49 pages • 1 hour read
Christina LaurenThe True Love Experiment
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2021A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Themes
The Power of Physical Attraction
The romance genre centers and celebrates desire and passion, making—at least in the case of heterosexual pairings—the woman’s sexual pleasure and satisfaction an integral focus of the narrative. This move is often explained, in literary criticism of the genre, as a response to patriarchal cultural beliefs that a woman’s role is to please a man. Certainly, there are veins of literature that coach women on making themselves attractive and pleasing to men, reflecting the belief that a man’s satisfaction is of paramount value. The romance genre in all its forms makes the woman’s satisfaction as important, if not paramount, which Fizzy acknowledges with her chant “down with the patriarchy, up with romance” (329). Fizzy’s sex-positive, enthusiastic approach to dating and romance reflects her belief that she deserves pleasure, and that satisfaction should be mutual in any kind of sexual interaction.
A convention of the contemporary romance novel is the understanding that physical attraction leads to and is a component of the unique and powerful passion that the relationship couple shares. As a mark of their special compatibility, the attraction is more powerful than it has been for previous partners, and the sexual satisfaction is more complete, unrivaled by previous encounters. Fizzy has this experience when she remarks to Jess that she is fascinated by what she believes is the size of Connor’s penis and wants to see for herself. She also finds unparalleled pleasure in their sexual encounters, and the fulfillment is greater than anything she’s experienced before. This signals to the reader that Connor is her match, and that passion will continue to be a satisfying element of their relationship well into the future.
However, the novel puts a twist on the traditional narrative of attraction by making Fizzy unmoved by the first sight of Connor. She finds him objectively attractive but is unable to discern “pants feelings” in response to seeing him at the bar. It is only when she meets him and learns more about him that her physical attraction grows. Responding first to the challenge of changing his perceptions about the romance genre and then to his willingness to learn, experiment, and attend a boy band concert for his daughter, her attraction grows in tandem with the interest she has in him as a person. Her sexual interest is more powerful given the attachment she is developing and the affection that is growing from the time they spend together. Fizzy’s approach to dating speaks to the role that physical attraction plays in choosing partners—one echoed by the initial responses of the Heroes, many of whom report after meeting her that she’s very beautiful (377-78)—but part of the payoff of the romance is the belief that the physical attraction is one more manifestation of the couple’s suitability.
Attitudes Toward the Romance Genre
Given Fizzy’s career as a romance writer and the premise of the reality dating show, the novel takes the opportunity to respond to conventional criticisms of romance. These critics see it as an inferior fiction genre, less valued because of its predictable ending—the couple gets together. Some also dismiss romance out of hand as “chick lit,” stories that center on women’s experiences, including sexual experiences. Many of the defenses mounted in the novel are simultaneously addresses from the author, Christina Lauren, responding to remarks they have no doubt heard often in their successful career writing romance fiction. Fizzy borrows from this in her feeling that she has spent the majority of her adult life defending her profession, but she gives readers ways to respond to detractors and reasons for claiming ownership of something that brings them joy.
Fizzy senses Connor’s condescension when she first meets him, and she thinks it would be refreshing if someone would say to her face, “I haven’t read your books and I like to mock the genre with my bros, but romance has the largest readership in publishing, and I want to make money off it” (36). This speaks to the way many people denigrate romance and other women’s literature while seeking to capitalize off women’s pleasure and desires. Likewise, Connor calls romance novels Nat’s “guilty pleasure,” but she challenges this assumption by asking, “[W]hy should I feel guilty for reading something that makes me happy?” (53). Over the course of the novel, Connor changes his opinion of romances because he takes the time to read Fizzy’s books and realizes he enjoys them. He has a similar attitude toward reality TV—that it’s of lesser value than the documentaries he customarily makes—but the TV show’s enormous viewership proves the value of this kind of entertainment; it gives them something they don’t find elsewhere. Connor’s visit to Fizzy’s book signing gives her the chance to show him how beloved her work is to her fans and how they get interested in her personal life, not just her creations, as shown by the attention her father attracts. Connor’s market research also allows the author to share the numbers about the romance reader demographic, which is an argument all of its own for the appeal of romance narratives.
Fizzy’s commencement speech in the Prologue allows the author to float another theory about the appeal of romance novels. Fizzy speculates that the appeal is not only because they are stories of joy, but also because they elevate ordinary life to something significant. This means that each person is worthy of love, passion, pleasure, and joy, and Fizzy’s speech encourages her audience to live with this belief—to live as if they were in a romance novel. This message aligns with the novel’s themes about joy and the genre’s emphasis on happy endings that bring satisfying resolutions to the conflicts and the characters’ problems.
The Pursuit of Joy
The theme of finding joy works within the romance plot of the novel, which is about the main characters finding happiness, but The True Love Experiment more explicitly fronts this quest by making it part of Felicity’s and Connor’s character arcs. Making the recovery of joy a worthy goal shows the value that pleasure and happiness hold in the novel’s world, simultaneously affirming the role of joy within the world of romance novels and their readership.
The importance of joy to Fizzy is established in the first beat of the novel, in the Prologue where she is giving a commencement address. She feels like a fraud because she is encouraging the graduates to follow their passion, and she feels she has lost hers. For Fizzy, this is initially a lull in her dating life, which has been dampened by finding out that Rob was cheating on his wife with her. In turn, this dry spell extends to her broader concern that she can’t write authentically about love and romance when she’s never experienced it for herself. Connor’s character arc mirrors hers in that he feels his life has become stagnant, revolving only around work and Stevie. Though he enjoys spending time with his daughter, he too is looking for the spark that Fizzy will provide.
Joy is posited several times as the element that people seek in a relationship. Nick, the Cinnamon Roll, underlines this notion when he admires the relationship between his grandparents. Fizzy also admits she seeks this feeling when she tells Connor she hopes to find someone she can laugh with. He confirms this later in their discussion in the hotel room when he tells her she’s looking for the pleasure of joyful companionship and sexual climax. When she mentions feeling that her identity is shifting, he suggests what she is feeling is a sign of personal growth; she is connecting with new aspects of herself that she has discovered because Connor has deepened her capacity for joy, introducing her not only to sexual ecstasy but to genuine love and affection.
Fandom is offered as another avenue toward joy. Nat defends reading romance novels by challenging Connor to explain why she should feel guilty for reading narratives she enjoys. Fizzy tells Connor about the fans she sees at her book signings who come to multiple appearances, just for the joy that Fizzy’s work brings them. The nearly delirious glee of the audience during the Wonderland concert and during the dating show’s final episode demonstrates the intensity of the joy that viewers and readers can feel when participating in a narrative that has an ending that thrills and satisfies. Fandoms also provide communities for this pursuit of joy, creating genuine human connection around subject matter others might find frivolous. As such, part of Fizzy’s quest to smash the patriarchy involves letting women pursue and possess the things that bring them joy.
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