Does the supersaturated marketplace really need another vampire novel? Luckily for Matt Haig, only if it’s a particularly good treatment of the subject. Though The Radleys is his first foray into the genre, Haig’s five previous novels have given him ample opportunity to find a strong narrative attitude that is both utterly modern and classically cheeky. Toby Smith’s compelling voice work hangs a hat equally comfortably on both this family of vampires’ numbing suburban assimilation and their ancient philosophical questions.

The story really does an excellent job of blending the pithy vampiric dilemma with everyone’s everyday struggles. Peter and Helen could probably love each other more, if they’d just tell their kids the truth about the Radley family history. Instead, Peter contemplates an affair with the lady next door, but is afraid the woman will end up rather more dead than laid, while Helen does her best to repress the fact that she was once in love with Peter’s brother. Peter’s brother, Byronic poetry professor Will, must of course come to town when Peter’s daughter faces a choice between being harmed and doing harm. She goes with her instincts, and as the only member of the family who still prefers to practice the more traditionally murderous lifestyle, Will’s superior strength and skills put him in a unique position to make the evidence go away. Unfortunately, there are more bodies appearing than disappearing. As the Radleys fight to stay one step ahead of their looming alienation from suburban normalcy, they must make some tough decisions about how best to really preserve their family.

Toby Smith fulfills a variety of narration duties here that make for an exciting listen. He conveys both their boredom with the lifestyle they seek to preserve, and their longing for the lifestyle they gave up long ago. Smith manages to preserve the credibility of teenage angst and trauma without spilling over into the lamentations of overemotional schlock. Of course, a certain level of witty sarcasm and morbid humor is expected in a novel of this genre, as well as a particular amount of stylized violence and gleeful gore. Forgive two poor puns, but Matt Haig gets to the meat of the issues that Toby Smith then narrates in a way that keeps our blood pumping. The Radleys is indeed a refreshing break from the usual insipid vampire fare. Megan Volpert