The Irrational Diary of Clara Valentine

Chalkdust

27 March 2023

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Coralie Colmez is a french author and mathematics tutor. The Irrational Diary of Clara Valentine (Amazon UK, Waterstones, Bookshop.org) is her young adult novel about a maths-loving teenage girl.

Style

The book is written from the point of view of Clara Valentine, a teenage girl who is applying to study maths at university. It follows her and her friends doing everything you’d expect a group of teenagers to do over a couple of weeks: going to school, romancing, and attempting to take down a maths-obsessed hacking collective. The story is really entertaining and you may find yourself unable to put it down.

Control

The mathematical content of The Irrational Diary of Clara Valentine is part of the story: during their adventures the teenagers come across a number of mathematical problems that they need to solve. The explanations of the solutions to these puzzles are blended into the story expertly and feel like part of it rather than being shoe-horned in. There was only one point when the maths took me slightly out of the story (when Clara’s younger sister explained a bit of maths in a clearer manner than most people twice her age could; although if it wasn’t explained in this way, it would’ve been truly baffling for a reader seeing the maths for the first time) but I was trying overly hard to be critical as I knew I had a review to write once I finished it.

Damage

The only other book I have read that does such a good job of blending maths into a fictional narrative is The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time—a book that has sparked a mathematical interest in many young adults. The Irrational Diary of Clara Valentine has the potential to do this too, and I expect it to be commonly cited in a few years’ time as the reason quite a few people decided to study maths.

Aggression

If you are related to any teenage girls who are even vaguely interested in maths, you should buy this book for them immediately. If you don’t you should buy it for yourself instead: you’ll love it.

The end of the book appears to leave the possibility of a sequel open. We look forward to reading it.

You can vote for your favourite book on the Book of the Year shortlist below. The winning book will be crowned the Chalkdust Readers’ Choice. Voting closes at 1pm (BST) on Saturday 31 March.

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