Review: The Radleys

Title The Radleys
By Matt Halg
Genre Adult paranormal/supernatural
Pages 385
Rating ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Synopsis
The Radleys appear like your typical suburban family. Peter is the doctor at the local clinic. His wife, Helen attends a neighborhood book club. Their son Rowan is quiet, into poetry and pining after the new girl at school and their daughter Clara has recently become a vegan. They even have the embarrassing black sheep of the family uncle they wish would stay away. But things aren't always as they seem. The Radleys have a secret. They are vampires. Not even their children know. They've been abstaining from blood for 17 years...that is until Clara is attacked by a boy and she accidentally drinks all his blood and kills him. Now with the police questioning them, and their uncle in town causing mischief, the Radleys secret might not be so secret anymore.

First Sentence
It is a quiet place, especially at night.

My Thoughts

• This book was not at all what I thought it would be, The way Goodreads described it, I thought it was going to be from Clara's point of view. And it has been so long since I added this one to my TBR list that I'd forgotten what it was about...mostly.  

• It's not from Clara's perspective. It's in third person and had a bazillion narrators. Mostly the family but others too. 

• I almost completely gave up on this one when about 150 pages in I wasn't connecting to any of the characters except maybe Rowan and was so disgusted with Will (the uncle) I wanted to just stop. 

• I'm SOOOOOO glad I kept reading. Speaking of Will, he's one of those characters you love to hate. Possibly the author wanted you to empathize with him but I loathed him. I thought malicious thoughts about him. I wanted him DEAD! 

• The last 150 pages were so gripping I was snapping at my husband when he tried to interrupt and stayed up way past my bed time because I just. Had, To. Finish! 

• There was a lot of symbolism in this one that was fun to see. I especially liked the quotes from The Abstainers Handbook. They amused me when looked at in a symbolic way. 

Should you read it?

To be honest, I think most of my blogging buddies might not like this one. It had too slow of a start and the dual narratives and content might bother a lot of people. However, if you like tongue in cheek humor and thrilling endings you might want to give it a read.