this booktok romance nearly started a fight - the love hypothesis by ali hazelwood

hypothesis: that listening to this episode will be at least ten times more enjoyable than reading The Love Hypothesis.

welcome back! as our first book for 2023, we read the Reylo fanfic-turned-TikTok Bestseller, The Love Hypothesis by Ali Hazelwood. 

The Love Hypothesis follows Olive, a biology PhD candidate and certified quirky girl, who launches herself into a fake dating scenario by locking lips with the first person she lays eyes on. the trouble is, the fella she’s been tangling tonsils with is none other than Dr Adam Carlson (known ass and very serious science guy). cue: awkward sexual encounters, a lot of chat about broccoli and cheesy sunshine-girl, grumpy-guy plot lines. 

in this episode we discuss expired contacts, the overwhelming largeness of Adam Driver, sunscreen safety and the merits of writing fan fiction.

Music by Yevhen Onoychenko.

choose our next podcast read by going here and voting in the first week of each month!

make sure you subscribe to hear our groundbreaking thoughts as soon as they are unleashed. if you want to be on the same page as us, follow us at talklit.gethit on Instagram and TikTok.

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join talk lit, get hit podcast for deep dives into the hottest BookTok recommendations, trending contemporary fiction, and literary favourites! each episode features book discussions, spoiler-filled chats, and thoughtful literary analysis of novels everyone is talking about - from viral romance and fantasy to modern classics. whether you’re looking for BookTok book reviews, author interviews, or a virtual book club experience, out podcast is your go-to space for readers who love stories and want to explore them in depth.

talk lit, get hit are reading and recording on Giabal, Jagera, Jarowair & Turrbal lands. we acknowledge the cultural diversity of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and pay respect to Elders past, present and future. always was, always will be.  

Transcript

Laura 0:00

Hello and welcome to Talk with Get Hit, a podcast where we read questionable books recommended to us by social media and talk shit about them.

Eryn 0:07

We're Bridget, Erin, and Laura, three friends who haven't mentally progressed since high school, where we bonded over a love of music and books, but mainly Twilight.

Bridget 0:16

Brace yourself for a heady cocktail of somewhat highbrow and incredibly lowbrow ramblings about all the books the internet loves and our journey to figure out why.

Laura 0:24

Welcome back. Happy New Year! We are finally free of the A Court of Thorns and Roses series: watery bowels, fiddles, worms, snarling, purring, and all that jazz. Our first book for 2023 is The Love Hypothesis by Ali Hazelwood, and we can't wait for you to hear the episode. Before we dive into our discussion, let's have a little catch-up. Actually, first thing we need to discuss were your Spotify wrapped results as you expected.

Eryn 0:50

Mine weren't. Mine absolutely weren't. But mine were K-pop heavy, so not really anything that you would understand or know what I'm talking about.

Laura 1:01

But I'm done with the kids. I've heard of BTS.

Eryn 1:05

Black pink. Not BTS, but that's okay. How you like that?

Laura 1:13

Very underground K-pop fan.

Eryn 1:16

It's not underground, I promise it's not underground. It's just not known to you two. Um my top artist was a K-pop group called 17. Okay. Luckily, not Machine Gun Kelly. Oh god. What was your top song? It was a song by an artist called Dio, so he's from the X the K-pop group XO.

Bridget 1:37

Oh.

Eryn 1:38

So it's a song called I'm Gonna Love You, which I apparently listened to only 30 times, which does not seem like a lot for the song, right?

Laura 1:46

I know. I don't believe the results. I don't believe mine.

Eryn 1:49

But it validates for me that I listen to so many different times, like songs and stuff, that if my top song I only listened to 30 times, obviously I'm listening to a bunch of shit all the time.

Laura 2:00

Yeah, all of it bogan according to Spotify.

Eryn 2:03

Oh yeah, I did get roasted. I got hit with the double bogan on the Yeah. Yeah. It hurts. It still hurts. And I don't understand how when like three of my top five artists are K-pop and all my top songs are K-pop, how is that bogan? Yeah. I can only assume that listening to like Violent Soho and Lime Cordial has gotten me bogan in there.

Bridget 2:26

There must just really have been scrambling. How about you, Laura? Was yours accurate? Did you what was yours?

Laura 2:31

The um mine was Carly Ray, my top song was Carly Ray, and my top artist was Carly Ray, I think. Yeah, so it's pretty accurate. I I do still think that it's not entirely accurate. I know it doesn't count up to the full year, but like you know those Recedify things where you can um like it's linked to your Spotify data, but you can see what your most listener to things or songs have been for the past six months, all time, or the past year to the date that you log in. And uh it yeah, it it didn't match up with what my Spotify rapped was, but that's okay.

Eryn 3:08

Ooh, drama.

Bridget 3:10

It's okay. So I use Apple Music and my in a surprise to nobody top artist was Taylor Swift. Um the top song was Bejeweled at 89 plays.

Eryn 3:23

I can't believe that.

Bridget 3:24

And then all too well 10 minute version was second at 84 plays.

Eryn 3:28

Oh, what?

Bridget 3:29

Yeah. That's quite impressive given its length. I know. I listened to a thousand and seventy-eight artists and uh 23,238 minutes of Taylor Swift. My second artist was Maisie Peters at 3,000 minutes. I remember you sent me how much you listened to Taylor Swift.

Laura 3:47

Um and like your your length of time spent listening to Taylor Swift was like quadruple the total amount of time I spent listening to music all year.

Eryn 3:58

That's so funny.

Laura 3:59

Cooked. I should get a um Spotify wrapped bit for audiobooks though. Because I think most of my ear time is spent trying to smash through audiobooks. Um, so segueing from listening wrapped to reading wrapped, um, reading goals. What are your reading goals for 2023? Like, did you meet 2022's goal?

Eryn 4:21

I always set deliberately low reading challenges because I'm bad at reading things. Um, and then I can surprise myself if I do pretty good. Uh so I think my goal this for 2022 was 12. And at the time of recording, I finished on 21 books read. That's good. Yeah, it seemed reasonable. So factoring in the pod, I'll also aim for 12 next year.

Laura 4:50

Um, I love the way that you've managed your own expectations there. That's great. Customer service with in your own mind, it's really innovative.

Eryn 4:57

If I get really close to like the 12, I'll up it to like 15. If I get close to 15, I up it to 20. What about you guys? What were your goals? Bridget's oh, actually, you go first, Laura, because Bridget set a goal for herself at the end of the last pod, and we need to know. The people need to know. So you go.

Laura 5:15

They need answers. Um, me, I think I set mine at 50, and I have met that goal.

Eryn 5:25

Incredible.

Laura 5:26

Yeah. And I think it's I think I actually always aim for 50, and it might be one of the few years that I've actually met it. I think I've met it twice, including this oh, year gone by, 2022. Incredible. Um, yeah, so I might go for 50 again. Um, I have to be honest, probably like I don't know, at least 50% of the books I read were audiobooks. I sort of would read one physical book and listen to an audiobook concurrently. I was like, I don't know. That's still smashing it. Yeah, I mean, I still put in the hours. She's putting her work. Yep. On on that grind.

Eryn 6:06

Girl boss.

Bridget 6:09

Yeah, so you're gonna have 50 again next year, is that what you said? Yeah.

Eryn 6:13

Wow, you guys aim high. So low.

Laura 6:16

Yeah, but I mean, I don't often I've only met that goal twice. So I believe in you.

Bridget 6:22

Thank you.

Eryn 6:23

Okay, Laura. Uh Bridget, it's a moment of truth.

Bridget 6:26

Um, so the last pod I thought that I well, I made the bold claim that I could read a hundred books by the end of the year. Um, I think I was at 64 or something. Um, and that was, I think we recorded that two weeks ago. So now I'm at 82 books. Oh my god. Um, so I have about two weeks to read 18 books, but I think that'll be fine.

Eryn 6:46

That's nothing for you.

Bridget 6:48

Read about six this week.

Eryn 6:49

Yeah, I asked Bridget how her day was today, and she was like, Yeah, good. I read two books. Two books in one day.

Bridget 6:56

Get out of them. One of them was Rich Fulcher's book, who he plays Bob Fossil in the Mighty Boosh. And I'm surprised he can even read. So that was. I mean, I don't know if you know Bob Fossil, but I do know he was trained as a lawyer, I think.

Laura 7:12

I think he has a law degree.

Eryn 7:15

I mean, so do I. The bar's so low.

Bridget 7:18

When I was reading it though, I was like, how can this man write? It's not and it's nothing other than like rubbish, but you know, it was blowing my mind that he could read. Actually, do you remember when I got that cameo, Laura, from him? Did you ever get money back from that? No, we got another one.

Laura 7:34

Okay.

Bridget 7:35

I'll have to see because I got one, it was so funny because all he did was, and it's such a um I don't know, quintessential Bob Fossil moment. He like picked up the phone and then it like turned upside down and then the recording ended. And that was it. It was so funny. Brian got it for me for my birthday. And then I did get another one. Um, but the first one is arguably funnier than the second one. Um, but my goal for this year was 20, so apparently.

Laura 8:05

But that's so crazy because didn't you in uh 2021 didn't you only read 18 books or something like that?

Bridget 8:12

Yeah.

Laura 8:13

Because you were studying. Yeah.

Bridget 8:15

I just can't get over the way you've increased that volume. Well, the last three years I've only read 18 and then 19. Wow. Oh my god. 2018 I read 60.

Laura 8:24

You know what's crazy is like I'm studying two. So one of us is much more committed to our studies than the other.

Eryn 8:33

Because I'm like, oh, I'm not doing a good job.

Bridget 8:37

I only did two subjects though, this year. Like in the semester. And you still put in the work.

Eryn 8:43

She's putting in the work. Hashtag girlbots. Yeah, hashtag girlbots.

Bridget 8:48

Um I was really upset though, just to brag a little bit. Oh. Because I got a GPO of six. Um a GPO, GPA of six, and then I thought I'd graduate with honours. And then I didn't graduate with honours. Why? I don't know. It didn't say anything on there. I thought I'd I thought I'd get a certificate that said whatever it was with honours, but it I didn't. So I should have asked them about it.

Eryn 9:13

Yeah.

Bridget 9:13

I just feel like a university knows more than me, you know.

Eryn 9:16

They they're working for a university. That's not true.

Bridget 9:20

Yeah, they definitely do not. Oh well, it doesn't matter. Um, but I think that maybe my goal, I don't know. I was thinking today I should do 200.

Eryn 9:30

Oh my god.

Bridget 9:30

But that might be a bit too much. That's actually mental. I'll try. I'll see. Maybe 150. If not, I'll go 200.

Eryn 9:39

Before we continue, I have a story to tell. Oh yes! Um the pod story. I've been hoarding pod stories. Amazing. Um but this one especially is apt. So one of my uni friends I've been trying to get her to read Daisy Jones and the Six for ages. And she recently started and she texts me and she was like, Oh my god, I love it so much. I'm like, see, I fucking told you it's a good book. And she's like, Yeah, yeah, I trust your uh recommendations now. I said, What do you mean now? She said, Well, when you told me you were reading those fairy porn books with your friends, I didn't trust you anymore. Slow. That is so funny.

Laura 10:26

Let's start talking about this book because I have so much to say and I'm exercising so much self-restraint to not say anything. So I think to set the scene, before we head in, as always, what were your initial thoughts, expectations, hopes, and dreams heading into this book?

Eryn 10:45

I had like next to no thoughts about this book. All I knew is that it was Raylo fanfic and it was like set in a university. That was it. I didn't even know it was like fake dating trope. I didn't know anything about it, and I kind of wish I still knew nothing about it.

Bridget 11:03

No, Erin, it's a spoiler. I didn't know anything about it either. I knew it was Raylo, and opposite to Erin, was so keen. Um, I was also so happy not to be reading fantasy books and not having to think about fairies and mates and all that shit. So I was so keen.

Eryn 11:24

I find that so interesting because so many times during this book I was like, this is just like Akatar.

Bridget 11:30

That's an insult to Akata. I was gonna say that I think that it's what I wanted from Akatar, but I didn't get.

Eryn 11:39

Oh my god, we're getting too close, but you have to do your initial thoughts, Laura, and then we can fight about this.

Laura 11:46

Um I was really excited to read it because I have seen it on so many book talk things saying, like, uh, you know, best romances that you have to read, enemies to lovers, like blah blah blah. And I have perused a few. Um, I think I was coming off the high of reading book lovers, and I thought that was gonna be pretty bad, but I really liked book lovers. And so I thought, whoa, maybe Akata was a miss, and the love hypothesis is gonna be amazing. I'd only seen good things about it. Uh, and I did know that it was a Relo fanfic, but I thought maybe it would be just loosely inspired. Um but yeah, I I went into it feeling good and I left a changed woman. As always, if you haven't read the love hypothesis and want to keep things fresh and mysterious, um, this is your warning that this episode will definitely contain spoilers. Also, if you don't like rude words, proceed with caution as we're known to throw a few around.

Eryn 12:52

When a fake relationship between scientists meets the irresistible force of attraction, it throws one woman's carefully calculated theories on love into chaos.

Laura 13:02

As a third-year PhD candidate, Olive Smith doesn't believe in lasting romantic relationships. But her best friend does, and that's what got her into this situation.

Bridget 13:12

Convincing Anne that Olive is dating and well on her way to a happily ever-after was always going to take more than just hand-wavy Jedi mind tricks. Scientists require proof.

Eryn 13:22

So, like any self-respecting biologist, Olive panics and kisses the first man she sees.

Laura 13:28

That man is none other than Adam Carlson, a young hotshot professor and well-known ass. Which is why Olive is positively flawed when Stanford's reigning lab tyrant agrees to keep her charade a secret and be her fake boyfriend.

Bridget 13:40

But when a big science conference goes haywire, putting Olive's career on the Bunsen burner, Adam surprises her again with his unyielding support and even more unyielding six-pack abs. And Olive discovers that the only thing more complicated than a hypothesis on love is putting her own heart under the microscope.

Eryn 14:01

Okay, well, I'll start. Olive is one of the most boring characters I've ever had to listen to. Oh my god. I'm rapping. Can't stand her. And I think Anne is a shit friend. I liked An. What?

Laura 14:18

No! No, wait, no, no, sorry.

Bridget 14:20

I like Olive.

Laura 14:21

No, you didn't. What?

Eryn 14:23

I felt bad for her. Oh my god. You've pitied her. I hate Olive, but I actually I think she's poorly written. She had promise, but she's boring as hell and I hate her.

Laura 14:34

Was there any well-written character in this book?

Eryn 14:36

No. Thanks. Correct. Sorry, I feel like I'm shouting, but I hate them all.

Bridget 14:42

Um, I would I would say I I liked Adam as well.

Laura 14:46

No, you didn't. I didn't. No, you didn't.

Eryn 14:49

I I loved Adam so much. He did like he did grow on me as the book went on.

Bridget 14:55

Oh god.

Eryn 14:56

No, I wouldn't go so far as to say I liked Adam.

Bridget 14:58

I didn't like any of the others, but I did like Adam and I did like Olive. Oh god.

Laura 15:04

To me, all of the characters, there was absolutely nothing that just like differentiated them on paper. No. Apart from the fact that she would say, said Anne, said Adam. Like they were all like the same bullshit millennial pumpkin spice, smart ass, like Mickey.

Eryn 15:21

Fucking god.

Laura 15:22

Like I'm so cool. Oh my god.

Eryn 15:25

That's I don't at the end where they're on the double date and they're like, oh my god, Adam and Malcolm are the same person. Oh my god, Olive and Holden are the same person. Shut up. Malcolm. Malcolm's her friend. Malcolm's the Poe character and Holden's No, Malcolm's the Finn character and Poe's Holden's the Poe character.

Laura 15:47

I just don't know, like I don't know how to constructively talk about this because I just don't know where to begin.

Eryn 15:54

I like let's backtrack to Olive, I think. One of the first things that I was so confused about was in the start of the book, it's like she's British, and then suddenly you're like, okay, she's Canadian, and then it never fucking comes up again. And then she starts saying weird shit like that she's weepy. No one fucking says they're weepy unless they're British. Is she meant to be British or Canadian? I don't understand. And it really made me so.

Bridget 16:21

I mean, I don't know any English people that say weepy.

Eryn 16:24

I don't know anyone who says weepy.

Laura 16:26

Who fucking says that? And God, wasn't being Canadian such a fucking chip on her shoulder? Oh god.

Eryn 16:33

As if it's so fucking different. Oh my god. It's basically the same fucking country.

Bridget 16:37

Yeah, but I feel like if you were Canadian, you would be really adamant that you are not from the United States. I wouldn't. But she hated it.

Laura 16:45

She was like, I don't want to go back there. Don't deport me to Canada.

Eryn 16:47

That whole like three paragraphs at the start of the book where Olive talks about how much she loves Anne was like a thousand percent more romantic than anything else that fucking happens in the book.

Laura 17:00

Yeah.

Eryn 17:01

When she's like, oh my god, I love Anne so much. She's my other half, she's my person.

Bridget 17:06

I find that so boring. It was I was just like, yeah, whatever, moving on.

Eryn 17:09

It was boring. Yeah. But it was still the most romantic view in the book.

Laura 17:14

I think uh that we like it was the first thing Erin was like, I started reading the book, I read one page, first thing she pointed out, and I think it summarizes the character of Olive perfectly and like really sets the tone for the kind of reading experience you're gonna have. Um, I'm just gonna read it the very first few lines. Frankly, Olive was a bit on the fence about this whole grad school thing. Not because she didn't like science. Bracket. She did. She loves science. Science was her thing. Close bracket.

Bridget 17:46

Okay. Just because I'm saying I love it and I love Adam and I love Olive, I it I it was it was bad. But I loved it. But this is another bit that is so bad in on the exact same page, page one. So bad. She was well aware that committing to years of unappreciated, underpaid 80-hour work weeks might not be good for her mental health. That nights spent toiling away in front of a Bunsen burner to uncover a trivial slice of knowledge might not be the key to happiness. My question was, does Allie Hazelwood actually have a background in science? I believe not. Oh my god, does she? But if I was gonna write a book about science, the only thing I would know is a Bunsen burner.

Laura 18:30

You guys, this is so interesting. This is something I wanted to talk about because this whole book, I was like, oh, it's a fan fiction. Clearly, someone who's 16-year-old, like is 16 years old, wrote this. And then I looked it up, and Allie Hazelwood is actually a pseudonym, like it's a pen name. Um, and we have some information about who she is. So she's in her 30s. There's lots of pictures of Allie Hazelwood, but her writing identity and her scientific identity are different. So she's like her her her like not her scientific identity, but like who she publishes as in her academic career, I guess. So there's this article that I was looking at on the Washington Post that I don't actually know much about the Washington Post as a reliable source, but it's an interview with Allie Hazlewood from August 2022, and it says, um, Allie Hazelwood is hiding in plain sight. Search the best-selling romance author's name online, and you'll see plenty of photos of the smiling spectacled brunette. Um, not to mention a TikTok of her gamely autographing a fan's chest, blah, blah, blah. She'd rather not divulge her real name. She was born and raised in Italy, um, and she's a neuroscientist and professor living with her husband somewhere in America. And she's in her 30s. Oh my god. Okay, so maybe she does know more about science than me.

Bridget 19:47

Sorry, Elliot.

Laura 19:48

But it doesn't seem like that, right? Like she's always like, ugh, I did a thing with a Bunsen burner and um gems.

Eryn 19:56

But also the use of like trivial in that sentence that Bridget read out makes no sense. Like, I don't actually think any of the discoveries made are trivial. Like, that's true. She goes to be on like a cancer biologist or some shit, right? Like, that's not trivial science, that's important stuff.

Laura 20:16

Yeah.

Eryn 20:17

But actually, the character of Olive contradicts herself so many times in the book. And one of the main ones that really fucking annoyed me was when she talks about how in high school she's not like every other girl, and she played all the sports that she could play. Uh, and then later in that same chapter, she refers to sports as sports ball. Like, you've played all the sports, but you don't know a single sport. Like I'm not like other girls. Are you kidding me? Oh, it makes me so angry. Like, we get it. You're the only girl in STEM. Like, shut the fuck up.

Laura 20:54

Can I read out another bit that I highlighted in that vein? Um, let me like there is like this book is just riddled with like pick me, not like other girls, quirky girlisms. Like, it's just such an insufferable read. Yep. So she's wearing um the black wrap dress that has shrunk in the wash and black pumps. She groaned and snapped a picture for our Anne and Malcolm, who texted her respectively, still conference appropriate and a fire emoji. Olive prayed that Anne was right as she combed the waves in her hair and fought against dried-out mascara. Her fault for buying makeup at the dollar store, clearly.

Bridget 21:33

She's just so quirky, she just didn't even care about these things. Something that really annoyed me and about Olive is the first bit about wearing expired contacts.

Eryn 21:43

Oh, she's literally going blind. Why is she arguing with this guy?

Bridget 21:48

Like I just find it so unbelievable. It's stupid. That she doesn't recognize him by his voice or by she doesn't never make that connection until ages later. Later that he was the same guy. Like, oh gee, I wonder who it could have been. Some big guy. Like, the biggest one.

Laura 22:06

Yeah, like that's what I was gonna say. He's so allegedly colossally large. Like, who else could it be?

Eryn 22:13

The fucking biggest man in the world. The biggest boy. Fucking move over, Shaquille O'Neal. There's a bigger man in town.

Laura 22:22

Maybe she, yeah, because isn't there this article about like the overwhelming largeness of Adam Driver? This uh there's so much to say as well, because let's segue into a chat about Adam, who is clearly Kylo Wren, aka Adam Driver, and is in fact called Adam in this book, which to me raises some weird ethical questions, like firstly, should that be done? Is this real person fiction? Yeah. It makes it for it makes her a really uneasy read because this is clearly just like a bit of a self-serving fanfic about Adam Driver, I think. And I find it really hard to picture Olive. I know almost nothing about what she looks like, what her life is, how she acts, how she thinks. Like, apart from her being just a nervous overthinker, her thoughts don't really she's the smallest girl in the world.

Bridget 23:15

She's literally so different. Even though she's five foot eight or something.

Eryn 23:19

She's so tiny. She, there's even that bit where she's like, Oh my god, I forgot how small I feel when he's around. Shut up!

Laura 23:29

I think I highlighted um something from when she was sitting on his lap in that lecture, and he's like, You're so tiny, you literally nothing.

Bridget 23:38

She's just a sexy baby. Oh god.

Laura 23:40

But I yeah, to me, she was just like kind of like even more so than Farah, just like a nothing character that's a window into like this little porno with Adam Driver.

Eryn 23:51

But see, like, it's not even a porno because you only get one sex scene and it sucks. Oh, it made me puke. But before we get onto that, I actually think Adam is one of the most boring characters ever. Anytime she talks to him, he has like one-word responses.

Laura 24:08

I absolutely agree with you. Sorry, Bridget, you can't get a word in this episode.

Eryn 24:13

We're just ranting. I'm so sorry. But you'll get your chance to rebut.

Laura 24:19

This this whole book is based around this premise of like grumpy guy and sunshine girl. And we're told like at least 40 times in the first 20 pages what a known what a known ass he is. And like, oh, he's such a smart ass and he's so mean. But it seems like he's literally the only person doing his job at this campus. And like, forgive him for uh wanting to raise scientists that know how to do their job properly. Uh, and he literally addresses this in a section where he's like, Ah, I just want people to do a good job and like create reliable, credible information. And she's like, that's actually so fucked up. You don't even care what people think about you. I can't believe you don't care if people like you. And he's like, You're so right. I love you. Let's kiss. My point is that throughout this whole book, he seems pretty nice. He seems a little bit socially awkward, a little bit standoffish, but he doesn't do anything mean. He's just doing his job.

Bridget 25:18

Yes. I really like him, and I think he exactly that's what I was gonna say. That was everything I had prepared in my head. Um, he's never actually mean to anybody. He doesn't make it personal. Um, he's willing to go along with her far-fetched plan. He does all the things he doesn't want to do just to make her happy. Yeah. And he's just nice.

Eryn 25:39

I really like him. Yeah, which comes. He's so respectful. I was gonna say, this is labelled as enemies to lovers. Yeah. He's not an enemy, he's never been an enemy. Yeah, it's just they don't even know each other. Yeah, it's just strangers to lovers, which is literally how lovers work. Like, that's not even a trope, that's just romance.

Bridget 26:01

One day we didn't know, and then we did.

Laura 26:06

There's this section later in the book where she's like, Um, I think it's when they're at the conference, and she's like, Um, are we friends? And he goes, Yeah. And I was like, Like, are they? Because every interaction they've had up to that point has been orchestrated by Anne being like, Look, oh my god, it's your boyfriend. You should go kiss him because he did XYZ. And then they do the thing and they're both like, oh, it's so awkward. I can't believe we did that. We're literally so random for this fake dating scenario. Bye. Like, they don't have any. I think if you're the only interactions between your protagonists are there because some other character forces them into it. Like, they don't, they don't have enough chemistry to be a couple if they're just forced into these scenarios and they don't happen organically.

Eryn 26:52

Also, I hated every time that he she would say something like self-deprecating or like joke about dumping each other, or that meant bring up that they were fake dating, and he would always say something quietly that like refuted whatever she said, and she was always like, I don't know what he means when he says that.

Bridget 27:11

What the fuck do you think he means? Are you stupid? I could really I could I could have told you every single plot thing hours before it happened. Like killed me. I knew exactly what was gonna happen at every point, but you know what? Still loved it. I'm happy that you're happy. Yeah, like good for you, Bridget.

Eryn 27:31

But also I don't know how to have a good time, guy. It just didn't make any fucking sense. Yes, it did. No, like when he was like, Oh, you can't you can't bike there, there's no bike lanes there. I mean dare enough. How do you know if you're not biking anywhere? How would you even know where the bike was?

Bridget 27:47

Because he drives and he sees there's no room for a bike, okay?

Eryn 27:51

But also, I'm pretty sure research funding cannot work like how it works in this book. Having worked in research funding, I'm like, no.

Bridget 27:59

How would you know? You're not a scientist. I've worked in research funding, it doesn't work like it stands in.

Eryn 28:06

But one of the things that really irrationally annoyed me was when she said that he had 70,000 square meters of windows in his office. That's so much fucking window. He doesn't have it, he doesn't have 70,000 square meters of window.

Bridget 28:26

You might.

Eryn 28:26

Again, you've never been to Stanford. It'd have to be the biggest. Oh my god.

Laura 28:31

Her inner monologue was exhausting. And the fact, like, there was just so many arbitrary little sections of this. Like, this book could have been at least 60% shorter if she just shut up. And like, it was so bizarre because all of these little offshoots operated in the same way. Like, we would have non-italicized texts that would say, like, oh my god, he was so big, he was so large, oh, oh my god, oh, dot, dot, dot. She was heavy on the ellipses. And then it would have some thoughts in italics that were also like crap, crap, crap, crap. Holy crap, frick. Like, and then they had emails and they had text communication. It was like, just pick one.

Bridget 29:13

Just pick one. Actually, that's something I found really unbelievable. She was never, she was always like, um, I think I left my phone in the car. Oh, can't relate. Anyway, I feel like I didn't know anything about Anne or Malcolm.

Laura 29:26

Malcolm was probably my favorite character in the whole book. Malcolm seemed the most fleshed out and the most realistic, and offered reliable advice and wasn't doing dumb shit like, oh my god, go put sunscreen on your boyfriend. Kiss.

Bridget 29:40

Now, now Kith. Like Malcolm was so boring to me.

Eryn 29:44

No, he was the only realistic character. The only like normal person.

Bridget 29:49

I hated anything about Malcolm, and I think that the end of the book was so bad when he started going out with Holden. Why did we need that? I hated that. The stupid double date they went on. Get rid of all of that, burn it. I hated it so much.

Laura 30:06

It was so dumb. It was agonizing. I don't know where to insert this informational query, but something I noticed, and I wanna I want your thoughts on this, but so we had Dr. Asland and then we had a research paper by Khaleesi et al.

Eryn 30:26

I didn't notice that.

Laura 30:27

And then we had Holden, and I'm wondering if Holden is a reference at all to that series with um Hero Fiends, the like it was like a Harry Potter fanfiction. No, a fuck uh Harry Styles One Direction fanfiction and got made into a movie and a book.

Bridget 30:44

It was like a what after what?

Laura 30:46

Yes, that's what it's called. Um that character's called Holden, and like I just don't think who else is called Holden.

Bridget 30:52

But but I was thinking that uh what's that book I hated?

Eryn 30:55

Um You mean Holden Caulfield? Yeah. Oh yeah, yeah. Catcher in the Rye. I hate that book.

Laura 31:01

Yeah, that stupid book. Um I was just thinking, like, the these are just references she's pulled from pop culture, and it made me annoyed. I didn't even notice.

Eryn 31:11

I didn't pick up on the Khaleesi one, but something that did annoy me about the research papers. She Olive talks about stalking Adam's publications, right? She's like, I looked at everything he did, and then she's like, Oh my god, I didn't know Tom was his collaborator. How? They've written papers together. How did you not know?

Laura 31:33

Yeah, she's clearly not a very thorough reader. Like when they go to the conference and he's like, Yeah, I'm the keynote speaker. And then she's like, Oh my god, how do we not know this? That's gonna be nice. You guys literally have never had a conversation. That's why. That's why, babe. Oh my god, maybe we're just picking books with illiterate protagonists. Oh my god.

Bridget 31:58

I don't know if if the story really um did much for like scientist reputations, because I've come away feeling like just a bunch of like bozos just all hooking up. If it was if I were a scientist, I would be pretty anti this book because um I think they're all quite inappropriate.

Laura 32:19

Yeah, like there's a section. Adam Driver says, You're a grad student currently depending on me for a place to stay, and even not, the power I have over you could easily turn into a coercive dynamic. She says, I'm not feeling coerced. Yeah, mate, like you hit the nail on the head. There is a definite power imbalance here, I think, that is like addressed, quote unquote addressed in this one sentence. But he's like 10 years older than her and he is in a senior position. Stop. You're so sexy when you talk about consent with me.

Eryn 32:49

I I actually thought that that was just a really like token. Here, look, we we address consent here. Yeah, we address the problem in the room. Same. It doesn't matter, they bang anyway. Also, I really want to talk about the car pushing scene because pushing a car is not that hard if it's already in gear. Like, it's not that hard.

Bridget 33:09

I thought it was incredible. So the car pushing thing, because she was somehow still surprised when he when it turned out that he had a six-pack.

Laura 33:17

Yeah.

Bridget 33:18

Like every time she sees him, she's like, Wow, I love these black t-shirts. It's like they were made for him, but everyone is slightly different. Wow, so form-fitting. And then he pushes the car, and then she sees like a glimpse of his skin on his torso or something and like freaks out. Yeah. And then when they're at the picnic, she oh my god, he has a six-pack. What did you think he had? He like doesn't eat, he just eats vegetables. Yeah. He says the only thing he does is work out. Yeah. He pushes the car. You can see everything in his black t-shirts anyway. Yeah. Why are you surprised?

Laura 33:50

I something I was wondering, like, I think I found this is definitely a painful read, but a part of the reason I think I might have found this so painful to read was because of the sort of secondhand embarrassment I experienced having previously written fanfiction. And to me, like I remember writing this kind of stuff where, like, whatever wishy-washy, Mary Sue, like good at everything, everyone loves her. She can't see how amazing she is, but everyone else can, kind of character, was just like a placeholder for me. And I was just hooking up with every hot man under the sun. Uh, and I just feel like, yeah, maybe I I just wondered if it was acting as some kind of wish fulfillment and I was getting secondhand embarrassment because I remembered doing the same.

Eryn 34:37

I think you were embarrassed because it was bad.

Laura 34:40

I admire it for its authenticity and following through, following through with the Adam Driver first, but yeah, I don't know. I was just wondering, like, okay, so this one section that really made me think that, let me find it. They're riffing, this is a section in the book where they're talking about what if Adam does like Olive and like how she should just tell him how she feels. And then she's like, There's no way. Why not? Because what? Because he's him, he's Carlson, and I She trailed off. No need to continue. And I'm me. I'm nothing special. Malcolm was quiet for a long moment. You have no idea, do you? His tone was sad. You're great, you're beautiful and loving, you're independent and a genius scientist, and selfless and loyal. Hell, oh, look at this ridiculous mess you created just so your friend could date the guy she likes without feeling guilty. There's no way Carlson hasn't noticed. Piss off. Fuck vomit in my mouth.

Eryn 35:41

Have we done Jeremy?

Laura 35:42

Who's that?

Eryn 35:43

No. No, fuck Jeremy. Boring character, useless. He's only there to give her an excuse to fucking do this fake dating bullshit. Yeah, Jeremy sucks.

Laura 35:53

But you know what? I think the reason I don't like Anne is because uh there's clearly something wrong with her and Olive's friendship. Because like this whole book could have been avoided if Olive just felt like she could really talk to Arn and vice versa. Because, like, this literally should have been a conversation between friends.

Eryn 36:10

Yes, she's a bad friend, and the whole time she's always like putting the onus on Olive to apologize for shit or to make stuff happen or to remember everything that's happening in Anne's life. Like, it's nonsense. And also, I want to pick holes in the sunscreen nonsense because Anne is not a true sunscreen user if she's only making them put sunscreen on when they're already in the sun, because you've got to put it on half an hour before you're in the sun. So she's already done them all dirty for making them put it on when they're outside of the car.

Bridget 36:42

But Erin, that's not sexy when they do it in the car.

Eryn 36:45

Well, sexy over skin cancer.

Bridget 36:52

So when Olive was invited to present at the conference, um, Tom, who is going to be her supervisor in the next year, has been offered a place to study with him at Harvard, I think. And he's in the audience, and then afterwards he comes up and um tries to sexually assault her, basically, and sexually harasses her. Um so there's some pretty horrible things, and I did feel really sad for her. Knew what was gonna happen. As soon as she said that she was going to record the um her presentation, I knew exactly what was gonna happen. And I don't know why it took her so long to figure out that his threats were on the recording because she was like, hmm, my phone is flat because it I was actually recording for like hours, funny, but didn't even think at one point, like, oh wait, hang on. That horrible thing happened to me. It's on it's on record.

Eryn 37:43

My only other commentary about Holden is related to this. When she goes to Holden and is like, hey, should I tell Adam about this thing that happened? And he's like, hmm, I can't answer that for you. Uh yeah, you can. He's a professor, right? He just wanted to opt out and then gave her these three really vague clues that would help her figure out if she was supposed to tell him. Like, it's not a fucking riddle. I wanted Holden, I wanted guidance. Useless fuck.

Bridget 38:11

Then I thought that her reaction was probably um a realistic one. Like just she just went home and cried.

Eryn 38:19

Yeah. Yeah. Very sad. Complete freeze response.

Bridget 38:22

Yeah.

Eryn 38:23

I actually think this book did a pretty good job of addressing some of the like issues faced by women in STEM, which are very real and valid issues. However, I felt like they were often like really trivialized, and so you took them less seriously because A, the relationship wasn't serious, but also like she didn't take them seriously herself. Like there's this bit at the start of the book when she's wanging on about how much she loves Anne, where she's like, Ugh, I knew it was hard to be a woman in STEM, but when Arne told me what she'd been through, like I was befudd. Well, you couldn't be befuddled if you already knew what the situation was.

Laura 39:03

And like Adam and What's Her Face, Olive spend the whole first part of their relationship bantering about whether he's gonna like uh put in a formal complaint about her sexually harassing him. So making light of it from the start, like, what a funny joke you kissed me without consent. Maybe I will, maybe I won't report it. What a cute flirt that we're doing right now. Yay.

Eryn 39:25

Yeah, and then like there was also so much misogyny throughout when like she gets blamed for his behaviour when he um gives bad feedback to that guy. That guy was a jerk.

Laura 39:37

That was so uncalled for. And like do a better assignment, yeah.

Eryn 39:44

But this is a great segue into the sex scene because I need to talk about it. It is so bad.

Laura 39:53

I mean, I have to admire its like the authenticity of the awkwardness, you know, like it's not always a seamless endeavor, but this uh this scene was particularly painful.

Bridget 40:08

Something, so the other night Erin said to me, I'm up to like chapter seven, um, but I'm so sick of how many times he says she says that he's so big. And I was like, But Erin, you have to hear that, hear that so many times, because then something later in the book happens, it won't make sense why it happens. Which is the part when he decides to uh finger her, and he he he can't fit past the first knuckle. Shall we read it out? Yeah.

Eryn 40:41

God. This whole thing.

Bridget 40:47

Three centimeters? Yeah, let me go, let me go.

Eryn 40:50

Look, even with someone with big hands, it's not a very big knuckle.

Bridget 40:55

As unbelievable as that was, uh I think it would have been even more unbelievable. Implausible if you hadn't heard three million times how big he was.

Laura 41:04

He's a large man. I wish she met I wish that she um like a choice that she had made would was putting him in leather pants as as per Kylo. Um let me read this finger bit out to you.

Bridget 41:15

A finger bit.

Laura 41:16

So he's fing he's finger blasting her. We can say that, right? Amongst friends. Uh he had big fingers. That must be why they didn't fit. The first knuckle was just shy of too much, a pinching ache, and the sensation of damp, uncomfortable fullness. She shifted on her heels, trying to adjust and make room, and then shifted some more until he had to grip her hip with his other hand to keep her still. Olive held onto his shoulders, his sweat, his skin sweat slicked and scorching hot under her palms. Shh.

Eryn 42:00

I also want to comment on some really bad phrasing.

Laura 42:06

Please go ahead.

Eryn 42:07

But I also want to comment on when he calls her edible, and she says that he fits her entire breast in it.

Bridget 42:18

She did say at one point that how lucky it was that she was so small because she doesn't have to wear a bra. I don't know that you're holding it. I got stuck on that. I was very confused.

Laura 42:28

And then the follow-up, like, uh no, sorry, the bit just before that where he says you're edible olive, and then she's like, that's probably an insult, considering that you only like wheatgrass and broccoli. Like, shut up. Yeah, shut the fuck up.

Eryn 42:44

Also, she really overused the oh moments. Yeah, I want to fucking kill myself if I have to read that again. Oh my goodness.

Laura 42:56

Okay, but there is a bit though where um he, I think he's still finger banging her, and then he's like, Oh, have you done this before, by the way? And she's like, Oh, a couple of times in college, and then he's like, Oh, um, and then he's like, Oh, so you're like a virgin? And she's like, I'm literally not, and then he's like, Oh, um, okay, like literally you should have told me that. And then he goes, You are such a smart ass.

Eryn 43:27

Nah, he's doesn't he say something like you're basically a virgin? Because she's like fucked like two guys, you're basically a virgin. Like let me read this. Does he think he's too big? Well, obviously he does.

Bridget 43:39

But then also then like it looked enormous by now and he winced as he touched it. Ugh.

Eryn 43:44

But then Yeah. But then there's that whole bit where she's like, uh, virginity is binary. Actually, it's a fucking construct and it's made up anyway, so just fuck already.

Bridget 43:58

Like she's talking about. That cheese square, maybe spearman's correlation, logistic regression, the logit model, and that stupid sigmoid function. Shut up. Yeah, honestly.

Eryn 44:09

Buzzword, buzzword. If I was like trying to bang someone and they start like chucking out those words, and I'm actually, you know what? I'm putting my clothes on, I'm going to bang them out. You're boring as hell.

Laura 44:21

Um, that bit where he's like, Oh, have you had sex before? And she goes, I can figure it out. I learned wholesale patch clamp in a couple of hours. Sex can't be much harder. And I bet you can do this all the time. So you can tell me how. And then he's like, uh, what? I wanted to talk about some of the language used um at this certain point in the book where they're talking about um, I think, like, still whether she's comfortable having sex. Um, basically, he's like, if there's any reason you don't want to have sex or you're not comfortable with it, like just let me know. And then she says, it's not that I don't want to not have sex, I just don't particularly want to have it. There is something weird about my brain and my body, and I don't know what's wrong with me, and I don't seem to be able to experience attraction like other people, like normal people. Uh, and I feel like that's really sad because I think she's admitting that she's asexual or has like lower sexual desire, or I don't know, like is is uh just verging off from this sort of generally typically portrayed sexual desire in books or whatever. And but the it's the only time it's acknowledged, and it's acknowledged in such a negative light. Yeah. And then just breezed over, and they continue having at it. That was like one of the most interesting things about Olive for me in this book, and it made her a really sympathetic character for me because I was like, oh, yeah, and then he was gonna be a respectful king and they were gonna have a real talk about like sex and what it means to them, and or something like that. I don't know. But no, no such thing. They continued banging. They can't say more than two sentences to each other though.

Bridget 46:01

That would be uh unreasonable.

Laura 46:04

And I think like I understand, I do understand why you thought it was cute and why you enjoyed it. I think it's just that the whole thing was like those cutesy, cutesy little like look at what a sweet couple we are. But I just didn't care that they were a couple. I just didn't see them having any relationship or any chemistry um in order to enjoy the cute stuff that they were doing. It was just like maybe because I was like, maybe it's because you kind of are your team Raylo anyway, so you have ever so slightly more skin in the game, even though it's you know, I know it's like not the same thing, but I personally don't um really enjoy Raylo anyway, so I was like, ugh, I don't want to be reading about this with that in mind.

Eryn 46:49

But I think it's interesting as well, because I didn't particularly think of Raylo while reading this. I didn't even feel like it was particularly like reflective of the source material.

Bridget 47:01

Yeah, yeah. Well, he wasn't killing people, was he? I wish he was.

Laura 47:06

That would have really made him a known ass. Yeah. Actually, like Yeah, he really did nothing.

Eryn 47:12

When he flipped out when he found out about Tom, that was like the only time he did anything that you're like, okay, that that that's him being a bad guy, I guess. But like for good reasons. But even then she was like, oh, I should be frightened, but I'm not. Like, are you fucking okay, Olive? You need to go to therapy.

Bridget 47:32

Oh my god, I just remembered the best thing ever. When you said her name, I disremembered something.

Eryn 47:37

It's early in the book.

Bridget 47:38

It's on page five. Damn. She held out her hand in what she hoped was his general direction. I'm Olive, by the way. Like the tree.

Eryn 47:46

God. Oh my god, and when Malcolm keeps calling her his little calamata, shut up. Why would you give her a nickname that's more syllables than her real name?

Bridget 47:57

And I think it's so dumb because when I think olive, I don't think olive tree. I think of an actual olive. Yes. Like I'm olive, by the way. Like an olive. It's not, it's not, it's not a weird name. It's not a like left field name or whatever. It's a pretty common name. You don't need to like clarify which. Oh, you mean that olive? I thought you meant the olive that was like a chair or something.

Eryn 48:21

Imagine if she was like, I'm olive, like the martini garnish. I'm olive. Like the feta-stuffed version.

Laura 48:29

Coming back to the sex scene though, I want to read I'm reading a lot this episode, but I just really I really want to read this section when he finally gets it in. I've highlighted it's bright yellow and it has a note a note tab. You're so big. He groaned into her neck. His entire body was vibrating with tension. You can take it. I can, she told him, voice reedy, and her breath caught halfway through the second word. Women gave birth, after all, except that he was not in. Not really. Not even half. And there was just no more room. Olive looked up at him, his eyes were closed, dark half moons against his skin, and his jaw was tense. What if it's too much?

Eryn 49:15

But women gave birth, beer. Really pulled me out of it. Yes. If you're thinking about like giving birth, like your head is not in the game. She's a scientist.

Laura 49:29

God's that she's put a really put a critical eye to that, yeah.

Eryn 49:33

But I actually, even though it's called the love hypothesis, I th expected her like area of study to be like romance and relationships or something. And then I thought would be a really interesting way of doing it. Like think like how to lose a guy in ten days vibes. She dates someone for her research project and then has to like write about it and then feels bad morally because she never told them. Yeah. That's kind of what I thought was gonna happen. But also the the hypotheses at the start of each chapter made no sense. And like I stopped reading them, they were so annoying. They were annoying and weren't actual hypotheses.

Laura 50:21

No. I thought I'm glad you say that because I only did science up to like grade nine or something, and I thought, I don't think this checks out.

Bridget 50:28

No, hypotheses are meant to be like that statement. There was one that was so dumb. Let me find it. Hypothesis. When given a chance between A, a slightly inconveniencing situation, and B, a colossal shit show with devastating consequences. I will inevitably end up selecting B.

Laura 50:47

Yeah, there were so many sections where she was like, Yep, this was my life. This was actually happening. Oh my god, how did I get here? But it's like you could get out of this situation very easily through the conversation you should have had with your friend at the start of the book, or a conversation with literally anyone. Every word Olive put into the world was giving the painful millennial energy of, so I did a thing. I want to find this section, it's like one of the few conversations we have um between Anne and Olive that isn't exclusively about Adam. Um and it's it like really could have gone, I could have gone without it because it's really cringe. Um, so they're talking about what they would do. They're like, they're having a beer and a little girl's night in, and they're talking about what they would do if they had money. And Anne says that she would buy a wireless vacuum cleaner. Olive giggled drunkenly and turned to her side, making the bed squeak. Seriously? A vacuum cleaner? A wireless one. It's the shit, old. That is what? Just Olive giggled some more. It's the most random thing.

Eryn 52:02

It's literally not. You guys are almost 30. You've got to be vacuuming your fucking house.

Laura 52:07

Ugh. A robot vacuum would be super nice. I would buy one if I was rich. I was wondering if my opinion heading in was tainted anyway, um, knowing that it started as a fan fiction, or I think, or was written on Wattpad. Uh, and I was wondering if you guys think that like is your expectation that fanfiction in general is just bad? Is like a sub-quality writing? Is sub-quality writing?

Bridget 52:34

I I think like I didn't really think that much about it. I thought it was funny that it was a fanfiction. Um, but I guess if you think about other fanfictions that have that have made it big, like um, you know, like Fifty Shades of Grey or um that one we were talking about before after, um, they're sort of known to be not good. So I guess it does have a reputation.

Eryn 52:57

I don't have any like bias against fanfiction fan fiction. I don't necessarily expect it to be bad, but I often think it's um almost like a simpler form of fiction. So I don't expect really intense world building, because there's an assumption you already know the world and the characters. So it's really focused on like character progression rather than like actual storytelling, perhaps.

Laura 53:29

Hmm, that's a great point. I think that's really true. That's certainly the way that I treated fanfiction back in my day when I was writing my steaming heaps of Harry Potter fanfiction. It was just like, yay, no world building, let's do some cool shit with these really hot characters I made.

Bridget 53:46

I don't like fanfiction when it's um alternate reality. I like I like for them to be in the same reality. Ooh, canon universe.

Eryn 53:54

Hey? Canon universe.

Bridget 53:55

Yeah, and I like I like just n knowing a bit more about um stuff. Gaps and silences? Yeah, that's I was trying not to say that, but yeah, exactly.

Eryn 54:07

Um would you say you like to know their their Christmas celebratory habits and whether they have snowball fights?

Bridget 54:13

If shut up. If it's available, yeah. Um, your Harry Potter fanfiction, when I was in grade seven, I used to write um The Veronica's fanfiction. Oh, very and it was very boring, and all they all they would ever do is like get really famous, and then they would each marry somebody, and then they would each have twins. Oh my god.

Eryn 54:39

And that was complex family too.

Laura 54:41

Maybe at the end of the year we should um get an AI to write a fan fiction from like amalgamating all of the books we've read for the year.

Bridget 54:52

Maybe we should have a competition about who can write the best fanfic.

Eryn 54:55

I I don't know about us.

Bridget 54:58

Oh my god.

Laura 54:59

Are we writing the fanfics or are we asking for submissions? Oh god. Either one. That both would be really fun, and I'm down for that. Um I think I think we're done. Are we done?

Bridget 55:11

Yeah, I reckon.

Laura 55:12

Yeah.

Eryn 55:12

I think so.

Laura 55:14

Are we reading little shit?

Eryn 55:16

Yeah, okay. Uh I'm gonna go out on a limb here and say that we don't have enough data um after this scientific book to do a favorite or least favorite character. Does everyone agree? Yeah, I'd like to I reckon I can do it. Oh, oh, okay. Alright, well, we'll start with favourites. So, on the count of three, everyone say your favorite. One, two, three, Holden. Oh. Okay. Who? Uh. I panicked. I didn't think about it because I was running the show. That's why there was such a big gap between two and three.

Laura 55:58

Holden.

Eryn 55:58

I said Holden, but I panicked. I think I mean Malcolm.

Laura 56:03

They sound exactly the same, to be fair.

Eryn 56:05

Look, they're basically the same fucking character. Yeah. Um okay, so now we'll do least favourites on the count of three. One, two, three, time. Olive would be very close, but Arn pissed me off. She's a bad friend. She's a shit friend. She doesn't know shit about sunscreen. Like, in the bin. Put her in the bin. She's gonna get frickin' sunburned. Uh, okay, so that takes us to the the end of the episode. Uh, last thing we have to do now is rate it lit or shit. Um, so count of three. One, two, three, shit. Lit!

Laura 56:51

I feel really bad, Bridget. I I feel s I feel like we didn't even let you get a single sentence in. That's fine. This is our first fight, and actually, we're gonna pull a Fleetwood Mac after this, so um, I do I do feel bad, but this is exciting that it we I was really worried. I was like voice messaging you guys, oh my god, what if the love hypothesis is too good and we can't think of anything to say about it? I was really worried that we'd we'd need to pick more obviously shit books, um, like Colleen Hoover or something.

Eryn 57:26

Ooh. I I have had a request from a listener to do a Colleen Hoover book. Yes! Uh so I'd be down up. But Bridget, considering you're the only one who liked it and were talked over all episode, do you have any closing statements to make?

Bridget 57:43

Uh Raylo Forever. Boo. Adlive forever. Adlive. I couldn't hear anything else. I hate it. Um you keep you keep being new, Adam and Olive.

Eryn 58:02

When Fayette and Resand had the the real and there was only one bed moment.

Laura 58:07

Favorite remembered her pajamas one too many times. Oh my god, I couldn't.

Bridget 58:12

If you okay, if this okay, one more thing. If you were going, if you knew you were going to stay in a hotel with someone that you were in love with, you would remember your pajamas and you would remember to bring nice pajamas.

Eryn 58:26

Yes.

Bridget 58:26

You would not forget, you would I would buy new pajamas.

Eryn 58:29

But like, let's say she did actually forget them. There's no way she had no other clothes she could have worn as pajamas. Like, what did she wear to travel that day? She could have worn that to bed. She could have just fucking worn the dress to bed.

Laura 58:41

At the end of the Google Doc, I've just added one screenshot, which was a review I found on Goodreads. One star. I don't think Raylos deserve human rights. Sorry. Agreed.

Bridget 58:59

Now that we've got the hell that was the Avatar series out of our system, we'll be releasing episodes monthly so that we have enough time to digest these delightful books and prepare these podcasts for you. Our next episode will be out on Valentine's Day. And the second book we'll be perusing for a bruising in 2023 will be Beach Read. In the meantime, if you want to be on the same page as us, you can follow us at talklit.get on Instagram and TikTok.