A review by mel_s_bookshelf
The Hating Game by Sally Thorne

Did not finish book. Stopped at 26%.
I found the characters quite irritating and found the 'games' that they played with each other petty and immature. I get the that was perhaps the point of the start of the book and was willing to keep going until I got to the elevator scene.

While some people may find this scene 'saucy' I couldn't get past that it began as sexual assault. Josh emergency stops the elevator and Lucy is clearly uncomfortable. He then picks Lucy up and when she says to put her down he proceeds to push her up against the wall and starts to kiss her. She ends up kissing him back so it is brushed off that this is okay. It is not.


I skim read through the rest of the book only to find it rather boring and also full of more problematic behaviour.

Numerous times Josh tells Danny not to talk to Lucy, or deliberately tries to distance them. Near the end he snatches Lucy's phone from her while she is talking to Danny and tells him to stop talking to her. This is very much controlling behaviour and I am unsure why this book is glorified as being a 'cute romance'. There is nothing cute about Josh's behaviour.


I really don't understand why this book is so hyped up??

Expand filter menu Content Warnings