The Radleys | Brainfluff

I saw this featured as part of the Wyrd and Wonder 2020 month and thought I’d also like to take part…

1. What is the first fantasy novel you read?

The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis and I mourned for days afterwards, because there wasn’t any way of getting to Narnia at the back of my wardrobe…

2. If you could be the hero/heroine in a fantasy novel, who would be the author and what’s one trope you’d insist be in the story?

It would be by Jo Walton, who would write me as an intelligent, sympathetic woman of a certain age, who was able to magically make everyone able to read and write. I’d had a promising young apprentice who was supposed to be the Chosen One, but when the foolish girl eloped with a passing hedge wizard, the job of being Chosen devolved to me. After all, I wasn’t going to be eloping anywhere…

3. What is a fantasy you’ve read this year, that you want more people to read?

You Let Me In by Camilla Bruce – a fabulous unreliable narrator who may or may not have encountered a controlling powerful fae character. Disturbing and memorable.
Guns of the Dawn by Adrian Tchaikovsky – another wonderful standalone read by an author at the height of his powers.
And the Penric and Desdemona novella series by Lois McMaster Bujold – the eighth book was recently released. Each book is a gem, as Penric, who is ridden by an old and powerful demon, ends up having all sorts of adventures. This series deserves to be far better known than it is.

4. What is your favourite fantasy subgenre? What subgenre have you not read much from?

I’m a sucker for crime fantasy of all sorts, but you won’t find me reading any grimdark or horror. I’m too prone to nightmares.

5. Who are your auto-buy fantasy authors?

Jo Walton, Lois McMaster Bujold, Adrian Tchaikovsky, Kevin Hearne, Melanie Rawn
Sebastien de Castell, Marilyn Messik, Ilona Andrews, Juliet E. McKenna.

6. How do you typically find fantasy recommendations? (Goodreads, Youtube, Podcasts, Instagram…)

Mostly from excellent book bloggers, and Netgalley.

7. What upcoming fantasy releases are you excited about?

The Doors of Eden by Adrian Tchaikovsky
The Obsidian Tower by Melissa Caruso
Afterland by Lauren Beukes
The Empire of Gold – Book 3 of the Daevabad trilogy by S.A. Chakraborty
Mexican Gothic by Sylvia Moreno-Garcia

8. What is one misconception about fantasy you would like to lay to rest?

That it is either a genre weighed down by great big tomes allll about various political factions magically slaughtering each other, or fluffy make-believe. It can be both those things – but it can also be every bit as searing and relevant as anything else you pick up on the contemporary bookshelves, too.

9. If someone had never read a fantasy before and asked you to recommend the first 3 books that come to mind as places to start, what would those recommendations be?

Uprooted by Naomi Novik – a twist on a classic fairy story
The Radleys by Matt Haig – the funniest and most poignant contemporary take on vampires
Tooth and Claw by Jo Walton – Dragons do Anthony Trollop…

10. Who is the fantasy reading content creator you’d like to shoutout?

Tammy from Books, Bones and Buff, Lynn from Lynn’s Books, Maddalena from Space and Sorcery, Mogsy from The Bibliosanctum and the Cap from The Captain’s Quarters.

They are all wonderful book bloggers who provide a steady output of excellent reviews and recommendations and whose opinions I trust and respect. They have all provided me with a lot of cracking reads over the years and are probably mostly responsible for my swollen TBR…

This intriguing take on vamps is one of the selections of More 4’s TV Book Club 2011. Although, I had to grit my teeth as Jo Brand et al hastily assured us with much eye rolling and disgust-gurning that initially the vampire aspect had them all terribly worried, as who’d be caught dead reading anything with vampires? I think Jo even shuddered… But once the unedifying spectacle of such literary snobbery was put to one side and our plucky panel actually picked up the damn book – surprise, surprise, they all loved it…

Life with the Radleys: Radio 4, dinner parties with the Bishopthorpe neighbours and self denial. Loads of self denial. But all hell is about to break loose. When teenage daughter Clare gets attacked on the way home from a party, she and her brother Rowan finally discover why they can’t sleep, can’t eat a Thai salad without fear of asphyxiation and can’t go outside unless they’re smothered in Factor 50. With a visit from their lethally louche uncle Will and an increasingly suspicious police force, life in Bishopthorpe is about to change. Drastically.

Sookie Stackhouse it ain’t. Haig manages to encapsulate the sheer predictable dreariness of British middle class life for local G.P. Peter Radley and his stressed wife Helen. Meanwhile, Clare and Rowan struggle not to get bullied at the local comprehensive for being prone to headaches, skin rashes and feeling constantly sick in the sunshine. As Jo was at pains to emphasise – the vampirism of the Radley family is a cipher for any kind of difference within a community. Or not. I don’t really care.

What I do know, is that the writing is aptly sharp with a thread of black humour running through the book. Haig’s descriptions are vividly arresting, as the gripping storyline keeps the pages turning until you reach the end. If you wish to regard the vampires as some kind of extended metaphor because your literary friends will look down their pointy noses at you if you don’t, then by all means go ahead. I don’t get the feeling that Haig was sweating over such distinctions all that much – he was too busy having fun with wicked, wicked uncle Will, while peeling back the hypocrisies and misunderstandings of daily life, highlighted in stark relief as the protagonists stumble through their days and nights in the grip of a terrible addiction. The extracts from The Abstainer’s Handbook are funny and poignant. The ending is very well executed, providing a really satisfying conclusion to this dark edged drama and nicely tying up any trailing ends.

All in all, reluctant though I am to find myself agreeing with Jo Brand – this, after all, is the woman who claims 1984 is her favourite book, while professing to hate science fiction as a genre – I found The Radleys a highly entertaining, darkly enjoyable read.
9/10