Author: E.L. James
Publisher/Year: Vintage Books / 2011
Source/Format: Bought / nookbook
Date Finished: 2 May 2012
Book # 25, 26, 27, and 28
Series Reviews: They're all here
Buy | Borrow | Accept | Avoid
The Short and Sweet of It
Anastasia Steele's life changes when she interviews the enigmatic Christian Grey, a billionaire businessman with eccentric sexual preferences. Driven by a need to control the world around him, Christian is flustered by Ana's resistance to his domineering personality.
A Bit of a Ramble
Originally, James wrote Twilight fan fiction where Edward and Bella were a bit more sexually active (yeah, just a bit...like a lot from what I hear). After receiving quite a bit of backlash, she decided to rework her story into a full length novel with her own characters (no vamps). With that, Fifty Shades was born.
The story revolves around the developing love between Ana and Christian, which is slightly hampered by Christian's preference for bondage and domination (B&D) and his excessive need for control. Christian doesn't just want to tie her up, he has a whole Red Room of Pain with all the accoutrements of a real BDSM playroom.
The sex scenes are explicit, raunchy, and pretty damn hot. At first. I was all over the first book in the trilogy, enjoying the dirty quite thoroughly. While I'm not a whips and chains and swinging things kind of girl in the real world, I certainly don't mind the fantasy of it. For a girl who (now) rarely reads romance novels and even when she did, stayed in the straight-forward, vanilla sex type of romance, this was something new and exciting. But as I progressed through the trilogy, much to my surprise, I found myself getting pretty bored with the sex. Yes, yes, yes, she rolled her eyes so he wants to spank her. Oh, now she wants to push her limits a bit further and bust out some restraints and a flogger. Whatever. These two have A LOT of sex, and while it's pretty hot stuff most of the time, I think a bit less of it would have kept the excitement going throughout the whole trilogy. Then again, I recognize that I read all three back to back which probably has a great affect on the spectacle of kinky fuckery (my favorite term from the book).
I will say that I had a huge problem with Ana for most of the book. She allows things to happen to her just to please Christian. Most of the time when she is trying something new, it's not because she wants to; it's because she is afraid to lose Christian and she knows how much he "needs" to dominate her. Why in the world can't she just like it? Don't get me wrong; Christian is not raping her or forcing her to do anything she doesn't agree too. And most of the time, she does like it. But her motivation for kinky fuckery is 9 times out of 10 for him instead of for her. Ridunculous.
Which brings me to my other problem with the novel: Christian's motivations for his sexual lifestyle. Instead of just having a main character who likes BDSM, we have a man who was neglected as a child by his crack whore of a mother and sexually abused as a submissive by an adult when he was just 15. Do we really need these "reasons" for his lifestyle? Part of the plot line here is Ana's love as a cure for Christian's control issues. Then again, these conflicts increase the tension in the book, and the two do not give up the BDSM entirely.
So now that I've complained enough about the book, I do want to say that I do not regret reading these books at all. Despite the shortcomings, Fifty Shades is unique and different, and I enjoy unique and different. I'm happy the first book in the series was so popular, and I love that women's reaction to the series has spurred discussion of female sexuality and the difference between a rape fantasy and a domination fantasy. Too often it seems like people get the two confused, flying off the handle about Rape Culture when a book merely suggests that some women want to be dominated. Some do. And there's nothing wrong with that. While Ana could be a bit more in control in my opinion, she's still strong enough to warrant a pat on the back for the way she explores her sexuality.
I am...thinking this is not the series for me. haha. :D
ReplyDeleteI just finished the entire series in 3 days after having the first book for over a month without picking it up. I don't do literary. I do easy to read, interesting story etc and this got my attention. It isn't like anything I've read before, pretty much like the Twilight series which I wasn't sure I'd like either. Loved it. Fifty Shades was a more than enjoyable read, a different read. I'm about to start again to see what I missed the first time. Don't think too hard or over analyse,just enjoy a good read.
DeleteThis reminds me that I need to watch that YouTube vid of Ellen Degeneres reading from this book. I bet THAT'S gonna be hil-arious!
ReplyDeleteAre these for me? Nah, probably not. I'll stick with Scottish Highlands sexery. Yay Outlander!
Ohhh, I read these over the weekend, and your review basically sums up what I think of the series. :)
ReplyDeleteLike you I do love the phrase 'kinky fuckery' ... I may have spooked my friends with saying it once or twice. :P
This was completely out of my norm but I loved the first book, everything about it, I agree very unique. I could have only read 1 and been happy, I enjoyed the trilogy because I liked the characters but by 3 I had had enough and it lost its edge in my opinion.
ReplyDeleteI also didn't like that they used his history for why he was into BDSM, the no touching him I can see but the overall lifestyle, nope.
I would love to find a book with roles reverse, the female is the dominant ;-) now that will be hot. lol
My book club chose this book for May. Listen, I am a liberated, sexual woman who is the last thing from a prude but this was just stupid trash. Gratuitous, I think maybe to get a whole bunch of women off on a fantasy. And whatever floats everyone's boat, that is personal. But more than anything? It was horribly written. Just horrible. I think the fiftieth time she bit her lip and it turned him on, and she was raging about her inner goddess, I wanted to burn the damn thing. Our discussion should be interesting, and possibly TMI.
ReplyDeleteSandy, your thoughts echo mine totally! The inner goddess thing totally annoyed me and I didn't think it was well written at all!
DeleteIt was chosen for a book club for me as well, otherswise I probably wouldn't have finished it.
One thing I am finding interesting is that so many women who would never been seen dead reading romance are buying this book!
Oh my god her inner goddess. Yes! That was just horrid. I really hated her inner goddess which is sad because inner goddesses seem like things I would enjoy...if they weren't referenced every five seconds.
DeleteI guess the writing didn't detract me from the story though because this isn't a book with "art" as its purpose. I can put up with bad writing every now and again.
I'm glad to read your thoughts on the books. I don't plan on reading them, but I still have really been looking down on them, lol. I do hope they are opening up a lot of conversation, but I will say it annoys me, otherwise, that THIS is what it takes to get people to read books.
ReplyDeleteI don't think I am going to read these books soon, but I LOVED your review here. So many people will probably read this and not consider the deeper issues.
ReplyDeleteInteresting reaction. Mostly I've heard that they aren't well written. But I'm still curious about them!
ReplyDeleteYou've heard right; they aren't well written. I think, however, that writing is not what the story is about. I can put up with bad writing from time to time.
DeleteI read an excellent recap of Fifty Shades of Grey in The Guardian (I think) that made me feel like I understood everything about the book without having to read it.
ReplyDeleteYou're the first book blogger who has written about these books though I've heard a lot about them. I could see that it might be too much to read them all at one time. It cracks me up that this came out of Twlight fan fiction. I'm just not sure I want to read these though, but I am curious to see the hype for myself.
ReplyDeleteI just... don't think this is a book for me. The summary just makes me cringe. But I'm glad you wrote about it because I was sort of toying with the idea of reading one, sort of like I read one Twilight book just to see what I though. But... no :)
ReplyDeleteI am in the same book club as Sandy, and haven't yet read the book. Not sure I will. I am not a prude by any means, but I don't really enjoy erotica all that much. Just a personal preference. I am betting that my husband would love it though! Oh, and I also love the term kinky fuckery. That rocks the casbah.
ReplyDeleteThank you for writing an actual review! I've seen a million articles about this series, but only two that are actual reviews of the book and not "OMG why do women like this? Do they want to be raped?" or "This book is seriously anti-feminist, yo."
ReplyDeleteI've toyed with the idea of reading the first book, mainly to see what all the hype is about. But from your review I can see that it would irritate the crap out of me.
I hate, hate that the author is trying to "excuse" the characters' "deviant" behavior by making them victims. "He's into S&M, but it's not his fault -- he was abused as a child." Cue sympathetic murmurs and fewer judgmental looks.
Sometimes people are into S&M because it feels good and makes them happy; why do people feel the need to "make it okay" by turning what can be a wonderful, intimate expression of sexuality and/or love into the result of some sort of abuse?
Lame. :p
Yours is the first review I have read of the book, while not a book for me, I liked reading your thoughts on it... cause I will admit curiously with all the hype the book is getting. :)
ReplyDeleteI don't know what I love more: this post's title or the review itself! :-) NOW I'm curious about it. I'm going to put a hold on this.
ReplyDeleteHow could I resist a blog post with this title? :-P I am on the fence about this one. I hated Twilight, so I have serious doubts about this one, but I am curious. I may borrow it from another soccer Mom (at Trisha's last practice, she offered) and sample a few chapters. Sorry if I screwed up anybody's perception of soccer moms. :-P
ReplyDeleteSoccer moms rock. I don't think you need to like Twilight or even to have read Twilight to read this series, so no worries there.
DeleteI am really disappointed in most of these women who have replied. A lot of them have not and will NoT read the trilogy..therefore, I don't think they have a right to judge. Try it, if you then dont like it, then you can respond.until then, keep it to yourself.
ReplyDeleteOh jeez, he has 'reasons' for liking BDSM? That is so... sigh. Ridiculous. haha. My roommate read the first one and said that she liked how Christian was always getting annoyed at Ana for not being more open about what she wanted and didn't want and for doing things only to please him, did you find the same?
ReplyDeleteI read the three books based on a friend reading them. I enjoyed them and they are definitely not my normal genre! Light read ... Well heavy in some places ;). Yes the inner goddess and lip biting was over used but it the email banter made me smile at times and well the kinky fuckery was just fun and different to read.
ReplyDelete