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A review by thebiglittlelibrary
The Hating Game by Sally Thorne
3.0
3.5 ⭐ An entertaining office romance/enemies-to-lovers story
I totally enjoyed this, even though there were many cliches and nonsensical things about this story.
WARNING: Prepare for swearing.
- Lucy and Joshua's office games, like The Staring Game. They legit just stare at each other while as some sort of powerplay. WTF is wrong with these people?
- The work-obsessed, uptight, ODC guy versus the bubbly, friendly, scatterbrained girl aka Zooey Deschanel in New Girl. It's fun but such a cliche dynamic.
- Josh's weird obsession with 'nice guy' and how he is not one. What's wrong with being a nice guy? Sorry, you have daddy issues that stuck with you into adulthood, so your girlfriend left you for your 'nice guy' brother. Grow up. Go to therapy. Don't be a dick. Jeeze.
- The CONSTANT reminder that Lucy is 5-fucking-feet tall and Josh is a giant. This annoys the fuck out of me. Why are all the female protagonists in EVERY SINGLE rom-com so short, and the guy is incredibly tall? I wouldn't find this so annoying, but it was mentioned a ridiculous amount of times. We get it. He can pick her up like she weighs nothing. Fuck off.
- Lucy's CONSTANT objectification of Josh was gross. Like, I get he's jacked, but stop ogling and making him and ME uncomfortable.
- The scene where Lucy gets sick and Josh magically becomes nice and spends the weekend taking care of Lucy. If I was Lucy and the guy I hated took me home and took care of me (changed my clothes, washed my sheets, cooked me food), I'd be weirded out. Let's face it; it's only considered sweet and cute because Josh is hot.
- It makes no sense that Josh doesn't disclose that the wedding they are attending is that of his brother and *spoiler* his last ex-girlfriend was bizarre. Who the fuck wouldn't warn their date, especially if he liked her. This was just so weird and never would happen in real life.
- Honestly, Lucy and Josh are the most dysfunctional characters I've ever met.
The fact Josh was secretly in love with Lucy this whole time, so instead of just treating her like a grown adult, he acts like a child? And there are many unresolved issues with his family. Talk about issues. . . this man desperately needs therapy.
And Lucy. Is she a child? The things she says make me cringe. If I heard a grown 28-year-old woman saying the things she says, I'd hightail it out of there. I mean, it makes sense now why she doesn't have any friends besides her parents. But still, no friends??? That's a huge red flag. It's also strange how much she obsesses over a man she allegedly hates. Then, when things romantically progress, Lucy can't seem to process her feelings for Josh and keeps pushing for them to have this magical 'one night' together instead of actually using her brain to examine the situation. How dumb is she??? Lucy is a weird, emotionally immature person who I cannot relate to.
- I still don't know how Lucy and Josh went from hateful co-workers to lovers. It's almost like their romance is so ridiculous and illogical that I can't actually process how they actually got there in the end. This is for sure not a realistic or healthy relationship, BUT it's entertaining.
Overall, I enjoyed the story and read it in one sitting, but I swear these characters are absolute idiots and just weird. They almost seem like caricatures instead of relateable human beings. I know it's a rom-com, so my expectations aren't high, but can someone actually write a story in this genre that's not overly cheesy and cliche? If I wanted that, I'd just watch a damn Hallmark movie.
So should you read it?
Regardless of all my shit-talking above, I liked this story and will probably reread it, if only to do a psychological analysis on Josh and Lucy. So yes, I'd recommend The Hating Game if you like contemporary romance because it was entertaining, even though I wanted to strangle the main characters.
I totally enjoyed this, even though there were many cliches and nonsensical things about this story.
WARNING: Prepare for swearing.
- Lucy and Joshua's office games, like The Staring Game. They legit just stare at each other while as some sort of powerplay. WTF is wrong with these people?
- The work-obsessed, uptight, ODC guy versus the bubbly, friendly, scatterbrained girl aka Zooey Deschanel in New Girl. It's fun but such a cliche dynamic.
- Josh's weird obsession with 'nice guy' and how he is not one. What's wrong with being a nice guy? Sorry, you have daddy issues that stuck with you into adulthood, so your girlfriend left you for your 'nice guy' brother. Grow up. Go to therapy. Don't be a dick. Jeeze.
- The CONSTANT reminder that Lucy is 5-fucking-feet tall and Josh is a giant. This annoys the fuck out of me. Why are all the female protagonists in EVERY SINGLE rom-com so short, and the guy is incredibly tall? I wouldn't find this so annoying, but it was mentioned a ridiculous amount of times. We get it. He can pick her up like she weighs nothing. Fuck off.
- Lucy's CONSTANT objectification of Josh was gross. Like, I get he's jacked, but stop ogling and making him and ME uncomfortable.
- The scene where Lucy gets sick and Josh magically becomes nice and spends the weekend taking care of Lucy. If I was Lucy and the guy I hated took me home and took care of me (changed my clothes, washed my sheets, cooked me food), I'd be weirded out. Let's face it; it's only considered sweet and cute because Josh is hot.
- It makes no sense that Josh doesn't disclose that the wedding they are attending is that of his brother and *spoiler* his last ex-girlfriend was bizarre. Who the fuck wouldn't warn their date, especially if he liked her. This was just so weird and never would happen in real life.
- Honestly, Lucy and Josh are the most dysfunctional characters I've ever met.
The fact Josh was secretly in love with Lucy this whole time, so instead of just treating her like a grown adult, he acts like a child? And there are many unresolved issues with his family. Talk about issues. . . this man desperately needs therapy.
And Lucy. Is she a child? The things she says make me cringe. If I heard a grown 28-year-old woman saying the things she says, I'd hightail it out of there. I mean, it makes sense now why she doesn't have any friends besides her parents. But still, no friends??? That's a huge red flag. It's also strange how much she obsesses over a man she allegedly hates. Then, when things romantically progress, Lucy can't seem to process her feelings for Josh and keeps pushing for them to have this magical 'one night' together instead of actually using her brain to examine the situation. How dumb is she??? Lucy is a weird, emotionally immature person who I cannot relate to.
- I still don't know how Lucy and Josh went from hateful co-workers to lovers. It's almost like their romance is so ridiculous and illogical that I can't actually process how they actually got there in the end. This is for sure not a realistic or healthy relationship, BUT it's entertaining.
Overall, I enjoyed the story and read it in one sitting, but I swear these characters are absolute idiots and just weird. They almost seem like caricatures instead of relateable human beings. I know it's a rom-com, so my expectations aren't high, but can someone actually write a story in this genre that's not overly cheesy and cliche? If I wanted that, I'd just watch a damn Hallmark movie.
So should you read it?
Regardless of all my shit-talking above, I liked this story and will probably reread it, if only to do a psychological analysis on Josh and Lucy. So yes, I'd recommend The Hating Game if you like contemporary romance because it was entertaining, even though I wanted to strangle the main characters.