The Radleys ~ Matt Haig

The Radleys by Matt Haig is the story of a family of four. Peter and Helen and their two teenagers, Rowan and Clara. When Clara gets attacked on the way home from a party and accidentally kills her attacker, the Radleys idyllic life falls apart and the truths they have hidden from everyone, including their own children, come spilling out into the sunlight.

Someone a while ago said that Matt Haig writes self-help books in the form of fiction and I see it. The theme of The Radleys is don’t try to be someone you’re not and it uses vampires as a way to do that without feeling preachy. 

The chapters in this book are very short, I think the longest may have been five or six pages long. Whilst I am a fan of short chapters, these were just a little bit too short. I found myself feeling like I had read a lot more than I actually had. 

The range of characters was definitely interesting. Mostly, the book focused on the four Radleys but also included the vampiric uncle,  Clara’s friend and her dad, and a couple of other characters. Despite having different viewpoints, Haig didn’t regurgitate scenes from different points of view, he kept the story flowing. 

Interspersed between some of the chapters was little extracts of The Abstainer’s Handbook, an entirely fictional guidebook created for The Radleys. The little pieces of advice that these extracts give to vampires trying not to be vampires are interesting and add another layer to the whole story. It almost feels like a dig at some of the self-help books and Instagram posts that recommend silly-sounding things to help things such as dieting or body image. It made the metaphor a little stronger.

Overall I quite enjoyed this book. It’s a twist on the typical vampire story that also doubles as a critique of modern-day society. I give it four stars. 

C🌙