter books in future and I am looking forward to those.

=============================EXTRA STUFF

Links to the author’s personal, Twitter and FB pages ...more

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May 19, 2014 B the BookAddict rated it liked it · review of another edition

Recommended to B the BookAddict by: Goodreads

Author Lauren Groff gives the reader a modern story, a fantasy and an historical fiction story all within her tale of Willie, returned to her family home, who embarks on a quest to find the identity of her real father. There is also a mythical lake monster and a resident ghost and while other writers may stagger under the weight of such scope, Groff juggles all story lines reasonably well. It is narrated partly in the third person by two main characters, in first person narrations of ancestors a ...more

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Mar 15, 2008 Eva rated it liked it · review of another edition

Maybe it helps to read mediocre books so you truly appreciate a good book when it crosses your path. 1 star=unreadable, 2 stars=sorry to have wasted the time but did actually finish it, 3 stars is a notch above that and hey, that's not bad for a first-time author.

My complaints include: a plot that is driven by an only mildly compelling question, tons of subplots that have nothing to do with the main question and are boring distractions, poorly written fictional historical documents....I got the ...more

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Feb 01, 2008 Maggie rated it liked it · review of another edition

Wilhelmina ("Willie") Upton - a promising graduate student at Standford University - has fled back to her small, historic hometown of Templeton, New York "steeped in disgrace." The affair with her married grad school mentor has been found out, and, now pregnant with his illegitimate child, she hopes to find solace in her mother, Vivian ("Vi") Upton - a woman whose footsteps Willie has unwittingly fallen into. Herself a child of the free-loving 1960s, Vi had always told Willie that she is the pro Wilhelmina ("Willie") Upton - a promising graduate student at Standford University - has fled back to her small, historic hometown of Templeton, New York "steeped in disgrace." The affair with her married grad school mentor has been found out, and, now pregnant with his illegitimate child, she hopes to find solace in her mother, Vivian ("Vi") Upton - a woman whose footsteps Willie has unwittingly fallen into. Herself a child of the free-loving 1960s, Vi had always told Willie that she is the product of one of the many lovers she took while living in a San Francisco hippie commune, but when Willie returns home Vi thinks it best that she finally tell her daughter the truth about her parentage. In an attempt to take her mind off of her own unraveling life, Vi partially lets Willie in on the long-kept secret of her heritage - that she is not a result of "any one of three random hippies in a San Francisco commune," but rather the illegitimate daughter of some "random Templeton man." Thinking it best that Willie have a task to keep her occupied in her time of emotional duress, Vi refuses to reveal this man's identity, but instead insists that Willie solve the mystery for herself. The novel that follows is made up of the random snatches of genealogical research, generational family rumors and gossip, and historical documents Willie digs up to help piece together the epic story that is her family's history, and - most importantly - to discover the true identify of the father who shared her hometown but whom she never knew.

The "monsters" in The Monsters of Templeton are numerous and varied. The day of Willie's homecoming also happens to be the day when the fabled lake monster of the town's Lake Glimmerglass dies, its fifty-foot fish corpse rising to the surface to finally end the several-hundred-year-long debate over its existence. There is an actual ghost that haunts Willie's bedroom, and who occasionally emerges to help her in her quest. And, of course, there are various human monsters who are unmasked as Willie unravels the thread of her family history to reveal betrayal, murder, rape, countless affairs and loads of intrigue. As a whole, the novel is part mystery, part historical fiction, part magical realism, and only partly successful.

Obviously, when you pick up a book knowing that one of its characters is a giant lake monster, you don't really go into it expecting absolute realism, but even still one of my criticisms of the novel is that some of the twists in the plot are too easily arrived at. For instance, when Willie reaches a dead-end in her search, her mother - *tada!* - suddenly remembers owning a sealed envelop of old letters written by the very same relatives Willie is researching at that particular moment. Or, when she's not sure what path to travel down next - *tada!* - a ghost emerges and tell her. There aren't many moments like these, but when they happened I couldn't help but roll my eyes.

Next, is the language. Time and time again, Groff's sentences felt like they were trying way too hard. I wouldn't call it pretentious exactly, but with characters named Marmaduke, Cinnamon, Primus Dwyer, and Ezekiel Flecher; and with ridiculous sentences like, "He slept, openmouthed like a boy, blissfully naked, his smooth rear exposed trustfully to the sky" she is definitely risking absurdity on more than one occasion.

But despite all of this, I couldn't help but enjoy reading this book. The story - although often unbelievable - was engrossing, and the language - while often grating - was also often beautiful, allowing the terrible spots to be quickly and easily laughed away. It's been a long time since I've felt so conflicted by a story, and that alone is reason enough to make me glad to have read it. ...more

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Feb 06, 2008 Jennifer rated it liked it · review of another edition

Recommends it for: Anyone who has returned to their hometown

Recommended to Jennifer by: Entertainment Weekly (& Borders)

"The day I returned to Templeton steeped in disgrace, the fifty-foot corpse of a monster surfaced in Lake Glimmerglass." A great opening line for an interesting book, a love letter to a town in New York that curiously resembles Cooperstown.

The story begins as Willie (Wilhemina) Upton returns home with her tail between her legs and a fetus in her belly. She is running from a disasterous affair with her graduate school professor and dissertation advisor (one that starts on an archeological dig in ...more

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Feb 08, 2008 Holbrook rated it liked it · review of another edition

A lot of fun if a bit amateurly written. I'm beginning to realize you can hide a lot of novice prose by putting the story in the first person. Is it the author or the character making lame philosophical statements? Blame the character, spare the author. I felt that way about Special Topics In Calamaty Physics too.
Monsters had a nice historical research/uncovering secrets thing going on which I always enjoy (think Possession but not as good, of course).
Anyway, congratulations to a new author wh ...more

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Feb 17, 2013 GoldGato rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction, autumn, atlantic-gothic

This was a strange duck of a read. Using the factual history of the real Cooperstown in New York, Lauren Groff weaves a tale of personal ghosts, lonely lake monsters, and hippie fantasies to bring an imaginative spin to the fantasy world of the town of Templeton.

I enjoyed the ride, as she gets the reader involved quickly with the introduction of Glimmey the Monster, who comes across as a shy creature from Lake Glimmerglass. She includes old photos and portraits to illustrate the heroine's ancest ...more

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Mar 29, 2016 Bex rated it liked it · review of another edition

Definitely intriguing. Probably more of a 3.5. Hoping I enjoy her other books more, however, I did love the premise and style of this novel though; a great debut nevertheless.

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Feb 12, 2011 Shannon (Giraffe Days) rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: historical-fiction, fiction, 2011

There's a bit of everything in this book. It's a blend of fiction and history, myth and coming-of-age, investigative mystery and whodunnit. And the interesting thing about it is that, according to the Author's Note, she's not even the first person to write this story. She talks about James Fenimore Cooper, a 19th-century novelist, and wanting to write a love story about her home town, Cooperstown - which Cooper had pretty much already written. He renamed the town Templeton; so did Groff. Soon hi There's a bit of everything in this book. It's a blend of fiction and history, myth and coming-of-age, investigative mystery and whodunnit. And the interesting thing about it is that, according to the Author's Note, she's not even the first person to write this story. She talks about James Fenimore Cooper, a 19th-century novelist, and wanting to write a love story about her home town, Cooperstown - which Cooper had pretty much already written. He renamed the town Templeton; so did Groff. Soon his characters "knocked on the door and joined the party." It's almost like two authors collaborating over time to rewrite a town's history - I kinda liked it.

The story is about Willie Cooper, our young, messy heroine with a bit of a temper and a penchant for making mistakes - having had an affair with her married professor while on an archeological dig in Alaska, she's been caught out by his jealous wife and fled home, all the while believing she's pregnant and facing becoming a single mother, just like her own mum, Vi. Her mother used to be a hippy, but now she's a born-again Christian with a guilty conscience: she lied to Willie about who her father is (having told her it could be one of three men she shared a love nest with in San Francisco back in the 70s). Yet she still can't come clean about Willie's father, instead telling her it's a man from town - thus giving Willie a mystery to uncover.

Meanwhile, on the very morning of Willie's return to Templeton, a dead monster floats in the lake, a giant blubbery thing that grips the town in a media frenzy. While Willie researches her ancestry back to the earliest settlement of Templeton, the lake monster is a recurring theme across the centuries. Yet who are the real monsters - the ugly creature that lurked in the depths, or the ugly truths lurking within the breasts of the town's famous figures?

I picked this up at Ellison Hawker Bookshop in Hobart back in February, after finishing the one book I'd brought with me and needing a new one to get me through the airports on the way back. I didn't recognise the book, the title or premise, but when I looked it up back home I realised I'd seen it around quite a bit, just with a different - and more distinctive - black, white and red cover. I finished it shortly after getting home, so it's been a month and a half and so I can only give you the points that have stuck with me.

There was a lot about this book that I really enjoyed - namely, the chapters set in the past, told through the voices and eyes of the various "historical" figures, from the town's founder, Marmaduke Temple, to Sagamore, a native chief, and his white friend Hawkeye. We end up with a detailed tapestry of multiple narrators and a slowly unravelling secret. In comparison, there were plenty of times when I was disappointed in Willie, as a person - though her character flaws are understandable the more you come to know her oft-times crazy forebears.

Through the meandering mystery is that of the lake monster, who is the most tragic and lonely figure in the novel - and one you come to really feel for by the end. Quite a few of the individual stories really touched me, and made me want to hear more about these people - but it's a quilt, and each only gets their own small piece.

The other thing is that this novel is really quite long, longer than it needed to be I think. There are too many Willie chapters that felt like filler and didn't add to the story, and gave an over-all effect of waffling. I enjoyed the mystery, but it was certainly a very drawn-out one! It took me a while to get into it, and a while for it to really get going, but the things I enjoyed balanced the things I didn't care for. Ultimately, it was an ambitious, entertaining novel, slow at times but worth it in the long run. ...more

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Oct 13, 2012 Chloe rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction, families_suck

I have to admit that I had not heard word one about this book before its delightful cover caught my eye on the Powell's sale shelf and somehow leapt into my hands. I mean look at it- stark black and white coloring with just a splash of red- how could it not grab my attention? Likewise, I had very little knowledge of Cooperstown, New York, (aside from it being the home of the baseball Hall of Fame) before cracking open the pages of this volume.

So imagine my surprise when I learned in the opening I have to admit that I had not heard word one about this book before its delightful cover caught my eye on the Powell's sale shelf and somehow leapt into my hands. I mean look at it- stark black and white coloring with just a splash of red- how could it not grab my attention? Likewise, I had very little knowledge of Cooperstown, New York, (aside from it being the home of the baseball Hall of Fame) before cracking open the pages of this volume.

So imagine my surprise when I learned in the opening pages that Cooperstown was founded by the father of American author exemplar, James Fenimore Cooper. Far from simply writing about Mohicans, though, Cooper had also written a series of stories set in a thinly-veiled surrogate of Cooperstown that he referred to as Templeton, a conceit that author Lauren Groff has adopted to tell her touching tale of people searching for identity in their twisted family histories, the bonds of a small town, and a prehistoric lake monster whose death forms the allegorical backdrop of this book.

Willie Upton returns to her hometown of Templeton in a bit of disgrace- she is pregnant with the spawn of her research adviser and may or may not be wanted for attempted murder after trying to run her adviser's wife (who also happens to be the Dean of students at her university) down with a small single-engine Cesna. Needless to say, she arrives home in a bit of a funk. To help draw her out of her pity party of one her mother, Vi, dangles a tantalizing carrot in front of her: Willie is not the result of months-long dalliance with an ever-changing assortment of men in a 1970s San Francisco commune, but a one-off affair with a Templetonian shortly after she had returned to her home town. Refusing to give more than the solitary clue that her father is related to the town's founder (and Vi herself) through an unreported branching of the family tree, Willie finds herself digging deeply into the town, and her own, history using all of her carefully-honed research skills.

Part family drama, part detective novel, The Monsters of Templeton is a fun read that really helped draw me out of the reading funk I had been in for a time before this. Groff draws in all sorts of fun arcana from Cooper's past, even throwing in a real life representative of Davey from Mohicans, which now has me wondering how much Cooper had been drawing from real life when he was writing. Unfortunately, Groff leaves any questions of historical accuracy to the academics here, she is more interested in crafting what turns out to be an enormously captivating tale of family secrets and redemption found generations later. For a spur of the moment purchase, The Monsters of Templeton turned out to be quite the engaging read. I will certainly be searching out more of Groff's works in the time to come. ...more

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Dec 05, 2008 Beth Anne rated it liked it · review of another edition

i would like to give this book 3 1/2 stars...but, no halves on goodreads. i liked the book, overall...read it quickly...and had some feelings for most of the characters. i think Wille Upton had a great voice....but there were so many interruptions. i found myself flipping back and forth a few times trying to place the name of the person in each chapter with the family tree, or a previous chapter. perhaps the author put a bit too many stories in the mix for such a short book?

either way, i think t ...more

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Sep 02, 2012 Meghan rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction

There's something clunky about this, inelegant perhaps. The book is set in a fictionalized version of Cooperstown, New York, complete with the baseball Hall of Fame and fictionalized version of James Fenimore Cooper. As the novel opens, a sea monster is found in a local lake, just at the same time as 28-year-old Willie Upton, a hometown girl who's escaped from Templeton into archaeology field work and academic success, has had to come home in disgrace. The novel alternates from her point of view ...more

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Jun 20, 2015 Bibliophile rated it liked it · review of another edition

Too many ingredients in this charming soup for my taste. So many characters, back stories and family secrets. All that genealogy had me dazed and confused. I did enjoy the small town setting, and found the mother-daughter relationship touching. My favorite part was probably the letters between Charlotte and Cinnamon. Those two racked up an impressive body count. Oh, and lake monsters. Loved those. Every novel should have a lake monster in them.

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Apr 11, 2008 Knowhowib rated it liked it · review of another edition

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. I really wanted to like this book, and honestly, I genuinely like several parts.

Why don't I like about this book you ask?

So much of it is just down right unbelievable. I felt, in many places, that the author intentionally slacked on dialog and depth of the main character to laugh at the reader and marvel at the money we've spent on it. For instance, who is Willie Upton? I still don't know. She has no depth. She acts only as a gateway to the events of Templeton, Templeton, who is really the main ...more

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Jan 26, 2014 Steph rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: read-in-2014

The Monsters of Templeton takes place in the fictional town of Templeton, which is based not-so-loosely on the real town of Cooperstown, New York, where Groff grew up. Her story borrows from the work of James Fenimore Cooper, particularly The Last of the Mohicans. I haven't actually read Cooper, so my knowledge pretty much extends to being able to recognize his characters rather than being able to compare borrowed plots.

The basic premise is that PhD student Willie Upton has returned home to Tem ...more

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Sep 26, 2010 Michael rated it liked it · review of another edition

Recommended to Michael by: Jennifer F

Shelves: audio, 2000s, rereading-project

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Sep 25, 2007 Mel rated it liked it · review of another edition

advanced reading copy
i got this book through an advanced reading club - i think through barnes & noble. overall, the story is excellent. however, the author utilizes several methods and points of view to reveal the story to the reader. in one vein, it is what really "makes" the story. however, when it doesn't work - it makes you want to put the thing down and move on to something else.

the plethora of family tree references, while i understand they motivate the story, becomes too confusing a ...more

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Jan 08, 2012 Linda rated it liked it · review of another edition

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Oct 13, 2008 Chris rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: fantasy-historical

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Mar 17, 2008 Chris rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: 2008-reads

I wanted to love this (the dust jacket alone made me swoon!), but I only liked it. And probably only enough to read just once. I thought the family trees repeated throughout the novel were a nice device, but I still had to go back and reread sections to figure out which ancestors were being discussed, who was related to whom, etc. I also didn't find the main character to be all that believable as a person...though perhaps I've just never met anyone like her? Anyway, it distracted me. On the plus ...more

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Dec 13, 2008 Hthayer rated it liked it · review of another edition

This was an entertaining little read. The characters are interesting and well drawn, the writing fresh and humorous. The story is of a young woman who returns in disgrace home to her small town to have her mother drop a bomb that she was not the product of a hippie love commune but is actually the daughter of someone in the town. Our heroine researches her past to find her father. It sounds boring, but with the interesting and charming characters, this one was a page-turner.

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Mar 11, 2016 Jillian Fischer rated it liked it · review of another edition

I love Lauren Groff, I think she's an extremely talented writer, & I will definitely read anything else she writes! Sadly, I couldn't finish this book. In spite of the fact that it has received *glowing* reviews by top publications & very famous authors, I found the story boring. I gave it 3 stars for the excellent writing.

Now I'm back to searching for something decent to read. Seems to be the story of my life, lately. ):

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Mar 03, 2015 Courtney Brown rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: 2015, own

Not the best book I've ever read. Felt like a lot of the details were unnecessary loose ends and a lot of the characters' decisions didn't make sense, or felt contrived to drive the plot to a place I didn't understand.

That said, some bits were ...cute. I don't mean this negatively (alternative descriptors included "fun" and "lighthearted"), I just mean it to say that I liked some of the plot decisions in the special place of my heart reserved for fluff reading.

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Jan 18, 2016 Delia Turner rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction, fantasy

A very enjoyable, uneven book with a frustrating main character, a book driven mostly by love of place, richly observed. Some wonderful writing, and a monster deep in the water. Though I am a fantasy reader, oddly the fantasy elements of this book were mostly only jarring elements for me; they seemed too convenient. In addition, I felt that the resolution was inconclusive and unsatisfying. But it was a compulsive read for me, with wonderful writing, and the monster will remain with me.

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Mar 10, 2008 Kaelie rated it liked it · review of another edition

This book really defies description -- it's a mystery, a fantasy, a coming-of-age fable, a tragedy, an epic family saga and a piece of fiction cruising through real-life places and events. Most of all it's imaginative, and ambitious, and if the plot twists are a little break-neck and maniacal it's still a pretty good read. While the narrator isn't always likable, it's still rewarding watching her come to terms with her past, her present, and, tentatively, her future.

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Aug 16, 2008 Andrea rated it liked it · review of another edition

This book takes various cues from Anne Rice's Mayfair series, and the author is a master of first person narration, and character development. Although some of the subplots are completely compelling to the reader, the metanarrative is ultimately underwhelming, and a disorganized mess. Too many genres grapple for attention, in an intriguing novel that doesn't quite decide if it's a coming of age story, or a suspense thriller.

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Nov 24, 2014 Dusan rated it liked it · review of another edition

In all fairness, this would have gotten a 4 star rating from me had it not been for the comparatively unappealing, clunky modern-day setting and the plodding plot. Having said that, Groff's language is thick with metaphor and would, I feel, be better suited to poetry. Some of the historical passages are amazing and the descriptions of the Monster, heartbreakingly beautiful.

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Apr 16, 2014 David Slater rated it liked it · review of another edition

A very ambitious attempt to blend genres (family saga, magical realism, mystery, epistolary novel, multiple voices, etc.). Engaging writing, too. But...the entire search for the protagonist's father is contrived, her discoveries are often simply handed to her, and, worst of all, in the end the truth is entirely unmoving.

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Aug 13, 2013 Lisa rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: literature

I understand that this book is a good read theoretically, but in practice it never quite took hold for me. Perhaps I was still mourning the loss of Groff's characters and settings in Arcadia, perhaps the narrator/protaganist didn't quite resonate, perhaps I'm just too disinterested in genealogy? It is certainly well written so feel free to give it a try and maybe it will work better for you.

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Jun 26, 2014 Jasmin Mohd-zain rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: 2014-reads

it was entertaining...the main character Willie has "spunk". And i like looking at the random pictures and try to imagine them fitting the characters that Groff introduces from time to time.

Although not an absorbing read, it is interesting and "plot-ty" enough to make me finish the book in two days...

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About Lauren Groff

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

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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.” — 46 likes

“Amor animi arbitrio sumitu, non ponitur; we choose to love; we do not choose to cease loving.” — 15 likes

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