Fifty Shades of Grey book 1 - erotic fiction by Vintage Books - review by jennifur77

I am a voracious reader, consuming nearly two books each week. "Fifty Shades of Grey" is part of a rarely read genre for me, as I rarely care for fiction. Between the hype I wanted to see if it lived up to it's promise of an amazing read and marketing e-mails from EdenFantasys about products similar to what was used in the book. Even with my disdain of fiction, I picked up a copy, and amazingly the story drew me in until I couldn't put the book down. Being 514 pages, I expected it to take me weeks to finish, as it did last time I read a fiction book of this length, yet I finished it in three days. The story was engrossing, easy to follow, and above all kept me wondering what was going to happen next. (Or should I say Mr. Grey kept me wondering?) While the basic storyline was predictable to me, I don't have experience with BDSM, so if I was more familiar with it, I likely wouldn't have been as intrigued as to what to expect. I believe part of the success of this book is that housewives can live vicariously through Ana. It may allow the average person who has only experienced vanilla sex to know there is more variety out there to experience.

My biggest problem in giving this book a good rating is the writing. It was really difficult for me to overlook a number of repeated flaws in the writing. The biggest to me was vocabulary. While I could see Mr. Grey using some of these large words, to see Ana, and even her mother using them made me feel it was contrived. I had to guess at the meaning of some of them. I told a friend I was reading this book and she was asking me if I enjoyed it. I read her a passage from page 24. She, too, agreed that "besieged" should not be used twice in one paragraph. While a great descriptive word, the repetition too closely not only made me roll my eyes but the description lost its impact with me. This is a flaw I felt was repeated several other places in the book. That is not even including the same descriptions used for mannerisms through the book. For example, Ana rolls her eyes a lot as well as bites her lip. Mr. Grey often cocks his head to one side. The characters mummer more than necessary. A good thesaurus could have helped with editing this book.

Because, I don't have experience with BDSM, I didn't feel it was fair to have Ana make assumptions that Mr. Grey's sexual preferences is based on his past, which appears to be abuse. Because everyone is different, I would hate to think that readers may assume the only people interested in BDSM are those who are, as Mr. Grey describes himself, "fifty shades of f'd up". Like anything else in life, enjoyment of something, sexual or not, doesn't mean there is anything sinister in their past. Because of the popularity of this book, I wonder what impression it will ultimately leave on others of the fetish community.

I realize this is a book of fiction. Mr. Grey appears to be every woman's dream, and therefore this must be fiction. I don't believe that anyone could be that accomplished at age 26. He is a multimillionaire, if not a billionaire, a pilot, and accomplished pianist. Along with that, Ana's innocence sexually doesn't bother me as it likely would some people. I'm not sure a virgin would be as willing to go along with Mr. Grey's demands as she is, but like I said people are unique and I suppose it could happen. When she receives the laptop, she is surprised to learn she has an e-mail address. Most children and teenagers have an e-mail address. Ana is a 22 year old college graduate. I know when I was in school almost fifteen years ago we were required to have one so we could be reached for any number of school related issues. I can't imagine that requirement isn't at nearly every school by now.