Sally Thorne’s debut romance is an enemies-to-lovers story full of spicy page-turning tension. I enjoyed the antics in The Hating Game that kept me wondering how this competitive couple would ever end up together. I haven’t seen the rom-com movie that is now streaming yet.
In this blog I offer a different type of book review—one that’s combined with vocabulary building. In The Hating Game I found a few interesting words. Most of them were legitimate, but I love when an author makes up a word readers will get. A quote from the protagonist:
“Take that, Julie, and your me-graines.”
me-graines: a fun term Thorne made up to refer to an excuses-filled character who tries to take advantage of The Hating Game’s sweet protagonist.
From The Hating Game:
“I thought you’d be a bit more flexible on this.” Her tone is slipping further into an impressive combination of petulance and ice. “I am unwell.”
petulance: noun, the quality of being childishly sulky or bad-tempered
From The Hating Game:
“I’ve got some idea. It’s called brinkmanship, darling.” She gestures at the wall with her thumb.
brinkmanship: noun, the art of pursuing a dangerous policy to the limits of safety before stopping, especially in politics
From The Hating Game:
After an eternity, he tangles his hand in the strap on my shoulder. He runs it lasciviously through his fingers pulling it taut, releasing it with the faintest snap, and then does it again.
lasciviously: adjective, (of a person, manner, or gesture) feeling or revealing an overt and often offensive sexual desire
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Definitions are typically from the dictionary that comes with my Mac or The New Oxford American Dictionary.
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To connect or learn more about Sally Thorne, find her at sallythorneauthor.com
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“The word is only a representation of the meaning; even at its best, writing almost always falls short of full meaning. Given that, why in God’s name would you want to make things worse by choosing a word which is only cousin to the one you really wanted to use?” ― Stephen King, On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft