I think you would have to have been in a cupboard if you have never heard of this book or have a rough idea what it is about or more importantly what it contains! Because my challenge to myself is to review all books that I read, I have had to force myself to do this one so here it goes:
Anastasia ‘Ana’ Steele is a young innocent virgin just graduated from university, her formative years spent with her head in books. Suddenly she encounters Christian Grey – the man who has everything, including the dashing good looks to go with the money. He is a dominant force within the business world. And it is not just in that part of his life that he wants to be dominant. Christian wants control everywhere that is until he meets Ana, who he wants to control but Ana wants to know more in fact she wants that more that he has never given in the past. What is it about Ana that changes this dominant? And will she actually submit to him? Will Christian’s past hold him back from submitting to Ana?
The sexual relationship which is dominant (pardon the pun) in this book fuels many of the pages, it was very repetitive and in fact at times quite boring. Here we go again, hurry up and get to the point of the story I thought. And quite frankly how big are Christian Grey’s pockets as there seemed to be “foil packets” galore spilling from them.
There is the basis of an interesting storyline and I was fascinated by Christian and why he behaves as he does. However, you need to filter out all the other stuff and about 200 pages of the book plus the repetitive writing and you probably have a decent piece of fiction. I will admit to actually not liking Ana to begin with, I felt her weak and ineffectual and although she should probably have asked for a refund in terms of her inner goddess she somehow penetrated (sorry another pun not intentional) Christian’s psyche and made him perhaps see that dominance is perhaps not always a good thing. Then I changed my mind about her until the end of the book and questioned her actions. However at the moment this has not given me enough incentive to pick up book two. I have read the book and can be counted in the statistics, enough said!
I really do not know where I stand on this book. I normally do not read ‘in’ or ‘hype’ books because everyone else is. I may well buy them, but then read them months if not years later. However, because it was my next book club choice, it had to be done.
I think because since I finished it I have read two books and during it I read two books, gives you an idea of what I really thought of the book! Having discussed this book with a few people, I can see that it is a book you either like or don’t. The Marmite effect if you will. I also think, that because I read a lot I am comparing the writing to other books. The sexually graphic scenes did not bother me but got quite boring in their repetitiveness. I keep coming back to the use of language, structure and length of book. The technicalities if you will. I recognise that actually beneath (as I say in my review) all the sex there is a very interesting story line and it was that the fundamentally kept me going to the end.
Have you succumbed to the hype? Or are you really just not that bothered?
It is going to make interesting discussion at my book club, (which I will report about on here) and I think whilst there has to be discussion about the book – there has to be something about books, PR and hype too!
The Book Jotter 
will not succumb to the hype – not that I judge anyone who does – then I get to hear their reviews – but most are disappointed with the writing
Yeah…I’m going to have to force myself to read this one too, for the sake of my blog, and I’m not looking forward to it. Yikes
Looking forward to what you think.
I haven’t succumbed to the hype, but I am curious about the book, so thanks for your review. I don’t often read ‘hyped’ books, but I do find it interesting how such books get people reading who wouldn’t normally even look at a book.
I’m looking forward to reading what your book club think of it. I doubt very much that the book club I go to would want to read this – there are some very straight-laced people in it, but on the other hand there are also people who could easily have already read it. Maybe I’ll suggest it and see what the reaction is!
I finally read the trilogy and generally found it forgettable. I also did not like Ana – and she never grew on me. At any rate, I am glad to have found your blog and while I didn’t love the books, I am curious how they will make a movie out of it!
Thanks for popping by Rory, do come back when you can.
I’m not going to bother reading it but it was amazing how often I heard women discussing it in shops when I was in England recently. It’s a hot topic in Derbyshire and Warwickshire, I even found myself being drawn into the conversations.
I don’t think I’m going to bother, and that is not because I’m put off by all the hype. I’ve read several reviews and generally know what the story is about and it doesn’t strike me as my ‘kind of thing’. There are just too many other books I do really want to read instead 🙂
When I read the first one I was pretty hooked and then the more I read the more annoyed I became. It is full of cliches and Ana is just the most annoying character; I really didn’t like her or find her very believeable, and if I have to read the words ‘inner goddess’ once more in any book I will physically throw it out of the window.