Love Theoretically | Ali Hazelwood | Book Review
Love, theoretically begins with Elsie who is a adjunct professor of physics. Her career does little to provide for her expenses and she has to struggle to make ends meet. She wishes to be a professor on a roll so that she can focus on her work and will not have to deal with students, their queries and grading their papers.
Elsie shares her room with Cece who is a linguist who is finishing her Ph.D. Both of them work for a fake dating app so that they can make extra money. Mostly Elsie does a good job at fake dating. She does not go twice with the same client except for her favourite client.
Elsie suffers from type 1 diabetes and has to live with a machine that detects her sugar levels all the time. She attaches it to her abdomen and this also is a source of her insecurity.
After getting selected for the final round of an interview for a position at MIT, she is excited about this opportunity and decides to give it her all. There is only one opponent that she has to be better than. When she arrives at the interview she comes face to face with Jack Smith. Jack Smith is not only an experimental physicist but is also the older brother of her favourite client. She has met him before and he always looks at her suspiciously. And maybe this time he thinks that his suspicions have come true.
Jack Smith also happens to be the person who greatly harmed her mentor’s career and belittled theoretical physicists after he wrote an article about them when he was a teenager. The common narrative is that Jack hates theoretical physicists.
Elsie decides to not back down and tries her best to get the position that she so desperately wants.
“Have you considered that maybe you’re already the way I want you to be? That maybe there are no signals because nothing needs to be changed”
My thoughts on Love, theoretically
This book has been an exceptionally entertaining read for me. The two leads butt heads a lot. The witty remarks and the way they are on the same wavelength make you want to ship them together. Their romance develops slowly.
The book describes the roles of experimental and theoretical physicists in-depth and how one depends on the other for help. It also sheds light on the sorry conditions in which these adjunct professors live even after being the smartest of the lot.
There is also Elsie’s people-pleasing tendencies that are highlighted by Jack Smith. He calls her out on her behaviour many times. She on the other hand finds it so difficult to say no and hence always ends up being the peacemaker between her two brothers whenever her mother calls her.
Bold of you to assume that the real me is my best hand.”
“Foolish of you to think it isn’t.”
Positive points
The interview experience does not fail to portray the cold, calculating and sometimes even unfair world of academia. The way she is treated by her male future colleagues just because she is a woman makes her blood boil. In class, she has to deal with questions from experimental physicists and she absolutely kills it. Overall the challenges faced by women in academia and in a male-centered world are highlighted.
Love, theoretically is a slow burn, push and pull, enemies turned lovers kind of story. It will appeal to anyone who likes such stories or relates to academia in any way.
Author: Ali Hazelwood
Publish year: 2023
Writing: 7/10
Presentation: 8/10
Plot: 8/10
Overall: 8/10
Genre: Love story
“He studies my face for several moments, like he cannot stop on the cover or the first page, like he needs to read the whole book every time.”
