The Hating Game

Lucy Hutton is the narrator. She is the 28-year-old executive assistant to Helene Pascal, the co-CEO of Bexley & Gamin Publishing. Physically, her most discerning feature is that she’s only five feet tall. She is a classic “good girl”—nice to everyone and easily taken advantage of. Lucy’s character is relatable. She’s awkward and clumsy, she’s cute and kind, she’s easily hurt, and she’s funny. Lucy also fits the plain girl trope, which is typically seen in romance novels. The trope makes the reader feel like she, too, could have the sort of romantic love Lucy will have by the end of the novel. She, too, could have someone like Joshua—the beautiful bad boy who’s also vulnerable—fall in love with her.

When she talks about her feelings for Joshua, Lucy’s character becomes both more complicated and relatable. She tells the reader: “Monday to Friday, he turns me into a scary-looking woman. I look like a gypsy fortune-teller screaming about your imminent death. A crazed lunatic in an asylum, seconds from clawing her eyes out” (27). Her self-awareness and ability to mock herself make the reader trust and like her.

Lucy’s biggest vulnerability is her loneliness. She grew up on a strawberry farm with loving parents, and now that she’s moved to the city to pursue a career in publishing, she’s homesick and alone.