‘Fifty Shades of Grey’ is erotic fiction by E.L. James.
There has been a lot of fuss, A LOT OF FUSS, about this book and it’s two sequels. The book is aimed at women, it’s very popular with the 30+ group. I thought it was worth a punt as an E Book.
The nice thing about e books is you can read them on your Kindle, iPad, Whatever on the commute into work on the train and no one knows what you are reading. You can read the most salacious porn and no one has a clue. If you are reading in private you only need one hand for a Kindle leaving the other hand free for …
But I digress …
Not that ’50 Shades’ is really wanking material.
I am alway loth to reveal plot lines as I don’t want to spoil the book if you have not read it yet but here are a few things that I found odd.
The central female character Anastasia is a virgin. She also does not have a laptop or a smart ‘phone. I can totally believe that at 20ish she is a virgin, it’s the laptop and ‘phone bit I don’t buy. No way would a young lady at university not be into the tech.
The central male character Christian Grey is late 20s, very successful in business, a control freak and into kinky sex. I think he is too young to be that successful, he needs another 10 years to get that wealthy in business. Everything else about him is believable. Just.
The story is about their relationship together, the negotiations over the kink versus vanilla sex. The control he exerts over her. Her control over him and these themes develop as the story moves along. It plays out quite nicely but it is a bit one dimensional. There is very little depth to the characters or their story. The story never stopped me in my tracks with a ‘I did not see that coming’ moment.
Frankly I don’t see what all the fuss is about.
It’s not that rude, I have read other books with many more sex scenes.
There is some BDSM stuff, but mostly the BDSM is about Anastasia not wanting to do it.
Christian has a playroom to die for and I want one just like it.
What I find very interesting about the book is that it was released as an E Book, self published in effect, and has since gone mainstream and been published in paper form. So if you have written a book (as I have1) and want to get published then this could be the way to go.
I read all of the first book, Fifty Shades of Grey. I read half of the second book Fifty Shades Darker and then paused as it was not really grabbing my attention. I did eventually read the whole book but I skimmed most of it. I can not bring myself to read the third book.
If you can get a copy for free to read, go for it. I would not part with my hard earned cash.
You want to know about my book? It’s about a geeky boy who goes time travelling. He does not realise it at first but his companion with the time machine is his older self. It’s still a bit disjointed and does not have a satisfactory conclusion. (Or one could argue that’s perfect for a sequel.) Work in progress.