The Radleys Rimbombo

I just finished reading 'The Radleys' by Matt Haig. It roars. I thought I was picking up a murder mystery given the little bit of blood dripping from the fence post on the front cover. I didn't bother reading the jacket to see if my assumption was correct. I'm glad I didn't.

If I'd realized that it was a vampire story, I might, might have put it back on the shelf. I went through a vampire stage a while back with The Vampire Diary and similar. Vampires dropped back briefly in my reading portfolio with the Twilight series, then dropped off again.

I get tired of vampire stories after taking brief excursions into their dens.

The Radleys was a completely different kind of vampire, more human than not. I loved the book. It is a rimbombo book!

Haig is a British author and as such the book has a slightly different flavor than most American books. I've never put my mind to determining how I realize it's a British author within a few pages, someday I'll put some thought into it. I usually flip to the cover to confirm, then read on using my fake-mental-British accent.

Vampire loving readers will enjoy this one. There's the usual conversions and blood, but it definitely has a twist or two or three.

Underlying all the vampire action The Radleys is a book that explores family and friend relationships, secrets, and, of course, the interaction of humans and vampires. The books delves into the character's darker and better sides. I found it easy to put myself into each of the character's shoes as Haig did an excellent job of dropping me into one character after the others' mind.

I read it in one sitting. It rarely did what I expected it to do, except at the end. However, even then, while I guessed where it might be headed, I wasn't quite sure.

Vampires living next door to you? sitting next to you at school? on the bus? Could your best friend be a vampire? Reading 'The Radleys' might have you wondering about that pale kid down the street.

Fiction
Copyright 2010
Originally published in Great Britain, Canongate Books Ltd
Free Press (a division of Simon & Schuster, Inc.) hardcover edition December 2010
ISBN 978-1-4391-9401-0
ebook available

Other books by Matt Haig:
The Last Family in England
The Dead Fathers Club
The Possession of Mr. Cave