Review - Fifty Shades of Grey by E.L. James

Fifty Shades of Grey by E.L. James
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Paperback, 528 pages

Published April 3rd 2012 by Vintage (first published May 25th 2011)

Source: Own copy

Synopsis:
'When literature student Anastasia Steele goes to interview young entrepreneur Christian Grey, she encounters a man who is beautiful, brilliant, and intimidating. The unworldly, innocent Ana is startled to realize she wants this man and, despite his enigmatic reserve, finds she is desperate to get close to him. Unable to resist Ana’s quiet beauty, wit, and independent spirit, Grey admits he wants her, too—but on his own terms.

Shocked yet thrilled by Grey’s singular erotic tastes, Ana hesitates. For all the trappings of success—his multinational businesses, his vast wealth, his loving family—Grey is a man tormented by demons and consumed by the need to control. When the couple embarks on a daring, passionately physical affair, Ana discovers Christian Grey’s secrets and explores her own dark desires.

Erotic, amusing, and deeply moving, the Fifty Shades Trilogy is a tale that will obsess you, possess you, and stay with you forever.'

My Thoughts:
So, I have to admit that I went into reading this book with a VERY open mind. This was mainly due to knowing what the subject matter was and hearing so much hype about this book along with an equal mix of good and bad reviews. Some people passionately hated this book and others thoroughly enjoyed it. Well, I actually am one of those that enjoyed it.

Aside from the BDSM theme and the extreme amounts of sex in this book, it actually had quite a good underlying storyline that I found interesting and was what ultimately kept me reading through to the end.

The first main character, Christian Grey, has had a hard start to life and this has in turn made him into a very controlling and egotistical human being. He's never let a person into his life and has always been the one to set the rules.

I found Christian's character just captivating and fascinating. You can't help but be affected by him and his strong personality and confidence. That is until you realise that it's all a bit of a front and underneath is actually a needy boy who is scared of being rejected and alone.

The other main character, Anastasia Steele, is a very innocent and nervous person who gets completely overwhelmed when she meets Christian. He is totally out of her league but she finds herself drawn to him in a way she has never felt with another man before.

I found that I got a bit annoyed with Ana's character a lot throughout the book, but I think it was just the repetitive writing and the way some conversations were structured that were the main reasons for this. She seemed to repeat the same phrases an awful lot and talks about an 'inner goddess' on pratically every second page.

Overall, this book certainly revolves around sex and has an awful lot of it in there. I realised that by about halfway through I was actually getting extremely bored with the sex scenes and just wanted more of the base story instead.

This is certainly not a book to read if you get offended easily and are a bit squeamish about certain 'taboo' subjects. On the other hand, if you have an open mind and don't get offended all too easily I think it's definitely an entertaining read and I am now looking forward to reading the next two books in the series.

Links:
Amazon
The Book Depository