Really rushed to finish before book club and read the bulk of this in about two days. Think I could have enjoyed it a little more if I'd not rushed so much.

One of the most interesting parts of this book was the varying perspective and the bits of history that we learned via the alternating points of view. On one hand, these were frustrating because I didn't always buy the 'voice(s)' of the character(s), such as when there was an accent or dialect involved. Additionally, Willie pretty much uses these snippets to make her deductions on the ancestors involved were they or were they not a potential source for her father? And the answer was usually that the historical chunk we just spent many pages on was ruled out! While those were interesting and gave the reader a good chance to learn about Templeton's history as a town and also learn about the goings-on of the important members of society, it was annoying to have that clue be dismissed by Willie. PLUS, 35+ pages of italicized letters was completely unnecessary and could have been done better!!
I enjoyed the story line overall, and I think that the historical excerpts were actually important for moving the story along. I did not have flagging interest, but the plot meandered into somewhat silly subplots that were distracting, and I could see a number of sections where some readers may have needed to slog through.

One element that was brought up was that one character thought that (s)he was able to set fires with his/her mind. And this was pretty much glossed right over and never brought up again. Also, other characters seem to have sort of 'visions' of how things were/of people they couldn't possibly know/of the future. And there's this "ghost" that Willie can see (and I think that Vi could too?) that ended up possessing Willie. These supernatural aspects were not explored well and not discussed, other than heavily implying that one of the characters was mentally ill, not supernaturally-inclined. The visions and ghost sort of meshed with the gothic-y feel to the town and the cottage and the monster, but the fire-starting bit felt like it did not fit in at all. I'd have preferred to not have any of that and only have the lake monster.

I think that the lake monster (Glimmey? Did not like that name.) was a cool thread to have running through the multiple historical stories and was a parallel to the human 'monsters' that did bad things and were bad people. However, I really didn't like how the townspeople kept feeling peculiar things when they saw/touched the monster, as if it had some weird power over them? I also think that the monster was supposed to be a symbol of something and I didn't really understand what the symbol was.

Willie was a realistic character that I did not connect to at all, though I really wanted to. I think she was struggling through real situations that were very intense, but I can't recall a single thing about her 'self'. Others described her as great, beautiful, and brilliant, but we didn't see examples of these, and I don't recall her demonstrating much of a personality other than cynicism and sarcasm.

My book club discussion was pathetic on this book (we spent most of our time listening to one member's obnoxious stories about her three boyfriends, health problems, and her cat).

Edits: (after reading other reviews)
- Templeton had a strong presence of PLACE to me, and was a key part to pretty much every person and point of view. However, I never understood why I should care about this town. I think it was supposed to be about a bigger theme, like how it is Willie coming home and that this is the place where she can be herself because her ancestry/history is here. But most of the people throughout the novel don't seem to like being in Templeton and so many characters talk of getting out. And the place is full of secrets. I as a reader did not like the place, though I think it was a strong setting.
- I really LOVED the family trees and the constantly-updating family trees. It was very helpful.
- I was quite disappointed at the non-pregnancy. I wanted Willie to have to actually make a hard decision and have consequences. By having the whole thing be not real was a missed opportunity to (while obviously not please all your readers) have some serious growth and development.