From the Bookshelf of 2015 Reading Challenge [Closed]…

Fifty Shades of Grey (Fifty Shades, #1)

E.L. James

Discussion: . Week 32: Trilogy (1)

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. Week 32: Trilogy (1)

* Week 32: Progress Post
By Zaz , Mood Minion · 16 posts · 44 views

last updated Oct 30, 2015 04:37AM

* Week 32: Introduction
By Zaz , Mood Minion · 3 posts · 90 views

last updated Jun 20, 2015 12:34PM

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Jun 08, 2012 Mary Anne rated it liked it

Shelves: fiction, kindled

There's a reason this book got three stars from me: really low expectations. I'd heard that this was fanfiction based on Twilight, and I'm appreciative of the fact that Stephanie Meyer gave this series her blessing (though perhaps James should have gotten around to that before publishing).

So I knew there would be Twilight influences, and that there would also be a hell of a lot of sex wherein the our female protagonist would have (the potential of) an orgasm every single time. Wow, fiction is fi There's a reason this book got three stars from me: really low expectations. I'd heard that this was fanfiction based on Twilight, and I'm appreciative of the fact that Stephanie Meyer gave this series her blessing (though perhaps James should have gotten around to that before publishing).

So I knew there would be Twilight influences, and that there would also be a hell of a lot of sex wherein the our female protagonist would have (the potential of) an orgasm every single time. Wow, fiction is fiction. This is not a spoiler. It's worth knowing ahead of time.

The problems: my understanding is that the BDSM aspect was totally off. I find this frustrating, because it can promote severe misunderstanding of the topic, (view spoiler). The writing style was simplistic, less than creative, and repetitive. The plot was fairly non-existent. And I'm a little tired of inhumanly attractive male love interests who have endless amounts of money who shower their new obsessions with cars and computers and other related things. The situation was just nutters. Perhaps this is because I haven't been married for decades, haven't had kids, and don't yet want to reminisce on how youth could have been. Note: this is not an argument again fanfiction or even fiction. Go fanfiction, and go fiction. I'm just saying I'm Ti-R-ed of this nonsense. Also, I don't know who the hell Tess is and what this series is all about, and I refuse to believe that book is common literary knowledge. Romeo and Juliet, it is not. OH AND ALSO, all this nonsense about inner goddesses and the subconscious. I mean really. Well overdone.

What somewhat saved the book for me, somehow, was that Christian didn't turn me off as much as I was expecting, and I didn't thoroughly hate Ana(stasia). I found most of their interactions (which, essentially, that's all the book is) to be somewhat interesting. Ana seemed to know what she was getting into, and I felt like you could see Christian changing in the... four weeks of the book?

Let's face it: the reason I didn't bomb this book: it wasn't marketed toward teens or tweens. This is for their mothers and for the slightly younger generation, mostly because of all the sex. And in that sense, I think the marketing was a great idea. We don't want teens thinking this is a healthy relationship. ...more

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