Categories | Genre Fiction |
Author | Matt Haig |
Publisher | Free Press; Reprint edition (September 20, 2011) |
Language | English |
Paperback | 400 pages |
Item Weight | 13.2 ounces |
Dimensions |
5.5 x 1 x 8.44 inches |
I. Book introduction
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 exception: 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.
Editorial Reviews
- “Very original spin on the myth…The bite-size chapters guide the reader from one viewpoint to another….Haig’s depiction of teen politics is spot on….insightful, frightening and uplifting….Uncle Will [is] a splendidly evil yet believable character…Haig pays just about enough respect to the conventions of the genre that the average vampire fan should find lots to enjoy, but it’s the blackly comic dissection of the family that makes this book stand out.” —The Guardian
- “This witty vampire novel from British author Haig provides what jaded fans of the Twilight series need, not True Blood exactly, but some fresh blood in the form of a true blue family.” –-Publishers Weekly (starred review)
- “Dark humor pervades Haig’s entertaining vampire family soap opera…a refreshing take on an oversaturated genre.” —Library Journal
- “Terrific, droll, and touching.” —Parade
- “The Radleys is effortlessly sleek and witty.” —Entertainment Weekly
- “Haig’s contribution is freshly weird and ultimately thirst-quenching for fans of the genre.” —USA Today
- “As befits a vampire story, the wit tends to be sharp….Haig does justice to the effect of…betrayal on the souls of his characters—the startling pleasure and the lasting woe—proving himself a novelist of considerable seriousness and talent.” —The New York Times Book Review
- “Matt Haig’s novel is not only head and shoulders above Twilight and all those other wimpy vampire romances, but, as an explorer of contemporary mores, Haig is more enjoyable company than writers with more ‘literary’ pedigrees.” —Newsday
- “The genius of novelist Matt Haig’s book is that the vampirism takes a back seat—a wet, bloody back seat, but still—to the blackly comic family turmoil that’s at the center of the story….Take that, you Twilight mob. The trains of vampire lit and actual lit just met, in a glorious burst of sharp red.” —The Dallas Morning News
- “Haig classifies his books as black comedies, and The Radleys certainly fits that description…. [It’s] laced with lethal doses of humor.” —Pittsburgh Tribune-Review
- “Irresistible….Full of clever turns, darkly hilarious spins….Even if you’re suffering from vampire fatigue, you’ll find The Radleys is a fun, fresh contribution to the genre.” —Associated Press
About the Author (Matt Haig)
Matt Haig is an author for children and adults. His memoir Reasons to Stay Alive was a number one bestseller, staying in the British top ten for 46 weeks. His children’s book A Boy Called Christmas was a runaway hit and is translated in over 40 languages. It is being made into a film starring Maggie Smith, Sally Hawkins and Jim Broadbent and The Guardian called it an ‘instant classic’. His novels for adults include the award-winning How To Stop Time, The Radleys, The Humans and the number one bestseller The Midnight Library.
Matt Haig was born on 3 July 1975 in Sheffield. He grew up in the Nottinghamshire town of Newark and later went on to study English and History at the University of Hull.
As of 2015, Haig is married to Andrea Semple, and they live in Brighton, Sussex, with their two children and a dog. The children were homeschooled.
Haig identifies as an atheist. He has said that books are his one true faith, and the library is his church.
Some of Haig’s work — especially part of the non-fiction books — is inspired by the mental breakdown he suffered from when he was 24-years-old. He still occasionally suffers from anxiety. He has been diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and autism.
II. Reviewer: The Radleys by Matt Haig
Here is a summary of the book Review “The Radleys by Matt Haig“. Helps you have the most overview of the book without searching through time. Please access “BookQuote.Net“ regularly or save it to keep track and update the latest information. |
1. ANNE reviews The Radleys
I read this for the first time 10 years ago. Now, that was when you couldn’t swing a dead cat without hitting a book that had vampires in it. Back then I loved it, but my tastes have evolved and I’ve been rereading old favorites this year to see if they still cut the mustard.
Between you and me, I’m not even sure why anyone would ever need to cut mustard. Usually, a squirt bottle suffices to get that delicious condiment on a burger or dog. Even if you’re fancy and buy that bougie mustard in a jar, I’m pretty sure you can just slather it on your sandwich with a butter knife without cutting it first.
I may be overthinking things again.
Doesn’t matter.
What matters is that I listened to the audiobook version of this and still thought it was great.
The Radleys is an awesome story if you’re looking for something a little out of the ordinary. Which I was.
I thought the plot was strange and slightly menacing in the way that only something in a suburbanish setting can be.
You know what I mean?
Anyway. The gist is that there is a family of vampires trying to live as humans.
Mom has a secret that’s been eating at her for years, and to compensate for her guilt, has convinced her beleaguered husband to go along with her on a quest to become non-blood drinking vampires.
Lucky for them, they have The Abstainers Handbook to give them all kinds of neat little tips and tricks to deny their nature and be just as miserable as the rest of the population.
Unfortunately, Mrs. Radley has decided it would also be best if the children never found out they were vampires, and keeping that a secret has come with a whole plethora of problems.
Both teens are sickly, itchy, tired, achy, depressed, and generally uncomfortable. However, it’s not till their daughter decides to become a vegan that all hell breaks loose and the Radleys’ house of cards comes tumbling down.
But a little honesty is usually good for a family.
Right?
So, this is about the lies that you tell your spouse, the lies that you tell your kids, and the lies that you tell yourself. Mostly, though, it’s about the consequences of repressing yourself just to fit in.
I mean, there’s got to be a happy medium.
Recommended.
2. PHRYNNE reviews The Radleys
Matt Haig is turning into my newest favourite author! I especially love that he is English and that one of the major scenes takes place in a cinema in Thirsk. I always like it when I can say “Been there”! I did not meet any vampires though. Not that I know of anyway.
I thought this was a very amusing book with a slightly different take on the vampire life style. I enjoyed our insights into the Radley family and their attempts to live a life without drinking blood. Some of the quotes from The Abstainer’s Handbook were hilarious. I was entertained by all of characters as they struggled with all the issues of a normal life made worse by the added problems caused by denying their true being.
A thoroughly enjoyable book which could be read by anyone, not just readers who like the para normal or who are looking for horror. There are vampires, there is blood and a touch of horror but basically it is a book about families and the ties that bind. Very well worth reading.
3. JODY reviews The Radleys
4 Bloody Good Stars
The Radley’s are a typical middle class British family with all the issues families face such as addiction, parenthood, bullying, infidelity, moody teens and unfulfilling lives… oh yeah, and they’re vampires.
I’m not a huge fan of vampire stories, but Matt Haig is such a clever, witty and fiercely talented storyteller he can make the much done topic of vampires seem fresh. This is a fast paced, sometimes gory, but very fun book and even if you don’t like vampire stories you may enjoy it too.
4. SJ reviews The Radleys
Let’s get one thing straight here, shall we? This isn’t a book about vampires.
Okay, yes. It’s a book which has vampire characters. I won’t dispute that. But the book itself…that’s not what it’s about. Not the way I see it.
This is, instead, a book about family and relationships and love and how we love the people who hurt us, and hurt the people we love. It’s a book about the blurry lines between our intrinsic nature and desires the way that we cope with those things. And it’s about how you play the hand you were dealt.
All this is wrapped up in a clever, well-written, sharp voice with just enough hints of gore to keep you a little sick, but not so much that it ever over shadows the relationships in the story.
I’ll admit, I found this to be something of an emotional ride. It was just SO. DARN. DEPRESSING…at times. I thought for sure it would end as low as it started. The ending was a real surprise for me, and worth the wait. This book really reminds me why I am an adult who reads young adult fiction.
5. KAT reviews The Radleys
Good, But Definitely An Author Finding Himself
This is a good book! It makes you sweat and feel and think. It isn’t a “normal” vampire book. I love that you could replace blood with any real vice and it would be the same story. I don’t like the way the point of view changes each chapter and usually within each chapter, I’m sure it is a personal preference, but it makes it hard for me to follow. I do like that it touches on depression from many different points of view, though.
As much as I like this book, it does feel like something is missing. It feels a lot of an author finding himself. I have worked backwards from Matt Hair’s other books, so I know what his writing is like once he has found himself. I can’t really put into words what is missing. I think that the ending was written in a way to make a sequel possible, but I don’t think that there will be a sequel.
But it really is a good read!
6. BEAU YARBROUGH reviews The Radleys
Breathes new life into the vampire novel
Middle class British domesticity isn’t what I would have thought the vampire genre needed, but it turns out to be just what’s required.
Haig paints a very believable portrait of middle class family life, complete with troubled teens of a very plausible sort, marital secrets and the malaise of a too-comfortable life.
The book is relatively short but doesn’t feel slight: The characters are so well-delineated and the writing is so lean that what would have taken Anne Rice twice as long to say, Haig does in little over 300 pages.
Although there’s some world-building here, he resists the temptation to create an almost unrecognizable mythological world inside his England. It’s all very grounded, mostly sketched out through excerpts from a self-help book for vampire “abstainers” who no longer drink blood.
For the first time in a long time, I find myself actually looking forward to the prospect of a sequel to a work of vampire fiction. Ironically, there don’t seem to be any in the immediate offing, which probably speaks to the intent of the author to tell a good story, rather than to create a cash-generating franchise.
Strongly recommended for adult fans of vampire fiction, particularly those tired of some of the more baroque or overstuffed competition.
7. RONNIE TYLER reviews The Radleys
I really enjoyed this, and I’m not an avid gothic/vampire story reader.
After finishing, I realized that this is probably the first vampire book I’ve ever read. Eons ago I tried reading Rice’s Interview with the Vampire, but put that one away after a couple of chapters. Couldn’t get into it, and didn’t read any other vampire stories until this one. This one isn’t gothic at all. Contemporary. The Radleys are an ordinary middle-class British family: mom and dad know the family secret, but their son and daughter do not. The parent vamps are abstaining, they don’t kill or drink blood any longer. It isn’t easy for them, but they’ve made it work for 17 years now. All is typical, including adolescent misery, an average neighborhood and dad’s dull medical practice, until the daughter is forced to commit a shocking act of violence.
I like Matt Haig’s writing style. I read his Science Fiction novel, The Humans, earlier this year and loved it. So funny! The Radleys isn’t humorous, but it is a fun and entertaining read. I’ll read more of Haig’s books, I’m sure. Very good stuff.
8. E.NICOLE reviews The Radleys
A brightspot in the humdrum darkness that is vampire lore
The Radley’s is awesome. I’ve been into vampires since Anne Rice, and I stuck with them through Buffy, Angel, and Guillermo Del Torro (I draw the line at Twilight, however)-but this is a new twist. Lestat was all monster, and Edward Cullen is all teddy bear. In The Radley’s, Haig gives us an entire world of vampires that are as diverse as their human prey- there are monsters and teddy bears, but each with their own soulful depth and none lacking a little bit of the other. When a lovesick vampire rips into the throat of a young boy’s school-yard crush, you can’t help but shudder. When a lonely schoolgirl who just wants animals to stop running from her declares herself a vegan, you want to support her and cheer her on, and you can’t help feeling sad for a bored, dentist, trying desperately not to find the thrill his wife used to give him in the bed of the tasty tart next door. In short, If you love the vampire lore but are bored with vampires who only want death and sex, and disgusted by vampires that sparkle in the sunlight, this book is for you.
9. STEPHANIE reviews The Radleys
Excellent little story of family secrets and what happens when a tightly woven lie begins to unravel.
In this story, Peter and Helen Radley have moved out to a pleasant village in the English country-side to raise their children, Rowan and Clara. They wanted to escape their wild life in London and live a quiet, ordinary life with their children and live a peaceful, normal life… Well, as normal a life as you can have, when you are an Abstainer, a “non-practicing” vampire.
Their quiet life takes a decidedly non-quiet turn when teenaged Clara is attacked at party by another teen boy and goes vamp on him and kills him. Her parents are now faced with explaining the family secret to the kids, who had no idea they were vamipres, and finding a way to cover-up this murder.
Lots of fun, good family drama, and a nice resolution. Recommended for folks who like vampire stories but don’t want all the Twilight teen drama or vampire paranormal romance.
10. DANGER reviews The Radleys
This vampire novel about suburban repression has a big, bloody heart. It didn’t quite strike me as profound as Haig’s The Humans, but it still managed to shine the same kind of light on the darker side of middle class complacency. This seemed like a fresh take on a classic horror monster. Very cool
III. The Radleys Quotes by Matt Haig
The best book quotes from The Radleys by Matt Haig
“The human heart is a momentary thing. It either expands or it shrinks. And as you get older, the heart will shrink and you have to work hard to stop it becoming a zombie.”
“Vampire? Such a provocative word, wrapped in too many clichés and girly novels.”
“You reach a certain age — sometimes it’s fifteen, sometimes it’s forty-six — and you realize the cliche you have adopted for yourself isn’t working.”
“Perhaps when we find ourselves wanting everything, it is because we are dangerously close to wanting nothing.”
“Sometimes parents and children aren’t born in the same order.”
“Everyone represses everything. Do you think any of these “normal” human beings really do exactly what they want to do all the time? ‘Course not. It’s just the same. We’re middle-class and we’re British. Repression is in our veins.”
“This is the whole stupid thing about all these unblood relationships. They depend on people staying the same, standing in the same spot they were in over a decade ago, when they first met. Surely the reality is that connections between people aren’t permanent, but fleeting and random, like a solar eclipse or clouds meeting in the sky. They exist in a constantly moving universe full of constantly moving objects.”
“Blood doesn’t satisfy cravings. It magnifies them.”
“The thing we go through together binds us more than the things that set us apart.”
“Confine your imagination. Do not lose yourself to dangerous daydreams. Do not sit and ponder and dwell on a life you are not living. Do something active. Exercise. Work harder. Answer your emails. Fill your diary with harmless social activities. By doing, we stop ourselves imagining. And imagining for us is a fast-moving car heading toward a cliff.”
“Can I ask you something?” asks Will, after a while.
The man sips his whisky instead of answering.
Will asks the question anyway. “Have you ever been in love?”
The man places his glass down and stares at Will, steel-eyed. The expected reaction, “Once,” he responds , the word just a croak from the back of his throat.
Will nods. “It’s always just once, isn’t it? The rest..they’re just echoes”“The blood that moves through our veins is the history of who we are, and the line that joins us to everyone who came before and after us.”
“Evil is something you recognize instinctively, like poetry or music. You don’t have to be taught to know it.”
“Or maybe, just maybe, he’d got close enough to sense the melancholy that sits at the core of her, usually hidden deep behind a superficial mask of cheerful sarcasm.”
“She understands enough of what is going on. She understands that he wants to save her, more than anything in the world. She understands what he understands, that if only he could save her, he could save himself. She understands also that she loves him, and as she stays inside his helpless stare, she knows that fate is something she has to steer herself.”
“They talk some more, Will prompting Peter into remembering their early childhood on the barge. How their parents always went that extra mile to make their infancy special, like the time they brought a freshly killed department store Santa Clause home for their midnight Christmas feast.”
“That is what the taste of blood does. It takes away the gap between thought and action.To think is to do. There is no unlived life inside you as the air speeds past your body, as you look down at the dreary villages and market towns…”
“The world is a troubled place. We can all contribute to it, leech something from it, save it. But we cannot escape it.”
“The idea of fitting in is such a plausible lie that we believe it even when life punishes us for pretending.”
“We were all our own book. We were all somewhere in the pages of someone else’s story.”
“It is another unsolved mystery in a world full of unsolved mysteries.Now stand up and walk out the way you came, and the moment that fresh air caresses your face, you will realize that that is what makes the world so beautiful. All those unsolved mysteries. And you won’t ever want to interfere with that beauty again.”
“He has spent weeks on the pristine, frosty shore of Lake Baikal in Siberia. He has drunk himself stupid in the fairy-tale blood brothels of old Dubrovnik, lounged in red-smoke dens in Laos, enjoyed the New York blackout of 1977, and more recently, feasted on Vegas showgirls in the Dean Martin suite at the Bellagio. He has watched Hindu abstainers wash away their sins in the Ganges, danced a midnight tango on a boulevard in Buenos Aires, and bitten into a faux geisha under the shade of a shogun pavilion in Kyoto.”
“Look, for God’s sake. Look at everyone. Everyone represses everything. Do you think any of these ‘normal’ human beings really do exactly what they want to do all the time? ’Course not. It’s just the same. We’re middle-class and we’re British. Repression is in our veins.”
“We have to learn that the things we desire are very often the things which could lead to our own self-destruction.”
“We’re middle-class and we’re British. Repression is in our veins.”
Excerpted from The Radleys by Matt Haig
Orchard Lane
It is a quiet place, especially at night.
Too quiet, you’d be entitled to think, for any kind of monster to live among its pretty, tree-shaded lanes.
Indeed, at three o’clock in the morning in the village of Bishopthorpe, it is easy to believe the lie indulged in by its residents—that it is a place for good and quiet people to live good and quiet lives.
At this hour, the only sounds to be heard are those made by nature itself. The hoot of an owl, the faraway bark of a dog, or, on a breezy night like this one, the wind’s obscure whisper through the sycamore trees. Even if you stood on the main street, right outside the pub or the Hungry Gannet delicatessen, you wouldn’t often hear any traffic or be able to see the abusive graffiti that decorates the former post office (though the word FREAK might just be legible if you strain your eyes).
Away from the main street, on somewhere like Orchard Lane, if you took a nocturnal stroll past the detached period homes lived in by solicitors and doctors and project managers, you would find all their lights off and curtains drawn, secluding them from the night. Or you would until you reached number seventeen, where you’d notice the glow from an upstairs window filtering through the curtains.
And if you stopped, sucked in that cool and consoling fresh night air, you would at first see that number seventeen is a house otherwise in tune with those around it. Maybe not quite as grand as its closest neighbor, number nineteen, with its wide driveway and elegant Regency features, but still one that holds its own.
It is a house that looks and feels precisely how a village family home should look—not too big, but big enough, with nothing out of place or jarring on the eye. A dream house in many ways, as estate agents would tell you, and certainly perfect to raise children.
But after a moment you’d notice there is something not right about it. No, maybe “notice” is too strong. Perhaps you wouldn’t actively realize that even nature seems to be quieter around this house, that you can’t hear any birds or anything else at all. Yet there might be an instinctive sense that would make you wonder about that glowing light and feel a coldness that doesn’t come from the night air.
If that feeling grew, it might become a fear that would make you want to leave the scene and run away, but you probably wouldn’t. You would observe the nice house and the moderately expensive car parked outside and think that this is the property of perfectly normal human beings who pose no threat to the outside world.
If you let yourself think this, you would be wrong. For 17 Orchard Lane is the home of the Radleys, and despite their very best efforts, they are anything but normal.
© 2010 Matt Haig
….
Note: Above are quotes and excerpts from the book “The Radleys by Matt Haig”. If you find it interesting and useful, don’t forget to buy paper books to support the Author and Publisher!
The above content has been collected from various sources on the internet. Click the Share button to recommend the book to your friends! |
BookQuote.Net Sincerely Introduced!