Alexis Kokosa ’26
EE Staff Writer
The Hating Game: A Novel by Sally Thorne
Lucy Hutton works in an office with her so-called ‘enemy’ Joshua Templeman. Everything that transpires there becomes an excuse to show him just how much she hates him–but she isn’t doing too well with that. Lucy doesn’t exactly understand why Joshua hates her so much, but she happily returns the favor. But when an opportunity to gain a promotion comes onto the table, their relationship completely changes. Lucy eventually realizes that maybe she doesn’t hate Joshua after all, and Joshua doesn’t hate her. Or is that just another one of their games?
The book’s best character is Helene Pascal, Lucy’s boss. Although her role is small, she’s a funny character who is genuinely likeable from the start all the way through to the finish. The scenes come to life throughout this book, and, overall, it was a pretty good read. One particularly great quote from the text is: “I was always covering for you”. It gave the book just a touch of romance that made it just that much better
Thorne’s writing is not exceptional. The reader can often predict what’s coming, and it got pretty repetitive. Also, the nickname that Joshua gave Lucy made me visibly cringe every time I read it on the paper. Lastly, the amount of times Lucy explained how short she was in different ways just within the first 18 pages was absurd.
Overall, this book would be good for someone who wants a quick read, or is interested in an enemies-to-lovers trope. It would also be good for somebody who is just getting into this style of writing. As someone who has been reading these types of books for quite a while, it definitely wasn’t my favorite, but it was okay.