Fifty Shades of Grey by: E L James
Publisher: Vintage
528 pages
Genre: Steamy Romance
Summary: Anastasia Steele, soon to be college graduate, has
to interview a young entrepreneur by the name of Christian Grey. The meeting,
although interesting, doesn’t go that smoothly. They run into each other later
and their “relationship” begins. Ana discovers that Christian, although rich,
has some very dark secrets. She must decide to follow his rules and give in to
his controlling personality, or let go.
Review: I have no idea where to begin with this review. I
have mixed feelings about this book. I can tell you that out of curiosity I
ended up reading all three of them. I wasn’t even going to read this book because
of the reviews I have read that say how horrible it is to women. But I gave in
because some of my friends kept telling me that I needed to give it a try. I
don’t regret reading them, although they shouldn’t be as popular as they are.
These are not the best well written books. I also want to
note that I can kind of see the similarities between Twilight and how some
people call this Twilight for adults. Read this book if you want a raunchy
story and a quick thoughtless read, if you know this before starting the book
then you won’t be disappointed.
Just like I’m sure you have heard about in the news, this
book is very sexually graphic. This book isn’t for the faint of heart or the person
who doesn’t like a lot of sex in their books. Although this doesn’t really
bother me when reading I can say two things about this book in particular. One,
some of the scenes were a little too intense for me and was a little too kinky
and domineering. Second, there was so much sex that at times I would skim over
those passages just to get to the plot of the story (the plot in the second and
third books are better and actually interesting and exciting, the first one is
more of an introduction type book).
Now let’s focus on
Mr. Grey himself. Does he treat women like slaves? Yes. Does he have to be in
control in the bedroom? Yes. Sometimes are his actions nauseating? Certainly.
On the other hand, Mr. Grey is one messed up guy. The reader won’t find out how
completely messed up he is until book three, and this may be one of the problems
people have with this book. I’m not saying that what he does is okay just
because he had a really bad childhood that wasn’t his fault, but it helps us
understand his actions a little better. It was hard for me to like
Christian, although he sounds like he would look pretty hot, that is all he
really has going for him, oh and maybe that he is a billionaire. He does get better
though and by book three I actually really like his character. He has his moments in the first two books where you can't help but swoon after him, but it isn't until the third book when you can stop hating him so much.
Ana is up next. I’m going to say that I am not a huge fan of
her in this book. She comes off as spineless and annoying. I will tell you that
she gets better in the other two books but you have to make it through the
first one to find out. I ended up reading the next two books out of curiosity.
If you are looking for quick steamy summer read, then check
this book out. If you make it through the first one you will want to read the
other two, which I guarantee are better than the first. If anything I couldn’t
put these books down no matter how bad they may be.
Rating: 3/5