Are Ali Hazelwood’s novels worth the hype?
Photo courtesy of Deadline
Ali Hazelwood’s romantic comedy novels are blowing up on TikTok, yet her stories don’t necessarily live up to the hype.
Hazelwood is a New York Times bestselling author who is known for her rom-coms about women in STEM and academia. Her best-known books – “The Love Hypothesis” (2021) and “Love On The Brain” (2022) – have recently gained popularity on TikTok. Hazelwood’s first novel alone has sold over 750,000 copies. Despite a growing fanbase and her novels’ increasing popularity, Hazelwood’s books don’t live up to the acclaim.
“The Love Hypothesis” follows a third-year Ph.D. student named Olive Smith, who lies to her best friend about a new boyfriend to prove that she has moved on from her past relationship. Olive does this by kissing and beginning a fake relationship with the first man she sees – Adam Carlsen, a young grumpy professor at her university.
Although “The Love Hypothesis” was a cute rom-com, it falls short in more ways than one. This book greatly lacked character development. Throughout the book, Adam was always described as grumpy and closed-off; his character was never developed any further, and he had no actual personality. Moreover, 26-year-old Olive acted very immaturely, which never changed throughout the story. It was difficult reading the interactions between these two characters at times, since Olive was very childish and Adam was somewhat flat. Additionally, the age gap between the two became unsettling after a while.
The book was built on unrealistic miscommunication that wasn’t solved until two chapters from the end, and the ending was very rushed and underdeveloped. While the book had some cute moments – which explains why so many people love it – the story clearly lacked something. Lastly, the reasoning for Olive and Adam’s fake dating was somewhat unnecessary and made the book frustrating to read.
“Love On The Brain” follows scientist Bee Königswasser, who holds a Ph.D. in neurology and is having difficulty gaining recognition and money for her research. Bee gets the job opportunity of a lifetime when NASA contacts her to work on one of their helmet prototypes, but this means she will have to work alongside Levi Ward – her grad school archnemesis.
The plot for “Love On The Brain,” didn’t begin until more than 100 pages in. This slow beginning made the book very boring and hard to get into. Furthermore, the book also reads like a carbon copy of “The Love Hypothesis” – just different characters and a different trope. Just like “The Love Hypothesis,” this book was once again built on miscommunication. Additionally, this time it was much more impractical and got annoying very quickly. However, at least this time around, the misunderstandings between the characters was solved early on. Once again, the main characters were poorly developed, and Levi seemed to be written as an exact replica of Adam, just less grumpy.
Two chapters away from the end of the book, the most outrageous and unbelievable plot twist happens. This unrealistic and completely unnecessary plot twist ultimately ruined the rest of the book. “Love On The Brain” had so much going on at all times that it made the book difficult to enjoy. To put it simply, “Love On The Brain” was unpredictable – and not in a good way.
Hazelwood has also written three STEM-inspired novellas and has two brand-new novels coming out later this year. Additionally, it was announced in October 2022 that “The Love Hypothesis” will be adapted into a film.
