Templeton, NY

The Monsters of Templeton by Lauren Groff was actually quite wonderful, I just honestly could not relate to or even like the protagonist, Wilhelmina Upton, or Willie for short. She’s a snob intellectually with a disdain for anyone who still lives in her small town of Templeton, NY, an atheist to the extreme, and still has a lot of growing up to do by the end of the book. The only thing I could relate to with her was her vanity at inappropriate times.

With Willie’s quest to find her father, her only clue that he was somehow also a descendant from the town’s founder Marmaduke Temple, the reader is transported through time to point of view of historical figures that made up the town of Templeton at its founding. Some is discovered from Willie’s research the rest from the point of view of some the characters, like Remarkable Prettybones, Richard Temple, Noname and her grandfather, Noname’s husband, Elizabeth Temple, and Hetty the house slave and the ghost that haunts Averell Cottage.

I loved the selected letters of Cinnamon and Charlotte, cousins, best friends and then bitter enemies. Richard’s story was short but fascinating. He was unique unto himself sharing little in common with his mother or father and very little with his younger brother, the favorite.

Visit Lauren Groff’s website for more info.

I would recommend this one. A well written novel all the way around, with believable characters will believable problems.