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Title details for The Radleys by Matt Haig - Available

The Radleys

A Novel

by Matt Haig
Toby Leonard Moore
Audiobook
3 of 7 copies available
Borrow Listen to a sample Listen to a sample
3 of 7 copies available
Soon to be a major film—starring Kelly Macdonald and Damien Lewis!

From the bestselling author of The Midnight Library—an "irresistible...full of clever turns, darkly hilarious spins...Even if you're suffering from vampire fatigue...The Radleys is a fun, fresh contribution to the genre" (Associated Press).
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.

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Awards

  • Release date

    December 28, 2010

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Listen audiobook

      • ISBN: 9781442338142
      • File size: 274585 KB
      • Duration: 09:32:03

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • Publisher's Weekly

      Starred review from October 4, 2010
      This witty vampire novel from British author Haig (The Possession of Mr. Cave) 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. Dr. Peter Radley and his wife, Helen, have fled wild London for the village of Bishopthorpe, where they live an outwardly ordinary life. The Radleys, who follow the rules of The Abstainer's Handbook (e.g., "Be proud to act like a normal human being"), haven't told their 15-year-old vegan daughter, Clara, and 17-year-old son, Rowan, who's troubled by nightmares, that they're really vampires. A crisis occurs when a drunken classmate of Clara's, Stuart Harper, attacks her on her way home from a party and inadvertently awakens the girl's blood thirst. Peter's call for help to his brother, Will, a practicing vampire, leads to scary consequences. The likable Clara and Rowan will appeal to both adult and teen readers.

    • AudioFile Magazine
      In a bravura performance Toby Moore portrays Haig's blackly comic dysfunctional family with sharp, incisive wit. Peter and Helen, a suburban couple, are recovering vampires who haven't told their children, Rowan and Clara, of their vampiric heritage. The parents rely on "The Abstainer's Handbook" to help them through moments of overwhelming blood lust. Moore fully develops each character--from the parents' midlife anxieties to the kids' teenaged angst and the evil smirk of Peter's brother, a non-recovering vampire. Moore is especially strong when Clara is attacked by a no-mind hulk, and, to her horror, her true nature reveals itself: The boy becomes dinner. THE RADLEYS is several cuts above the recent crop of vampire novels, and Moore's performance is delicious. S.J.H. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award (c) AudioFile 2011, Portland, Maine

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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