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A review by rosinna
The Love Hypothesis by Ali Hazelwood
lighthearted
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
1.5
God where do I start. Everyone loves this book and I do not, I'm sorry. First of all, I know it used to be a reylo fanfic and that was so hard to forget. I could kind of not picture Daisy Ridley for Olive but the guy is named *Adam* and Adam Driver is just not my cup of tea, so trying and failing to picture someone else the whole book was not working out great. The set up is fun, I think there were some good tropes, but every situation felt so forced and predictable. Olive's best friend literally forces them into most of the scenarios which is... weird. Adam has a lot of red-flags (he threatens to kill someone?? and even if justified Olive is just like, fine with him assaulting and threatening someone as a first reaction?) and the behavior from both of them throughout reads as incredibly immature - especially for supposed scientists. They act like high schoolers who can't communicate. Miscommunication is the main conflict and that is always just frustrating as far as I am concerned. It also feels weirdly ace/arophobic a lot of the times. Olive's lack of sexual interest does end up being one of those "oh I just needed to find the right person" things. She even mentions wondering if she was asexual before but never aromantic, even though she feels very ace/aro coded in a lot of the ways she behaves. She is at least definitely demi-sexual/demi-romantic and if the book is going to broach that subject at all, why not just canonically make her demi?
Graphic: Sexual content
Moderate: Acephobia/Arophobia
Minor: Sexual harassment
*Adam Driver Voice* Bad Smut. Ok, not the worst ever but, it's one scene and it's meh.