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The Monsters of Templeton

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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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(showing 1-30)
filter: 5 stars  |  sort: default (?)  |  Rating Details
karen
yay!! my suspicions have been confirmed - i am officially not a book snob! i oscillate between thinking i might be a little bit of one, and that any forays i may make into teen fiction or silly bodice rippers that involve byron in some way are just accidents; flaws... on goodreads.com, i feel mostly like the dummy of the bunch, which is a totally comfortable and understandable place for me to be. but then at work, and in my readers advisory class, i feel like the biggest book elitist of all time ...more
Peggy
Dec 06, 2007 Peggy rated it it was amazing  ·  review of another edition
God, sometimes I love my job! I commute two hours to and from work every day, and given current traffic conditions in the Austin area, you can go ahead and add at least another half hour to my drive home. I'll sometimes stop and grab a burger for dinner, going through the drive-through and then sitting in the parking lot to eat. I always have a book in the car, so this gives me a little uninterrupted reading time while I finish my burger.

Most times, this takes 20-30 minutes. But every once in a
...more
Ben Babcock
First I read this book with curiosity and, I confess, not a little scepticism. Then I read this book with pleasure and even, perhaps, morbid anticipation. Finally, as I turned the last few pages and the book spoke to me of endings and new beginnings, I read this book with appreciation and wonder.

The Monsters of Templeton begins in a distracted, almost haphazard fashion, introducing the tangential plot of the lake monster's death even as we meet the protagonist, Wilhelmina "Wille" Upton. It took
...more
Jess ❈Harbinger of Blood-Soaked Rainbows❈
Have you ever picked up a book because it had a pretty cover, knowing almost nothing about it before you start reading? And then, when you begin to get lost in the pages, you realize that said book is the most perfect book to read at this most perfect time in your life because it just, I don't know, speaks to you and every situation that you are currently facing? And then, it seems that every person in your life at that particular moment in time seems also to be speaking to you from the pages of ...more
Badseedgirl
The Monsters of Templeton was hard to categorize. I finally decided it is magical realisim. Regardless of how you want to categorize it, I found the book to be a wonderful read.

Set in the current day, the author takes the reader on a trip through the establishment of the town of Templeton, using journals and letters written by and for the towns founders, the Templeton. There is all kinds of magical and supernatural elements interspersed throughout the novel. That is not really the focus of the
...more
Heather
Oct 01, 2009 Heather rated it it was amazing  ·  review of another edition
Recommends it for: people who like stories
Shelves: owned
I got this book as an advanced read copy from a big box book chain ages ago, so forgive me if I've missed some of the smaller details. I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I've noticed some of the other reviewers giving this book one and two stars because it's "fluff". Why on Earth does a book have to be dense and dreary to be good? What ever happened to the story telling aspect of books? Isn't that the point of a good book, that you learn something (either about the world, or yourself), enjoy what y ...more
Kelly
Oct 08, 2007 Kelly rated it it was amazing  ·  review of another edition
Shelves: 2007, fantasy
Yes, I have rather brilliantly read this several months before its February 2008 release date. Well, not really that brilliantly, some email advance readers club invite from Barnes & Noble appeared in my inbox so I signed up.

I wasn't expecting to be overly impressed with this book -- I had no idea what it was about, but it was free, so I had to read it. It's basically a hyped-up mythology of Cooperstown, of baseball and James Fenimore fame. I don't know much about JFC other than a few charac
...more
rachel
Aug 28, 2011 rachel rated it it was amazing  ·  review of another edition
Shelves: 2011
This book has everything I like in a book, including half wacky/half practical characters, the unearthing of an expansive, scandalous family history (told in the voices of those family members and Groff made an effort for them to actually sound different too!), enough mystery/intrigue to make it unputdownable, and a sea monster with a Puff the Magic Dragon-like affinity for people. Puff the Magic Dragon makes me cry, thus the ending of this almost did too. Or maybe that's hysterical pregnancy ho ...more
Kendra
Mar 22, 2008 Kendra rated it it was amazing  ·  review of another edition
Somehow, Lauren Groff managed to make this book both very complex and very enjoyable. Groff, a native of Cooperstown, NY, borrowed a handful of characters from James Fenimore Cooper and used Templeton, his fictionalized Cooperstown, as the backdrop for her story. The main character is Willie Upton, who returns to her hometown of Templeton after an affair with one of her professors ends very badly. Upon returning, two events have a major impact on Willie: 1) The corpse of a monster surfaces in Te ...more
emily compton
man, this one was pretty far outside my reading comfort zone and something i doubt i would have ever picked up had it not come highly recommended (thanks, RMJ!) and fulfilled my desire to read something by lauren groff. part historical fiction, part mystery, part magical realism, part family/lady drama, and, for me, really fun and engaging all the way through. it was a fluffy page-turning mystery kind of story with tons of lifetime movie drama, but also written really beautifully and punctuated ...more
Deanna
Nov 03, 2014 Deanna rated it it was amazing  ·  review of another edition
Shelves: favorites
This was such a unique way of storytelling, I was completely blow away by it.

First off, it's weird. Let me put that out there. This book is as weird as the days are long. It completely gets away with it though. The weird somehow works. Sea monsters, odd history, ghosts, eccentric characters, it's just weird but trust me it works.

I loved every single character and the town was painted so vividly I feel like I could drive there tomorrow and see all the places and people and blend right in. When I
...more
Rabbit {Paint me like one of your 19th century gothic heroines!}
Jan 19, 2011 Rabbit {Paint me like one of your 19th century gothic heroines!} rated it it was amazing  ·  review of another edition
Recommended to Rabbit {Paint me like one of your 19th century gothic heroines!} by: my stepfather
This was an excellent story of a woman going back home, and wound up searching for her biological father, and in doing so traces the origins of her town and her family tree.

This book is fictionally based and set on the town and family that settled it, where I currently live in, and have lived in growing up for a time.

This book is character driven but has enough plot. The writing is poetic without verging on purple prose territory. Definitely recommend it.
Michael
Mar 28, 2008 Michael rated it it was amazing  ·  review of another edition
Recommended to Michael by: Jeff Neuman
A fun semi-epistolary novel. Much like Faulkner illustrated the "postage stamp" of Mississippi that was his home, Groff creates a vivid picture of Templeton, New York, a stand-in for the real-world Cooperstown. A joy to read.
Maren Lee
Jun 09, 2017 Maren Lee rated it it was amazing  ·  review of another edition
Not my usual read. Just a really great, unique story that I completely and utterly enjoyed.
Anita
Oct 03, 2015 Anita rated it it was amazing  ·  review of another edition
This book was a random library find which I discovered was by the author of Fates and Furies. The book offers a weird and wild ride through the history and citizens of fictional Templeton, New York. The town is based on Cooperstown and author James Fenimore Cooper of The Last of the Mohicans's fame. Groff's version of Cooper is Jacob Franklin Templeton, son of the town founder, and author a well-known collection of nationalistic literature. Scholar and future archeologist Willie Upton returns ho ...more
Lisa Murray
This fantastical tale weaves stories from multiple generations into one woman's search for identity (to her biological father) while the small town around her has a bit of an identity crisis when its version of the loch ness monster surfaces dead. I loved reading this. The descriptions and the viewpoints simply mesmerized as even the sound and cadence of Groff's words reflect the speaker's viewpoint. Groff’s writing craft as much as the content kept me enthralled through all its crazy, kaleidosc ...more
Kivrin Engle
Jan 24, 2009 Kivrin Engle rated it it was amazing  ·  review of another edition
As a child, I spent all my summers in a cottage on a small lake, in a small town, in Michigan, so the book really resonated for me. I return to that place now, probably once every five years. The last time I was there, at the old summer cottage, my mother shared a CD compilation of old home movie footage of her childhood/teenage years around the lake. One of my cousins had discovered the old film reels in a basement of one of their cottages. To see my grandparents, my mother, my uncle, and their ...more
Charles
Feb 14, 2010 Charles rated it it was amazing  ·  review of another edition
Shelves: fiction
This book is full of and told in wonderful layers. Willy Upton's search for her father takes the reader/listener back through the years: from present-day Templeton all the way back into the 1700s. The book spills over with lives, relationships, dramas, and monsters of several kinds. The most wonderful thing about this book is that it is a fantasy, yet so real. Rooted in the details of our 21st century society, in the nuances and banalities of the finely-detailed town of Templeton, threaded back ...more
J.R.
Apr 20, 2008 J.R. rated it it was amazing  ·  review of another edition
Shelves: fiction
The first line of a story can be a crucial factor in whether you will continue reading.

In this, her debut novel, Lauren Groff has crafted a first sentence I couldn’t resist: “The day I returned to Templeton steeped in disgrace, the fifty-foot corpse of a monster surfaced in Lake Glimmerglass.”

Her character, Willie Upton, has come home after a disastrous affair with her married archaeology professor. Hoping to heal in familiar surroundings, she is thrown another curve when her hippie-turned-born
...more
Jake Rideout
Jul 13, 2009 Jake Rideout rated it it was amazing  ·  review of another edition
Shelves: favorites
Wilhelmina “Willie” Upton runs home to her mother in Templeton, New York on the same day that a strange creature goes belly-up in Templeton’s lake. Willie hasn’t lived at home in years, but a grave judgment error has forced her to leave her PhD program temporarily. Once home, Willie attempts to put the pieces of her life back together while readjusting to life with her mother. When she discovers that her father—who had remained a mystery for her whole life—lives right here in town, Willie embark ...more
Rachel
Jul 06, 2009 Rachel rated it it was amazing  ·  review of another edition
I think I like this book so much because I can relate to the main character: we both grew up in upstate New York, then went away to school, & we have some similar feelings about the town we grew up in. I'm also an only child, like the main character is. I loved reading her insights on the other characters & loved reading all of her family history.

The book is about the main character's quest to find her real father. He is living in her hometown, but the main character's mother has manage
...more
Chantal Johnson
I thoroughly enjoyed Monsters of Templeton! A book that spans centuries of times and explores a family and its ties to the town they founded. I thought it was funny and experimental. At times, I was confused by the certain in between chapters that took place in different time periods. Other than that, I enjoyed Willie's journey. The people in her life were all characters that you either loved or hated. And also realistic. The book had elements of science fiction as well, so that was an interesti ...more
Connie
Apr 26, 2012 Connie rated it it was amazing  ·  review of another edition
Boy, am I glad I didn't read the other reviews before picking this up! I really enjoyed this book because it was whimsical and light. I don't know why everyone is picking on it for trying to be serious lit. Guess I missed that! As a native NYer (not upstate though) who has spent enough time around the NY lakes in the summer, Groff's descriptions about the feel of the summer and early autumn days made me nostalgic. I am not a fan of lakes (prefer the ocean) and have always figured there's a giant ...more
Rosanna
Sep 24, 2016 Rosanna rated it it was amazing  ·  review of another edition
I enjoyed this so much more than "Fates or Furies." The writing is excellent in both of course, but I found the characters much more likeable in this one. The great mystery of who we are is eternal, and I love the historical look-back of this book, which is the history of Templeton, New York as well as the history of this woman. I have suspiciouns that Groff also has Mennonite ancestors (I did a wee bit of research after Mennonite mentions in Fates & Furies). I hope she explores them, and wo ...more
Sarah Wingo
Apr 03, 2015 Sarah Wingo rated it it was amazing  ·  review of another edition
A strange, magical, beautiful book.


I don't want to disturb the spell of this book by reviewing it to death, so I'll just make a few observations.

I found the prose captivating and the people real and honest in a way that is rare. I loved the story's unapologetic magic and it's unflinching reality. It is one of the few books I've encountered where I didn't find the use journal entries and letters to be a tedious plot device. Every character came alive for me.
Marv Himmel
Sep 04, 2009 Marv Himmel rated it it was amazing  ·  review of another edition
Just a wonderful read. I am not quite sure how to describe it. Part mystery, part fantasy, part psychological, part comedy, and wonderful charactors. Don't even try to keep track of all the family lines and charts. I tend to like stories that successfully show characters as rich, complicated, and pretty normal. This is a book that will remember for a long time.

I found that I didn't want to start another book too quickly. I wanted to savor this one as long as I could.
Laurie
Jul 26, 2010 Laurie rated it it was amazing  ·  review of another edition
Shelves: fiction
The Monsters of Templeton is a remarkable piece of writing. My only gripe is that I found it so hard to keep track of who was whom. The characters are incredibly rich and there is no question that this author has a way with words.
Allie
Mar 11, 2008 Allie rated it it was amazing  ·  review of another edition
Such a great book! Weird, quirky, and beautiful. I totally cheated (I always do) and looked in the back of the book to find out the big mystery, but it was still a lot of fun finding out how it came to be.
Kristie
Jun 12, 2016 Kristie rated it it was amazing  ·  review of another edition
Excellent, extremely unique novel!
Erin Sean patrick
When approached with an open mind, this book of many tangled fantastical threads may just charm you! I loved it.
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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...

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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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