Have you read the book Fifty shades of Grey, the NY Times best seller by EL James? I kept hearing so much about it that I had to read it. I am very disappointed. I was expecting fireworks and canons; I got what feels like a teenager’s wet dream.
Fifty Shades of Grey is an entertaining book, but the writing itself leaves something to be desired. I’m not sure if I feel this way because I am a writer myself or if it has more to do with the fact that I am a grown up.
Either way, the writing is bad and there is a plethora of gratuitous sex. It’s basically the screenplay for a porn. I’ve never seen that in written form before.
Anyways, I’m no prude. Porn is fine for consenting adults but I’m a thinker and, call me crazy, but I prefer my erotica to be stimulating mentally as well as physically. I want my erotica to titillate all of my senses. Repetitive words just don’t do that for me. Perhaps, I’m asking to much from my erotica.
The two main characters are Christian Grey, a powerful, billionaire business tycoon whose smoldering good looks make it impossible to say no to his dominant requests. He’s perfect fodder for fantasizing about. EL James got that right. I like a dirty, good looking SOB in a suit. Who doesn’t? It’s a bad boy grown up style.
But the female lead left me wanting…someone other than the author of the Junie B. June series to write her dialogue. It was awful and even her train of thinking was childish. I understand she is supposed to be naive and only 22, but these were much too simple thoughts for an educated 22 year old.
The dialogue was so repetitive that it got to the point in the book that if Anastasia’s breath “hitched” one more time, I was half hoping there would be a plot twist and she’d stop breathing.
The basic plot is this: young and innocent Anastasia, 22, interviews Christian Grey, 27, smoking hot business tycoon, for her college paper. One thing leads to another and before you know it, Mr. Grey is insatiably smitten with Anastasia, wanting nothing more than to bed her constantly and shower her with gifts.
She wants love. He says he is incapable of anything more than a strictly submissive/dominant carnal relationship. She is young and head over hills infatuated. Boy makes indecent proposal complete with contract. Girl accepts after much deliberation. As always, sex beats out good reason.
The relationship progresses; meanwhile there is a lot of erotic sex play (which would have been A-1 erotica had the writing been slightly better).
If you are still wondering if you should read it, I say if you are reading it for entertainment value and care nothing about the mechanics of how it is written, go for it. It is 780 pages, but a very quick and easy read.
My personal recommendation is that it would be much more erotic if you actually read it with your husband. I think it is the perfect segue to dirty talk and may be just the thing to bring just a little different spice to the bedroom. Who knows? You may get lucky and have your very own Christian Grey on hand.
Have you read Fifty Shades of Grey? What are your thoughts?
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