FIFTY SHADES OF GREY BY E.L. JAMES
I am not sure if any of you have heard of these books. I blame it all on my hairdresser who insisted that I buy them, as everyone she knew was reading them, and couldn’t put them down. Well, I read the first one and I won’t be reading any more of them. It turns out the book is adult erotica. It’s called ‘Mummy Porn’ and is aimed at married women over 30.
In the first place the writing is really bad, and it’s boring, and repetitive. Then there are so many clichés, if you are not into bondage, sadism and master/slave relationships, or denigration of women, then you won’t like these books either.
The author is a big fan of her ‘Inner Goddess’ and makes her a character in the book. James constantly tells the reader throughout the book what the Inner Goddess is doing. Anastasia’s Inner Goddess rolls her eyes a lot, hides under tables, squirms with desire etc. I can tell you that my Inner Goddess rolled her eyes a lot, and snickered, and I haven’t seen her since. I think she is keeping a low profile, in case I read more of this rubbish. James keeps repeating herself ad nauseam throughout the book which makes it very tiresome to read
James is also very fond of the word,’suddenly’ and uses it many times over. Another catchcry is,’ his breath hitched or her breath hitched”. I can tell you that every time I read those words my breath hitched in annoyance.There are so many other examples that I lost interest in writing them down.
This is the first book in a trilogy. The second book is called Fifty Shades Darker, and the last one is called Fifty Shades Free. The books are apparently based on fan fiction from the Twilight Books.
I found the book highly insulting to women. The female character, Anastasia, (21 years old) is debased and humiliated by her lover. Anastasia is university educated, and portrayed as a bright young woman. All I can say is in my opinion she is not very bright at all. I was amazed to read that James has a daughter. I certainly wouldn’t want my daughter to be treated like her character Anastasia Steele is treated by her master/boyfriend Christian Grey.
These three books are running off the shelves worldwide, and have made James a best-selling author. The books apparently make her over $1.5 million dollars a week. Go Figure!! Well, it certainly isn’t the wonderful writing that is making these books so popular. Apparently the sex industry has had a big boost in sex toys, and there are those husbands who are either scared to death by their wives taking an interest in carpentry and ropes, or else they have big smiles on their faces.
I guess one way of describing the books would be Mills and Boon with an X Rating. Now there is talk of a movie being made of the first book. Anastasia bless her little cotton socks, orgasms whenever Christian looks at her. Honestly, I don’t know where she gets her energy from. The sex scenes are almost comical in a sick sort of way.
The reviews call it a romance, but there is not much romance that I can see. Christian Grey is obsessive, cruel, selfish, and autocratic. He is an unbelievable character. He is a self -made billionaire, classical pianist, pilot, tall, good-looking, and charismatic.He uses his money as a way to control people.
Anyhow I leave it up to you to make your own decisions.
I love your review – any book that does not treat women with respect and makes them into stupid objects gets a thumbs down from me. I had already decided not to read them – I think they are just manipulative -
The book was hyped up so much i think everyone went to buy them…but recent reviews have been saying its a poorly wriiten book…i am still so curious as to what all the hype was about in the first place. i am yet to read it
I will be interested to see what you think of it once you have read it.
I agree that the book was very repetitive in so many ways and as much as I am all for the love story, this is all it really was and it became very tiresome and boring!! Haven’t most adults done most of what they were doing anyway? Ana’s continual questioning of her lover and both their feelings was very immature and I wanted to slap her. In saying that I quite liked both the main characters. I think the biggest kick I got was reading his account of their first meeting, didn’t expect that! Mills and Boon slightly x rated indeed, and thats all! Wouldn’t recommend it and if I am missing the point please let me know