Reviews with content warning for Toxic relationship - The Hating Game

Reviews tagging 'Toxic relationship'

The Hating Game by Sally Thorne

58 reviews

maddie_1999's review against another edition

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lighthearted fast-paced

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

1.0

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harukaaraki's review against another edition

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medium-paced

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

1.5

the language used in the novel is also kinda problematic

when explaining what the mc's 'love interests' desk looked like, it said

'it was a masculine version of mine, all blue'.

gendering colour and then the author says how his home is so feminine?

please this author is kinda shit.

and theres ableism, fatphobia.

and the characters are spoilt and such obnoxious characters.

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brendaxxo's review against another edition

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emotional lighthearted fast-paced

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

1.0

I feel a chill of fear when I see his big thumb push the B button. He looks down at me, his eyes dark and intense. He's clearly deliberating something. Maybe he'll murder me down there. I'll end up dead in a dumpster. The investigators will see my fishnets and heavy makeup and assume I'm a hooker. They'll follow all the wrong leads.
Meanwhile, Joshua will be calmly bleaching all my DNA off his shoes and making himself a sandwich.
"Serial killer eyes." I wish I didn't sound so scared.

my thoughts about this story can be perfectly summed up in two words: hot mess. on one hand, i was thoroughly entertained (i devoured this in one sitting) but i also have some major gripes with the story. essentially, it was fun until i had a critical thought. then it was weird... and then it was horrible.

one or two mentions about a height difference is fine, but the constant reminders about lucy being tiny and josh's huge stature felt like the story was crossing into fetish territory. couple that with the fact that on more than one occasion lucy feared for her life and felt unsafe around josh, noting his strong serial killer vibes. i'm sorry, is this not supposed to be a thriller about workplace harassment and subsequent murder??? because this is the perfect setup.

to be fair, i’m not the biggest fan of enemies to lovers (

even though it turns out he loved her all along for some reason??

) but i found lucy and josh’s dynamic to be extremely petty and childish. at times josh was too jealous, possessive, and unnecessarily aggressive. his behavior towards danny (and danny’s behavior towards him) was a bit much and quickly became a weird pissing contest. these characters are pushing thirty and if they weren't acting like hormonal middle schoolers, they were basically verbally and emotionally abusing each other. yes, some of it was "banter" but it never sat right with me. neither did the borderline stalking but it was mutual so i guess it cancels out like pemdas.

some of my other complaints are that everyone is one dimensional, neither lucy nor josh had friends or even a life outside of their job, josh’s eyes changed colors like a mood ring somehow, lucy was one of those “i’m not short, i’m fun-sized” people, lucy’s internalized misogyny was never challenged or broken down, and those “and everyone clapped” moments at the end (no they didn’t 😍😍). this is thorne’s first book, so i could excuse the occasional bad or cringy writing, and i could raise my suspension of disbelief enough to allow for certain contrived plot points, but this story has SO many cliches that it simply felt unoriginal and uninspired.

thorne almost lays an interesting foundation, but she never dives deep into her characters.

for instance: josh constantly worked out, never ate, felt uncomfortable whenever lucy made comments about his body, and it’s established that his father's comments led to him developing an unhealthy relationship with food. i was expecting josh to suffer from an eating disorder which would’ve been a great opportunity to bring awareness to men with eating disorders but thorne doesn’t explore this.

the hating game is full of lazy writing. everything, from the plot to the characters to the setting, lacks depth and dimension.

this was a trainwreck i couldn't look away from. the best scenes were the elevator scene (if you block out the serial killer mess) and the singular “you’re always beautiful” moment that was quickly ruined. don't hold your breath, it doesn't get better than that. i originally gave this two stars but then i asked myself, what did i actually like about this book? it's a quick and easy read, but that's all it has going for it. i viscerally hate everything about this book. i'm convinced sally thorne lost the plot. one star.

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aus_1521's review against another edition

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emotional funny lighthearted fast-paced

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

3.0

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jimarable's review against another edition

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Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

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cranereader's review against another edition

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emotional funny fast-paced

1.0

I'm kinda worried about this book being so popular since it's main focus is idolizing a toxic relationship. Lucy and Josh had some cute scenes midway through the book but their relationship overall was really problematic.

The book is very much just focused on their physical appearances. The amount of times it is mentioned how strong, tall and well-toned Josh is and how Lucy is short, adorable and basically a good-looking doll - it drove me crazy. They never feel like they are actually in love with the other person, but just physically attracted to one another.
The book also denigrates short and nice-behaving guys which I really don't get because I liked Danny.

I think the toxicity of their relationship really hit me when they first kissed.

They were both in the elevator together when Josh presses the stop button and he just packs her without her consent (Please note that at that point they were still in the "hating" phase and never made physical contact before as Lucy herself told us) and lifts her on the railing where he fixes her with his body. Lucy does the only rational thing in the entire book and tries to get away from him because she is convinced he is going to do her physical harm, but Josh prevents her tries to free herself and continues to pin her. When she stops for a minute because she is out of breath he leans in and kisses her altough she made it very clear that she is afraid and wants get away from him. I think this scene is a perfect example for book scenes that should have been in a thriller but are viewed as romantic because the guy is hot.

And because every toxic romance story has it: Josh is overly jealous of like every male around Lucy. Not just Danny who is actually into her but also his brother who is engaged. And this jealousy apparently gives him the "reasonable" excuse to be rude.

Also, the book is very much built on the sexist idea that there is a strong, manly guy who isn't very good with emotions and needs a empathetic, "strong" female to lead him. They actually even speak it out in the book through Josh's mother.

To complete this the book isn't even well-written. This shows on the first pages where the storyline of what happened before the actual plot starts is just narrated down in the most boring and plain way possible and continues through the story by Lucy's character who is supposed to be an adult but feels like a thirteen year old who discovered physical attraction for the first time in her life.

Overall, this book really disappointed me and I don't like the ideas it represents.

*I've read the german translation as an ebook from my local library.*

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mikaelaandherbooks's review against another edition

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lighthearted fast-paced

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

3.0

While the writing style is great and I was happy with the ending, I overall felt that there were several parts to the characters' relationship that were toxic and so many moments had me feeling second hand embarrassment.

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