Fifty Shades of Grey
Fifty Shades #1
By E.L. James
TheStory
When Ana quite literally stumbles into the office of gorgeous billionaire Christian Grey, she immediately snags his attention. Christian is intrigued by Ana’s quiet innocence and beauty. Ana hasn’t had a relationship before and is confused by her desire for Christian but once he admits to wanting her, she realizes she wants the same thing.
Except Christian’s tastes are very singular and he only wants Ana on his own terms - terms involving NDAs, contracts, and hard limits. As Ana navigates her own desires through Christian’s dark side, she discovers his demons and his need for complete control. Are Christain’s demons too much for Ana to handle or can she accept him as he is?
TheReview
I must start with a preface to this review, as I realize I am over a decade late to the game here. I wasn’t a reader when these books initially came out. There had been so much talk about them over the years and then, of course, the movies came out.
I hadn’t watched the movies much but I did catch some of them over the years. Once I started reading a few years ago, these books didn’t really hold much interest for me. But as I continued my reading journey, I figured why not give them a try?
They were way ahead of their time.
I’m not saying they were the very first books ever written on the subject (because I don’t know every book ever written) but they were definitely one of the first of their caliber, at least based on my opinion and some of my own research.
All that background information (that you didn’t ask for) aside, let’s dive into the review.
Overall, this book was centered solely on Christian and Ana’s relationship.
Christian is dark and haunted, but it doesn’t dive too much into that. He is not willing to give up much information to Ana, so she (and therefore we) can only assume he is tortured based on his reactions and the few bits of information that he does divulge.
Ana is an innocent little angel. She hasn’t had a relationship before, and therefore is unable to fully grasp the extent of what Christian is asking of her. She’s just kind of a little ball of emotion all the time. Which is fair, given that she is a virgin and has never been interested in anyone enough to pursue a relationship. She is naive about relationships but it’s endearing, especially the insight that was given through E.L. James’ writing.
Frankly, if I was a 22-year-old virgin and Christian Grey was my first experience with men, I’d be a befuddles and emotionally confused mess all the time, too.
At the very least, she understands that he is not normal. She tries to meet him half way but still wants him to meet her some of the way, as well. He is just so dark and twisty and Ana is just trying to navigate his dark world that she has never remotely encountered before.
A note on Christian - he really is fifty shades of effed up (his own words) but he tries to be more for Ana. He just doesn’t understand his own feelings and doesn’t know how to have a remotely normal relationship.
A note on Ana - her inner goddess and subconscious commentary had me cracking up. They were like their own side characters in the story.
On the subject of side characters, there aren’t many but her roommate, Kate, is a good one. As are her coworkers (although they aren’t in the story much), and Jose.
The whole book is so good. Much better than I was expecting after all the conflicting information I received about them over the years. While now they don’t seem revolutionary, they were definitely ahead of their time. I remember so many people having an opinion about them, whether they read them or not. It was definitely a controversial series. I imagine that they paved the way for authors to explore these types of subjects and themes in a more open way.
P.S. I found the writing to be a bit old-school - like the verbiage and the way they spoke to each other. On Ana’s part, it made sense for her education and innocence, since the whole book was from her perspective. On Christian’s part - and the dialogue - it seemed like a game, Christian playing a little bit with Ana.
TheRating
Storyline: 5/5
Characters: 5/5
World Building: N/A
Writing: 5/5
Overall: 📘📘📘📘📘
Spice: 🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️ (only four peppers because while the spice was plentiful, it wasn’t over-the-top descriptive - it seemed purposeful)
Fifty Shades Series
Fifty Shades of Grey
Fifty Shades #1
Fifty Shades Darker
Fifty Shades #2
Fifty Shades Freed
Fifty Shades #3
Fifty Shades as Told By Christian Series
Grey
Fifty Shades as Told by Christian #1
Darker
Fifty Shades as Told by Christian #2
Freed
Fifty Shades as Told by Christian #3