The Series:
Fifty Shades of Gray
Fifty Shades Darker
Fifty Shades Freed
Disclaimer: I did not read the final book in this series, Fifty Shades Frees. I lost interest in this series for the reasons described below. I have been uncertain about whether or not to review this book for my web site, but since this is a hot topic in literature today, I decided to weigh in.
Let me start by saying that I do not feel the need to demonize this series for what it is or for the risque situations it portrays. It is what it is and it does what it does. In some ways, I found it educational. If you maintain an open mind while reading, you may as well.
I learned one other thing from reading the first two books in this series, though: Why romance novels are not usually so long, or told in trilogies. That’s it. That’s my bottom line. I was bored, especially in the second book when the educational scenarios from the first book became repetitive and no longer interested me.
Grey didn’t strike me as a particularly believable character. He claimed to want a submissive partner, yet he ended up throwing away everything he had ever previously enjoyed for the sake of our heroine, who refused to even give his lifestyle a chance. For that reason, I felt like the books were making a value judgment, finding the entire BDSM culture lacking. Fifty Shades Darker, in particular, approached Grey’s proclivities as if they constituted some kind of psychological disorder. I didn’t buy it, and I didn’t enjoy the way the story turned from romance to psychoanalysis..
Ultimately, I did not believe in the comparability of the two main characters. I never do, when a coupling requires one half of the couple to become something completely different. If there’s a hot topic in this book, I think it should be the absurdity of love in modern romance. But I guess the appropriateness of kinky sex is, well, sexier. Personally, as long as its consensual, I don’t care what you do in the bedroom, nor do I care what you enjoy reading in a book, although I believe I will stick to “vanilla” romance from here on out. 🙂