Book Review: The Hating Game by Sally Thorne
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| Rating: 5 Stars |
Summary: Nemesis (n.)
1) An opponent or rival whom a person cannot best or overcome;
2) A person’s undoing;
3) Joshua Templeman. Lucy Hutton and Joshua Templeman hate each other. Not dislike. Not begrudgingly tolerate. Hate. And they have no problem displaying their feelings through a series of ritualistic passive aggressive maneuvers as they sit across from each other, executive assistants to co-CEOs of a publishing company. Lucy can’t understand Joshua’s joyless, uptight, meticulous approach to his job. Joshua is clearly baffled by Lucy’s overly bright clothes, quirkiness, and Pollyanna attitude.
1) An opponent or rival whom a person cannot best or overcome;
2) A person’s undoing;
3) Joshua Templeman. Lucy Hutton and Joshua Templeman hate each other. Not dislike. Not begrudgingly tolerate. Hate. And they have no problem displaying their feelings through a series of ritualistic passive aggressive maneuvers as they sit across from each other, executive assistants to co-CEOs of a publishing company. Lucy can’t understand Joshua’s joyless, uptight, meticulous approach to his job. Joshua is clearly baffled by Lucy’s overly bright clothes, quirkiness, and Pollyanna attitude.
Now up for the same promotion, their battle of wills has come to a head and Lucy refuses to back down when their latest game could cost her her dream job…But the tension between Lucy and Joshua has also reached its boiling point, and Lucy is discovering that maybe she doesn’t hate Joshua. And maybe, he doesn’t hate her either. Or maybe this is just another game.
(from Goodreads)
Review: I ALMOST didn't read this because I don't typically care for the first person present tense style of writing. Boy, am I glad my good buddy Ariel pressed me to read this, saying she couldn't put it down. I read this entire book in a span of less than 24 hours, and it would have been less than that except I need to keep my job! Kept me up long past my bedtime.
At one point Josh tells Lucy "You are deeply weird," and the great thing is, they BOTH are! The story is told entirely through Lucy's point of view in the present tense, and she starts by giving us two important facts: Her name is Lucy Hutton, and she hates Josh Templeman. They spend their days sharing an office and playing little games with each other (like The Staring Game and the How You Doing game), trying to win and one-up the other. Their dynamic is just so hilarious, and they are clearly BOTH deeply weird in the same wonderfully quirky way to interact with each other the way they do.
The scene where Lucy has the stomach flu just about ripped my heart out of my chest (and that's all I'll say about it because no spoilers!). Several other scenes after had my eyes welling with tears and clutching at my chest because of the feels. I wanted to both kiss and noogie both Josh and Lucy through most of the second half of the book, and just could not put it down. I'm so glad I pushed past my distaste for the first person present tense thing and stuck with this book, because my life is DEFINITELY better for having gotten to know these two "deeply weird" characters.
