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.
Adetola Bankole • Jun 25, 2022 at 1:14 pm
"This is because Spaniards are uniquely placed firmly in both the Hispanic and white American ethnoracial categories, as the singular European national group that is denoted on census forms as Hispanic by virtue of originating the language and culture the panethnic term alludes to (Calderon 1992; Mora 2014; Padilla 1984)."
"Panethnicity is a political neologism used to group various ethnic groups together based on their related cultural origins; geographic, linguistic, religious, or ‘racial’ (i.e. phenotypic) similarities are often used alone or in combination to draw panethnic boundaries."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panethnicity
Alexandra Ocasio Cortez is definitely not an individual I trust. The boundaries that have been drawn in Europe must be clarified again for Americans and Hispanics and Latinos alike.
There is definitely a tactical play on the ignorance of people who are not thoroughly aware of their history and their heritage.
Many Hispanics, especially the one’s that are not black view themselves through the lens of the Spaniard. This is how blacks are exploited and mistreated, and craftily taken advantage of. This is what makes for colorism and racism; which is wide-spread and not thoroughly addressed and accounted for amongst white Hispanics and Latinos.
It is clear, that through her personal decision making; that her interests lean towards the Spaniards, Spain, that began the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade, and Colonized or basically exterminated the indigenous people of South America of their culture to the degree that they have no strong recollection of the habits and behaviors that comprise their original culture. Indigenous American Indians were disempowered and robbed of their culture, which was then forcibly replaced with Spanish influence from Spain. The Spaniards along with the Portuguese pioneered the Transatlantic Slave Trade.
It is important to understand that Spaniards are as a result, DENOTED as, not referred to as, or honorably regarded as Hispanic, in order to draw the boundaries that marked the end of the Transatlantic Slave and Spanish Conquest. To denote something is to mark it in a negative way and very important break down and understand the meaning of the word. This is how the term Hispanic is defined; as a denotation. It’s very similar to the same principle when we use the demote instead of promote.
I think Alexandra Ocasio Cortez would have done better to prioritize, support and strengthen the American Indian aspect of her heritage if she is truly advocating for the underprivileged and the voiceless. Europeans are anything but underprivileged and voiceless. Her decision making can be regarded to as a slap in the face to our European ancestry and the progress we want to make on humanity as a whole.
She is not someone that is well informed, and if she is then I view her behaviors as pure wickedness.
Thanks for being brave enough to post this post. I am not a Republican and I don’t think you are either. I’m thankful for the Hofstra University platform used to address such issues. I hope that I was clear in writing position and that whomever reads that can understand what I mean as a way to create change in our society.