Fifty Shades of Grey

I normally try to write spoiler free reviews, but given that everyone who wants to read this book probably has already, and there’s not much there to spoil in the first place, I’ll waive that rule this time around.
‘Fifty Shades of Grey’ is by no means a good book, but set against the global phenomenon that it became, it is an interesting one. It has become popular to deride it, and to an extent people that like it, but that seems to me to be a harmful, snobbish exercise in vanity. Anything that gets people who wouldn’t otherwise be reading to pick up a book is a good thing. If you don’t like the book fine, but don’t look down on people who do.
That said, I didn’t like it much at all and shall now slag it off for a few paragraphs.
The book is written in a similar style to lots of YA fiction (first person, present tense) and it is very, very easy to read, solidly falling into that category of modern bestsellers that feel like they’re compelling because the pages fly by, but are actually just so lacking in depth or complexity that they sink into the reader’s brain via osmosis.
For the most widely read dirty book ever, it’s remarkably unerotic. I don’t normally read erotica, but it occurred to be while reading ‘50 Shades’ that unlike most other genres, this is one where evidence that a book was succeeding in moving the reader would be incontrovertible and physical. This book did not pass that test even once and I remained master of my domain throughout.
I think the reasons for the unsexiness are twofold. Firstly, the characters are massively unengaging, cliched and shallow. The narrator/protagonist Ana is just plain dull and seems only to be there to reflect and react to Christian Grey. That might work if he weren’t so paper thin. The 50 Shades in the title is a nickname Ana gives him and supposed to represent the depth and mercurial nature of his character, but it’s staggeringly oversold. One shade of grey would be more like it, and quite a dull shade at that.
Secondly, James insists on inserting lengthy legal documents that outline what is and isn’t permissible in their relationship. These reminded me somewhat of the galactic senate negotiations in the Star Wars prequels, lengthy, pointless and completely at odds with what the audience wants to see. The concept of negotiated consent is an interesting one, even if James doesn’t really do that much with it.
Having given us characters who are hard to connect to and wrapped their relationship up in paperwork, James then writes lots and lots of fairly standard sex that is boring to read, whilst continually teasing the S&M aspects that only come into play right at the end.
The sex takes up a lot of the 500 pages; what fills the others is...nothing really. There is no discernible plot, lots of scenes of Ana and Christian eating, a complete lack of any romantic tension and boringly repetitive use of some phrases the author was obviously pleased with (everyone “cocks” their heads and Ana’s inner goddess gets as many mentions as many of the human characters). Had it been ruthlessly edited and the page count trimmed by 50% or so there might be a fun trashy read to be had in here, but as it is I was left longing for a speedy climax. Not entertaining, not sexy, not romantic, but at least I can now criticise it as someone who has actually read it. ( )

uma obra realmente incrível ( )

Totally entertaining and hard to put down. I really like what EL James did with the emotional side of things, too. Watching the psychological side of things play out in each chapter as Christian and Ana become more and more codependent is absolutely fascinating and addictive. ( )

I typically do not read romance novels, especially such graphic ones. It has been years since I first read this and re reading it reminds me why it became such popular. Sex aside, it really is a captivating story of a broken man and innocent girl trying to find themselves and help each other through their issues .....which always makes for a great love story ( )

What Roxane Gay said, e.g. "Books I would burn but that I also read more than once and wrote about a lot and FINE there were a couple sexy moments" ( )