Hello, today i have 3 book reviews to do. You may have heard all about the excited chatter of a certain new trilogy to hit the shops.The 50 Shades trilogy. Well today I'm reviewing..
"50 Shades Of Grey"
"50 Shades Darker"
&
"50 Shades Freed"
The plot is based on Mr Christian Grey and his relationship with a Miss Anastasia Steele. He wants a submissive and he wants to be a dominate in the relationship, he presents her with a contract and asks her to sign and agree to the terms,conditions and rules regarding their relationship and their well beings. The rules state what she is to eat and when, what she is to wear and when and how much exercise she should be completing weekly. It also talks about what they would be allowed to do in the sexual side of their relationship, and since he is a dominate it mentions the toys, and type of BDSM that he expects her to take part in.
The books are based on "Twilight", so if you have read that then you kinda know the storyline for this series. In fact it was a fanfic written online that then got turned into a book and finally sold the rights to be made into a film for a seven figure sum.When reading it, i could see lots of references to Twilight, i sometimes found myself saying "..that's exactly like Edward, he wants to sleep with Bella but is scared he will hurt her..well Mr Grey wants to sleep with Ana AND wants to hurt her.." (maybe not so much with lots of pain, but you get the idea). However, the more i read the more Mr Grey and Ana became their own characters away from "Twilight" of course there was still some resemblance to "Twilight" but the characters were more believable.
The first book (50 Shades of Grey) in the trilogy is my least favourite, i think it spends a very long time explaining things over and over again as if to try and make the reader understand the world of BDSM and whats expected within it. I did however develop a soft spot for Mr Grey as i generally feel that he is messed up and is falling in love despite never having done so before and therefore not knowing what to expect from it or to do in a normal relationship. Its not academically written, as my manager at work stated.. "its very street written", as in, easy to read, its not along the lines of "Wuthering Heights" but its easy enough for most people to understand. Book one left me wanting to know more about his past more then anything else, i needed to know what made him the way he was and the fact that certain things were mentioned in the book but then never figured out or explained in further detail made you need to read the second if you wanted to find out more.
Book Two, (50 Shades Darker) answered some questions and introduced some new people, and we got to the bottom of some of Mr Grey's issues, It was nice to learn abit more about his past and his experiences and it was also nice to see him trying to adjust to this new life that he so desperately wants and needs with Ana. The way the second book ended made you need to read the third, you had to find out, who it was that the last page was written about, but it also ended in a sweet way, and a way that felt right with the story.
The third book (50 Shades Freed) answered all the questions from the first two, made you understand abit more about everything and made you see how their relationship has developed since the beginning of the story. It brought back characters from the past and made us understand them better. I felt that book three was rushed quiet a bit, i wanted to extend certain parts, but it needed to be done the book is over 500 pages long already. The end of the book is a "In the Future" type of thing so we get to see a little about what the future had in store for them. It ended nicely, with my favourite quote being, "You got me to admit i loved her, you dragged me to her grave. Enough." :) At the very back of the book there is a part i enjoyed reading, its called "Shades Of Christian" and its from when he was baby until the day he saw Ana, and you get to see things and read things from his point of view, it had me flipping from the third book to the first and seeing what Ana had been thinking and what he was thinking at the same time, it was rather amusing.
All in all, The first book for this series is my least favourite, the second better and the third is exactly how it should be..the roundup to an end. To me, they are great books, even if you can tell it was written as a fanfic. There has been mixed reviews about these books, with people saying, its "Mummy Porn", its terribly written, its too much like "Twilight", its a easy read, and people are only reading it for the sex, but these books have knocked "The Hunger Games" off the top of the book charts, they have also sold more copies then "Harry Potter" (and we all know how much EVERYONE loves Harry.) The fact is, you cant seem to escape this book, to some its amazing to others its their guilty pleasure, and to some it classed as "50 shades of Shit" either way weather you love it or hate it, its the book that's been on everyones lips of recent and the book that's becoming SOLD OUT more and more. At work there are about 5 women reading it at the moment, my manager has finished and was glad it was on her kindle so no one could see her reading it (although she mentioned that on her flight to Spain last week, there was a lot of women reading it), my friend Shirley says she reads it on the train in full view of everyone and doesn't mind..
This book review is my own honest opinion, i loved reading the 50 Shades trilogy in all. I think there is so much more to the story then just sex, but i don't know if its what i would call a "love" story either, i think you have to look deeper then that and see that one of the main things you get from these books it that,
"no matter how much of a fucked up childhood you have, no matter how fucked your start to life may be, and no matter how fucked up all of it makes you fucked up too, you can still go on to have a normal beautiful life..if you just learn to adjust and accept.."
I mean in reality, we all have our own issues and things going on or that have happened in our life. Its how we choose to deal with them that defines us as people, so 50 Shades may not be your cup of tea, or maybe your scared to read it because of the kind of topic its based on, i would say if your of a certain age, read it, give it a chance, don't expect it to be amazingly written, this ISN'T Shakespeare, its a fanfic but its an easy read to pass the time, see if you enjoy it, you may be like me and not enjoy the first as much as the second and third!
Have you read the 50 Shades books? If so what did you think of them?
Let me know if you do ever get round to reading them.
Ana X