"50 Shades of Grey" by EL James
My Opinions
This book was first brought to my first attention when I was visiting a friend at their flat, he had asked me if I knew what it was and I had said no. He told me it was 'my sort of thing' and that it was about a dominating character. I said I would take a look at it but I didn't really have any attention to but that wasn't until I noticed a lot of other people talking about it and I found out why it was such a storm. I was in ASDA the other day and I saw the book and it was like it was shouting at me to buy it. So I did. I bought the book of Wednesday and read it at night and finished it early on Friday night and it felt me feeling…different is the only word I can use to describe at the moment.
There are a lot of opinions on this book but I feel most of them are not very…professional if you know what I mean and I thought it would be good for people to hear a young person's thoughts on the book.
Here we go.
To begin with I thought the first chapter was very entertaining and funny, it did make me smile and it brought up my expectations for the rest of the book, and that's all I can say about that.
In the second chapter I knew that Christian (the main male character) would appear at the store where Anastasia (the main female character) worked. From what I heard about the book before buying it I knew what it was basically about so I did smile when he asked for certain things for we all knew what he was going to use them for and it was oblivious to Anastasia.
From this part onwards I thought the start of the book was very 'Twilight', in one part the main character almost gets hurt by a cyclist which reminded me of all the trouble Bella got herself into and when the male character saves her it reminded me of Edward always gallivanting around and saving Bella. And it's not just that, he tells her that he isn't good for her and that just screams Twilight to me; and also, Bella can wrap boys around her finger pretty well and so can Ana as she does have some admirers but at least she doesn't play them along like Bella. I find it upsetting that I am comparing it to Twilight but it feels like most romantic novels are going to be compared to the vampire books now which is a shame. Apparently this is going to be the new 'Twilight' which I hope not.
This brought a thought to me. The book sounded like it was for teenagers and for everyone who has read it, it is most certainly not for the younger young eyes, my sister who is sixteen only two years younger than me told me that her friend (same age as her) had read it. If I was sixteen and I read this I think it would have scared the living daylights out of me. Goes to show how generations now look at the subject of sex as nothing really important. But anyway, the book is more or less aimed at middle aged woman or people in their late twenties and onwards so I found it strange for the character to be so young, I would have thought the characters would be older so they could relate to real life people.
Some aspects of the book I found rather annoying was the constant issue with food, it got tiring and just plain annoying. And I found myself screaming at Anastasia when she kept forgetting to call Christian 'sir', she called him that in the emails she sent him and during the interview so I found that really annoying as if I was about to feel pain I don't think I would forget that. At times I found Anastasia to be very annoying, it was like she slipped into Bella Swan's shoes, I thought at times she could be a little stupid like biting her goddamned lip so many times, I think I'll need to go through the book and count how many times she does it.
I thought the sex scenes were alright. I can hear all your jaws dropping to the floor. I think it might just be me but I found some of it just a little too repetitive and dare I say, a tad boring, I may just think this as my only experience was crap but in all honesty it didn't give me any feelings at all and this apparently made house wives very aroused, well I'm sorry but I failed in that area.
I can already hear my friend calling me a Rugrat. So much to learn she'll tell me once she reads this.
I do like Christian. I like how he talks, how he dresses, how smart he is and talented at the piano (I can't really comment on looks because I think most people just come up with their own image of Christian, though I agree that Ian Somerhalder fits the bill perfectly) and his Dominant is sexy, I think everyone would like to be controlled by him, I think Ana needs to grow a friggin' backbone.
Oh and I also liked the emails, I had to admit they were rather funny to read. But what I didn't like was the contract; it was rather boring until the end of it.
Some parts of the book sounded very FanFiction to me, almost like something you wrote personally and didn't let anybody else see, not exactly a bad thing but it felt unprofessional.
The book certainly brings up a few issues. The one thing I don't like is how people who do this stuff in real life get hassled and bullied because they are into this stuff, then it's in a book and suddenly almost everybody wants this. I find it to be a bit insulting to the people who do it like this all the time, I wonder how they would feel about this.
I lot of people complained about this book? Why? Seriously, I think most complaints are from strict, over protective parents who don't want their children reading filth well if you don't want that to happen just make sure they don't buy it! Old fashioned people who are scared of their own feelings I imagine, very religious people who think that the acts are the 'devils work' or something along those lines. How every immature wouldn't you agree. People were saying it's just porn and it will offend people, yeah cause the book cover so suggests that it's about kinky sex and how can it offend you, here's an idea DON'T READ IT THEN! How can it offend you if you see someone reading it on a train or bus? I read it at a bus stop and a woman was talking to me about how she liked it and even when I had it in my hands at ASDA thinking if I should buy it or not a woman from behind me said that it was good. Why are so many people too easy to judge? I know why, because they think they're right, well they fucking aren't.
And it's not even that bad. When I heard it was about a Dominant and a Submissive I was excited as I thought it was going to be rough but seriously, there is hardly anything painful at all (ok the belting was exactly pretty) I thought it was going to be a lot more kinkier but I was wrong.
On a different note if my father knew I had read this book he'd kill me, not sure if I had mentioned that yet.
I think the ending was one of the most disappointing endings I've ever read and that pisses me off. I was beginning to enjoy the book nearer the end, the start and the middle didn't really spike up my interest but the relationship between Christian and Ana near the end was very cute and I thought the ending was either going to be shocking or romantic. Well wasn't I wrong. I'm sorry but the ending sucked, for me if the ending isn't good then the chances of me buying the second book are very very low.
The book made me think a lot about my experience and how much I hardly knew. I felt like a small rabbit in a large hutch filled with so many things I was scared to know, when Christian said 'Vanilla Sex' like Ana I went 'What the fuck is that?' it may be an American saying but still. Again I think this is just me but I don't think I should have read it being single and a sexually frustrated teenager (sorry) it got me down, made me think I'm missing out or something like that. What can I say I'm an awkward turtle whose shell keeps getting smaller and smaller. I feel like I can talk about this on here as not many people on here know me in real life and it's nice for people to read this and not judge you. Basically don't read it if you have no confidence in this area or had no sexual experience because I think this would just scare you, don't read it if you are sixteen and under this book is for adults ONLY. Trust me.
Looking back I don't think this book should be taken too seriously even though I said a lot about it I just felt that there should be better opinions not like the ones on Amazon. I don't think the book is bad even though I have said a few negative things but personally I can't talk about anything positive because if you look at this harshly the story is just about a horney kinky guy who gets the hots for only one girl and the girl wants to try and change him. Sorry but that's the way I see it.
Over all I thought the book was alright and at points rather entertaining but I don't think I'll be rushing to the library to loan out the second book anytime soon.
I realize I've probably caused some controversy so please comment on this if you have different opinions or if you agree with some aspects that I have mentioned. This will probably sound very messy this blog but if you put down your own thoughts I shall go back and edit this and put in some of your points.
Thanks for taking your time to read this,
Jen-Jen
