Fifty Shades of Grey book 1 - erotic book by Vintage Books - review by djande01

I am here today to write about the book "50 Shades of Grey" by EL James. It seems like this book has been absolutely everywhere, and when I heard about the provocative nature of it, I had to see what the hype was all about. I'm not quite finished with it yet, but I've read about 17 chapters in less than 24 hours, if that says anything at all.

The story begins with Ana Steele, and two weeks before her college graduation. In an attempt to help her ill roommate, who happens to be the editor of her school's newspaper, she gets talked into interviewing Christian Grey, a man in his late 20's who is incredibly successful, incredibly intimidating, and incredibly controlling. With something that Ana thought would be an occurrence of a couple hours, ends up being a twist of fate. She can't quit thinking about him, and it seems like he turns up everywhere, even her place of employment (which is hours away from his hometown). Before anything even happens, it seems like he's trying to control her, even down to how often she eats.

They eventually stop denying that they have feelings for each other, and agree to enter a sexual relationship, with her knowing fully that he is "50 shades of fucked-up". He makes her go through what he calls "basic training", after finding out that she has never made love before. Eventually he gives her a contract to enter a fully consensual, Dominant/submissive relationship. There are incredible amounts of BDSM elements, such as flogging, restraints, and a "Red Room of Pain".

The book kind of reminds me of the movie, "Secretary", starring Maggie Gyllenhaal and James Spader. But, as of right now, there is no employee/employer relationship. When I get to reading it, it is very hard to put down. There is one big thing I don't like about the story though. It is very Twilight-y, after all, this book started as Twilight fan fiction. And, it's also like the nerdy, unattractive girl gets the rich, successful, incredibly hot businessman. It seems like that happens a lot in stories like this. The girl is always believing that she is not worthy of that person, and I have yet to read a book where the girl has the confidence to go after what she wants, instead of waiting for it to happen. She has also maintained her innocence even after entering the Dom/sub relationship. She still has an inner monologue that is still surprised that she has even maintained such a relationship. When, as demonstrated in "Secretary", there is a definite change in Maggie's demeanor when the relationship starts. She starts out innocent, then turns into this confident temptress. I would like to see more of that in a story like this.