So as you might have guessed from the title, I have been reading 50 Shades of Grey. I got it from hubby for my birthday (well, I got an Amazon gift card to use on books for my kindle, him knowing full well that this was one of the books I wanted to read) I am not usually one to get into the hype of things and I don't read books when they first become popular, first was Harry Potter.. I didn't start reading them until after I had seen the first movie, and after book five was out for a while. Then with Twilight, I hadn't heard anything about it really, then something on the internet caught my eye so I looked it up. Most, if not all of the books were out buy the time I bought the first one.. and I read the first chapter and put it back down for about a month before trying again. It was just too slow for me in the beginning.. I liked all those enough, Harry Potter much more than Twilight, but I liked them enough to reread them several times. Imagine my disappointment when I began reading the 50 Shades book only to draw some very unsatisfying conclusions.
First; while knowing the series started off on a Twilight fan fiction site, I did not realize the blazing resemblance between 50 Shades and Twilight. Sure, there's more sex, but mostly there's this guy who's exceedingly beautifully handsome and this clumsy girl, who's younger than the guy, who regards herself as not pretty or beautiful.. and he falls for her. He likes to smell her (HELLO, Edward much!?) I've just hit chapter 17 so I'm sure I'll draw more comparisons soon.
Second; It is not very sexy to call your private parts your "sex" .. that is not exactly accurate anyway but I digress.. She'll say clitoris but eludes to "down there" or "there" then calls it her sex... Very unsatisfying and under developed.
Not to mention the naivete of the girl, she's a college grad and doesn't know she'd "stretch" during intercourse? Come on! It's a little far fetched, even for a virgin.
Third; And I am hoping this is just a Kindle edition issue, there are a LOT of misspelled words. Random words with extra letters, words that seem made up (and I have checked definitions on several.. no such words) It's all a little off putting, and it makes for a hard read.. even though it's not a hard read. Almost everything is very simply laid out (much like Twilight) as if it was written for a younger audience. Which, surely it was not. Not in the final edition.. It couldn't be, not with all that sex and bondage and contracts!
Fourth; Aside from some literary references and a few other words, the book seems very simply written. The context might be deeper, but the words are simple... or is it just me? I'm used to reading a lot of different types of things. Fiction, non fiction, youth novels (some of my favorite are the Giver series) lots of anatomy and physiology books lately, lol. The hardest book I have ever read is Wicked. That is a very hard read and it took me forever to get through it, but it is a very good book. 50 Shades seems to me like it wants to be a good book, it just seems to be stuck between too simple with the structure and too complex with the BDSM theme.
Finally; how many orgasms can a gal have? Oh that's right more than one, but Ana's are a little excessive and happen far too easily. Not to mention, they have sex twice, in such quick succession? Grey is like the perfect guy in that aspect, but (in my experience) guys aren't ready to go again so quickly and if by chance you get a second go around it's usually to finish what was started with the woman (who most likely did not reach climax the first time) Just being realistic. I know that many of these books are about fantasy, but sometimes they can get a little too off base for me. If I want that unrealistic, I'll read one of my Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter books. Further into the series all she does is basically have "amazing" physical and metaphysical sex with multiple gorgeous men. Multiple times a day. Talk about unrealistic. Not to mention they are either vampires or shapeshifters.
I like it enough to keep reading, I find myself almost as engrossed in the story as in my other adult novels. And it's not that bad, it's just not exactly what I was expecting. All that darned hype that I don't usually get caught up in.. yeah, it got me this time. lol.
Lol glad I'm not the only one to avoid hyped up novels! ;)
ReplyDeleteHahahaha I love the title of the post - that was one of my favorite lines in the books!
ReplyDeleteOkay for starters, don't they refer to the lady parts in most romantic/erotica novels as her sex? What word does Nicholas Sparks use? I can't even remember it's been so long since I've read one of his books. I just know a great part of our population uses the most unsexy words ever to refer to genitalia (pee-pee, wee-wee, etc.) for some reason instead of using literal terms.
I felt like the books were simple enough to read but I don't ever remember feeling like it was all too simple. I freaking LOVED the books though. I, too, am one of those who resists all the books series up front when they're first coming out and then again when they gain popularity... only to read them after everyone else. I'm just that way! I read the HP series for the first time last year... LOVED them, too! {Also loved the HG and Divergent and 50 Shades and Twilight! Love love love.}
One of the first things I talked to my sister about (who had read the books before me) were her MULTIPLE orgasms and the number of times they have back-to-back sex! She is in nursing school and had some funny things to say about it all, too, and she was like, "Okay just the number of orgasms she has by penetration alone is so unrealistic!" LOL. Truth.
And YES. So.MANY.ways.this.series.is.like.TWILIGHT! At first I was like OKAY WTF... but then it did develop into it's own separate thing, which was nice. The 2nd and 3rd books are just great, too! I'm not sure if I would say BETTER - but they sure do an awesome job of developing things.
And I don't think I caught the misspelled words - I read the Kindle version too! But it was a while ago and I seriously flew through them so that could be why. You do know it was a woman from the UK who wrote them though, right? Which could account for minute differences in spelling on some words, I suppose.
Anyways, hope you love them! If you ever want to talk about the books you should message me on FB! I love talking about all the book worlds I get sucked into. :) I'm reading the Beautiful Creatures series right now and I'm pretty obsessed.
I did like them! Lol, at this point I had only read half of the first book. I feel they got better with each book, the last being my favorite. I didn't know the author was from the UK, it's possible there was a combo of the different words and some misspellings.. I don't know, lol. And I guess I just haven't read many normal adult novels.. I have no idea what they usually call privates.. I just think it's hokey, ya know?
DeleteSuper hokey! I agree. Are you reading any new books now?
DeleteNothing new currently, I got a gift card for Christmas for a book I started reading when I was younger but couldn't finish. It's called the third eye.. I think it's a youth novel.. my cousin was reading it, and I picked it up while visiting so we were both reading it. I couldn't finish it, and I remember that it was really good so now I want to go buy it, lol. I have such strange taste in books! I think I need more adult books (not romancey, just books for my age group as opposed to youth novels, lol) what are the beautiful creature series about?
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