A review by jazmin
The Hating Game by Sally Thorne

5.0

“I have a theory. Hating someone feels disturbingly similar to being in love with them. I've had a lot of time to compare love and hate, and these are my observations.”

This book is the very definition of a comfort book. Literally everything about it was warm and fuzzy and well, comforting.

I attempted to read this book a few months ago, but at that time I had been reading mostly fantasy and decided I would pick this book up again later to give it a fair chance. I both hate and love my past self for that decision. Hate because I could have read this wonderful book so much earlier, but love because this was the perfect time to read this book for the first time.

Not even joking, this book was the perfect rivals-to-lovers workplace contemporary. Every single trope or scene was amazing, and I honestly don’t think I can name a single chapter that didn’t help further the story and make me fall a little bit more in love with it. You know how when you go into a book there are usually some types of scenes that you hope will be included in it? Well, this book hit those expectations every. single. time.

Lucy Hutton and Joshua Templeman. Two characters with one of the most interesting character dynamics I have ever read about in my entire life. Their rivalry was fantastically written, and Sally Thorne’s writing style complimented them beautifully. How? Well, Sally Throne writes details so well. Small things about each character that many or may not become more relevant as the story progresses. What that meant for Lucy and Josh was that as their rivalry slowly turned to dependance and comfort, the nature of those details started to change. An example of this that I loved was the way Lucy described the colour of Josh’s eyes. Near the beginning of the book she compared them to ink ruining a white shirt, but throughout the book that description starts to turn to something nicer.

He walked into a florist, of his own volition, and wrote three words on a card that changed the state of play. He could have written anything. Any of the following would have been perfect. I’m sorry. I apologize. I messed up. I’m a horrible asshole. The war is over. I surrender. We’re friends now. But instead, those three little words. You’re always beautiful. The strangest admission from the last person on earth I’d expect. I let myself think the thought I’ve been blocking so admirably.

My only critique is that it was a crime that this book was not partially written in Josh’s perspective and that there is no accompanying book from his pov because I need that. Now. And no epilogue?! I need more content asap. If you couldn’t tell, I loved Josh.

“There’s a bookcase lining an entire wall. By the window there’s an armchair and another lamp, with a stack of books illuminated beneath it. Even more books on the coffee table. I’m intensely relieved by this. What would I have done if he turned out to be a beautiful illiterate?”

Finally, let me just talk about the writing in this book again, because this would not be the five-star read that it was without Sally Thorne’s wonderful prose. Her style of writing was perfectly suited to Lucy and Josh and their story, and I honestly don’t think that this book would have had the same impact had it not been written the way it was. She wrote the best and most unique metaphors that I’ve ever seen, and the way she integrated so many details into the plot was too amazing to describe.

My The Hating Game Playlist:
You Are In Love by Taylor Swift
Flawless by The Neighbourhood
You Are Enough by Sleeping At Last

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