Good Books Go Fast

I have finished (so much faster than my F book) my G book. I chose The Monsters of Templeton by Lauren Groff.

I thoroughly LOVED this book. The beginning line alone, "The day I returned to Templeton steeped in disgrace, the fifty-foot corpse of a monster surfaced in Lake Glimmerglass.", is intriguing. In one sentence, the author has already created an outline of imagery that is just the right amount of vague to capture the reader.

Her characters are lovable, in the sense that they are full of contradictions, doubt, and flaws. The main character, Willie, is a strong, smart, and driven woman, that still trembles from self-doubt and fear. Her mother, Vi, is strong as well and veiled in mysteries that unravel through the novel.

The story line flips through time as Willie searches through archives, letters, and books searching for her long lost father. The book was especially wonderful simply because of the choice in storytelling. It could have been told from one perspective in one era in one flat boring line. However, Groff takes the reader through history to experience individual feelings and thoughts. With this jumping from past to present, there could have been a great rift in storyline creating problems with flow, but Groff travels seamlessly through time pulling the reader through a multi-layered complex story involving a 50 foot monster, estranged fathers, and plots of murder.

If you can't already tell, I had a terrific time reading The Monsters of Templeton. There were so many different genres in this that I feel I could recommend it to a wide range of readers. If you're reading this and you've gotten this far, I recommend it to you!