I'm a voracious reader, so 95% of the purchases have been mine. But Shannon was watching daytime television at some point and saw a review of Fifty Shades of Grey by E.L. James and bought the series. She told me that these books are crazy popular and everyone couldn't say enough about them. I know she started them, but I haven't heard what she thought. Sarah read the first book, at least, and told me that she liked the plot but it got to the point that she was skimming over the sex scenes because they were every few pages. I've been reading other stuff for the last few months and just never felt inspired to pick it up. I did a few days ago and I am really glad I did.
SPOILER ALERT: Do not read below the picture if you are planning to read this novel and don't want to know details about what happens.
The title comes from a line in the book that the male protagonist (Christian) states when trying to explain himself to the female protagonist (Ana), "I am fifty shades of fucked up." And oh, is he ever.
So far, it seems that Christian was born to a crackwhore and stayed with her until he was five or so, at which point he was adopted by a rich family in Seattle. He then struggled with some kind of depression and feelings of unworthiness until he was taken as a submissive by one of his adoptive mother's friends when he was fifteen. She kept him for six years until her husband found out and they stopped. In the six years since then, he has only ever had BDSM relationships.
Ana is 21 and just graduated university. She meets Christian while interviewing him for the student newspaper and they are both obsessively fascinated with each other. She is a virgin when they meet and thus shocked when Christian propositions her to become his sub. They wind up sleeping together, and starting this kind of compromise relationship where she agrees to some submissive actions while he accepts the more traditional relationship-type aspects. However, while intrigued, she is very frightened of the S&M. In the end, she asks him to show her how bad it can get and he does. She realizes she's never going to be able to take the kind of pain he needs to be able to give and that he's never going to be able to give her the relationship she wants, so at the end of the first book, she leaves.
The leaving would probably be more poignant if I didn't know there weren't two more books and she's obviously going to get back together with him. The writing is good, the storyline is really good. James does a good job of parceling out the tidbits about Christian's life. Even at the end of the first book, he's given away very little. And the parts about the BDSM are actually really interesting - it's not a subject matter that I know a lot about, and the book does go into some detail. I really thought the various e-mail exchanges between Ana and Christian were adorable. It's a realistic mix of flirting and attraction and frustration with another.
Contrary to what Sarah said, I don't find the sex overwhelming. It's graphic and quite frequent, but fits into the storyline. Perhaps Christian's stamina is a bit exaggerated, but that's the author's creative right. I've read erotica before, though, and a lot of romance novels, so I'm a little more inured than most people to the sex aspect of it. It's certainly hot!
I liked this book. I don't think it was earth-shattering or anything, but it was well-written and interesting and I'm really looking forward to reading the next one.
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