The Hating Game

The Hating Game, published in 2016, is Sally Thorne’s first novel. The enemies-to-lovers office rom com became a USA TODAY bestseller in 2018 and has been published in more than 20 countries. Oprah Winfrey ranked it seventh among the 20 best romance novels of all time. In 2021, Vertical Entertainment produced a film adaptation of the book, directed by Peter Hutchings and starring Lucy Hale and Austin Stowell. Harper Collins published a movie tie-In edition of The Hating Game in 2022. This study guide uses the original 2016 edition published by William Morrow Paperbacks.

Plot Summary

The novel opens with 28-year-old Lucy Hutton at her desk at Bexley & Gamin Publishing. She engages in the “Mirror Game,” one of the many “hating” games she plays with Joshua Templeton, who works at the desk opposite hers. Lucy and Joshua are executive assistants to the co-CEOs, Helene Pascal and Richard Bexley. Lucy notes that one of the most important things to know about her is her hatred for Joshua Templeton.

The following day she snoops at Joshua’s desk for information to use against him, finding codes she can’t decipher in his day planner. The mail courier brings Lucy a package containing a hard-to-find Smurf figurine to add to her collection, and Joshua accuses her of caring too much about what others think of her.