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Wednesday, May 16, 2012

Fifty Shades of Grey Part One Review


Note before I start this . This is purely the opinion of myself and before I get bombarded by rotten fruit for my opinion of Twilight contained within. GO elsewhere especially if its the only book you've ever bothered to read.

First thing that caught my attention in the book shop was the gorgeous covers Random House Vintage Press really uses the most brilliant of images on all their books but other than that I didn't think much of the story line as its not my usual reading material. Then I found out that the  story started it life as a fan fiction for Twilight Trilogy (shudder…Don’t even ask what I think of these books as it isn’t pretty)…) called The Master of the Universe. 

This is not a good selling point for me as I despise the Twilight books and the two weeks it took me to read them was equivalent to fingernails on a chalkboard but I perservered in the hope they would get better, unfortunately they didn't. Anyway I digress.

I then read a excerpt from Random House website and  thought I would give it a go expecting that the excerpt was the best part of the book and I would hate it just as much as the books it is loosely based on but I want to see what the furore was about  and I read lots of Good and very bad fanfiction so I managed to download a soft copy for a quarter of the price.

So I  have read it  and reviewed and made comparison where I think are worthy of note.

 
When I first started reading I picked up on character attributes in some of the characters Anastasia Steele(was obviously Bella Swann), Katherine Kavanagh (Alice Cullen but she’s more like Rosalie ),  Jose (Jacob) , Elliot (Jasper). Here’s where the similarity ends.

WARNING? There is not a vampire in sight and certainly not a sparkly one. So if this is what you’re after skip it.

Christian Grey is a CEO, enigmatic, philanthropic, superior, demanding, abrupt and commanding. He is also quite mercurial.  Personally I find Christian is a much more complex character than Edward Cullen, as I was reading, I kept being reminded of Jonas Cord from Harold Robbins’s The Carpetbaggers.  As a bit of a control freak and tendency to be a soft Dominant-Submissive myself, I have this Love/ Hate Relationship with Jonas, so too are my feelings for Christian. Whilst Christian pursues Anastasia he does so within the boundaries of lawfully, Edward on the other hand is just creepy and illegal sneaking into watch a girl sleep.

Anastasia Steele is a newly graduated & hopeful Publishing Intern. Whilst Ana is innocent and pure she is worldly enough to see Christian’s flaws but also see’s something beyond these outwardly noticeable traits that other’s don’t. She will also stand her ground, poke fun and tease Christian mercilessly.

It’s a story of worldly innocence and hardened corruption and how they both can impact on the other the innocence become worldly and the corrupted are softened. I suppose the closest parallel I can make to the Book that people will understand, if you liked the movie The Secretary you will probably like this.

It also dispels some of the myths surrounding BSDM. Yes, there is quite a bit of sex in it but none if it over the top or overly graphic (well not by fan fiction standards, which sometimes is smut that Hustler magazine would consider blush-worthy). The BDSM so far is all fairly soft and light …bondage, blindfold, spanking without implements. Nothing that those in a sexual relations haven’t contemplated/experimented with unless you’re purely vanilla in your taste.

Whilst reading Twilight, I remembered contemplating taking a hatchet to all and sundry at one point, as the characters are very one dimensional and only seem to have the one emotion prevalent. The main characters in “Fifty Shades of Grey” are more fleshed out and multi layered. Frankly they are easier to relate to.

I even cried in one part, which I have only done in one other book, Jane Austen’s Persuasion.

Overall I really enjoyed this book, the story line wasn’t overly complicated and it is written by a defter hand  than the books that inspired its genesis.  The characters are interesting and the conversations seem flow well. Its written for adults and therefore the subject matter is more adult, even if the characters seem to get a bit angsty at times its adult not teenage angst.  I will probably visit this book again sometime in the future for another read. Whereas I will never put myself though Twilight ever again


I’m giving it a solid 2.5 rating out of 5.

Coming Soon Fifty Shades Darker Part 2 Review

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