The Hating Game: A Novel

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Monday to Friday, he turns me into a scary-looking woman. I look like a g* fortune-teller screaming about your imminent death. A crazed lunatic in an asylum, seconds from clawing her own eyes out.

I know it's a romance book. I know, alright. But I like to think readers have gotten a little more sophisticated in their choice of romances. Side plots involving the protagonist's family and/or career are typically told alongside the main romance plotline now. Además, si me conocen, saben que yo me muero por los personajes como Josh que, en la superficie, parecen súper fríos y calculadores, pero que, en el fondo, son un unicornio de peluche muy abrazable. De verdad, necesito un Josh en mi vida, sobre todo porque también es obscenamente alto y eso me parece muy sexy, jajaja. Perdón por ser así. Joshua is glaring at me with angry eyebrows. I use my brainwaves to transmit an insult to him, which he receives and pulls himself up straight.”To be honest, the audiobook isn’t all that great. The narrator doesn’t vocalize Lucy and Josh’s voices distinctly that sometimes it was lost on me who was speaking what. However, I also think I wouldn’t have gotten this emotional over this book had I just read it conventionally. Anyhow, I still consider this one of my best audiobook experiences.

I reread this (again) during a particularly stressful period, because I wanted to soothe myself. And I had finally watched the movie and wanted to envelope myself in the Lucy and Joshness again. Because, you see, throughout all these little games they play with each other, you're given the sense that some twisted part of them both enjoy it. Lucy actively looks for ways to one-up Josh. Or to surprise a grin out of him. Josh, for his part, is obviously trying to get a different reaction from Lucy, and it's not really clear until things begin to change between them what this reaction is. It was obvious from the start that Lucy was going to be the goody-two-shoes, sunshine-y girl who does everything with energy and enthusiasm and is addicted to the fact that everyone must love her and Josh was the mean fancy-ass jerk that was going to mess with her constantly and she was going to catch on fire because he was the only person who seemed to not like her. I LOVE big, tall, grouchy, intimidating, perceptive, neat freak, and smart as a whip JOSH. He’s almost never nice, but who wants nice anyway? (LOL I’m going to get trolled over this. But no ladies, please find yourself a nice guy.) Anyway, it doesn’t matter bcs his heart is in the right place. He’s misunderstood and a little shy. He’s actually a giant softie.I don't know whether there's even much point in telling you the premise of the book itself. Or reviewing it. My feelings towards it are intense and irrational, if you haven’t gathered that already. I think it's one of the best love stories that I've had the pleasure of reading. It's hilarious, heart-warming and the development of it all is spot-on. So well done! I cannot recommend it enough.

And nothing, nothing, makes my heart pitty-pat as hard as a couple who start out with a mutual disgust for each other. The following version of this book was used to create this study guide: Thorne, Sally. The Hating Game. New York: Harper Collins, 2016.Because, in the scheme of things, this book going from a 4.5 star read rounded up to a 3 star read is not all that consequential.