The Rosie Project

Ack. I‘m all over the place with this one. Yes, I just said “Ack.”

The Rosie Project is a rom-com that collides with wickedly sharp writing and starts smelling faintly of spreadsheets and awkward silences. Meet Don Tillman, a geneticist who approaches life with the precision of a lab experiment. Timetables, optimized meal plans (hello, Lobster Tuesdays*), and meticulously tested hypotheses keep his world running as smoothly as possible for a man who struggles to decode the nuances of human connections.

At 39, Don decides it’s time to find a wife so he institutes “The Wife Project,” which includes a lengthy, detailed, ridiculous screening questionnaire for potential mates. Don’s approach to finding a life partner works about as well as you’d expect, which is to say, not at all. Everyone in the book seems to know this. You know it. I know it. But Don? Don’s testing his theory, come what may.

Enter (breathlessly) Rosie Jarman, a free-spirited bartender and grad student on a quest to find her biological father. When Don gets roped into Rosie’s “Father Project,” their unexpected partnership forces him to step outside his comfort zone. Rosie’s spontaneity and warmth challenge Don’s rigid worldview, while Don’s quirks and brilliance unexpectedly win Rosie over. Rosie fails nearly every criterion of Don’s Wife Project questionnaire, yet somehow she delightfully disrupts his carefully calibrated world. From her entrance we can see where this relationship is headed.

Simsion writes with a sparkling wit and a knack for pacing that feels effortless, no doubt honed by the book’s origins as a screenplay. The dialogue crackles, the humor lands, and the depiction of academia is as brutal as it is hilarious. Watching Don apply logic to love is both hilarious and heartbreaking, highlighting not just his brilliance but also his interpersonal limitations.

While Rosie is vibrant and compelling, she occasionally feels more like a narrative device than a fully realized character. Simsion does work to avoid reducing her to an archetype, but at times she seems to function primarily as a catalyst to unravel Don’s rigid patterns and show that love defies logic. Their chemistry works, but I would have loved to get some more of Rosie’s depth. More dialogue from her about her attraction to Don could have enriched their romance, though the telling of the story from Don’s perspective understandably limits our insight into her feelings.

Then there’s Don himself. Simsion has said he intentionally avoided labeling Don’s behaviors, which strongly suggest neurodivergence, to allow readers to interpret him individually. While understandable, this choice leaves certain questions unresolved. Don’s social struggles often fuel the humor, but at times it wobbles between empathetic comedy and laughing at his expense. This tension may leave readers wonder if we are meant to laugh with Don, or at him? Is it a celebration of individuality, or does its pursuit of humor sometimes risk reducing individuality to a punchline?

Hence my “ack.”

Despite its flaws, I did happily read this book to the end. The contrast between precision and chaos underscores the love story. Simsion is a hell of a writer, and this book was a nice reset of my adrenals after reading Nuclear War: A Scenario.

A little messy, but worth it. Much like Lobster Tuesdays.

*lobster, mango and avocado salad with wasabi-coated flying fish roe and crispy seaweed and deep-fried leek garnish