I like to give every book the benefit of the doubt. All the hoopla about this book made me want to read it. 50 shades is a problematic book that makes any proud bookworm feel sort of dirty for reading it. It's basically the literary version of being caught with a copy of Hustler.This book made me blush and cringe on the inside. It's not just that it has sexual descriptions. Nearly 80% of this novel is about sex and not just your average run of the mill sex, but some seriously twisted situations. We've all heard of BDSM, but after reading this you get an insiders view of what that really entails. Christian's red room of pain is frankly gross. Reading this makes me wonder what kind of sick twisted human being wrote this novel.
The premise of the novel is understandable: how a young women can let sexual desire get the best of her. If only this novel was the only one. The ending is appropriate, but I fear with 2 other books they are trying to sell the story of Christian and Anastasia as romantic. The story borders on abusive with Christian's random bouts of jealous rage and threats to beat her. Instead of delving into what exactly happened to Christian to make him this messed up or why he refuses to see his relationship with Mrs. Robinson as what it was (child abuse), the author just bombards us with kinky sex. The only person in the novel who seems to have any common sense is Kate who hates him from the get-go. This book would be an interesting case study in how young women get sucked into abusive relationships if it had been left as one book.
Another problem with this novel is the dialogue. Anastasia speaks quite normally, but Christian seems like he's been plucked straight out of a Victorian romance novel. His instance on calling her Miss Steal, his manservant who is always lurking around and of course the vocabulary he uses. I feel like the author just sat there with a tattered copy of a Victorian romance and the thesaurus.
It's really unfortunate that this literary drivel is going to be turned into movie. It's twilight all over again.
