Now, unless you've been living on the moon for the last couple of months you'll have heard of the books by E.L. James charting the story of Christian Grey...
I love reading, I'll read most things, although I do have a bit of an aversion to anything overtly popular. I didn't pick up a Harry Potter book until The Goblet Of Fire was released as it was hyped up, although I'll admit the hype was worth it for those. So, when these books literally exploded in popularity I was very wary. When I started hearing the books were like marmite, I was even more wary of bothering with them. Eventually I figured I was just that nosey that I wanted to find out what all the fuss was about....(spoilers ahead if you are one of the 3 people who haven't read them..)
Basically the books are about the relationship between the stunningly handsome billionaire Christian Grey and the virginal, innocent college student Anastasia Steele. They meet, he wants her to be his submissive, she umms and aaah's about signing the Dom/sub contract he offers her whilst they have a lot of sex. She also bites her lips, talks to her inner goddess and subconcious. A LOT. A lot has been said about the "BDSM" sex the book contains, now there are elements of Domination and bondage, and some of the language Christian uses is quite authentically controlling, it isn't really anything much more than most people might indulge in now and again.
As books, they are laughably badly written, the characters are mostly one dimensional, the language is annoyingly samey and the storylines are threadbare and barely make much sense. The relationship flies along at breakneck speed and all subtlety is lost.
As erotica, they are not sure where they want to be, there is enough "kinky fuckery" to turn off the more inherently vanilla readers, in fact some reviews I've seen have called Christian's behaviour abusive and misogynistic. There are certainly lots of sex scenes, but they become dreadfully repetitive and, again, I've seen plenty of reviewers saying they were skipping the sex scenes. If you ARE into kink, whilst some of the language Christian uses is more than familiar, the scenes themselves aren't quite as deep into kinky territory as the blurb would have you believe, add into the fact that being into BDSM is portrayed as something only the most damaged of individuals partake in, and I can't see the appeal from that angle either.
So what is it? Is it the thought of a man who wants nothing more than to look after you completely and utterly? Is it the idea of being the one woman who can heal this broken and damaged man? Is in the mothering instinct coming to the forefront, with those readers just wanting to love Mr Grey? Are women REALLY wanting this kind of sexual adventure, complete with spanking, cuffs, blindfolds and floggers?
For me, even after reading them, I have no idea of the appeal. I've read many, much more gripping reads. I've read erotica that genuinely has me squirming away, and I've read love stories with much more depth. Yes, they're fluff, yes they're throwaway beach reads, but these books have become a phenomenon and I, for one, would LOVE to know why, so if you've read them (and I know many of my friends have) please, please leave me a comment as to what the books did for you?
Basically the books are about the relationship between the stunningly handsome billionaire Christian Grey and the virginal, innocent college student Anastasia Steele. They meet, he wants her to be his submissive, she umms and aaah's about signing the Dom/sub contract he offers her whilst they have a lot of sex. She also bites her lips, talks to her inner goddess and subconcious. A LOT. A lot has been said about the "BDSM" sex the book contains, now there are elements of Domination and bondage, and some of the language Christian uses is quite authentically controlling, it isn't really anything much more than most people might indulge in now and again.
As books, they are laughably badly written, the characters are mostly one dimensional, the language is annoyingly samey and the storylines are threadbare and barely make much sense. The relationship flies along at breakneck speed and all subtlety is lost.
As erotica, they are not sure where they want to be, there is enough "kinky fuckery" to turn off the more inherently vanilla readers, in fact some reviews I've seen have called Christian's behaviour abusive and misogynistic. There are certainly lots of sex scenes, but they become dreadfully repetitive and, again, I've seen plenty of reviewers saying they were skipping the sex scenes. If you ARE into kink, whilst some of the language Christian uses is more than familiar, the scenes themselves aren't quite as deep into kinky territory as the blurb would have you believe, add into the fact that being into BDSM is portrayed as something only the most damaged of individuals partake in, and I can't see the appeal from that angle either.
So what is it? Is it the thought of a man who wants nothing more than to look after you completely and utterly? Is it the idea of being the one woman who can heal this broken and damaged man? Is in the mothering instinct coming to the forefront, with those readers just wanting to love Mr Grey? Are women REALLY wanting this kind of sexual adventure, complete with spanking, cuffs, blindfolds and floggers?
For me, even after reading them, I have no idea of the appeal. I've read many, much more gripping reads. I've read erotica that genuinely has me squirming away, and I've read love stories with much more depth. Yes, they're fluff, yes they're throwaway beach reads, but these books have become a phenomenon and I, for one, would LOVE to know why, so if you've read them (and I know many of my friends have) please, please leave me a comment as to what the books did for you?
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