Reviews tagging 'Death of parent'

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

10 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. 

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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

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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. 

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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

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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. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content

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

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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content

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

Minor: Drug abuse

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.

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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

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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

whrohala's review against another edition

challenging dark slow-paced

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

2.75

This was... tough. Thankfully I was well aware going into it that that would be the case. I've read it before, but it's been several years and I have a vastly different understanding of the world now than I did when this first came out. 

The writing is fine. Not the worst, but certainly reads like many of the fanfics I've read. Makes sense since this was a twilight fanfic. 

The way that Christian is written is hard to work through. Very juvenile way of thinking - which makes sense if you think about it psychologically, but its pretty clear that that wasn't entirely the motivation for his behaviors and mind set. Definitely reads more as a bastardization of BDSM and the motivations and culture behind it. 

For the most part I actually really like the way that Anastasia is written. Funny, strong-willed, and true to herself. While still being a believability curious but inexperienced participant in this relationship dynamic. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Gaslighting, Sexual content, Stalking, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Abandonment, Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Death of parent, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Pedophilia, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, and Suicide attempt

rini's review against another edition

reflective tense medium-paced

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

2.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Sexual assault, Stalking, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, and Death of parent