The Monsters of Templeton

I came to this, the first of Lauren Groff's books, after admiring the intuition in her more recent work. Her short story collection Florida will go down as one of the best books I've read this year. The Monsters of Templeton, though, is overly ambitious with its era-spanning narration and convoluted genealogy, lacking in the depth of her other work. The scope here is too grand, with a mystery that is in itself pointless from the beginning. Though my expectations were high, I don't know that I would have been any less disappointed by this novel had I come to it unfamiliar with Groff's work. I may be unimpressed with this work, but it does demonstrate the growth in the abilities of its author. I look forward to reading her next work.