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50 Shades of Grey – Book Review

Never one to resist the hype of a good read, or rather the claim of “Mommy Porn,” I downloaded EL James’ 50 Shades of Grey, anticipating an entertaining page-turner, a modern-day love affair (I pictured my grandma’s collection of old romance novels, taking place in the now, equipped with texting and instant messages). Having no further background than the porno reference, I was stunned – shocked – at what waited in the pages before me. Not because of the explicit sex scenes, but rather the terribly underdeveloped protagonist, the unrealistic storyline – and above all else, the bitterly disappointing message this novel sends to all women about the value of love within a relationship.

Please stop meow if you don’t want anything about the plot revealed.

Ana wakes up the next morning in his hotel room – fully clothed – and he asks to see her again under better circumstances. The tension is building. In the following pages, we see a relationship develop, as the wealthy Christian showers her with gifts, such as a laptop and an Audi, as well as his signature lack of emotional availability. Eventually, amid warnings about his own dark secrets, Christian Grey tells Ana who he really is – a sexual deviant who likes to dominate his women into submission – literally. He wants Ana to be his sexual slave, locked under his thumb, required to sign a contract (unenforceable by law), that locks her into a set of rules. The breaking of said rules, according to the contract, is punishable by time in his “Playroom” or mini torture chamber – nothing life threatening, though. Along with this reveal, he asks her to sign an NDA, no doubt to preserve his professional reputation.

And then it’s time for Ana’s big reveal. She is a virgin.

The plot thickens.

Let us now pause to assess the situation: First of all, Ana manages to graduate college without ever being drunk, ever having sex, and without owning a laptop. The last point is what concerns me the most. When Christian buys her a top of the line MacBook, she refers to it as the “mean machine.” Are you kidding me? We have a girl – a virgin – tampering with a guy who wants to get his rocks off by beating the crap out of her – and she is okay with this – but then she refers to a laptop as a mean machine and to Christian as a multi-bagillionaire. Who is this idiot?

The contract has a list of rules that Ana will be required to follow. She must workout, eat regularly, maintain her health and hygiene, wear the clothing he provides, obey his every request, and spend every weekend with him for a period of three months. She also is forbidden to touch Christian or make eye contact with him. The contract is negotiable, so she opts to change the mandated number of workouts from four-times per week to three. This is completely logical, I mean what normal girls wants to touch or make eye contact with her lover anyway?

While the contract is still a matter of discussion, Christian and Anastasia consummate their relationship. Surprise! She has five orgasms the first time. And then dons her hair in pigtails and dances around his kitchen, Risky Business style, while preparing him breakfast. Of course it didn’t make a difference that he had punished her with a spanking. Spoiler alert! Virgins dig that stuff.

In the last 25% of the book, the relationship between the two grows stronger, but more confusing. Ana becomes a bit more believable as James gets her stride in character development and it turns out the Christian has a bit of a soul (gasp!). The most charming and realistic banter between the characters takes place during playful email exchanges, however, the actual dialogue between characters is unrealistic, with the regular use of the words “ill,” “pleased,” and “shall.” For a modern-day romance, the language is flawed and more advanced readers will become impatient with the constant reuse of adjectives and the periodic use of thesaurus synonyms that stick out like a sore thumb. I mean, I would tell my boyfriend that he beguiled me if he asked if he could whip me with a riding crop, too.

The larger issue that this novel presents is that women should never be comfortable offering their bodies to a man that makes it clear he is emotionally incapable of love and perfectly willing to implement capital punishment for eye rolling. Grey is a quintessential predator, Ana his prey, and the plot insinuates that, for the sake of eroticism, this is acceptable. Only at the very end does Ana come to terms with her fate. The final four pages do convince readers to continue with the next book in the trilogy. Mission accomplished, James! However, if they continue remotely in the same fashion as the first, they will leave much to be desired – beyond, of course, a story laced with Mommy Porn.

50 Shades of Grey supposedly started off as fan fiction, based on the Twilight series. While James had every opportunity to create a stronger, more emotionally developed protagonist, she created a world to which the boundaries of sexual delinquency, love, and relationships are blurred beyond distinction. While Twilight is flawed in its writing style, at least the story line paints a picture of loving and committed relationships – something that is completely butchered in 50 Shades of Grey. Being the curious little bird that I am, I will keep reading and will drink again to a wicked storyline that had me flushing crimson on the subway – fingers crossed it isn’t a disappointment, but at least I know what to expect.

144 responses to “50 Shades of Grey – Book Review”

No laptop and email account in year 2011??? I find it hard to believe.

Having read this insight on 50 shades of grey, I must agree. The author seems to favor the use of “Inner goddess” And there is no story line or plot behind it. The way I see it in simple terms is that Anastasia, is a young naive girl who fell for millionaire, and surprise surprise when he casually tells her he enjoys tying girls up and enforcing pain upon them. Not only is this somewhat sick (No offense to any submissive/dominant people out there.) but I find it humiliating to females all over, especially how Mr. Grey has a somewhat Bi Polar personality. I find it annoying how he changes from “Casual and humorous.” to “Horny and sadistic” within seconds. As far as I can tell his character is unstable and I found it a waste of my time. Also, Anastasia’s naive, idiotic willingness for such treatment I find is a disgrace to women everywhere, and I can’t help but think that personally, If some STRANGER told me he wanted to control me sexually and inflict pain on me, I would call the cops if I didn’t strangle him first.

The only good critisism I can offer is that it was unique, and despite it’s horrible plot managed to keep me interested for the first thousand pages or so.

Agreed on there being “much better erotica” out there… and FREE mind you!

that was awesome and so true., i have a sister and a friend who keeps on pushing me to read the books, they even bought the trilogy just to make me read because i told them that i won’t waste my time to read it through the pdf file they have., i started reading, i admit that the start caught me but the latter parts were just too much., damn that blackberry whatsoever, everything just don’t make sense, how could she have made three books of disappointment., it’s so ridiculous how people are fawning over it., not that it’s my business but it’s still a waste of time and a wreck in real novels, and how could they even consider making a movie out of it? and to think that every time my sister would compare men she sees to christian grey is just too annoying., like “christian would have this and that and so on and so forth~” it’s just too much., and the point about his awesome riches is just true, it’s damn unrealistic to make a character that rich! he could be rich, yes. but as rich as christian grey is too absurd.,

just to make it short, I HATE THAT TRILOGY AND IT’S NOT WORTH TO BUY a 15.95 DOLLAR PER BOOK WITH PAGES THAT ARE JUST FILLED WITH KINKY FUCKERY!

I believe this book underwent an editorial process..if the author uses a narrow collection of vocabulary, the editor should have seen that..let’s blame him/her..

hahaha I love your comment…i have not read the book, but I sure won’t know that i had read all the reviews. Damn people sure as hell need to get educated and learn about true authors!!!!

Relax people – it’s fiction and a bit of escapism – get a grip everyone…cannot believe people get so work up over a fictional piece of writing

sounds like a real piece of crap book that stupid people buy up like gold. i guess it’s in nowadays to make garbage, create a buzz, and get super rich with no talent.

Awesome!!! Perfectly stated and I100% agree. This “new” crop or generation of people are stupid as a block of wood and love the worst garbage made these days so what happens? of course, it just inspires people to make more bad shit. we’re in a downward trend in society and don’t see any improvements unless we cut down the number of retarded people.

I love the books, I so love the story, It feels sooo good to be in love. I had fun reading the books, gave me a happy feeling. So people, just quit thinking, take the story as it is, it’s a feel good read. I hate it that the story had to finish, I hope the author continues the story of Christian and Ana. I;m just as excited to find out. And just so you know, i read them 3 times already and i want to read them still, because I can!

I so agree with you, jeez…. and for cheshiretrap: bet you’ve never been in love, try it, it’s good, it’s heaven…

Well, i love this trilogy with all my heart. My own opinion. i so much love this book! 😉

sour graping? Heart broken? C’mon guys, think less and feel more, life’s not that bad…….just a feel good read, be in love, it’s good, it’s healthy, won’t give you a coronary…..

Would everybody hate this book if the main characters were aliens? I’m thinking in terms of two, E.T.-esque aliens tumultuously entangled in a violent love affair. …Most likely the answer is no. Having aliens as main characters would ensure this unimaginable story line stay in the fictional realm. Get a grip people. You hate this book so much, but why? When have you all met people like Ana and Christian in real life that would make you raise concerns about this book’s affects on young women? Are we not allowed to define fictions in our own terms, such as E.L. James did? And to a previous comment, people who read this book for entertainment purposes actually DO have their own love life and get “shagged” on a regular basis. I’m glad, as a 27 year old female in a wonderful relationship, I still know the most elementary definitions of real and fake. Open your minds and shut your mouths.

Thank you, thank you for this review. I thought I was the only woman in the world who found this really stupid book completely juvenile and so off-the-mark with this obviously 14 year old heroine and pedophile protagonist. After reading about a third of the book I could only see her dressed in a cheerleader outfit with an outsized lollipop near her mouth. While my friends, my sisters, were drooling, I was repulsed. And that was before there was any sex at all!

Wow! this is the fourth negative comment I read and its stops HERE!! For the most part this book is FICTION!!!!! All of these negative replies are obviously coming from either old dried up women who never get sex, or from jealous women you have never been made love to like a women should ,be made love to. Lastly and the most obvious from men who only make love the “Vanilla” way and think thats enough for his partner. I had a partner for 10 years who made love to me the way a man should…..like Cristian!! So get off your high horses people and cut it out with your negative and repetitive replys, I’m sorry you have boring sex lives and feel a need to vent your frustrations on E. L. Woods 50 Shades websites, I think young men and women reading these books will actually learn and grow to making better love with each other buy learning what I call the sensual Christian moves, to learn to give an take in a relationship, hence creating better lives for familys and friends!! About the s and m and bondage in this book frankly it turned me on but personally my choice is not to engage in it. Remember we alll have a CHOICE and its our own decision in life to what we want!!

so let me just say this much everyone is entitled to their own opinion you dont think the book is a good read then write your own. you think that is was not properly developed and whatever else have you then prove you can do it better since you have so much to say. as a 21 year old as much as i may not know about book writing i think it was a damn good read something to excite you and even give ideas as to spicing up ur sex life. so much bull i see written here like seriously

Not liking this book does not mean women are either jealous or ‘dried up’. Any one with a good sex life are the ones that dislike this book. It’s a false portrayal of BDSM. The writing is appalling. Avid readers are usually spot on about this pile of crap book. Most of the glowing reviews are from people who start their review with, “I really don’t read but……” “I’m not a reader….” That should give us a clue. How reliable are those that never pick up a book? They have nothing to compare it to and wouldn’t know a good book if it slapped them in the face.Wait until they get a hold of some real erotic fiction….or a good story in general.

The Hunger Games is brilliant. You have NO idea what you are talking about. THG is way better than either Twilight or 50 Shades.

I’m almost at end of book 2 and love it. Doesn;t mean I’d like to be treated as such but hey, it’s called using your imagination.

OMG my thoughts exactly!!! I read the first book and halfway through the second one hoping it would get better at some point, but I found myself hating Anastasia and all her inner voices sooo much I just couldn’t go on. It’s like she’s retarded or something. It’s definitely one of the worst books I’ve ever read. I’m worried about the fact that this kind of crap got published in the first place, and even moreso that it got so popular. The only explanation I can find is that those people who liked it had never read a book in their lives before.

More than your comments about this crappy book (and it is crappy) I like Lucy342, are more disturbed by your comment “by no means consider yourself a feminist”. Wow, with the War on Women raging around the world, you should be PROUD to call yourself a Feminist…it’s not a bad word you know…no matter how many men tell you it is. Just had to put in my 2 cents, it’s so disturbing to find women who disrespect their own gender. Wanting equality is NOT a bad thing, Ashley.

sadly, it’s seems to be a worldwide phenomenon. I live in Spain and EVERYONE’S read the book/s, everywhere else in Europe too. lot’s of my friends have read it as well and while all agree that it’s badly written, most of them have enjoyed it. I just can’t understand why. I’m now on a mission of recommending them other books with erotic twists so they can get a taste of something not-so-crappy. and I’m serious about it. it just makes me so angry that someone would make all this money off a job so badly done.

hahahaha me too!

I totally agree that ‘The Hunger Games’ is way far better than 50 shades.. ( can’t comment on Twilight,never read..just watched the films)

I believe this book should be stopped. This is dangerous. The reading material is not suitable for everyone. The content itself is harmful, dirty and disgusting. The author should be subconscious. I mean if you want to make a book best seller do it on a right thing, on a good story not like this. What’s wrong with these people going crazy about this book and the author also! Doing BDSM is so pathetic. How low life they have to do this. BDSM is not LOVE or ROMANCE that we all desire to have. Its like an act of violence! In short its so YUCKY!!! And I think there is something wrong with them psychologically if you’re in BDSM!

Kill this book. Of course if you’re parent this book is dangerous and no parents would want to date Christian Grey because he is psychologically unfit!

and he doesn’t deserve your daughter!

and would you like your daughter to got hurt by Christian Grey? Stupid! Christian Grey should be excommunicated.

What I don’t understand is why did this book sell so many copies, when my book “Real Solutions to Children’s Health” has barely sold any copies. I would love to believe that humanity is more intelligent than what I am hearing. Why are books and movies like this so highly valued in our society? There is so much good in this world; why are people so attracted to the crap?

Forced myself through 1st book. Have a FB page dedicated to 50 Shades haters. Yes, it’s the dumbing down of the Western World.

so, after listening to the younger women at work go on and on about how good these books are….. I borrowed them…….hoping for something more steamy than a Harlequin… was disgusted about three chapters in….this is sick stuff………the author should be ashamed of herself… and the people who actually enjoy them need help….

On FEB– Valentine’s Day Special movie don’t miss the performance of Dakota johnson of 50 Shades of Grey 2015 Movie

Alright. So while reading some comments (that were actually very entertaining) I felt the need to join the hundreds and thousands of people who voiced their constructive opinion. I will not say anything that wasn’t already said, but I really have to express my feelings about it.

I don’t like bashing people who accomplished something (I will call it “accomplishment”, but only because it was sort of finished and published… More than I can say about myself), so I will try to be as honest and constructive in my criticism as I can.

I read books in my life. Some I loved, some I didn’t, some were just boring . However, I never felt embarrassed reading a book… Until now.

I heard so much about the book. Even read a news article which stated that FSoG was one of the most popular books in some prison. And now I hear they are making a movie. Plus, the fact that there is BDSM in it. I’ve always liked stuff like that. Can’t say I had too much real life experience, but kink always made things more fun. We don’t have a lot of books about it that went mainstream like that. So how could I pass on it?

I honestly had to fight through every page I read. Never struggled so much with reading. The first thing I noticed was the “style” it had… If I can call it that. I felt like my IQ was dropping with every sentence. It really feels like it was written by a child. For some reason the author is compelled to repeat herself on each page: the lip biting, the blushing, etc. The “inner goddess” was plain stupid. I wanted to choke myself each time this “goddess” danced salsa or drooled over the guy. When they make the movie, will there be a special person who plays her “inner goddess” and if they do, I sincerely hope they change it to an “inner god” and let Morgan Freeman play the part. Seriously now, These Goddess and Subconscious were mentioned so much, one has to wonder if the girl actually hearing voices.

And why in the name of all that is holy we need to be constantly reminded all the time that the guy is hot. We get it, he is hot, he is super hot, he is hotter than the hottest day in hell, just don’t say it every time you mention him.

Now, the characters. Well, I think I’ve seen much more complex and believable characters in a Tom and Jerry cartoon. You know, the one where the cat chases the mouse. Main characters in this book came straight out of a fairytale. They are totally unreal and cardboard. The girl is 21 years old, yet she never had sex nor had a boyfriend. Can I believe it? Sure. But the fact that she never masturbated or never owned a computer… It would make sense if she was Amish, but I don’t remember it was mentioned in the book. Really, hard to believe that she never even felt the desire to have sex, yet gave a perfect blowjob on her first go. In general, she is boring and stupid, clumsy, ohhh and sooo annoying! The way she blushes every time he looks at her, the way she keeps on almost fainting after every word he says to her. Another thing is her insecurity. She constantly tells herself how she can’t be liked by a man like Grey, though there’s a lineup of guys who would have given anything to be with her. There is a reason women like men who are self-sufficient and confident. I would say this goes for women too. A girl who always thinks she is ugly, isn’t too sexy or attractive. I personally would have lost interest in her after 5 minutes, even if she is a supermodel.

Now, Christian. Imagine the most perfect man alive… And multiply it by 10. That’s Grey. He seems so perfect that the gods of Olympus cry in envy and Prince Charming nervously smoking in the far corner. I mean, he is handsome as a god, muscular like he was photoshoped, he can fly a chopper, he plays piano better then Mozart and he is rich… I mean BILLIONAIRE rich! And all that… Wait for it… At the age of 26! Ok, now let’s break it down. Can a person fly an aircraft at 26? Yes. Can he play so well? Of course, if he started around 10 years old or something. But a freaking billionaire? Seriously? You can be. If you invented Google, or Facebook… Or I don’t know, a time machine. But that’s not the case. I don’t think even Christian himself knows what he is doing in his office.

I get why the author wanted to make him THAT rich. He supposed to be this prince of the universe type, and well, millionaire just isn’t rich enough. However, if you insist on that, at least make him like 40-45 years old. Men can still look attractive at that age, no? Overall the character really gives an impression of a huge arrogant asshole, the way he treats people around him. I guess that was the idea, but it sure doesn’t add to his sympathy score. Just in comparison to give few examples of likable arrogant assholes: Hank Moody and Dr. House. Christian Grey, however, comes across simply as a real douche, begging for a bitchslap.

The whole dominance was also very unbelievable. If you are this strict and controlling alpha male, just stick to it. Grey, on the other hand, is all over the place. He tries to be dominant, yet he is very caring and protective at the same time. As a result, I couldn’t stop facepalming myself every time he was showing his dominance. Felt like he was just trying too hard, and still not very successful.

When Ana tried to kiss him for the first time, he said something like “I’m not the one you need” or “I’m too dangerous for you”… Captain mysterious! Of course, she felt rejected and depressed, so she had to cry herself to sleep for the next few days. However, just when she began to feel better, he reminds her of himself by sending a very expensive gift. Seriously dude? You just turned her down, told her to forget you and yet you keep coming back? My logic really took a beating right there. The guy in this story acts like a teenage girl.

Can’t say much about the sex – I could not force myself read past one of the first sex scenes. Still I wasn’t impressed with the bits I have read. Like I noted before, Ana’s change from a don’t-touch-me-I’m-a-virgin to a sex pro was so rapid that it blew my mind… and not in a good way.

Someone said in the comments that we all might be subjects in a social experiment of a sort. Thinking about it, I might see the sense in that statement. Maybe this book was written for a sole purpose to test the marketing system, because it’s all there is with this book – a successful and brilliantly executed marketing. Perhaps, one day this will be included in a marketing and business school textbook as an example of how to make millions and millions of dollars out of used toilet paper.

In conclusion, I will say this. At one point I had a sudden urge to write a small anti-fanfic episode for the book, in which Gray gets a visit from a mob and gets his “pleasures” in his Red Room… only now as the little sissy that he is. Say what you will, but it was kinda funny.

hahahahaha…. OMG! your comment is so funny, I laughed a lot, thanks :’D ..and I totally agree with you, I just read like the first 100 pages on a flight, and it was enough!! I also laughed a lot reading those pages.

You think that because you are a sub-intellectual automaton.

Wow, I could not agree with you more!! I seriously have never wanted to murder characters in a book before, and this series made me constantly wish for them both (but especially her) to have a real neck I could throttle or something! And as much as I hated it from almost the start, I’m one of those people who cannot quit something halfway through, so I made myself read all 3 books. I’m just SO glad she eventually dropped the whole “Inner Goddess” and “Subconscious” bullshit, because that was driving me crazy!

I think its an over glorified MB, very disappointed.

[…] some saucy tips they can use on a partner. Who knows. But as Chris Al-Aswad points out on his blog, James “created a world to which the boundaries of sexual delinquency, love, and […]

I can’t agree with you more. Seriously. Most frustrating book ever. I can’t believe how people dig this shit.

I don’t know how I managed to finish this book. The first thing i did when i read the glorious “the end”, was to search desperately for a negative review, to restore my faith in humanity. Thank you. Now I know I am not the only one who thinks this book is an insult to literature.

Fifty was a okay book in my opinion. I think it was over hyped because books like the Crossfire Series or the Masked Emotions Series is so much better than this.

I find it funny that I’m commenting on a book and a review from nearly 10 years ago. Full disclosure – I read all of the books, and I unfortunately saw the movies. I’ve even read 50 Shades Fan Fiction (don’t bother, it’s limited and much worse than the book). As a writer and avid reader, I’m trying to understand the appeal, Yet I bought it and read it and bought into the whole 50 Shades ecosystem.

First, I give James a lot of credit for getting such poorly written crud published, for capitalizing on it, getting movie rights, and even co-branding sex toys. The phenomenon brought an interesting public discourse not as much about relationships, but about the appeal of kinky se and fantasies frowned upon by social norms. It’s common for people to fantasize about submission, or about being swept off of their feet and validated for who they are and what they can offer. He’s hot and rich, and there’s that fantasy as well – being cared for and not having to worry about paying rent.

That said, I suppose my own fascination came from the series’ poor quality, as odd as that may sound. The characters are stilted and undeveloped, though they do grow and evolve as any character should. The dialog is horrid, there’s no way to put it kinder. As an American, it irritates me to no end when someone writes of a place and a culture that they have no knowledge of. I’ve been to the UK a few times, but I wouldn’t write a book set in London unless it were about an American in London – because I don’t have enough knowledge of the quirks of language and culture that are unique to every locale.

Little things beyond the “Holy cow!” inanity really bug me, to the point of stopping my reading. As you mention, the stilted language reads like a high school essay mixed with an online thesaurus. Some things that still annoy me to this day – Grey Enterprises Holdings is an idiotic name that you’d rarely see in the US. Enterprises are holdings. Or is he a mixed business leader and hedge fund/angel investor? I get the Harvard dropout, though that’s clearly a copy of Gates, Zuckerberg, and other entrepreneurs who left Harvard. Oddly, Grey never speaks of his time in college (note not “university” – college). Few details are shared about his billions – except that his first venture was in telecom, or that he employs tens of thousands of people? Really? What do the people at Grey House (House? Not just Grey, or The Grey Building?) do if it’s a holding company? Buffet runs a much larger holding company with about 20 employees. Beyond his business, there’s referring to one’s apartment or penthouse as the building name (I’ve never heard of such a thing), having parents who throw balls nearly every weekend, and never taking advantage of a bustling city’s cultural, culinary, or outdoor offerings. For a local billionaire businessman. Right.

Then Ana. Entirely implausible as you mention – the virginity perhaps, but never fooled around, never had a boyfriend, never had a laptop? Is amazed at an online library? Economically, she graduates from college but neither of her parents have money, but she graduated debt-free, with enough money to move to Seattle. And after working her way through school, she plans to just figure things out after graduation – no idea of a job, an industry, no contacts, but within days has interviews? With no experience, no internship. Despite her school being rather close to Seattle, only 2 of her friends live there?

Then there’s the craziness of getting promoted from admin assistant to acting editor within a few weeks, moving in and getting engaged in less than a month, and then a month or so later, getting married and getting pregnant. Sure.

I love writing fiction because I can suspend belief. But I feel some obligation, even in writing fantasy, to ground my characters and their behavior in some semblance of reality. Sorry to ramble nearly a decade later. I enjoyed your review, and wish I could better understand the appeal – even the appeal to myself. The only thing I’ve come up with is that the character traits, behaviors, growth, and general story line are so horrid, I feel that the characters themselves deserve better.

I must admit that I enjoyed reading the trilogy because of the intensity I felt regarding the connection between the two characters, if I may say so. To say that the writing style is catastrophic is an exaggeration, because there are far worse things out there. But I do admit that the sentence construction is pretty well worked out. I think that if I were to read it again, what I felt the first time would no longer be the case, because some books you read correspond to a period when your mind will be receptive and guide you towards an unknown reading.

I agree with many reviews that the “literary” style is poor, because for me, it doesn’t look like it, considering this word on a much higher level. EL James is not an author with a talent for grammatical prose. It’s more like someone who’s just starting out in writing and is trying to improve it for certain paragraphs. I write and over the years you learn, you improve, you correct what you’re having trouble with. When it comes to constructing a fictional idea, you have to think about important points to make it credible and realistic. Unless it’s done on purpose, as in a parody.

The first problem with the characters is their age. To be a billionaire at only 27, in this way and which remains rather vague because it is vaguely developed, is somewhat implausible. It would have been more believable if the character had been older, just like Anastasia’s, but no doubt EL James felt this would be less appealing, less exciting for readers. Right! Let’s face it, she certainly didn’t think it through, since the changes made were apparently very slight.

The story would have been better if it had been imagined differently. Why make it about an innocent, (somewhat) naïve, virginal young woman who loses her virginity to a sado-masochistic man, so that they can then practice BDSM together? And yes! Ana’s virginity is obviously an obstacle to Christian Grey’s sexual plans. Imagine that, and it probably turns everyone on. No wonder what’s been made as a “movie” sucks, let’s face it. The novel would have had to be disturbing, really dark, uncomfortable, immersing the reader in the world of raw BDSM, in Christian’s tortured, perverse, dark mind, to bring that feeling to everything that encompasses the universe of this story. To create a boundless and profound erotic psychological thriller.

In any case, this novel was never meant to be adapted for the big screen. You can see that as soon as you read it. Nobody wanted to act in the film, so there were a lot of problems. Both actors play badly, Dakota Johnson moans at the drop of a hat, she hardly knows how to express the right emotions, her acting is inconsistent anyway. And Jamie Dornan, poor guy! I found him very convincing in The Fall, and that’s when I thought he’d finally make a good Christian Grey. Well, he didn’t.

Few actors and actresses want to play in films with explicit scenes. And especially when it’s going to be done badly. The two intrigues of the novel are whether Ana will succeed in taming, helping Christian to exorcise his demons and vices, helping him in this process, letting him know what it is to love, respect oneself and others, and whether the villain Jack Hyde will succeed in carrying out his revenge. Frankly, I don’t know what EL James was thinking when she wrote this pseudo vendetta. It’s preposterous and seems to have been added after this ridiculous idea had germinated in her head. I was even embarrassed when I read this part.

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Book Review: Fifty Shades Of Grey by E.L. James

By: Author Laura Hartley

Posted on Published: 1st December 2012 - Last updated: 10th January 2024

Categories Book Reviews , Books

Book Review: Fifty Shades Of Grey By E.L. James

Fifty Shades of Grey Summary

When literature student Anastasia Steele is drafted to interview the successful young entrepreneur Christian Grey for her campus magazine, she finds him attractive, enigmatic and intimidating. Convinced their meeting went badly, she tries to put Grey out of her mind – until he happens to turn up at the out-of-town hardware store where she works part-time.

The unworldly, innocent Ana is shocked to realize she wants this man, and when he warns her to keep her distance it only makes her more desperate to get close to him. Unable to resist Ana’s quiet beauty, wit, and independent spirit, Grey admits he wants her – 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 adoptive family – Grey is a man tormented by demons and consumed by the need to control.

When the couple embarks on a passionate, physical and daring affair, Ana learns more about her own dark desires, as well as the Christian Grey hidden away from public scrutiny.

Can their relationship transcend physical passion? Will Ana find it in herself to submit to the self-indulgent Master? And if she does, will she still love what she finds?

Erotic, amusing, and deeply moving, the Fifty Shades Trilogy is a tale that will obsess you, possess you, and stay with you forever.

Fifty Shades of Grey Book Review

Calm your heckling. I know what you’re all thinking, and yes, I am ashamed – I succumbed to Fifty Shades of Grey .

I am a firm believer that one should dismiss a book because it is deemed to be ‘low’. I mean, this is the series that has outsold Harry Potter on Amazon, there must be something compelling about it.

Surely one should judge a book by whether or not it has fulfilled its purpose, and arguably, Fifty Shades of Grey has fulfilled its purpose by making its way into the handbags of just about every middle aged woman.

I recently attended a debate entitled: ‘This House would choose Fifty Shades over Shakespeare’ which was fascinating because it reaffirmed my beliefs that one shouldn’t dismiss books such as this and also brought up so interesting ideas about what you can learn from books such as this.

One side argued that by including sentences such as: ‘I must be the colour of the communist manifesto’, E.L.James has just encouraged millions of curious women to research what exactly the communist manifesto is, which is intriguing.

So just in case you don’t already know, Fifty Shades of Grey is about a college student Anastasia Steel who gets reeled into interviewing the incredibly hot young entrepreneur, Christian Grey. There is an immediate attraction between the two of them and Christian asks Anna out for coffee.

Later that week, Anna gets extremely drunk and ends up drunk dialling Christian who comes to pick her up immediately. The next morning in the hotel room, Christian tells Anna that he would like to have sex with her and their very strange relationship kicks off.

For some reason, I’ve always imagined Fifty Shades of Grey to be a young adult book, but I can assure you – it is not. In fact, at one point whilst reading this I had to get out of my bed and go and sit in the bathroom to read this because I felt so uncomfortable sitting next to my mother reading that sort of fiction.

I wasn’t that disturbed by the content of this book, I just found some of the things that Christian and Anna did thoroughly bizarre and weird. For starters, E.L.James dedicates a whole ten pages outlining Christian’s contract (yep, there’s a contract) with Anna including numerous terms that I had never heard of before, and trust me, I’ve heard of most things.

I’m glad that I’ve taken some time before writing this review because I’ve had a bit of time to reflect on the book. After I had just finished reading it I thought it was a rather good book despite the slightly disturbing content.

However, after further reflection I can now remember the awful ‘seductive’ imagery and writing. The writing is really quite bad, but then people don’t read Fifty Shades of Grey for the poetic prose or anything like that.

The plot is a bit cyclical and repetitive and I can already see how this series is going to end as well as what’s going to happen along the way. Nevertheless, Anastasia does say a lot of things that the average girl/woman will be able to relate to and I liked that about her.

I definitely fell in love with the character of Christian Grey, against my better judgement. I liked the characters in this book a lot more than I’ve liked the characters in many ‘classic’ novels and I think it’s because they’re quite easy to relate to, even if you don’t want to admit it.

Having read the Twilight Saga numerous times myself, I can tell you that it is so obvious that is Twilight fan fiction. I distinctly remember something about Christian Grey’s eyes turning black near the beginning of the book which obviously just isn’t possible for a normal human being.

I would’ve thought that after editing the story for print that E.L.James could have perhaps removed or tweaked these sections so as to make the connection between the two novels slightly less obvious.

All in all, I’d say that Fifty Shades of Grey is worth a read just so you can see what the hype is about and it’s not that bad a story really. If you’re easily offended by sexual content then obviously this isn’t the book for you, but in our liberal society I’d say that most people would be okay with reading this stuff (just not on public transport).

I’m actually looking forward to reading the next two books even though I know what’s going to happen because it’s just an easy read with interesting characters. My final comment would be, don’t judge a book before you’ve read it…

Buy 50 Shades of Grey

If you liked this post, check out these: Film Review 50 Shades of Grey The Coincidence of Callie and Kayden by Jessica Sorrensen Addicted To You By Krista And Becca Ritchie Random Acts of Crazy by Julia Kent

Founder & Editor of What’s Hot?

Monday 13th of April 2015

It's a cool review :) I like that you wanted to read it for yourself and form your own opinion.

Jaime Lester

Wednesday 12th of February 2014

I always read my books, regardless of reviews, if I am interested in it. But, while I am curious about the hype behind this series, I just don't think I have it in me to deal with some of the things I have heard about it. I may, one day, give it a shot. But I honestly just don't know.

It's certainly an interesting read and I flew through the series but I understand that it's not everyone's cup of tea. I may reread it now that the hype has died down to see what I think of it sans-hype as I'm sure my opinion of it will probably be quite different!