A review by brendaxxo
The Hating Game by Sally Thorne

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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