The Monsters of Templeton Reading Response

       

                The book "The Monsters of Templeton" by Lauren groff is a story about a 30 year old girl named Willie Upton. Willie Upton is a direct descendant of the founder of her home town Templeton. It is a beautiful storybrook, amazing architectural design. She was a archaeologist who was digging up fossils in Alaska when she had an affair with her married professor. When Willie found out that she was pregnant, she returned home to Templeton, New York. Willie ran there to hide from what had happened. However, the day she came home, she saw a prehistoric monster that came up from the Lake Glimmerglass, changing the history of the town. Also, Willie's mother Vi who was a hippie but now a born again baptist tells Willie a secret that she had kept hidden from Willie for thirty years.  Unlike what Vi had been telling Willie for all her life, that Vi was born from a free love commune, and was one of the three men she had a love commune with daughter. Instead, Vi tells Willie that she was born from entirely someone else. Somebody is from this very town Templeton. Willie also finds out that he is a second descendant from the Upton family. Willie puts her archaeological skills to find out who her real father is. As she searches for more secrets, darker mysteries are revealed.
  
          I am still fairly in the beginning of the book. Willie has come home, talked to her sick best friend, told her mom everything, and is just exploring her hometown that she had vowed never to come back to. The craft in this story is quite unique and I love it. One line that really stood out to me was:

 "And, though I had expected the early sun to have warmed it, the monster burned cold, as if its very core was made of ice some said still existed at the bottom of our glacial lake." 
          
I really like this quote because it reminded me of human feelings. When I think of cold, or ice,  I either think sadness, angry or holy, pure. In this sentence, I thought of sadness and loneliness. In the next sentence of the book, it said that the main character Willie felt the monster to be lonely. Being cold doesn't necessarily mean being evil.  The reason I thought of loneliness and not pure is because of the last part of the sentence. "bottom of our glacial lake." Bottom isn't always the best thing. People generally think of the top (sky, clouds, light) as the good side and the bottom (dirt, darkness, hell?) as the bad side. When I read this sentence, I felt pity for the monster. Although the sentence described the monster to be cold and dreary, inside it just felt lonely. It reminded me of how some people appear to be a cold-hearted person, but in reality they are just lonely or weary. I know someone who purposely tries to pretend to be the bad guy, even though they are really helping them secretly. Judging by appearances isn't always the best thing.