Fifty Shades of Grey - E L James

I don’t know where on Earth I was when these books first came out, because I normally get hold of books like this pretty quickly after they come out. Think someone has been withholding information from me, or wait it might be something to do with university taking up all the time I have… However when I got on my latest placement these books were being passed around the staff room at a great rate of knots – and well I needed something to do in the evenings now my fella is away so I decided can’t beat getting lost in a good book…

Especially these ones…

Who is E L James?

Erika Leonard as she is known to her family and friends is the elusive writer E L James, an ex-television executive – used to write fan fiction and her Twilight fan fiction that eventually developed into this book that I am about to review. Erika is married to a screen writer Niall Leonard, and lives in London with him and their two children; this year she has been named in Time Magazine as one of the 100 most influential people this year – for this trilogy; as they think the trilogy may have changed reading forever…

Brief Plot

Developed from a Twilight fan fiction this book focuses around the relationship of a new graduate Anastasia Steele and CEO squillionaire Christian Grey. Following a chance encounter when she is sent to interview him for her best friend’s college magazine – but an interview isn’t quite just what she wants; and discovers new and dangerous feelings that she’s never discovered before. A story unfolds around the time after graduation and the development of Ana getting to know Christian and some potential inner demons that could threaten anything happening between the pair….

Characters

Anastasia Steele – a new graduate roped in to interview Christian Grey completely unprepared for what she would face when walking into his office…

Christian Grey – CEO of Grey Enterprises, a twenty something with a tortured childhood that has haunted his teenage and adult life…

Kate Kavanagh – Best friend and roommate, ridiculously rich – pushes Ana into being better than she thinks she can be…

There are other characters but they are all quite minor in comparison to these three, and even Kate isn’t exactly a main character in the grand scheme of this first book. Everyone else, intermittently drops in and out of the story so I’ll let you discover the little characters of the book if I manage to persuade you to read it – after reading my review!

Opinion

The idea of this book to me in the first place was that it was a bit of a love story with a twist, someone mentioned a kinky twist at some point before I started reading them so really didn’t think a lot of it – because I’ve read some kinky sex filled books before and well it didn’t bother me all that much. So I was intrigued more than anything to find out what all the fuss was about really, as everything I had heard was that this book was amazing, and it was written in a way that was so different to what anyone else had done before – so I had really high expectations, but when I realised it was aimed at a young adult audience I changed my mind, even though I liked the Twilight books, I’m a bit older now and need something a little bit more engaging than a girl lusting after a guy that plays hard to get. Thing is you can see the resemblance between this and the Twilight books which frustrated me slightly initially, because as in Twilight Edward was telling Bella he was no good for her, and she needed to stay away from him… Well there was a similar conversation within the first 50 pages of this book between Ana and Christian. I was hoping it wasn’t just going to be a rehashing of the same old love story…

The characters are actually a little bit better than I expected, there is actually a bit of a background between the two main characters, I mean Ana’s isn’t going to blow your brains in shock of what an upbringing she had - but it means there is a bit of something to get your teeth into, when you understand why she acts and feels like she does about particular situations she finds herself in. Christian on the other hand, well he’s as cold as you’d imagine with a name like Grey, he’s written in a way that it would be very difficult to warm to him because he’s represented as a very closed off character that you’d struggle to want to get to know, or even to get a word out of initially. Then again as the book progresses, you begin to find out why – but personally it doesn’t tell me enough in this first book to make me warm to him and his very weird ways. It might be because I’m very much what you might say curious, and well the cat has died very many times in the 21 years of my life; and if my fella decided he wasn’t going to tell me something I’d get very curious and well suspicious, until he told me what he was hiding. Where Ana in this book, just lays back and lets it wash over her for a while, and where I’d be grilling him to find out information she just lets him do what he wants… Even with her inner goddess telling her not to, I found that incredibly frustrating. As I said the other characters just sort of flit in and out of the story, as it seems that when Ana and Christian are together the rest of the world is blocked out; so there is little mention of the other characters, even Kate her best friend, there are plenty of other love interests dotted about though – but they just aren’t strong enough to make much of an impression on the story. It’s not all that realistic because no one gets a quiet life when they’re with their partner, with the mobile phone constantly going off in your ear…

I’m not going to say I hated this book because it’s far from hatred, I really enjoyed reading it but for a young adult book, it’s potentially a little too sexual for my liking – if I was a parent I’d be a bit nervous buying this for my sixteen year old. I know it’s all down to someone’s interpretation and their state of mind, and what they’re open to but I dread to think what teenagers might be going to their boyfriends and asking for… I wonder if the sales of cable ties have gone up recently! It’s what you might say explicit, I took my book to work when I first started reading it, to read on my breaks – and needless to say I regretted it straight away. Nothing more uncomfortable than knowing that half the staff room knows what you’re reading, and that it’s not exactly something you’d admit to your granny you’d been reading. Now I’m going to admit this because well I’m not scared haha! This book, if you’re with your partner well they might want to take cover, because yes it does make you feel a bit randy, put it that way. It’s not just suggestive of sex this is the problem, it’s explicit in its detail, you could genuinely envisage yourself being Ana and having him do all these filthy things to you. I’m a fairly open minded person, but the idea behind their ‘relationship’ isn’t really one I’d consider – it’s a bit far in the realm of sex slave for me personally, though I’m sure it goes on. So you’ll be ok if you don’t mind reading what is essentially written porn for at least half the book, it might not be that much but it definitely feels that way! Then again depending on how you like kinky stuff, you might be like me and just take ideas from it, yes I admitted it I’ve read this book and taken things from it. My excuse being my fella is in Afghan and well need to surprise him when he gets back…

It’s a bit weird actually, because most of the people I know that have read this book, have found that they’ve put themselves as they are Ana, which is quite easy to do considering how it’s written; but they’ve also put their partner as Christian, me included actually! Which considering this book has been won by a film maker to turn them into a trilogy of films, it could be pretty difficult to cast a Christian to everyone’s tastes but then again what a surprise, someone will always complain about who a studio picks for a role… I do look forward to seeing them in film form but I think we’re going to lose some of the sexual aspects because it really would make it an 18 film – so you’d lose out on a huge chunk of the audience – so I think the film studio is going to have somewhat of a problem on their hands making everyone like their ideas.

Personally…. Bring on the sex! Especially if Ian Somerhalder is going to play Christian!

Right this is my gripe about the book, it’s set in America and where yes it’s very well described that you feel you’re in Seattle – given that the author lives in London, I was expecting it to be set in London, so it felt a little more familiar than yet another book set in a random city in the states. That we can’t really relate to. I guess I’m a little bit bored of books set in America now, because we live in a country where to be honest the same could happen, and probably does. That’s my only gripe about it though really; apart from it should be an adult book rather than young adult. Despite it being pretty sexual, and the rest of the plot being a bit flimsy, because it’s just purely based around sex really, and the occasional moment where it divulges into some heavy product placement, it’s a very descriptive book, and there is a lot of wine consumed as well… Made me thirsty! It’s not a bad book, it’s just if you can handle the incessant sex without jumping on someone (which almost made me want to stop reading – bring on my fella getting home!!) then go for it, you won’t regret it and maybe you’ll come away with some ideas to get a bit dirty yourself.

Be prepared though! It’s a book you won’t want to put down!

Price and Availability

These books are currently £5.99 a pop in Waterstones, admittedly you can get points on your Waterstones Card if you have one, and otherwise I think they are the most expensive place you can buy them from. Asda have them for £3 each in my local, which is a bargain £9 for the entire trilogy! Tesco have the books on offer two for £7, not a bad deal… Remember though you can always look on eBay, Amazon, and Play.com and check out their bargains as they change on a daily basis!