Review: The Radleys by Matthew Haig

3.5 whoopie pies (because you can stop at a half if you have already eaten three!).

Cover Love: Totally! It is a perfect cover for this book!

I Wanted To Read This Because:
There was an awesome review in Entertainment Weekly, it won an Alex Award and I had two friends rave about it. Here's a synopsis from Good Reads:

Meet the Radleys
Peter, Helen and their teenage children, Clara and Rowan, live in an English town. They are an everyday family, averagely dysfunctional, averagely content. But as their children have yet to find out, the Radleys have a devastating secret
From one of Britain’s finest young novelists comes a razor-sharp unpicking of adulthood and family life. In this moving, thrilling and extraordinary portrait of one unusual family, The Radleys asks what we grow into when we grow up, and explores what we gain – and lose – when we deny our appetites.

I Kept Reading Because: It was a very quick moving, well written and engrossing story.

Romance?: Yes! A very sweet teen romance, and a more mature, messy adult romance.

What I Liked (& Didn't):

Okay, here it is in a nutshell. This book takes place over a small period of time, perhaps a week. I loved how much the characters grew and changed and matured in that time frame. And it was very believable.

At first I really hated Patsy, but she improved so much by the end!

There was some great additions to the rampant vampire mythology. I love that vampires crave each other's blood the most!

This is really a book about accepting your true self and working to make that the best it can be. You can try and try to hide who you truly are, but if you accept it and work with it, you can be better than you ever were. Corny, but deep down, that seems to be the message of the book!

To Sum Up:
Yes, young adults would really enjoy this book! It definitely deserved an Alex Award. However, I am not sure I can put it in a middle school library...

Book checked out from public library.