Quiz Love, Theoretically Ali Hazelwood

Love, Theoretically: Full Book Quiz (20 Questions)

Instructions

Welcome to the Love, Theoretically quiz! This comprehensive test covers the entire novel, from the prologue to the epilogue. Questions mix multiple‑choice and short‑answer formats and are divided into four categories:

  • Plot & Sequence (8 questions) – test your memory of key events and their order.
  • Character Motivation (5 questions) – examine why characters act the way they do.
  • Theme & Symbol (4 questions) – explore the novel’s deeper meanings.
  • Synthesis (3 questions) – connect the story to real‑world contexts.

After the quiz you’ll find a complete answer key with brief explanations. Good luck!

Quiz Questions

Plot & Sequence (8 questions)

  1. Multiple choice – What is the first major secret Elsie tries to hide from Jack during the prologue?

    • A. That she is diabetic
    • B. That she is a theoretical physicist
    • C. That she is Greg’s paid fake girlfriend
    • D. That she fainted from heatstroke

  2. Multiple choice – Where does Elsie first discover that Jonathan Smith‑Turner is actually Jack, the man she met at Greg’s family party?

    • A. At Millicent’s birthday dinner
    • B. At her MIT interview dinner
    • C. At a Faux client dinner
    • D. At a coffee shop near campus

  3. Short answer – In Chapter 3, Elsie hides in a bathroom stall at the restaurant. Who shares the stall with her?

  4. Multiple choice – Why does Elsie run from the movie theater after seeing 2001: A Space Odyssey?

    • A. She realizes Jack is on a date with the other job candidate
    • B. She receives a rejection email from MIT
    • C. She has a hypoglycemic attack
    • D. She sees Greg with another woman

  5. Multiple choice – What does Jack reveal about the hoax article he submitted at age seventeen?

    • A. It was a prank to impress his friends
    • B. It was intended to expose flaws in the peer‑review system
    • C. It was ordered by his advisor
    • D. It was a mistake he never meant to publish

  6. Short answer – In the epilogue, what does Elsie put Jack’s Hadron Collider model inside as a birthday surprise?

  7. Multiple choice – Who does Elsie learn was the real target of Jack’s hoax article?

    • A. Monica Salt
    • B. Dr. Christophe Laurendeau
    • C. Georgina Sepulveda
    • D. Grethe Turner (Jack’s mother)

  8. Short answer – What job does Elsie finally accept at the end of the story? (Name the position and the institution.)

Character Motivation (5 questions)

  1. Multiple choice – Why does Elsie agree to pose as Greg’s girlfriend for six months?

    • A. She is deeply in love with Greg
    • B. She needs the money to support her family
    • C. She uses the Faux app for extra income and to practice people‑pleasing
    • D. She wants to spy on Jack for Dr. Laurendeau

  2. Multiple choice – Jack tells Elsie that he has never told his brother Greg about her lies because he is “jealous.” What does Jack mean by this?

    • A. He envies Greg’s close relationship with their grandmother
    • B. He secretly wants Elsie for himself
    • C. He resents Greg’s academic success
    • D. He wishes he had started the Faux app first

  3. Short answer – Why does Dr. Laurendeau urge Elsie to turn down the postdoc offer from George’s lab?

  4. Multiple choice – What childhood experience shapes Jack’s intense hatred of lies?

    • A. He was expelled from school for lying
    • B. His mother Grethe was forced out of academia due to a lie
    • C. His father left the family after a lie
    • D. He was tricked into a fake relationship himself

  5. Short answer – Late in the novel, Elsie tells Cece that her favorite movie is actually Twilight, not the auteur films she used to praise. Why does she admit this now?

Theme & Symbol (4 questions)

  1. Multiple choice – The novel’s title, Love, Theoretically, and many chapter titles (e.g., “Wave‑Particle Duality”) use physics metaphors. Which concept best represents Elsie’s habit of being two different people at once?

    • A. Entropy
    • B. Wave‑particle duality
    • C. Nuclear fission
    • D. Electrical resistance

  2. Multiple choice – Elsie’s diabetic condition and her insulin pump are used as symbols for:

    • A. The difficulty of academic life
    • B. The need for constant vigilance and self‑care
    • C. The fragility of a fake persona
    • D. The conflict between theory and experiment

  3. Short answer – What does the game of Go symbolize in the relationship between Jack and Elsie?

  4. Multiple choice – In Chapter 22, Jack tells Elsie about his mother, a theoretical physicist who was forced out of her PhD program. This backstory reinforces which major theme?

    • A. The importance of family loyalty
    • B. Sexism and power abuse in academia
    • C. The superiority of experimental over theoretical physics
    • D. The healing power of forgiveness

Synthesis (3 questions)

  1. Short answer – The hoax article in the novel is loosely based on a real event called the ______. Explain in one sentence how Jack’s story echoes the real event’s purpose.

  2. Multiple choice – Which real‑world issue does the novel critique most strongly through Elsie’s multiple adjunct jobs and poor financial security?

    • A. The underfunding of public libraries
    • B. The exploitation of contingent faculty in higher education
    • C. The lack of diversity in STEM
    • D. The high cost of insulin

  3. Short answer – By the end of the book, Elsie stops “performing” for others (e.g., professors, family, even Jack). Name one specific behavior she changes to show she is shedding her people‑pleasing identity.

Answer Key

Plot & Sequence (1–8)

  1. B. That she is a theoretical physicist (prologue – she pretends to be a librarian)
  2. B. At her MIT interview dinner (Chapter 2 – Monica reveals Smith‑Turner is Jack)
  3. Jack (Jonathan Smith‑Turner) – he pulls her into the men’s room to hide from colleagues
  4. A. She realizes Jack is on a date with the other job candidate (Georgina)
  5. B. It was intended to expose flaws in the peer‑review system (Chapter 6 interview)
  6. Cherry Jell‑O (epilogue)
  7. B. Dr. Christophe Laurendeau – Jack targeted Laurendeau for ruining his mother’s career
  8. Postdoc at Harvard in George Sepulveda’s lab (Chapter 25)

Character Motivation (9–13)

  1. C. She uses the Faux app for extra income and to practice people‑pleasing – she admits she shapes herself to Greg’s needs
  2. B. He secretly wants Elsie for himself – confesses in Chapter 11
  3. He wanted to keep Elsie dependent on him and opposed experimental physics jobs (Chapter 24)
  4. B. His mother Grethe was forced out of academia due to a lie – Laurendeau’s false accusation
  5. She is choosing honesty over performing for Cece, embracing her true preferences (Chapter 25)

Theme & Symbol (14–17)

  1. B. Wave‑particle duality – Elsie alternates between her real self and her performed self
  2. B. The need for constant vigilance and self‑care – her diabetes requires ongoing attention, mirroring her emotional labor
  3. Strategic thinking, patience, and the challenge of truly knowing another person – Jack and Elsie connect through the game
  4. B. Sexism and power abuse in academia – Grethe’s story highlights systemic bias against women theorists

Synthesis (18–20)

  1. Sokal Hoax – Jack wrote a false paper to critique editorial standards, just as the 1996 hoax targeted a cultural‑studies journal.
  2. B. The exploitation of contingent faculty in higher education – Elsie’s adjunct poverty illustrates “adjunctification.”
  3. Acceptable answers include: she admits her love of Twilight, stops code‑switching for professors, refuses to let Dr. Laurendeau control her career, or tells Jack the truth about her fake‑dating arrangement.