Reviews tagging 'Sexual content'

Grey: Fifty Shades of Grey as Told by Christian by E.L. James

15 reviews

beckyyreadss's review against another edition

dark emotional tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

I wanted to read this series because I enjoyed the first series and I love the dual POV, so I wanted to try and give this series ago. Compared to Ana’s point of view, this one was a bit disappointing.  

This book is based on twenty-seven-year-old Christian Grey, and he exercises control in all things; his world is neat, disciplined and utterly empty until the day that Anastasia Steele falls into the office, in a tangle of shapely limbs and tumbling brown hair. He tries to forget her, but instead is swept up in a storm of emotion he cannot comprehend and cannot resist. Unlike any woman he has known before, shy, unworldly Ana seems to see right through him – past the business prodigy and the penthouse lifestyle to Christian’s cold, wounded heart. Will being with Ana dispel the horrors of his childhood that haunt Christian every night? Or will his dark desires, his compulsion to control, and the self-loathing that fills his soul drive this girl away and destroy the fragile hope she offers him? 

I will forever love alternative POV. I loved that there were more details of what Christian was up to especially with the SIP thing as we found out that the SIP takeover in the second book from Ana’s point of view and that Leila was stalking Christian as well as Ana. I loved seeing how distracted Christian was with trying to work and yet all he cares about if Ana had moved in and if she was comfortable and how her first day on the job was.  

My only issue with this book is the pace was very slow and I was bored at some points and yes, I know it was the same as Fifty Shades, but I found myself skimming over the BDSM chapters and the chapters that we had already read in Fifty Shades. It was just like one sentence or word had been changed to make it different. Change Ana to Christian and that was all that was happening in some chapters. If you do a shot every time Christian says control, you’ll be drunk before you hit 50 percent. I thought we would see more of Elena as well and considering she’s the big villain you only see her once when Christian and Elena have their dinner and Elena tells Christian to go to Georgia.  

I am going to hope that the series gets better, but I’m also trying not to put all my eggs in one basket. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content, Toxic relationship, and Adult/minor relationship

Moderate: Death of parent, Child abuse, and Addiction

Minor: Drug use, Torture, and Drug abuse

mj_86's review against another edition

dark emotional tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.75

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship and Sexual content

Moderate: Suicide attempt, Addiction, Child abuse, and Toxic relationship

Minor: Drug abuse, Death of parent, and Drug use

cady_sass's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

Hm. I just. I’m not sure it’s necessary for this to exist. It’s not different enough from the first book and doesn’t add very much, the only reason this gets bumped from 2 stars to 3stars is for the last few chapters where Christian’s POV is actually insightful. In reality this is just written for the die hard fans who wanted more but EL James didn’t have any more in their brain to continue to the story. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Grief, Sexual assault, Toxic friendship, Injury/Injury detail, Pedophilia, Self harm, Cursing, Death of parent, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Adult/minor relationship, Drug use, Eating disorder, Sexual content, Sexual harassment, Toxic relationship, Violence, Panic attacks/disorders, Abandonment, Physical abuse, Sexual violence, Suicide attempt, and Gaslighting

planetshelf's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional funny hopeful reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.25

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing, Emotional abuse, Pedophilia, Drug abuse, Violence, Adult/minor relationship, Alcohol, Physical abuse, Sexual content, and Sexual violence

Moderate: Grief, Child abuse, Sexual assault, Toxic relationship, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Eating disorder, Infidelity, and Self harm

Minor: Rape, Homophobia, Stalking, and Torture

literate_liz's review against another edition

dark emotional medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

I was pleasantly surprised with this read. I haven’t read the original fifty shades trilogy (they’re on my TBR, this one just happened to be available at the library first), but I have seen the movies. I personally didn’t care for the films much, but I really enjoyed this book. The character development was probably the most surprising part of the book for me. I was expecting the characters to be more flat and less relatable, but I found myself interested and invested in their stories as both a couple and as separate characters. I’m interested to see how it compares to the original fifty shades of grey book. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content

Moderate: Sexual violence, Death of parent, and Child abuse

samsonian's review against another edition

emotional sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

1.0

i fucking hate this book LMAO i’m not finishing the series christan pisses me off too much even tho his backstory is crazy

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content, Stalking, and Toxic relationship

Minor: Torture, Alcohol, and Vomit

nidaelboustany's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content

Moderate: Physical abuse, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Stalking, Child abuse, Addiction, and Toxic relationship

Minor: Drug abuse

zanazy's review against another edition

dark mysterious slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

I read the original trilogy and thought getting an insight into Christian’s thoughts would be interesting. I really should quit doing this to myself as this is the second male POV book that when read, makes the male character worse.

The one thing I was hoping to understand more was his childhood and time with Elena but it’s still just cryptic and non-existent as it was in the main trilogy. It seems that aside from his nightmares, Christian doesn’t confront his trauma and Dr. Flynn is absent until the very end… conveniently to tell him to try to do it Ana’s way and give her more.

The scene where Elena tells Christian to go to Georgia was horribly underwhelming and I wou,d have thought her more manipulative than she was. 

Christian shows many stalker tendencies throughout the book, running and driving by her place many times before, during, and after their breakup.

The punishment scene scared me as in Christian was clearly enjoying it and didn’t see why it would inevitably lead to pushing Ana away. “She didn’t safe word” got old. For someone so brilliant in business, he doesn’t seem to have any brains about what an inexperienced young woman might need, want, and for all his I want to protect you and keep you safe moments, it all goes out the window when it’s pain he causes.

In many ways I found Christian to be immature, possessive to a degree that went on to stalker tendencies, and emotionally unstable because it’s clear he’s falling for her, yet the thought is something he pushes away constantly. This book also makes Ana too willing to please and dumb, which also contradicts Christian’s constant she is smart compliments. Both leads suffer and truthfully, I wish I’d stayed far away from this series. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Abandonment, Body shaming, Domestic abuse, Sexual content, and Child abuse

Moderate: Stalking, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, and Vomit

Minor: Suicidal thoughts

kaetheluise_nckl's review against another edition

dark sad tense slow-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

This was worse than the one from Ana’s POV. Christian Grey is one pathetic man, ngl.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content, Toxic relationship, and Mental illness

Moderate: Alcohol and Grief

Minor: Drug use, Medical content, Adult/minor relationship, Stalking, Child abuse, Self harm, and Death of parent

mimccub's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content, Physical abuse, and Child abuse

Minor: Death of parent, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Child abuse, Drug abuse, and Adult/minor relationship