Author: E.L. James
# of Pages: 515 (ebook)
Genre: Romance, Erotica, Chick-Lit
Rating: ★★☆☆☆
Synopsis: When literature student Anastasia Steele goes to interview young entrepreneur Christian Grey, she encounters a man who is beautiful, brilliant, and intimidating. The unworldly, innocent Ana is startled to realize she wants this man and, despite his enigmatic reserve, finds she is desperate to get close to him. Unable to resist Ana’s quiet beauty, wit, and independent spirit, Grey admits he wants her, too—but on his own terms. Shocked yet thrilled by Grey’s singular erotic tastes, Ana hesitates. For all the trappings of success—his multinational businesses, his vast wealth, his loving family—Grey is a man tormented by demons and consumed by the need to control. When the couple embarks on a daring, passionately physical affair, Ana discovers Christian Grey’s secrets and explores her own dark desires.
Review: This was actually....better than I expected.
I know it's not saying much since my rating is two stars (in reality it's somewhere in between one and two stars). I heard a lot about this book throughout the years because of all the hype and even attempted to read this book back in 2017 (my impression of the first 50 pages was so bad that I had to stop reading).
Let's start with what I didn't like about Fifty Shades of Grey.
The characters
The characters are cliché (rich, attractive man meets ordinary and innocent girl? Far from original). Perhaps this is to be expected from a book that started as a Twilight fanfic, which was painfully obvious even with the changes James made to make her cast of characters more "original." The story takes place in Washington, her mother (who is divorced from the person Ana considers to be her father) lives in a state with contrasting weather, and Ana is giving her space to be with her husband...does this context sound familiar? At one point, Ana even refers to a character as a "glorious, pale-skinned vamp" (447) which might be an innocent (although strange) description if not for the book's origin.
I actually got a little emotion while reading this book. "Because Christian and Ana's relationship is so romantic?" you might ask. NO, their relationship is so toxic and abusive. I practically weep thinking about all the horny middle-aged women getting off on this unhealthy relationship.
The dialogue
The dialogue is repetitive, awkward, and sometimes cringe-y. The reader is suppose to believe that Christian is this intimidating, eloquent man who speaks beyond his years (which, by the way, would make a lot of sense if he was a 100+ year old vampire...), but his dialogue doesn't meet this description. Most of this book is him repeatedly telling Ana to eat and stop biting her bottom lip. It gets old.
What was even more distracting is how James insists on using the word "behind" to refer to someone's butt. Once I noticed (and once you get passed the first 20% of the book, boy do they mention their "behinds" a lot), it drove me insane; to me, "behind" is an awkward, polite way to refer to someone's butt. After everything Christian and Ana have been through, there's no need for such verbal restraint.
The genre
This book is DEFINITELY well classified in the romance chick-lit genres, and it has everything working against it because I am not a fan of chick-lits (although I will say that this is better than Jennifer Cruise's Bet Me). This is the first erotic I've read, so I'm not sure how much sex is enough sex for people who are seeking out an erotica, but honestly I felt like there was less than I was expecting. It's the worst of both worlds: people who are here for the plot (anyone?) would think there is too much sex, people who are sexually frustrated(?) don't get enough.
So what saved this book from 1 star?
There was an interesting subplot of Grey's potentially abusive past (one that the reader doesn't get much insight to in this book) that can be used to explain (although not justify) his abusive behavior in Christian and Ana's relationship. I think this additional complexity (to an otherwise simple book) kept me interested in hopes that we would be able to learn more about how his past has affected his current sexual behaviors.
Honestly, the 1 star rating is also reserved for books that make me angry that I read it. Although this book was poorly written, I didn't feel pissed off while reading Fifty Shades of Grey. It didn't take that long to get through this book, and I was feeling like reading a quick, easy-to-read romance (the cheap stuff that causes you to lose brain cells rather than gain them). I'm not sure how well this fit the "romance" bill, but everything else seems to meet my qualifications.
Would I recommend this book? Nah. Even just to understand the mainstream hype? Not worth your time.
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