Reviews with content warning for Emotional abuse - The Hating Game

Reviews tagging 'Emotional abuse'

The Hating Game by Sally Thorne

62 reviews

marionhoney's review against another edition

funny lighthearted fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

2.0

Finished over two days but the off-handed ableist, anti-fat and patriarchal gender role descriptions ruined the fun for me. Also some of the behaviour of the male lead felt like the early signs of coercive and controlling partners. Worries me to think younger readers might seeing this as romantic rather than on the highway to abuse.

Content Warnings

eepemma's review against another edition

Go to review page

funny hopeful fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

2.75

Content Warnings

lizzieb29's review against another edition

Go to review page

funny lighthearted relaxing fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

Content Warnings

lisa_m's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous emotional funny tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character

3.5

The Hating Game is probably one of the best known romance book and for most people possibly even the first book they think of when they hear "office romance" or "rivals to lovers". Still this book was nothing special in my opinion.

I absolutely enjoyed the story but it is by no means one of the best romance books ever like some people seem to think.

The plot and reasons for their mutual dislike was intriguing enough. What I liked most about this book were the 'office games'. The chemistry between the characters was also written really well.
Still the story felt a bit flat as did the characters. I didn't feel like I actually understood them outside of their mutual obsession with each other.
Also the female MC is so oblivious which is a trope I really dislike and also the main character is basically a handsome, talented, successful white guy who gets a bad backstory in order to explain away his shitty behaviour and she is portrayed as "the right/only woman who can handle him". She is very much the quirky nice girl next door and he is the misunderstood badboy (while not being bad at all, just a bit grumpy and rude).

I also thought it was kinda ridiculous that his main issue is 'being too hot' and that people only wanted to date him for his body, not his personality.. is someone going to tell him that he can actually work on that? I hate the narrative of guys who think there is absolutely nothing wrong with them and that the women are the ones "who just can't handle it"..

Edit: I changed the rating from 4 to 3.5 stars after a month of debating it. I think I felt bad about giving this book a 'bad' rating because it's so popular.

Content Warnings