A review by chalkletters
The Arctic Curry Club by Dani Redd

adventurous emotional inspiring lighthearted medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.5

I picked up The Arctic Curry Club because my dad’s street has a ‘curry club’ and I was amused by the coincidence. From the blurb, I wasn’t entirely sure what kind of book I would be getting, or whether I would like it, but the snowy arctic setting of Longyearbyen in Norway made it seem like an appropriately wintery read for this time of year. 

It took some time for me to get invested in Maya. At first, her negativity created a barrier, making it difficult to sympathise with the hardships she was going through. The sudden journey to India, taking us away from the main plot and into a family mystery subplot that I could probably have done without was also pretty jarring. 

But then Maya returned to the arctic and her life started to change in really compelling ways. I love character development, and Maya’s really kicked off around this point. Suddenly, I was reading chapter after chapter, ignoring my page goal for the day to keep uncovering Maya’s story. Dani Redd continued to include the history subplot, which never fully engaged my interest, but it did tie up with the main plot at the end in a way I could appreciate. 

I thought about sending this to my dad, purely because of the coincidence with the name, but in the end I decided it wasn’t really his kind of book. Besides, I wasn’t willing to part with it, which is surely an indication of just how Dani Redd managed to turn things around.
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