Fifty Shades of Grey
The other day I bought the first book in the Fifty Shades of Grey trilogy. I hadn’t heard much about it, other than the fact that it was attention grabbing. The trilogy follows college student Ana Steele as she falls for billionaire playboy Christian Grey. The trilogy follows their relationship (if you can even call it that?) as Ana finds out Christian’s dark secrets and a few of her own as well. I literally have 11 books on my summer reading list…so I’m not sure why I thought I could take on another. Anywho, I bought the book and immediately returned it 3 days later..NO joke.
I don’t really know where to begin with this book, so I’ll do a list of what I did and didn’t like.
Like:
-I could relate to the dialogue of Ana and her inner goddess. I felt that every girl has that inner voice that gives them the extra confidence they need once in a while.
-Ana’s roommate Kate. I liked Kate for several reasons (1 being that she’s a journalist) but I really wish her character was developed more. Honestly, she seemed to be the only person with sense in the book.
-Ana’s curiosity on who exactly Christian Grey is. I felt like I could connect to her innocence and naivety.
Dislike:
-The parallels to Twilight. Ok we get it already: Young girl falls for dangerous older guy…NEW PLOT LINE PLEASE. And why did the story have to be set in Seattle?!
-The erotica. I have to admit, I stopped reading the book at page 135. It was just too graphic and I knew it would only get worse.
-The sexual nature. I found it hard to read a book that talked about the violent/graphic sexual relationship between man and woman. I found it ever harder to believe that virgin Ana Steele would be ok with Christian being a ‘dominant’ and basically consensually exerting his will over her. The women I know would NOT be ok with Christian Grey showing them his ‘red room of pain’…on the first date! I’m pretty sure they ( and I’m going to include myself in this scenario) would throw their drink in his face and leave without hesitation! BUT to each their own I suppose.
I’m not totally going to bash the series. I think it’s definitely more of an ideal read for older women because they aren’t as impressionable as young girls. I will say that the series will probably work better as a movie because the dialogue was just not ripe enough for literature.
Although…I am pretty interested to see how the rest of the series works out. Do Ana and Christian ever actually date? Who knows….I’m definitely not about to read more and find out!
I’ll probably just google the ending lol.
