The Hating Game MAIN DISCUSSION

[Beth]

Main discussion for The Hating Game by Sally Thorne ... our optional book for August 2016.

[Heidi]

At one point while reading The Hating Game I said, "This perfect book is perfect" aloud.

[Beth]

YOU GUYS IT WAS SO GOOD I HAVE READ IT TWICE

[Courtney]

I'm 1/2 way through!! If my children were more self-sufficient, I'd be done.

[Jamie]

I loved so much of the banter in this book. And I love a slow build up to the lemons (yeah, I still call it that) however, the whole ex-girlfriend marrying the brother thing was so obvious...wasn't sure if it was meant to be or not.

I will say that I wish more contemporary romance only did the 1 POV, I like there being a mystery to what the other person is feeling although here it seemed like everyone besides Lucy knew how Josh felt.

[L]

I Loved This Book! Devoured it in less than two days. Now that I've come up for air, I feel bereft...

[Kathryn]

This may just be my favorite boozy book club pick of all time.

[Anne]

I loved this book too! The best thing I can say about it is that it's been a few days and I already want to go back and re-read it. I agree that their banter is great.

[Kristin]

SO good. Even more amazing since I picture Josh as an AU Jim Halpert. Loved this!

[Faith]

Beth wrote: "YOU GUYS IT WAS SO GOOD I HAVE READ IT TWICE"

So good! I finished it, couldn't stop thinking about it and started re-reading it again the next day. I can't think of a single book I've ever done that with.

[Kathryn]

SAME!!! It's still sitting on my side table and I walk by and gaze longingly at it, thinking, I should read that again. It's already been two days, the other two books I'm reading can wait.

[Danelle]

I didn't reread it, but I did devour it over the course of a day. It was a really fantastic read - Sally Thorne is really good at unresolved tension. The buildup in this book was SO. GOOD. I agree about the ex and brother thing; I did see that coming from a mile away, but Thorne did a great job bringing us through the book and building the relationship. I just loved it so much!

[Beth]

Kathryn wrote: "This may just be my favorite boozy book club pick of all time."

AHHHHHHH.

[Whitney]

I loved this book so much. I read it for a few minutes each day while traveling in the UK, trying not to think about it while loving some stuffy museums. Then I gave it my full attention on the trip home and loved it. Lol'd at the airport bar and in the plane, wiped away tears too. I couldn't say goodbye to these characters so I started it again. Looking forward to her next book. Thanks ladies for making this a boozy book, I might have missed it otherwise! I think I've said love too much but it's so good.

[Andrea]

This was such a good book. All I wanted to do was read this constantly and now I want to read it all again after knowing how it ends. It's definitely my favorite of the book club so far.

[Kathryn]

I watched the BBC about this one and it got me thinking... can we attribute the his and her perspectives to Stephenie Meyer?? (#EGBTT) That was a great topic of discussion because I remember reading the first chapter and then feeling a bit cheated when it didn't switch to Josh for the second, as I fully expected it to. But I think not doing that actually made the book totally better in the long run. So then it got me thinking about the comment in BBC of how that's so common now...I think the first time I can think of it was when I read Midnight Sun. And I was totally on board with seeing the story from Edward's perspective (as many of us were). So anyway, I was thinking SM was at the forefront of changing things in YA, etc, etc, (I'm not an english major but, etc) and is this something else we can attribute to her?

[Beth]

Kathryn wrote: "I watched the BBC about this one and it got me thinking... can we attribute the his and her perspectives to Stephenie Meyer?? (#EGBTT) That was a great topic of discussion because I remember readin..."

Great insights ... and yeah, there are a lot of people out there who were around the Twific era who would say that the dual POVs was a trope of fic that then made its way into New Adult and contemp romance. Of course, I'm not a romance scholar so I can't say for sure, but it definitely hints to me when I read and when I look at where those authors came from, what their literary background is, that dual POVs has to credit at least part of its genesis to Twilight (maybe not Stephenie, but definitely Twific ... which of course should be credited to SM because part of the reason Twific took off was because SHE NEVER FINISHED MIDNIGHT SUN AND WE ALL NEEDED IT STILL NEED IT HELLO.)

Anyway, all that to say, I would love for someone to definitively look at dual POVs and when they came in vogue. I really do think it was a a post Twific phenom.