Weekend Book Review: Fifty Shades Trilogy

My, my, my. 

After this past week I understand the intrigue. I never thought of myself as a naive person, but there is an entire world that exists out there that I know absolutely nothing about. While I'm still standing strong in the oh-hell-no corner, my curiosity about all this is sky-high. How positively interesting would it be for people choosing to live this lifestyle to come out and share their stories [TLC? I smell a new series...]

But back to the books. First of all, I can see what people are saying about the writing. I'm no expert, and my verbal SAT score is nothing to write home about, but it almost seemed like the author was trying so hard to be impressive in her vocabulary, she didn't put the necessary thought into the context in which the words were being used. The sentence flow was awkward but at least consistent; by the third book I wasn't even blinking twice at the seemingly odd ways she chose to use words like mercurial and beguile. That said, I want to know how many people actually picked up on the semantics here because there was much to distract a reader away from all that. I personally know a number of people who read Fifty Shades of Grey, despised it, and moved on to greener pastures. To them I say, I agree with you on the former, not the latter. I truly hated Fifty Shades of Grey, the first book in the trilogy, to the point where I probably wouldn't have kept reading the series had I not promised it to the world in writing last week.

People, you got to keep reading. Huge improvements are headed your way in book two and three. Major questions are answered, and I actually stopped hating Christian Grey. Is E.L. James the next literary great? No. But it's a fun read. And there's something about the fact that it's making headlines for being the first of it's kind that's got me feeling all school-girl-giddy inside. [Case in point: I sat around the other night discussing the trilogy with my mother, grandmother, aunt, and uncle. Three generations discussing BDSM at length over dinner; There's hope for us yet.]

I believe the expression all's well that ends well, specifically true for books. What E.L. James did at the end of book three was genius, in my opinion. If you plan on reading the series, make it a priority to read all three books in quick succession and I promise you, by the end of book three, you'll go back and reread book one.

I did.