The Radleys by Matt Haig

Just about everyone knows a family like the Radleys. Many of us grew up next door to one. They are a modern family, averagely content, averagely dysfunctional, living in a staid and quiet suburban English town. Peter is an overworked doctor whose wife, Helen, has become increasingly remote and uncommunicative. Rowan, their teenage son, is being bullied at school, and their anemic daughter, Clara, has recently become a vegan. They are typical, that is, save for one devastating Peter and Helen are vampires and have—for seventeen years—been abstaining by choice from a life of chasing blood in the hope that their children could live normal lives.

One night, Clara finds herself driven to commit a shocking—and disturbingly satisfying—act of violence, and her parents are forced to explain their history of shadows and lies. A police investigation is launched that uncovers a richness of vampire history heretofore unknown to the general public. And when the malevolent and alluring Uncle Will, a practicing vampire, arrives to throw the police off Clara’s trail, he winds up throwing the whole house into temptation and turmoil and unleashing a host of dark secrets that threaten the Radleys’ marriage.

The Radleys is a moving, thrilling, and radiant domestic novel that explores with daring the lengths a parent will go to protect a child, what it costs you to deny your identity, the undeniable appeal of sin, and the everlasting, iridescent bonds of family love. Read it and ask what we grow into when we grow up, and what we gain—and lose—when we deny our appetites.

Note: The following original review for this book is old and does not meet current review standards. A fully rewritten review is planned.

On paper this book wasn’t going to be my cup of tea as I am generally uninterested and detached from stories focusing on familial drama. While I struggled to stay invested for majority of the first 2/3 of the book, my patience was rewarded by the last 70 or so pages that surprisingly connect all the loose threads in such an explosive and exciting manner (rewarding endings seem to be a trend for me and Matt Haig novels). I was almost taken aback at how much action happens in such a short number of pages vs the rest of the novel that spent so much time setting the characters and pieces into place.

As other reviews that covered, the vampire elements and lore take a back seat to the drama and relationships between the Radley family members and suspicious neighbors in the quiet village of Bisthopthorpe, though they do have key moments that are integral to the plot. Would’ve rated the first 2/3 of the book 2 stars and the last 1/3 4 stars so we’ll go with an average of 3.