“The Love Hypothesis” is a romance novel by Ali Hazelwood that was originally published in 2021 by Berkley Books and went on to be an instant New York Times Bestseller and TikTok sensation. It’s now getting the book-to-screen treatment from Netflix, hoping to capitalize on the what-ifs of what happens after one big, impulsive kiss sets a romance in motion!

Only we need to back up a bit. What strikes one immediately from the opening of this novel is that despite the myriad of pressures our protagonist Olive Smith is under, those closest to her are most worried about her love life. 

Her main objective is to give her close friends (one of whom is an ex-boyfriend) permission to get together romantically. She does so by entering into a fake relationship with a sought-after young professor at her university. It starts with her impulsively kissing him in front of one of her best friends, Anh. Carlsen, the professor, is in on the act because he has to look like he has “personally invested” to stay funded at (ahem) Stanford, rather than court a glitzier East Coast institution—because, well, he is courting Olive, a third-year PhD student instead.

Antics ensue, but behind them we find a young woman who is coping with the tangible pressures of being an impoverished STEM graduate student, intensely low self-esteem and the funding treachery of scientific professionalization. She deals with this all while negotiating the delayed development of her own sexual identity, which has conveniently taken a backseat to her socially laudable (read obsessive) devotion to her labwork. 

We have the tragic backstory of Olive’s anxious attachment style being based on the loss of her mother to cancer. 

It shouldn’t be an enjoyable ride and yet it is because the main character Olive is such a loveable character and it is only she who can’t see that. She learns along the way that even at her most awkward she is one of life’s winners. 

The relationship between Olive (a student) and Adam Carlsen (a well-known professor) sees her having a mentor and eventually a partner in navigating both personal and professional boundaries. Ali Hazelwood writes both characters so that you are aware that each has their own tortured past and how their chosen families have come through for them to make it this far in life. 

What starts as a forced proximity story quickly evolves to take on themes of bullying, exploitation and manipulation endemic to the male-dominated field of laboratory science. It also provides readers with a deep dive into what is required to perform in high-pressure doctoral programs on the road to successful STEM careers. 

What is the most remarkable part of this journey is how friendships take on serious gravity in the narrative versus this being a typical rom-com format focused on a formulaic will they or won’t they fall in love. This is mostly because both Olive and Adam find themselves resisting their developing feelings. Also because we as readers are let into a very early bonding moment with them that is the real crux of the story—that one’s partner has to have faith in them, even if they don’t have faith in themselves. 

The real love story here emerges boldly through vulnerability—social, sexual, and professional. All three provide the proof Olive has been looking for but is afraid to see and Adam has been afraid to show.

Fans of the book will be eager to see how the leads Lili Reinhart, 29, (Olive Smith) and Tom Bateman, 37, (Dr. Adam Carlsen), handle that complex chemistry equation, while aiming it at a young adult audience.

“The Love Hypothesis” premieres on Prime Video on Sept. 23.

About the writer 

Stephanie Polsky is an academic who gets this world and its motivations, and how each of us is convinced that research is the drug that brings the love.