You Can't Choose Your Relatives: The Monsters of Templeton Book Review

 

This novel is historical fiction because the author based it on her hometown of Cooperstown in New York. I also learned that this is a domestic novel, aka women's fiction. According to American literary critic Nina Baym, a domestic novel has a the following plot: 

The story of a young girl who is deprived of the supports she had rightly or wrongly depended on to sustain her throughout life and is faced with the necessity of winning her own way in the world . . . . At the outset she...looks to the world to coddle and protect her . . . . But the failure of the world to satisfy either reasonable or unreasonable expectations awakens the heroine to inner possibilities. By the novel's end she has developed a strong conviction of her own worth. 

 

You Should Read The Monsters of Templeton if...

• You enjoy genealogical hunts.
• You love worldbuilding.
• You want to solve a mystery.
• You're interested in books that touch on colonialism.

Want a short, spoiler-free review? Check out my review on Reedsy Discovery.

Trigger warning: The book contains murder, perverse sex (only 1 or 2 chapters), violence and slavery.

-- SPOILERS AHEAD--

Photo by Ales Krivec on Unsplash

Summary 

Lauren Groff's novel The Monsters of Templeton begins with Stanford student Willie Upton returning to her hometown of Templeton where her mother still lives. Willie was having an affair with a married man and is now pregnant. She fears that she won't be able to finish her archaeology dissertation and isn't sure if she wants to keep the Lump, as she calls it. Willie is shocked to find that her mother has converted from a free-spirited hippie to a Baptist, and the rumored sea monster is found floating on the lake, dead. While Willie tries to figure out what to do about her future, her mother tells her that Willie is not the product of a free-love activity, but was the daughter of a man in Templeton. Willie is given a hint about him and investigates her family's history, going back to Marmaduke Temple, the founder of the town. Luckily, there are plenty of records around since Willie's family are the descendants of the founding father of Templeton. 

 

 A side story consists of Willie's best friend, Clarissa, who is dealing with an autoimmune disease, and a rocky relationship. 

Characters

Wilhelmina "Willie" Sunshine Upton:  She is in her twenties. Willie was the track and soccer star in high school, as well as Homecoming Queen. She's studying to be an archaeologist. She is a curious and spunky person who enjoys research, but she is also snobbish and a bit spoiled. Willie is promiscuous and claims that she forms deep attachments. 

Vivienne "Vi" Upton: She is Willie's mother and allows Willie to call her by her first name. Her parents died in a car accident when she was in high school. She is a critical care nurse and raised Willie on her own. Vi lied to everyone about Willie being the child of one of three men Vi slept with during her hippie days. She was an unconventional woman and hippie all of Willie's life, but became a Baptist in her old age. Vi is the girlfriend to Reverend Milky.

Clarissa Evans: She has blonde corkscrew hair, birdlike bone structure like a dancer, is shorter than Willie and has a deep and throaty voice from smoking too much. Clarissa likes people with spunk, which is why she gets along with Willie. She is a journalist and has an autoimmune disease that she has to manage with therapy. Her parents disappeared on a family trip to Norway and their bodies were never found. She gets along with Vi. She's in a relationship with a man named Sully.

Reverend John "Milky" Melkovitch: He is the stereotypical priest who wishes to save people. He won't have sex before marriage, which upsets Vi. He is her boyfriend. Willie isn't happy about their relationship because she was raised without religion.

The Running Buds: They are a group of runners who see themselves as the protectors of the town as they observe and watch while running the perimeter of Templeton. The group is composed of Frankie, Doug, Little Thom, Big Tom, Johann and Sol.

• Frankie gave Willie an internship at his family-owned newspaper. 
• Doug is one of Willie's high school English teachers.
• Little Thom was Willie's pediatrician and helped Vi to fix her house now and again.
• Big Tom sold used cars and gave Willie the hatchback she drives in the novel.
• Johann has a daughter in Willie's class (at Stanford?) and he brings Willie marzipan when he returns from Germany.
• Sol is a rich man who has been married three times, but remained childless.

Marmaduke Temple: He is the founding father of Templeton, having left New York in 1797 to lay claim to a plot of land in the wilderness and build his town. He is a powerful and deceitful man. He claimed to be a Quaker, but owned slaves. He slept with many women, including a slave he owned and a native girl, both of whom became pregnant. 

Glimmey the Lake Monster: It is not a mean creature, merely observant of the people of Templeton and lives for about 200 years. It is a self-fertilizing synchronous hermaphrodite.

Photo by Jez Timms on Unsplash

What I Liked 

We get a town map, which is handy since many of the characters reference streets and landmarks! I'm just a bit miffed that my paperback binding distorts the middle of it. Maps work better on the interior of hardcovers. Writers, take note!

We also get other bonus material, such as an Author's Note where Groff explains her inspiration, an interview with her, and reading questions to consider.

Points of View (POVs)

I often find it hard to be immersed in a story when there are multiple narrators, but this type of POV was necessary and I enjoyed it. I was confused by the Running Buds chapters because they are written as "we" instead of "I," so when all of the Running Buds are named, I was scratching my head asking, "But who's narrating? There has to be someone else!" But I think the author meant that all of them were narrating together. 

Nancy Drew Reference

Seeing Nancy Drew mentioned in a book always makes me smile.

Genealogical Research

Reading the documents of Willie's family members was cool. We had different narrators that had distinguishable speech patterns and in one instance, we read letters between family friends, so we had to catch up on events that occurred between the dates. The research is done via various methods. Instead of Willie just reading documents at home or in the library, the librarian her about some information and Willie is directed to a hidden document by a ghost.

I love doing research like that.(I miss libraries!) Another book I read that includes this type of research hunt is The Bookman's Tale: A Novel of Obsession.  I love watching shows like Who Do You Think You Are? because you get closer to being in the ancestor's frame of mind and era. 

Templeton's Reaction to Glimmey 

It's a nice change that the humans weren't bent on attacking Glimmey or even afraid of it. When it was alive, no one hunted it despite the rumors after all the centuries of people occasionally glimpsing something in the water. Although. I'm surprised there weren't any individuals saying that they were happy that the monster was dead and that the lake was safe. One of Willie's friends speculates that now that the lake is empty, no one was in it swimming or boating because there wasn't anyone watching over them. Additionally, touching Glimmey instigated sadness and nostalgia in Willie (and probably in everyone). Somehow, the natives knew this and called it "Sad Spirit." It was nice that we didn't get all of the answers about this creature and its legacy lives on.

What I Didn't Like

The book is a mix of peculiar and realistic circumstances reflecting the monsters of Templeton and I don't mean Glimmey. 

The Book's Cover

The book cover is lovely with its tree and black, white and red palette, but I'm confused by who is on the cover. The ones I know for sure are:

• Glimmey
• The Running Buds

The rest are just guesses. The man writing is maybe the novelist Jacob Franklin Temple (son to Marmaduke) and the two women together could be Vi and Willie because there is no other scene where there are two women together in modern dress. It might be Willie and Clarissa, but Clarissa isn't a Templetonian. So, who is the single woman sitting in the chair?

I thought the tree was supposed to represent Willie's family, but since Glimmey is there, I think the tree represents Templeton's creation when Marmaduke and his people settled there and built it up.

Once Willie put the idea in my head that anyone could be her father, such as one of the Running Buds, I knew that was the answer because only one of them is colored red on the cover as if to say one of them is different from the others.

Willie's Reaction to Mrs. Dwyer

Mrs. Dwyer flies to Alaska and slaps Willie because she knows Willie is sleeping with her husband. Fair enough. She could have done something much worse. But Willie gets in the plane that Mrs. Dwyer was just in, clumsily operates it and drives it after the wife. This is highly unrealistic. Additionally, Willie is in the wrong because she is knowingly sleeping with a married man and assumes he's going to leave his wife for her (which she doesn't mention until over halfway through the book). 

Willie and Money

To continue from the previous scene, the pilot manages to climb into the plane and flies Willie out of there to Nome. Conveniently, Mrs. Dwyer forgot her pocket book on the plane, so Willie uses her credit card to fly home.

Willie mentions that her mother paid for her education, and says, "For the first time, Vi wouldn't pay" for Willie to return to Templeton. Willie sounds spoilt and she never mentions having a job. So because Vi wouldn't pay, Willie never went home for Christmas. I understand why her mother was mad. Where does Willie get her money for everyday living? I understand that housing in San Francisco is high.

John Malkovitch Reference

Reverend John Melkovitch sounds too similar to the famous actor John Malkovitch. If I'm right, why the reference? 

Willie and Ezekiel; Clarissa and Sully

My interpretation of their relationships probably depends on my own experiences, so bear this in mind.

I found that Ezekiel was justified in calling Willie "Queenie" because she has that attitude of superiority towards him and even after he calls her out on it, Willie changes a little, but then reverts to herself when she heads back to San Francisco. She slept with Ezekiel and then, didn't plan on telling him that she was leaving town. Plus, Willie is often rude to him when he is a nice guy. I honestly don't understand what he sees in her and I cannot see them ever getting together. There just wasn't any chemistry.

Clarissa is the same way with her boyfriend, Sully. Willie informs readers that the couple had their biggest fight once, but made up. I get the impression that they should have ended it because Sully is being the caring boyfriend who is working hard and looking after Clarissa who has lupus erythematosus, an autoimmune disease. But she often ignores him, thinking she knows better, which makes her condition worse and Sully is burnt out caring for her. Even when Clarissa speaks to Willie on the phone, she often insults him and talks about him when he's in the room. I don't blame him for meeting someone else and leaving Clarissa.

However, the way in which he did it was not good. He breaks up with Clarissa while his new girlfriend is in the next room of their apartment, gathering his belongings. That was a bit much. And for some reason, Sully feels guilty and ends up sending a postcard to Clarissa when she is in Templeton with only the word "Sorry" on it. He really didn't have to bother. 

Photo by Nourdine Diouane on Unsplash

The Great Reveal and the Great Reveal Part 2

With the head librarian's help, readers follow the logic that the Running Bud, Frankie, is Willie's father and Willie even comes to this conclusion herself. But as soon as we've made this discovery, it's shot down almost immediate with Willie saying that she won't tell him because he already has a family. It was a little odd that after chapters and chapters of reading about her history and finally finding who her father is, the discovery lasts for a few paragraphs before Willie throws it to the wind.

A little later after finding another piece of family history, Willie finishes reading it, but doesn't acknowledge for readers anything that was read. She goes to greet Vi, Clarissa and Rev. Milky and the scene continues until Willie can speak to her mother with Milky in the room. She bursts out saying that her father is the other Running Bud, Solomon, based on the last letter she wrote. I was not happy about this because it comes out of nowhere after Willie had already come to the conclusion that Frankie is her father. I understand that the clues were in the last letter, but there are SO MANY NAMES in this story that even with note-taking, I didn't remember the name of one of the girls from a previous document who shows up in this last letter. And why didn't Willie explain this for the reader's benefit as she had throughout the entire book? Family histories are hard to follow, so frequent recapping is important. 

Once Willie meets with her father and he learns the truth, again, the author kills the moment by getting very profound all of a sudden and Willie talks about how people find that facing the future is easier when you know the past and have an anchor or people to return to. But then she says that "It doesn't matter [...] that I had him at last. It didn't matter, and yet in my illogical, unfathomable heart, it did." I hate to break it to you, but it's one or the other. I am a Libran and know the grey really well and in this instance, there is no grey. If it didn't matter, Willie would not have searched for her father. If it didn't matter, what was the point of writing the story? Dear readers, you may detect a hint of anger in my tone here and that is because I hate it when writers of stories, be it books or movies, etc. WASTE MY TIME. 

Who was the Ghost?

It's never explained outright why there is a ghost in Willie and Vi's home. It just watches over them, Willie in particular. Towards the end, it possesses Willie and shows her that an old toy of the family's has a hidden letter and that the letter was one of her ancestors, but is the ghost the author of the letter? We have no idea. In my opinion, it's left hanging unnecessarily.

It was a little disappointing that Willie doesn't figure out how to find the hidden confession on her own. Having the ghost lead her to it seems rather convenient. Willie guesses that the ghost is the slave Marmaduke slept with based on the ghost's reactions, but it's never confirmed. Also, I don't recall anything being said about the ghost after Willie reads the document. Did it disappear because it didn't need to protect the document anymore? Was it still there?

Willie and Glimmey

Why is Willie so upset about Glimmey at the end? Is it because it was pregnant and died, reminding her of her hysterical pregnancy? She doesn't outright mention the connection between her career in archaeology and her sadness of imagining scientists cutting up Glimmey to study it, which is kind of the same thing. She doesn't mention changing her career path. Additionally, she mentioned Glimmey here and there throughout the story, but it was more like a passing thought as she was dealing with a lot of her own problems. So, her reaction at the end confused me. 

Glimmey

Throughout the entire novel, I've been wracking my brain to figure out what the point of Glimmey's death is. It happens as the same time Willie arrives back in Templeton and tells her mother about her issues. Glimmey is mentioned periodically as a mysterious legend or as its dead body. The only significance that I can see is that it's an essential part of what makes Templeton unique. 

However, it's more like Glimmey is some sort of God and the people were content to have someone watching over them. And without that, they're sad. Or they're sad because it's like losing a piece of history. I'm still not entirely convinced of these possibilities, though. I honestly don't know what the point of Glimmey is. Balance is restored anyways because the creature died after giving birth, so they have another lake creature. Is it a way of saying that everything works out in the end? Everyone deals with their trials and tribulations and moves on? 

Identifying the Monsters of Templeton

The true monsters of Templeton are:

• The settlers who moved into the region when there were natives living in the forest: There is a scene where the natives witness the annual flight of birds that is a magnificent sight, but the settlers shoot them down.
• Marmaduke: He stole land from the natives and brought his people to settle in. He also wasn't committed to his wife and slept with a lot of women, regardless of age. He is also corrupt.
• One of Marmaduke's illegitimate sons: He is a brutal father to one of his daughters, but that may be because he favors the other daughter and the first daughter hates it.
• One of Marmaduke's granddaughters: Because she is angry that her sister is favored by her father, she terrorizes her sister as a punishment.  

Conclusion

I'm not terribly thrilled by the ending. I find the story was on a straight road and then it zigzagged near the end, finishing a little flat for me. Clarissa is now in Templeton for the support she needs and Willie is going off to finish her dissertation, but I find the only thing that changed is that she's happy to return to Templeton when she decides to just because she has another family member there and knows her family and town's history.  Because she feels that she has support behind her even imaginary (which represents her ancestors, I guess), Willie can more easily face the future maybe because she understands where she comes from now? I guess she knows her roots now and what her ancestors went through, which will be her strength when she faces her unknown future? 

Aside from discovering that she may, one day, want a child and not necessarily a husband, I don't find she changed very much as a person. She does finally accept Reverend Melkovitch as Vi's boyfriend, so it's a step in the right direction, I suppose. I didn't like Willie very much. 

I wish Clarissa played more of a role. Her story was either background information or at a distance. Glimmey was kind of there and kind of not. As I mentioned, I'm not sure what the point of having the lake creature was. 

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