Fifty Shades of Grey by E L James Series: Fifty Shades #1
Published by Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group on May 25th 2011
Genres: Contemporary, Erotica, Fiction, Romance
Pages: 360
Format: eBook
Source: Purchased
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MORE THAN 100 MILLION COPIES SOLD WORDWIDESOON TO BE A MAJOR MOTION PICTUREWhen 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.This book is intended for mature audiences.From the Trade Paperback edition.
YOU GUYS! I did it! I gave into the hype! I read Fifty Shades Of Grey by EL James on Valentine’s day weekend, right as the movie was releasing. Y’all, this was my first Valentine’s Day as a single person in a really long time (it was awesome though, so no pity, like it was seriously legitimately fantastic and I spent it with a best friend and went shopping and purchased the love of my life, my iPhone 6 Plus) and so one of my BFFs was talking to me about the book and the movie and I was like fine, fuck it, I’ll read it! AND GUESS WHAT? It was on sale, so I could not be like oh, haha I refuse to read this for $9.99. I hate myself a little tiny bit for saying this, but I actually did not loathe Fifty Shades of Grey. WHAT?! I KNOW! (This review is going to contain a lot of capslock, so contain your capitalization snobbery)
By now, I think everyone knows what Fifty Shades Of Grey is all about and I am just rehashing old news. Whatever. Here’s my take on it: so there’s this girl, Ana, who is a total wet blanket. She’s about to graduate college and is still a virgin and yet every single guy she meets is totally into her. How does that even happen? Anyways. She decides to do her BFF Kate a favor and interview Christian Grey for the school newspaper. Ana’s interview with Christian is awkward, at one point she’s all, are you gay? And he’s all No. Anyways, there’s chemistry between the two. Fast forward a few chapters and Christian draws up this sex contract for Ana. The rest of the book pivots around her deciding whether or not the sign the sex contract. That’s really honest to goodness what the plot boils down to. AND I ATE THIS WHOLE BOOK UP AND INHALED IT AND WHYYYY WHY WHYYYYY.
Okay, so I will admit some of the appeal to this book lies in Jamie Dornan who isn’t even in the book, but the movie, so hey advantages to reading post-movie, which by the way I still have not seen. And then the other appeal came from the movie’s soundtrack, which I love. Hate away haters, hate away, but listen that Earned It song will be on my Spotify rotation for a super long time. Like, I read this book and wasn’t expecting War And Peace or even Nine Rules To Break When Romancing A Rake and I liked it. I legitimately liked it. If we are being real here, yes the writing is terrible. I mean the dialogue is stilted and it’s all do real people even talk like that? No, no they do not. HOWEVER, there’s helicopters and gliding and sexytimes so whatever.
SPEAKING OF WHICH! You guys! I learned so much from this book hahahaha. Like, adult things I had no clue about. Not that this book is an instruction manual, but hey, now I get it. A little bit. Like, yeah the whole inner goddess thing is annoying AF, BUT I get why so many people legitimately love these books and I can’t seem to find it in me to fault them.
And yes, the relationship is borderline and controlling and whatever, BUT I am an adult and can distinguish between real and not real, much like my bro Peeta, so I wasn’t reading the book all OMG THESE AWFUL PEOPLE IN THEIR BDSM SITUATION. Granted, okay I know nothing about BDSM except what this book told me, but still I read with an open mind and enjoyed myself. And really, that’s all I personally want when I read. (You can personally want more, that’s okay, but for me, I did not hate my time with Fifty Shades Of Grey) I actually am to the point where I would consider reading the other books. WHO AM I RIGHT NOW y’all.
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Just one thought 🙂 This book is not BDSM, it’s abusive. The relationship they have is not a BDSM relationship and the activities they engage in are not BDSM activities. Now, as you said, adults have the ability to distinguish fact from fiction, so see this book as entirely fictional. It can’t teach anything about BDSM because it is not BDSM. At all. 🙂
I am a bit ignorant about that — so thanks for letting me know! I would google but hahaha I am afraid of what google would bring up. 🙂
I definitely cannot fault you for the book, nor wanting to read the others. I despised (like, blood pressure going through the roof) the dialogue and grammar in this book.. buuut, that didn’t stop me from reading the other two books in the series. 😉
Hahha, I didn’t quite have the blood pressure issues, but yeah the dialogue and grammar were atrocious. I will probably end up reading the other two books as well. I wonder why they are so hard to set down or just say NOPE to reading?
I still haven’t caved to it. I love your review though. Sounds pretty entertaining and sometimes that’s all we need a book for, right? One question though, is it really as erotic and sexy as it is marketed to be?
To be honest, not really. I mean, there’s a lot of sex in the book but it’s, hmmm, not to my taste.
Glad you had fun reading the book! I think it’s easier to enjoy this book if you know what to expect. 😀 I haven’t read it, but by now I’ve been told about the “plot” so often and read so many reviews that I almost feel like I have. I can’t get myself to read it, because it annoys me so much, but I can sooort of understand why someone might enjoy it. 😀
Right — I went into it totally aware of what happens and knowing all the spoilers. I am just shocked that I did not hate it hahaha.
I hated this book! (My scathing review here ) I actually own the sequel but I dont think I will ever read it. Im glad you kind of liked it though. A lot of people I know did too and I was hoping Id enjoy it more than I did. Great review! <3 Bee
Hahaha, I think maybe if I was not riding the high of hanging out with my best friend and that baller soundtrack, I would have hated this book. Thanks Bee!
The more I read about these books, the more they anger me. This is mostly because they sound like they make it okay for a woman to subjugate herself to a man, allow herself to be abused by him, and think it sexy. I’d call it criminal. Sorry, but I’m NOT going to read them.
That’s fine! I probably would not have read it if my friend didn’t convince me to do it. I give in really easily to peer pressure. I do remember at the end being all WTF, and things like him getting off on hitting her made me mad. However, I didn’t hate this book, which probably was because of my super low expectations. Thanks for commenting 🙂
I’m glad you enjoyed the book. my sisters and I saw the movie and we found it hilarious. I never read the Twilight books but watched one of the moviesand just from that and some of the pictures floating around the Internet I could tell how much of the characters were really portrayed in 50 shades. I was entertained and I laughed because there was so many things wrong with the BDSM scenes, they were written the way someone who has never seen a surgery performed would caricature what they believe surgery looks like. I totally get why people rage against it. But as long as you’re enjoying your time reading them I guess effit
I’m glad you gave it a try to see for yourself. I had heard so many negative reviews of the series that I went in with low expectations, and I really enjoyed it a couple of years ago. I don’t believe it’s abuse because I believe everything is consensual. Before I went and saw the movie on Singles Awareness Day, I decided to re-read book one. I ended up devouring all three and loving them even more. I think the characterization is excellent. I’m not a huge fan of Jamie Dornan in the role but I agree the music in the movie was fantastic (Love Me Like You Do is now one of my favorite songs).
I liked these books too. They had problems (the rape and the goddess were about more than I could stand) but still, I enjoyed the read.
I’m glad that you really enjoyed this book, April. I haven’t read it, I admit, although I am a bit curious now. But I really think people should be able to read what they want, and enjoy whatever it is they choose to read. And I can totally understand the whole Jamie Dornan thing.