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A review by the_midnight_librarian
Love, Theoretically by Ali Hazelwood
emotional
informative
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.75
Better than The Love Hypothesis.
LOVED the discussions in here about women in STEM fields, the "cest pool" that is academia and it's job markets, chronic illness and healthcare (the struggle of healthcare in academia), and the discussions around people making decisions for you thinking "they know best" but not giving you the option. They were all major hitters and they hit hard. I cried with Elsie as she cried about health care.
But...
I felt like it took too long for Elsie to figure things out. I disliked that despite growing a relationship based on honesty and thinking their thoughts they still didn't spell out where they both thought the relationship was headed (after all this honesty and truth talk and Elsie still coming to the wrong conclusions we're just assuming she's thinking the relationship is going where Jack thinks it's going?) I couldn't stand the attempted safe sex talk of "I'm on birth control so you don't need a condom unless you have genital lice" yes, they said condoms don't protect you from that, but we're just going to make it a joke and not talk about the sexually transmitted infections that can still occur? AND THEN NOT PEE AFTER HAVING SEX?!?! DO YOU CRAVE A UTI?!?! I get that those conversation can put a downer on a romance book, but I'm a realist and don't want to think of the sympathy burning pain Elsie would have had to deal with come morning.
Overall, I had almost dnf'd this book at 76%, but once I figured out the twist, I was curious how the book was going to resolve it. Enjoyed Elsie's growth over all, she was just a bit frustrating through out the rest of the book, few moments withstanding.
LOVED the discussions in here about women in STEM fields, the "cest pool" that is academia and it's job markets, chronic illness and healthcare (the struggle of healthcare in academia), and the discussions around people making decisions for you thinking "they know best" but not giving you the option. They were all major hitters and they hit hard. I cried with Elsie as she cried about health care.
But...
I felt like it took too long for Elsie to figure things out. I disliked that despite growing a relationship based on honesty and thinking their thoughts they still didn't spell out where they both thought the relationship was headed (after all this honesty and truth talk and Elsie still coming to the wrong conclusions we're just assuming she's thinking the relationship is going where Jack thinks it's going?) I couldn't stand the attempted safe sex talk of "I'm on birth control so you don't need a condom unless you have genital lice" yes, they said condoms don't protect you from that, but we're just going to make it a joke and not talk about the sexually transmitted infections that can still occur? AND THEN NOT PEE AFTER HAVING SEX?!?! DO YOU CRAVE A UTI?!?! I get that those conversation can put a downer on a romance book, but I'm a realist and don't want to think of the sympathy burning pain Elsie would have had to deal with come morning.
Overall, I had almost dnf'd this book at 76%, but once I figured out the twist, I was curious how the book was going to resolve it. Enjoyed Elsie's growth over all, she was just a bit frustrating through out the rest of the book, few moments withstanding.