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2.96 AVERAGE
2.96 AVERAGE
dark
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
challenging
emotional
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Sucked me in...I'll have to finish the series. Once you see that BDSM is only part of the story- it is easier to read. I thought the author did a good job of almost making me feel what they feel. The nature of their bantering back and forth gets redundant and tiresome- just get on with it already! Gets annoying- like Edward/Bella.
All I wanted was something easy and entertaining to read, but I totally failed. Dreadfully dull and entirely too long.
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Honestly, what hasn't been written about Fifty Shades of Grey, both as a book and a phenomenon already? Still I do actually want to write a comprehensive review of this book because I think the dominant themes in discussions about the book - that it romanticizes abuse, that it sets a bad example for women - are infantilizing and misunderstand what makes the concept of dark romance palatable to readers. I guess I should disclaim that I am not a dark romance novel reader - because I refuse to leave my darling historical romance niche - but as an avid romance reader more generally, I feel like I have at least a bit of authority to speak on the matter.
Okay, so what actually makes this book bad? I'll tell you. Not only is Fifty Shades of Grey the winner of worst prose I've reader in 2025 (being not unreadable but full of quirks - like Anastasia not being allowed to swear and Christian's pants hanging off him like laundry off a line - which makes the process of reading agonizing) but ultimately is not very good at the fantasy that it's tapping into.
What makes people read dark romance? Well, not to combine feminist theory with essentially Nietzsche, but dark romance is palatable because of the way that it allows women to vicariously wield a considerable amount of power through fantasy. In a world where women are always on guards against the violence of (mainly) men, the idea that a mafia boss or a serial killer (yes, a serial killer, or a stalker, or a vampire) could and does hurt and kill people but would never hurt the heroine for whatever specified reason is a potent one. It allows the women the kind of ultimate power over the violence committed against her. Not only is she immune to said violence, but through her relationship to the hero she can even use it by pointing it against her enemies. You actually see a toned down variation of this in a good chunk of more commercially popular romance novels. The rakish duke who is nevertheless faithful to the heroine is a sort of more socially acceptable version of this.
So is it that Fifty Shades is actually working well within its own genre and should thus not be censured? Well, no. This book is bad. Like I said the prose is awful. So is the pacing - the way that the ending just sort of springs up out of nowhere is a good reflection of the fanfiction origins of this book, as well as the fact that Grey and Darker (1st and 2nd book in the series) were originally one very long fic (Master of the Universe). Truly awful pacing. The fact that the heroine is a wet blanket is not helping. The idea that romance novel heroines should be completely uninteresting so that the reader can project anything on her not only makes books that use this bad and boring, but it misunderstands the mechanism through which most readers experience the romance novel. For more on this I would look at the essay "The Androgynous Reader" in Dangerous Men and Adventurous Women, a fantastic compendium of essays by romance novelists.
But more than all of these things (and yes, note all of these things), Fifty Shades of Grey doesn't work because it's not really that dark. Okay so Christian is controlling and manipulative. So? Who cares? He's just kinda a shitty boyfriend. The thing that is supposed to make him dark an twisted is essentially that he likes spanking people. He's not holding up against the mafia romance heroes for evilness. Really he just wants a mom he can fuck (I mean this so literally, see Fifty Shades Darker "I like to whip little brown haired girls that look like the crack whore my birth more"). And there's nothing sexy about that. Christian Grey is really just like if Patrick Bateman didn't even do murder and had a girlfriend. He's whiny, needy, wants to be like everyone else, and does not care about the people around him. I refuse to believe that he could actually leave a woman fulfilled. It's just out of character.
And this is so obviously bad when the point of the romance novel genre is in some part the fantasy of a man who loves and respects a woman (even if it's literally only one (1) woman) unselfishly. There is little that is sexier than that as a concept. If I wanted to read about shitty men who hated women I would literally just reread American Psycho, because at least that book understands its themes and applies them in a satisfying, if horrifying, way. This book does not understand its genre and is not good at the fantasy its supposed to provide. It's a bad book because it fails as a dark romance. This is the real reason that Fifty Shades of Grey should be disregarded.
Sidenote: Also the sex scenes are sooo badly written. What's even the point, truly?
Okay, so what actually makes this book bad? I'll tell you. Not only is Fifty Shades of Grey the winner of worst prose I've reader in 2025 (being not unreadable but full of quirks - like Anastasia not being allowed to swear and Christian's pants hanging off him like laundry off a line - which makes the process of reading agonizing) but ultimately is not very good at the fantasy that it's tapping into.
What makes people read dark romance? Well, not to combine feminist theory with essentially Nietzsche, but dark romance is palatable because of the way that it allows women to vicariously wield a considerable amount of power through fantasy. In a world where women are always on guards against the violence of (mainly) men, the idea that a mafia boss or a serial killer (yes, a serial killer, or a stalker, or a vampire) could and does hurt and kill people but would never hurt the heroine for whatever specified reason is a potent one. It allows the women the kind of ultimate power over the violence committed against her. Not only is she immune to said violence, but through her relationship to the hero she can even use it by pointing it against her enemies. You actually see a toned down variation of this in a good chunk of more commercially popular romance novels. The rakish duke who is nevertheless faithful to the heroine is a sort of more socially acceptable version of this.
So is it that Fifty Shades is actually working well within its own genre and should thus not be censured? Well, no. This book is bad. Like I said the prose is awful. So is the pacing - the way that the ending just sort of springs up out of nowhere is a good reflection of the fanfiction origins of this book, as well as the fact that Grey and Darker (1st and 2nd book in the series) were originally one very long fic (Master of the Universe). Truly awful pacing. The fact that the heroine is a wet blanket is not helping. The idea that romance novel heroines should be completely uninteresting so that the reader can project anything on her not only makes books that use this bad and boring, but it misunderstands the mechanism through which most readers experience the romance novel. For more on this I would look at the essay "The Androgynous Reader" in Dangerous Men and Adventurous Women, a fantastic compendium of essays by romance novelists.
But more than all of these things (and yes, note all of these things), Fifty Shades of Grey doesn't work because it's not really that dark. Okay so Christian is controlling and manipulative. So? Who cares? He's just kinda a shitty boyfriend. The thing that is supposed to make him dark an twisted is essentially that he likes spanking people. He's not holding up against the mafia romance heroes for evilness. Really he just wants a mom he can fuck (I mean this so literally, see Fifty Shades Darker "I like to whip little brown haired girls that look like the crack whore my birth more"). And there's nothing sexy about that. Christian Grey is really just like if Patrick Bateman didn't even do murder and had a girlfriend. He's whiny, needy, wants to be like everyone else, and does not care about the people around him. I refuse to believe that he could actually leave a woman fulfilled. It's just out of character.
And this is so obviously bad when the point of the romance novel genre is in some part the fantasy of a man who loves and respects a woman (even if it's literally only one (1) woman) unselfishly. There is little that is sexier than that as a concept. If I wanted to read about shitty men who hated women I would literally just reread American Psycho, because at least that book understands its themes and applies them in a satisfying, if horrifying, way. This book does not understand its genre and is not good at the fantasy its supposed to provide. It's a bad book because it fails as a dark romance. This is the real reason that Fifty Shades of Grey should be disregarded.
Sidenote: Also the sex scenes are sooo badly written. What's even the point, truly?
dark
funny
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
So I’ve seen the movies. They are absolute cringe but I wanted to see what the books were like and finally got a chance to.
Not nearly as bad as the movies are. This book wasn’t my favorite but there are far worse ones out there.
My biggest gripes were just the things she would latch onto. Like for instance If someone said “if you were mine, you wouldn’t be able to sit for a week” I wouldn’t be focusing on the “if you were mine”, I’d be thinking about the second part of that sentence. How is she so transfixed on being his that she entirely missed his sexual innuendo or really a big tell on what he’s into or like.
Second there’s such a big focus on how inexperienced she is to the point that she doesn’t or hasn’t ever masturbated. You’re telling me she all of a sudden knows how to give an amazing bj. Seems unrealistic. Also hated the fact that I’m that scene she had soap all over her hands and put the soap on his dick, then blows him. Like you just put soap all over him!
Third, her constant of splitting her thoughts between her subconscious and her inner goddess. Like what the fuck is that. Just weird as hell.
That being said, again it’s not the worst book out there and it’s definitely worth a read if you’re curious about the books or just to be able to compare them to the movies.
Not nearly as bad as the movies are. This book wasn’t my favorite but there are far worse ones out there.
My biggest gripes were just the things she would latch onto. Like for instance If someone said “if you were mine, you wouldn’t be able to sit for a week” I wouldn’t be focusing on the “if you were mine”, I’d be thinking about the second part of that sentence. How is she so transfixed on being his that she entirely missed his sexual innuendo or really a big tell on what he’s into or like.
Second there’s such a big focus on how inexperienced she is to the point that she doesn’t or hasn’t ever masturbated. You’re telling me she all of a sudden knows how to give an amazing bj. Seems unrealistic. Also hated the fact that I’m that scene she had soap all over her hands and put the soap on his dick, then blows him. Like you just put soap all over him!
Third, her constant of splitting her thoughts between her subconscious and her inner goddess. Like what the fuck is that. Just weird as hell.
That being said, again it’s not the worst book out there and it’s definitely worth a read if you’re curious about the books or just to be able to compare them to the movies.
What an interesting read....but, I really liked it a lot. ;)
There's not a bad thing I can say about this book. My boyfriend read it first and it literally only took him two days to finish and he was on to the next one. He loved them so much, he said that it reminded him of us. So of course I had to go see what he was into. He was right and while he's not as over protective in the way Christian is but he definitely wants to fight the world for me.
dark
emotional
medium-paced