Fifty Shades of Grey - Mommy Porn has a ways to go if it wants to be good

Fifty Shades of Grey by E.L. James
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I don't even know where to begin with this one, other than to realize that I can probably skip the summary since I seem to be the last 30 something woman in the world to read this.

First, the writing is to the point of being obnoxious. Not annoying obnoxious, just outright bad obnoxious, which I guess does actually make it kind of annoying. This novel's beginnings as novice fan fiction is blatant to the point of hilarity at points, and I have to agree that a large part of it's popularity lies within the digital revolution that allows readers to indulge in erotic subject matter discreetly. I think the age of the characters and Christian's role as the uber-wealthy young CEO is another huge draw - right along with the picture of the story in my imagination, I couldn't help but picture your typical all-American middle aged woman getting lost in the daydream of being 22 again and finding her own Christian Grey, while also lost in the personal question of what she would do if he ever actually walked through her door.

Despite the overall bad writing though, I cannot lie that I still felt like there was a magnet pulling me back. Oddly, it was story that drew me in and not the illicit sex, even though the story itself was rather weak and the worst part of the bad writing. I do have to admit that it was definitely fun to picture what I would want my Christian to look like (and then picturing him in the gray flannel pants, yum) but I'm certain I am in the gross minority in that the sex got redundant. Not the scenarios themselves, they were creative and probably the best writing in the entire book, I just think I'm probably not the erotica type. About halfway through each of them, I just wanted to get back to the story, and then found myself wishing there was a more substantial story. A small conundrum that hopefully book 2 will help enlighten a bit.

Aside from the actual content itself, I listened to the audio version of this book and cannot refrain from comment on that - why does every person reading the character of a naive/innocent young woman feel the need to read her voice as though she is a dimwitted airhead? Every book I listen to that has late teens-early twenties female characters seems to be this way, and this one is made even worse by the pathetic attempt at reading her voice as "sultry" and "innocent" at the same time. Note to anyone reading books for audio....air headed "valley girl" is NOT sultry, NOT innocent, and NOT enjoyable! On a positive note, I started the audio of the second book this afternoon, and I'm pretty sure someone else told her this as well because I have noticed a marked improvement. Still not great, but definitely better.

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