by E.L. James
I admit I'm a bit of a book snob. I never read the TWILIGHT series or the HARRY POTTER series. Whenever almost everyone is reading the same book, I just seem to lose interest. But everyone, everywhere seems to be reading the FIFTY SHADES trilogy, particularly middle aged women. In May 2012 I heard on the news that the books were sold out everywhere in NYC and that libraries in three states had banned the series. Recently there was a psychiatrist on one of the morning talk shows who commented that she was "afraid that people would be hurt" after reading the books. HURT??!! Additionally, adult sex shops cannot keep up with sales of some of their merchandise......what in the world!?
With over ten million copies sold in 37 countries, FIFTY SHADES OF GREY is the first book in a trilogy that is defined on its back cover as an "erotic romance for a mature audience." The trilogy is noted for its erotic scenes with elements of BDSM (a condensed acronym coined in the 1990s to include bondage, discipline, dominance, submission, sadism and masochism).
Minus the vampires, the FIFTY SHADES trilogy was developed from a TWILIGHT fan fiction originally titled MASTER OF THE UNIVERSE and self-published episodically on fan-fiction websites under the pen name "Snowqueens Icedragon". It ultimately evolved into the best selling trilogy released in April 2012 that booksellers can't keep on their shelves.
Wanting to see what all the hype was about, I finally relented and borrowed a copy of the first book after two of my friends started whizzing through the series recently. Honestly, by page 77 I couldn't stop laughing! With such pithy phrasing as "you are quite the disciplinarian", "he gasps, his eyes wide", "I gasp...my heartbeat spikes", and my personal favorite, "I'd like to bite that lip", the author at least threw in a few "holy shits" to keep the characters more normal. And these phrases are all within the same three pages!
While the author tries to elevate her writing with some well spaced fifty-cent words, the overall tone of FIFTY SHADES OF GREY can only be compared to a Harlequin Romance on crack!
Folks, ladies, please! Aren't we more intelligent than this???
