The Monsters of Templeton

Lauren Groff's debut novel, The Monsters of Templeton, is everything a reader might have expected from this gifted writer, and more ... There are monsters, murders, bastards, and ne'er-do-wells almost without number. I was sorry to see this rich and wonderful novel come to an end, and there is no higher success than that.

Stephen King

THE MONSTERS OF TEMPLETON is a bold and beautiful hybrid of a book...Lauren Groff is an exciting young novelist, gifted with an elegant prose style and a narrative ambition as deep and as serious as the human mysteries she sets out to explore.

Lorrie Moore

Groff's delightful debut is a glorious hybrid of history and humour, with just a sprinkling of magic.

Easy Living

This cracking tale, admirer Stephen King gleefully says, is full of "monsters, murders, bastards and ne'er do-wells". Yet Lauren Groff's remarkable debut is not a horror at all...as Willie slays her demons by slowly but surely excavating her family tree, the novel blossoms into a crossbreed of intimate confession, eccentric social history, origin myth and literary biography... the true 'monsters' of Templeton are its secrets.

Metro

This has an opening to die for ... a riveting read

Scotland on Sunday

humourous and magical

Sainsbury's Magazine

Lauren Groff's debut novel, The Monsters of Templeton, is everything a reader might have expected from this gifted writer, and more. Willie is a funny, sexy, plucky heroine; her Mom--a once-upon-a-time hippie who's gone Baptist but not square--is a hoot; her family history is a funhouse through which Willie must wander in order to find her father. Best of all is Templeton, a town that will remind readers of Ray Bradbury at his most magical. There are monsters, murders, bastards, and ne'er-do-wells almost without number. I was sorry to see this rich and wonderful novel come to an end, and there is no higher success than that.

Stephen King

Lauren Groff's debut novel, The Monsters of Templeton, is everything a reader might have expected from this gifted writer, and more ... There are monsters, murders, bastards, and ne'er-do-wells almost without number. I was sorry to see this rich and wonderful novel come to an end, and there is no higher success than that.

Stephen King

THE MONSTERS OF TEMPLETON is a bold and beautiful hybrid of a book...Lauren Groff is an exciting young novelist, gifted with an elegant prose style and a narrative ambition as deep and as serious as the human mysteries she sets out to explore.

Lorrie Moore

Groff's delightful debut is a glorious hybrid of history and humour, with just a sprinkling of magic.

Easy Living

This cracking tale, admirer Stephen King gleefully says, is full of "monsters, murders, bastards and ne'er do-wells". Yet Lauren Groff's remarkable debut is not a horror at all...as Willie slays her demons by slowly but surely excavating her family tree, the novel blossoms into a crossbreed of intimate confession, eccentric social history, origin myth and literary biography... the true 'monsters' of Templeton are its secrets.

Metro

This has an opening to die for ... a riveting read

Scotland on Sunday

humourous and magical

Sainsbury's Magazine