Book Review: Fifty Shades of Grey

If I had to describe “FiftyShades of Grey” in 3 words they would be: So. Much. Sex.

Fifty Shades of Grey is thenewest “romance” series to sweep the universe. Many people are calling it “Twilight for adults.”

In all fairness, the basis forthe Fifty Shades series was Twilight. The author, E L James, wrote the series(initially titled “Master of the Universe”) as a piece of Twilight fanfictionand posted it on the internet.

Fanfiction is a lose term todescribe any piece of literature written about characters or setting written bynon-professionals, or fans, based on an original piece of work. Coincidentally,I found a quote from author Lev Grossman (author of “the Magicians” which wasalso featured in my last book haul):

Fanfiction is what literature might looklike if it were reinvented from scratch after a nuclear apocalypse by a band ofbrilliant pop-culture junkies trapped in a sealed bunker. They don't do it formoney. That's not what it's about. The writers write it and put it up onlinejust for the satisfaction. They're fans, but they're not silent, couch-boundconsumers of media. The culture talks to them, and they talk back to theculture in its own language.

—Lev Grossman, TIME, July 18, 2011

When I first heart about FiftyShades of Grey I thought it was going to be exactly like Twilight, vampiresand all, but for a more mature audience. Boy, was I wrong.

The premise of the story is that there is this girl, AnastasiaSteele, and she goes to do an interview for her University’s student newspaperon behalf of her roommate who is the editor in chief, Kate, who is sick. Thesubject of her interview is Christian Grey, the CEO of Grey Enterprises: he’s27-years-old, a billionaire, and totally hottie with some major issues.

Like Twilight, you instantly fall in love with the characters andwant them to be together. It’s a hopeless, erotically-charged, yet romanticlove story.

Their relationship isn’t realistically functional. Every issue intheir relationship is solved with sex. It’s literally based solely on sex. Nearlyevery chapter of the book depicted some kind of sex scene. “Foil packet” and“come” are the most overused words in the book. I’m not joking. There is a lotof very graphic sex scenes depicted in this book. There is just so much sex!

That being said, it’s a fun read. Nobody us reading this bookbecause it’s a good plot, or well written. Like Twilight, the story is totallyimplausible but still entertaining. It’s also a super easy read. I finished thefirst book in less than 2 days. If you’re uncomfortable with extremely graphicdescriptions of sex, I do not recommend it. But if you don’t mind reading asteamy and graphically sexual story, then I would definitely give this a go.

I do have some serious concern for this series though…

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The relationship between Christian Grey and Anastasia Steeleprogresses to a sexual relationship VERY quickly, and then soon after to BDSMrelationship. I’m talking 2 days after meeting the guy she decides to lose hervirginity to him. I know that this series is not meant for teens, let alonechildren; but Fifty Shades of Grey” hasbeen plastered all over the media lately and EVERYONE is talking about thisbook. I was in my local bookstore the other day and I heard 10 and 11 year oldgirls talking about this series. That seriously worries me. Where StephenieMeyer, through Twilight, preaches thevirtues of abstinence, and waiting until marriage to engage in sexualintercourse, Fifty Shades of Grey practicallycondones sex with strangers. Probably one of the most worrisome statementthrough the novel is Christian’s dislike of condoms and the pressure he puts onAnastasia to take birth control pills. CONDOMS ARE NOT JUST TO PREVENTPREGNANCY! The author wrote this book with an intended adult audience; however,the type of morals and values she proposes through the characters is less thanexemplary. No matter what age you are, there should be no rightful reason tolose yourself at the demands of a commanding billionaire. One of Anastasia’smain worries over the course of the novel that she and her “vanilla” sexualappetite will not be enough to satisfy Christians’ sadistic sexual preferences.She changes many aspects of her life in so many ways to make herself feel moresatisfactory for Christian’s preferences and lifestyle. In the end, she justcan’t understand to deal with the fact that part of Christian’s sexualpreferences involve wanting to punish Anastasia and hit her, flog her,or whip her. After one particularly “violent” sexual encounter, Anastasia walksout on Christian, leaving the fate of their relationship unknown at the end ofthe first book.
Anastasia really is a pathetic character. In that respect, she does remind me a lot of Bella Swan. Christian Grey and Edward Cullen are the badass characters that inevitably steal the hearts of the readers. Anastasia is just so...blah. She really doesn't have any redeemable qualities, nor is she that interesting. She's described as pretty & attractive in the book, but other than that, I really don't know why so many guys want her. She's nice and all, but super naive and sheltered. The only awesome thing about Anastasia Steele is that she gets to bang Christian Grey. Simple as that.

The plot line is mediocre, predictable, and unoriginal. The sex makes this book a seriously entertaining read. Kinky!

I've already read the second book in the series, Fifty Shades Darker, so I'll be sure to post my review on that soon :)
I'm hooked.


xoxoDarlingBuds

Book Review: The Maze Runner

The Maze Runner by James Dashner

I first featured this series in a recent Book Haul I did. I had heard about this book series through various Internet sources, it often being compared to The Hunger Games trilogy.

There are no spoilers in this review.


So click below to READ ON!

Book Haul!

I have been in a severe book rut lately. Being an English major means that I never have time to read for pleasure during the year; I'm always to busy reading Chaucer, Shakespeare, and Keats. Super fun stuff. 
Now that it's summer, I can finally read books that interest me. So I walked on over to Chapters and picked up the books that I have been dying to read all year. 

 The Pioneer Woman Cooks: Food From my Frontier by Ree Drummond. Ok well this is a cookbook, but I'm still going to be "reading" this, in some sense. If you haven't heard of Ree Drummon, go check out her flippin' amazing website/lifestyle blog/food blog The Pioneer Woman

The Magicians by Lev Grossman. Described by my buddy Donna as "Harry Potter with swearing and sex" - why not give this a read?


The Maze Runner & The Scorch Trials by James Dashner. The first two books in "The Maze Runner" trilogy. I've actually already read The Maze Runner and I'm halfway through The Scorch Trials already. I meant to get this blog post up before I dove into any of my new books but I was just so antsy and I couldn't help myself! These books are very similar to The Hunger Games in the sense that they are set in a dystopian society. [between actually writing and posting this, I have also finished the Scorch Trials! So good! Can't wait to read the last book in the trilogy, "The Death Cure"]


Fifty Shades of Grey by E. L. James. The book that everybody is talking about! This is basically some sort of erotic novel based on Twilight. LAWL! It's gonna be an interesting read.


Divergent by Veronica Roth. This book is supposed to be very similar to The Hunger Games as well. I've from people who have read both series that they actually preferred Divergent to The Hunger Games. Very interesting...I shall have to wait and see. 


What have you been reading lately? I'm always curious to hear what books have been tickling other people's fancies.


xoxoDarlingBuds