Written by E. L. James, this overnight sensation has been the subject of praise and condemnation. I decided to give it a try and report back to the world of HerCampus.
Anastasia Steele is a clumsy English major with almost no relationship experience and a week before graduation when she first falls into Christian Grey’s office. Cold, controlled, and assessing, the very attractive Mr. Grey appears to be everything Ana has ever wanted in a man. And it soon is realized that Christian is attracted to Ana as a BDSM partner, not a girlfriend. Putting her reservations on hold, Ana agrees to try to be with him, on his grounds. No sooner than this, she is thrown into the confusing and dark life of Christian, where boundaries are tested and inner walls disturbed. This dark and twisting romance is tested as the gauntlet is thrown over and over, as personalities clash, and motives are tested. Welcome to the life of the rich and emotionally wrecked.
Cons: Although I did fall for their relationship (i.e. the emails), there were a lot of negatives that I couldn’t ignore. Definitely the worse part of the novel for me would have to be the technical aspect. If there wasn’t a grammatical issue, it was that the phrasing seemed awkward or the descriptions forced. To rest my case, Ana (the narrator) refers to Christian’s voice as “warm and husky like dark melted chocolate fudge caramel… or something” (page 16). Of course, that’s not my only problem with the novel.
Alright, so I get the fascination with sex scenes. If people didn’t enjoy (at least a little) reading about sexual encounters, paperback romances would’ve gone extinct years ago. However, as it’s one of the fastest growing sources of revenue for publishers, the logical conclusion is that erotica is hot. However, there’s a major difference between poorly written sex scenes and well-written sex scenes. Screaming “Argh” and “Oh Baby” every other page gets real old real fast.
Finally, in case anyone didn’t realize, this is a slightly modified Twilight fanfiction. And well, once you know that, the similarities are everywhere. It’s ridiculous.
I would give this grammatical disaster, yet fluffy (and slightly horrific) romance a 3.5 out of 10. On a side note, if you decide to read Fifty Shades of Grey, you’ll probably have to read all three.
Not even sure where to put this, but Ellen DeGeneres made a great video of her trying to be the voice for the audiobook. It’s a pretty good description of some of the scenes, actually. If you’ve read 50 Shades, I would suggest it.