Book Review (more just a pile of my personal opinions from my personal experiences)

Title: The Love Hypothesis 

Author: Ali Hazelwood

Year: 2021

Genre: Romance. Academic

Queer shit: none? If there was any it was like random side characters that didn’t really matter other than being fillers. Maybe there was none? If it was, it was subtle enough to not be memorable. 

Vibe Check: Academics and grad school, fake dating, gender roles. 

Pile of Opinions: I both loved and felt really icky about this book. I read this book because it was recommended by many people and I kept seeing it pop up on social media. I loved the idea of a love story while someone is in grad school, I enjoyed that this felt like smart people making out of character decisions like faking a relationship. The story is about a grad student who decides to get a fake relationship to convince her best friend that she doesn’t have feelings for the boy her best friend likes. The man she picks at random is the faculty who is harshest on his students and least liked among her peers. I felt like the connection between the two leads felt believable and I enjoyed watching them fall for each other for realsies. I did not like the jokes about Title IX, especially when it became a real concern with a side character. I did not enjoy how heterosexual this was not only being a cis man and a cis women but how much it enforced gender roles and stereotypes. The male lead was often described by how large of a human he was and the female lead was often talked about as small and petite. Yes, she was smart and a hard worker, but the sheer number of times he rescued her was frustrating by the end of the book. He’s already faculty and she is a student (not his student) so there is already a power dynamic to be aware of and I felt that was leaned into rather than treaded lightly near. The sex……more about how small she is and how large he is, weird and unnecessary virginity or inexperience shit (I super hate this tactic with adults because it is almost never done in a way that isn’t sexist). By the time they were done having sex I actually started admitting I disliked the book as it was sort of the nail in the coffin of a lack of queerness, continued reinforcement of gender roles, and I was happy when I finished the book but sort of wished the whole sex part was left out and I could just enjoy the rest of it without feeling icky about gender roles and just write this off as likely too straight for me. I later found out this started out as Reylo (Rey and Kylo Ren) fan fiction and I really disliked it with commitment after that. Star Wars is sacred and I have strong opinions about Rey (because I will fight Kylo for her, I mean, only if she loves me back and wants me to fight him. She may want to fight her own battles and that is one of the many reasons I love her). Anyway, I probably would not have read it had I known it started as fanfic for a couple I don’t ship. It wasn’t bad, just not for me and arguably perpetuating damaging stereotypes. Not gay enough haha