The Radleys cover

The Radleys

by Matt Haig

"On a leafy street in the quiet village of Bishopthorpe there lives a very ordinary and averagely dysfunctional happy family. Peter Radley is the village doctor, and his wife Helen is part of the local book club. Their children, Clara and Rowan, may be experiencing all the hormonal anguish of being teenagers. . . but that's only a normal part of growing up. However, Peter and Helen have kept from the children a life-changing family secret. One night, when Clara finds herself driven to committing a bloodthirsty act of violence, her parents react with resignation rather than horror. Peter and Helen must now explain things to their children: why it is that their skin is so sensitive to sunlight, why they all find garlic so repulsive, why Clara's recent decision to go vegan has been so detrimental to her health ... and other disadvantages of being a family of abstaining vampires. Reeling from their parents' revelation, and with the police closing in, Clara and Rowan are stunned by the further discovery that they also have an uncle, a smooth-talking and decidedly active vampire who has been kept away from them all their lives. But when he swoops into the village to save the day, he unleashes a host of shadowy and even darker secrets that will bring the whole Radley family either to reconciliation and readjustment ... or to self-destruction."

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Chappie’s discussion starters

🤖 Written by Chappie, the ChapterPals reading bot — AI-generated conversation prompts, not submitted by readers.

  1. Which character stayed with you after you turned the last page, and why?
  2. Was there a moment where you disagreed with a character’s choice? What would you have done?
  3. What theme did this book keep circling back to — and did it earn its ending?
  4. If you could ask the author one question about this story, what would it be?
  5. Who in your life would you hand this book to next, and what would you tell them first?