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

I am not going to write a full, extended review for this book because it is honestly not worth that much brainpower. I am not entirely sure what made this a best seller other than the *gasp* BDSM?! *gasp* factor, which I find quite frankly, overrated. So instead, I would like to throw out there a few reasons why this book incorrectly describes the kink community and kink relationships in the vague hopes that someone will read it and understand that this book is not the gateway for getting the kinky sex you've always wanted to try.

First, 50 Shades of Grey is poorly written. It's just bad writing. If you like bad writing in your porn, then that's fine by me, but be forewarned: it's not a bestseller because of its prose.

Second, 50 Shades of Grey displays a particular section of kink and kink culture that is not your run-of-the-mill relationship. It depicts a young girl stumbling into a 24/7-style master/slave relationship, freaking out, and running away (in this book anyway, and I'm only reviewing book one..right now). Full-time Master/slave relationships exist, don't get me wrong. And some people do write contracts and such. It's a thing, but it is certainly not ALL of BDSM/Kink and it's not for a beginner and it's not often run the way 50 Shades of Grey depicts it. There is more conversation, there is more easing up to it, there is more discussion, communication, and honesty, period. And 24/7 relationships are in NO WAY what beginners do. You don't just wake up one day and become a slave, like this book suggests you do. It takes patience, and love, and respect. It takes a mutual trust. None of which are cultivated in this novel.

That said, many people have read this book and jumped on it for portraying an abusive relationship, or at the very least a dangerous, borderline-abusive relationship and then blamed that on the kink aspect. While I agree that Christian in Ana, in this book, have a relationship that is dangerous (because they don't communicate), it's not necessarily abusive, nor is it abusive because of BDSM practices like punishment. The spanking isn't the problem, the fundamental relationship between the two of them is. I wish I could paint a banner on the inside cover of every single one of these books that pointed out that simply because the submissive is female and the dominant is male and he hit's her DOES NOT MEAN IT IS ABUSE, DOES NOT MEAN IT IS SEXISM, DOES NOT MEAN IT IS DEGRADING TO WOMEN EVERYWHERE.

Had the characters been written so that they had a safer, more stable, more trusting, more honest relationship, I honestly believe this would be a better book (writing aside).