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metallicbranch's review against another edition
funny
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.75
So look. I deeply disliked Fates and Furies. So why am I reading more Lauren Groff? A. I had forgotten the full details of why I disliked Fates and Furies, and B. Because it was sitting in a Little Free Library and I thought "Sure, why not?" And I can very definitely say that I liked this book much better. It's a quirky-cozy semi-historical/mostly imaginary take on a smallish town in Upstate New York, with a reference to a character with the same name as my mother's hometown in Upstate New York. An enjoyable book for me, though not an especially challenging or novel one. My quibbles with it are unfortunately heightened in combination with Fates and Furies-- basically, I find the way Groff writes about romantic relationships to be appalling. In Monsters of Templeton, the present-day protagonist has two love interests. The first is her graduate advisor (yikes!), portrayed in the most cliched tropes imaginable: paunchy, balding, wearing waistcoats, with an overbearing wife who won't allow him to have women as students because HE IS A SERIAL SEXUAL HARRASSER. But our protagonist is enamored with him, because REASONS. Her second love interest is the former hometown high school hottie who now drives a tow truck, reads Spinoza for fun (not that his dialogue ever suggests it), serenades the protagonist by way of apology after GETTING HER DRUNK AND TRYING TO SLEEP WITH HER AFTER SHE EXPLICITLY TELLS HIM TO LEAVE HER ALONE, and is DEFINITELY not to blame for the fact that the mother of his children is aggressively angry with him and any women he is pursuing. And this is the tip of the iceberg for the way Groff treats patently predatory behavior from men as romantic and/or funny. Swear to god, this is one of those books where if you take all the relationships it depicts in total, you gotta walk away asking "Are you straights ok...?"
All of this is to say that the center of the book didn't hold for me, but the peripheries were sometimes fun. As was a notable plus of Fates and Furies, Groff is pretty good at writing in different voices, and she uses that very effectively here to write from the first-hand perspective of historical characters across Templeton who slowly unveil the story of the protagonist's family. And I find the writing overall to be less overwrought than she was in Fates and Furies. The throughline of the Lake Glimmerglass monster did nothing for me-- it kind of reminded me of the hilariously misguided monster movie, Lake Placid-- but it didn't really harm the work, aside from feeling like a too obvious attempt at metaphor (hey, did you ever think about the fact that the real monsters are the people? really makes you think!)
What interests me about this book from Groff is that she was a darling of the literary fiction world, but not for this book, which I think aligns more closely with a subgenre primarily marketed to women of cozy but lightly dark family stories in small towns, with hints of romance. She gets elevated more when she writes outside of that warmth. And I just can't help but wonder the extent to which her books' willingness to condone shitty men's behavior is part of what gets her feted by literary critics.
All of this is to say that the center of the book didn't hold for me, but the peripheries were sometimes fun. As was a notable plus of Fates and Furies, Groff is pretty good at writing in different voices, and she uses that very effectively here to write from the first-hand perspective of historical characters across Templeton who slowly unveil the story of the protagonist's family. And I find the writing overall to be less overwrought than she was in Fates and Furies. The throughline of the Lake Glimmerglass monster did nothing for me-- it kind of reminded me of the hilariously misguided monster movie, Lake Placid-- but it didn't really harm the work, aside from feeling like a too obvious attempt at metaphor (hey, did you ever think about the fact that the real monsters are the people? really makes you think!)
What interests me about this book from Groff is that she was a darling of the literary fiction world, but not for this book, which I think aligns more closely with a subgenre primarily marketed to women of cozy but lightly dark family stories in small towns, with hints of romance. She gets elevated more when she writes outside of that warmth. And I just can't help but wonder the extent to which her books' willingness to condone shitty men's behavior is part of what gets her feted by literary critics.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Schizophrenia/Psychosis and Cultural appropriation
Minor: Adult/minor relationship and Sexual harassment
valjeanval's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Groff is an incredible writer, and while I think her more recent books show how much she’s grown, her debut is still a great read. A vaguely magical realism look at the “All American” small town. Great characters, an intriguing mystery, and beautiful writing.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Child death, Racism, Slavery, Terminal illness, Chronic illness, Infidelity, Infertility, Pregnancy, and Murder
Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Car accident, Confinement, Cursing, Classism, Colonisation, Death of parent, Miscarriage, Death, and Grief
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