Book Review E L James Fifty Shades Of Grey

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2011 – Vintage Press - Spoiler alerts A few people ask me what I think of this book, as I am a writer, with some erotica among my own output. Fifty Shades is quite simply one of the worst books ever put to paper, and I’ve read some Jeffrey Archer. Not only is the plot unbelievable, the book contains some incredibly bad writing and poor grammar. James wrote the series (actually three novels but I only read the first), as online fan-fiction based on the Twilight vampire novels by Stephanie Meyer, itself a badly written book series penned as a safe-sex Mormon allegory. The Fifty Shades series either misses that point, or wilfully flips it over. Grey I a mysterious Bruce Wayne style billionaire in Seattle. Thanks to her best friend being indisposed, Ana (Anastasia) gets to interview him for a student newspaper, only to find herself stalked by him, and then drawn into a world of kinky sadistic sexuality with him, after signing a hefty contract, but ultimately his tastes prove too much for her and the couple split up, a cliff-hanger resolved for the second book no doubt. Problems abound. Ana is a total drip, while Grey, for all his money, is just a creep. The sex scenes themselves are quite dull and don’t happen frequently enough. The writer shows little real understanding of a sado-masochistic relationships. Safe Words are barely used and some people copying scenes from the book in their own relationships have ended up injured. Grey is quite an abusive character, scarred into a bullying stance after abuse in his own past. The aim of the book series is ultimately Ana drawing him towards a more tender vanilla style of relationship, while being in awe of his wealth, private jets and helicopters (despite knowing he is absurdly rich). Other characters get little to do, while the most absurd and prolonged sequence is the contract of rules that Grey imposes on Ana. It runs over several chapters and just about every clause should tell her to tell him to get lost. As mentioned in comments, Ana doesn't sign it but the contract is still very much what Grey desires of her. A new series of books by the author apparently tells the same story from Grey’s point of view. I won’t be reading it. For one sex scene, Grey ties Ana down to a bed using cable ties, the kind used in many warehouses and packaging firms. This led to hundreds of men buying cable ties from Do It Yourself shops which struggled to meet demand, and as the customers bought no other items it was obvious what they wanted them for. Arthur Chappell