Ali Hazelwood conducts the experiment of a lifetime in The Love Hypothesis, a clever, self-aware contemporary romance that explores bias, harassment, and the stark reality of working in academia from the bold and quirky Olive Smith, a third year Ph.D. candidate at Stanford University.
hy∙poth∙e∙sis (noun)
A supposition of proposed explanation made on the basis of limited evidence, as a starting point for further investigation.
Example: Based on the available information and the data hitherto collected, my hypothesis is that the farther away I stay from love, the better off I will be.
– excerpt from Ali Hazelwood’s The Love Hypothesis
Built from the ground up on theorems and hypotheses, Hazelwood deftly explores what it means to be a woman in STEM, launching each chapter with a hypothesis, curated from Olive’s day-to-day life, offering insight into her career path and relationships, beginning with her choice to pursue a Ph.D. and expand her work on pancreatic cancer. On edge about pursuing academia, a half-blind Olive stumbles into what she believes is the bathroom, only to be met with a tall, pensive presence.
Cool, confident and slightly stand-offish, the mystery man – later to be revealed as the prestigious young professor, Dr. Adam Carlsen – offers Olive valuable advice on her career path, giving her the push she needs to pursue the candidacy at Stanford. Although Olive believes the tall, blurry figure to be a student, his words carry her through the ups and downs of the program after her acceptance; a reminder that, in the end, the grueling hours, scant pay, and vigorous research will be worth it as she navigates her third year, intent on finding a fellowship in a cancer lab to further her study on biomarkers and their impact on early detection testing.
Desperate to make her best friend Anh believe that she no longer has feelings for her “ex” Jeremy, Olive kisses the first person she encounters on a late night in the biology department, the notoriously moody destroyer of careers, Dr. Adam Carlsen. Flustered – by the intensity of the kiss, and its recipient – Olive flees, but not before a bit of playful banter ensues, offering up a hint of chemistry alongside an important glimpse at sexual discrimination protocols and rights within the educational system in Adam’s mention of Title IX.
Filing a formal complaint would be well within his rights, and though he is joking, the mention of the law sets Olive on edge, determined to make amends. Before she has the chance to do so, rumors of her relationship spread like wildfire among faculty and students, igniting a charming fake-dating scenario and revealing a surprisingly soft side to the formerly unapproachable and antagonistic tenured professor. With Adam and Olive set to gain something from the arrangement (Olive a sense of freedom and satisfaction, Adam stability and funding), fake-dating Wednesdays – the first in a series of clever, self-aware inclusions of well-worn romance tropes, each carefully plotted and downright charming in execution – begin.
Hypothesis: Approximately two out of three fake-dating situations will involve room-sharing; 50 percent of room-sharing situations will be further complicated by the presence of only one bed.
– excerpt from Ali Hazelwood’s The Love Hypothesis
Fifteen minute coffee dates on campus lead to delightful banter, Adam’s hatred of pumpkin spice lattes warring with his desire to keep Olive safe, obvious in his desire to pay for her meals and walk her home, born of his understanding of the frugal and frustrating state of being that is grad school life. His deadpan humor and relatively calm demeanor pair well with Olive’s frazzled yet bright state of mind, the duo opposites, one grumpy, one sunshine in an I-hate-everyone-but-you slow burn romance, spurred on by Olive’s closest friends: Anh and Malcolm.
From indulgent kisses prompted by peer pressure to sunscreen application in the name of melanoma prevention, Adam and Olive are forced into close proximity, their relationship a delicate slow burn that blossoms in the wake of a looming expiration date. Teasing quips and curiosity bring the duo closer together, well-written tropes uniting them when an annual science conference beckons, the duo expected to share a room due to their relationship status, wherein things heat up quickly, mutual desire leaving Adam speechless and Olive clumsy, yet bold following an impromptu dinner date. Consent is paramount as their relationship picks up speed, Hazelwood a master of pining and sensuality. While on the page sex was unexpected, Hazelwood writes with passion and enthusiasm, Adam and Olive exploring one another with reverence, even as the characters grapple with their feelings.
The casual domesticity of it – the thought that his day and hers would end in the same place, at the same time, soothed her like slow caress down her spine.
– excerpt from Ali Hazelwood’s The Love Hypothesis
It is in these tender moments that sexuality is explored with care, Olive’s demisexuality explored with consideration and consent – a welcome sight in romance that lays bare the struggles that ace specs deal with on a daily basis, beginning with Olive’s difficulty in understanding Malcolm’s adventurous sex life and ending with her desire to fake-date Adam Carlsen: to get Anh to believe that she is over an ex that she wasn’t into from the start. Alongside a tantalizing slow burn, Hazelwood puts emphasis on the importance of trust in a demisexual relationship, all while showing that sexual attraction and pleasure don’t always go hand in hand, beginning with Olive’s first kiss with Adam – a thing that Olive recognizes is physically pleasurable, but that doesn’t necessarily equate to sexual attraction, chemistry, or desire.
Hazelwood paints a romance full of ups and downs, a thing of whimsy and absolute delight in its charm, Adam proving to be a pining mess, intent on lifting Olive up, even when he longs to protect her. There’s beauty in his subtle humor and intense gaze, even as the duo are fooled by their own lies, both believing that the other is in love with someone else, despite the obvious romantic connection between them, buoyed up by fake dating Wednesdays and a shared love of scientific discovery.
Impossible. Improbable. Inconceivable.
Just like everything else about Adam and Olive.– excerpt from Ali Hazelwood’s The Love Hypothesis
While The Love Hypothesis focuses on Olive’s romantic journey, there is more to Hazelwood’s debut at stake. Written from the backdrop of the laboratory, Hazelwood sheds light on the very real struggles that grad students face from thesis rejections and tight, no-sleep deadlines, to wages and expectations, not to mention the treatment of women in academia (and beyond), in the form of harassment and plagiarism.
Mention of harassment rights through Title IX serve as a catalyst for banter and a forewarning, Hazelwood laying bare the harsh reality that is abuse, plagiarism and sexual harassment within the academic scene – first, in memories of Adam’s undergrad mentorship, and later, in a traumatic experience with a colleague and potential mentor, wherein Olive faces sexism, ultimatums, and physical harassment that put her in a difficult situation when it comes to furthering her research – and her budding relationship with Adam.
Hazelwood does not shy away from the truth, revealing scathing remarks alongside unwanted physical contact, exploring Olive’s trauma with grace, even as she is battered by cruel, misogynistic remarks on her ability and worth. Through it all, Olive perseveres – and, alongside Anh, who is a champion for BIPOC representation in STEM – proves to be a great mentor, a figure to look up to for her dedication, stubbornness, and inability to back down from a fight, no matter how tough it is.
While The Love Hypothesis could benefit from Adam’s POV to provide further background and emotional depth, Ali Hazelwood stuns in an emotionally impactful debut that uplifts women in STEM while providing much needed ace representation in romance. With clever, thoughtful use of age-old romance tropes, from fake dating to the notion that there might only be one bed, The Love Hypothesis is a must read drenched in longing, awkwardness, and innocent nerd charm so perfect you’ll want to devour it twice – in paper and audio.
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