The Hating Game [Book and film adaptation review]

    The Hating Game [Sally Thorne, 2016] is a spicy enemies to lovers romance book. I wasn’t sure what to expect when I picked up the book a few months back, but I was pleasantly surprised. The banter, snark, and rivalry between Lucy and Josh was well written and entertaining.Their time as office enemies was played out well and built a lot of suspense and sexual tension leading up to their inevitable get together. Lucy and Josh’s coming together in the book was less of a gentle connection, and more of a head on collision. The rough elevator kiss was hot and the sex scene later in the book was even hotter. Lucy and Josh’s on-page chemistry was beautifully portrayed from Lucy’s point of view as incredibly sexy, yet oddly confusing and infuriating due to, well…hating each other. 

    The Hating Game movie came out yesterday [12/10/21] and sadly there’s not a single theater in my state playing it — So thank god for Apple TV. Honestly, I didn’t really have high expectations for the movie; only because I never have high expectations for book to screen adaptations after The Goblet of Fire (sorry not sorry). However, I actually really enjoyed the movie. Lucy and Josh’s sexual tension build up and rivalry lasted a lot longer in the book and I’m a sucker for a slow burn enemies-to-lovers, but Lucy Hale and Austin Stowell had amazing chemistry so it wasn’t the worst thing to move on to the “lovers” era sooner. 

    The movie stuck pretty closely to the book, but I wish it would have expanded a little bit on Lucy’s character because her character growth is a lot more defined in the book than it was on screen. The level-five-spice sex scene in the book was also missing from the movie: not the scene, but the heat. The movie is rated R, and it was disappointing that such a well written sex scene, where they were both vulnerable and open and into the act and each other, didn’t really happen. 

While the cut-to-afterglow was a bit of a let down, the chemistry between Lucy and Josh was undeniable and very enjoyable to watch. I know the film is less than two hours long, and honestly it was probably the perfect length for a romance film, but the emotional and physical relationship progression between Josh and Lucy felt like it happened so fast, it almost felt like the “hating” aspect of their relationship game didn’t really exist. 

All that said from a reviewing standpoint, The Hating Game was actually a very solid screen adaptation of Sally Thorne’s novel; it was a classic romcom—funny, sexy, and full of quick banter, and I’ll absolutely be watching it again. 

Book:  4.5 ☆

Movie:  4 ☆