rachel_mft's review
I don't know what it is about short fiction that makes authors think it has to be dark or bleak or at least flat. For some reason there seems to be this belief that it's okay for a novel to be enjoyable, or pleasant and happy; it's okay for the characters in a novel to be people the reader actually likes and cares about, but in a short story, you have so little time to make it mean something, you have to be "experimental." I loved Lauren Groff's novel, The Monsters of Templeton. She dabbled in the gothic there, too, but the book was peopled with a whole village of people you cared deeply about, good people, and the ending was a good and hopeful one. So I was excited to read her new collection of stories, but I couldn't get past the third one. It's so dark and awful and depressing. Well-written, certainly, and much better than a lot of those New Yorker stories that are bleak just to make a point--there are levels of meaning here, undercurrents of fairy tale and myth. But. Too much blood and destruction, too much cigarette ash as a symbol of bad motherhood. I couldn't take it.
dllh's review against another edition
3.0
I liked a lot of the stories in this well enough but for reasons I'm having trouble pinning down, I wasn't wowed by the collection. I have been generally wowed by her novels, though, and have one more to read before I have to sit around eagerly awaiting publication of the next.
tonyabeth's review against another edition
dark
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
1.5
cyaos's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
reflective
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
sashathewild's review
5.0
Amazing. If I could give it more than five stars, I'd do it in a heartbeat. These stories took my breath away.
judyward's review
3.0
I've been intrigued by the reviews of The Monsters of Templeton by Lauren Groff, so when I saw this collection of short stories I snapped it up immediately. And I'm glad that I did. This collection of nine stories is uneven, but when they work, they sing. While the settings and the subjects of the stories differ widely, there are some unifying themes. Images of water and fire infuse these stories. And the stories present a series of young girls who are forced to lose their childhood illusions. Yet, this slap of reality often leads to happiness being found in totally unexpected places. Highly recommended. After dipping into this book, I'm definitely going to be watching this author.