Grey by E. L. James
Published: June 18th 2015 by Vintage
Genres: Romance, Erotica, Adult Fiction
Pages: 576
Source: Goodreads

In Christian’s own words, and through his thoughts, reflections, and dreams, E L James offers a fresh perspective on the love story that has enthralled millions of readers around the world.

Christian Grey exercises control in all things; his world is neat, disciplined, and utterly empty—until the day that Anastasia Steele falls into his 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 sexual 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?

Now, I think we can all agree that as far as novels go, the Fifty Shades Trilogy is extremely poorly written, repetitive, and predictable. However, there is also something about it that has resulted in it being the fastest selling book of all time. (I know, I know, what the hell is wrong with the world?)

Aptly named ‘Mummy porn’ by many, the sex scenes, for a BDSM erotic novel, are extremely dull and don’t actually add anything whatsoever to the story. I think, like a lot of people, I read the books purely to see what all the fuss was about. It wasn’t the sex scenes that made it popular, it was the love story, and mainly, Christian Grey himself.

For some reason, a highly damaged and controlling man (think Edward Cullen et al) is what makes female readers in the dozens tick. I definitely admit that it was the intrigue and the attraction to Christian that kept me reading the trilogy till the end. I don’t always love re-tellings of the same story from a different point of view. But this is Christian Grey.

So, as I said, although I don’t believe the books were well written or original in the slightest, I looked forward to reading the story from Christian’s point of view, because, to me, he was the only character who made the love story slightly interesting. I also held onto some hope that this might add some missing depth to the tale.

The retelling was marginally better than the original, because it delved a little deeper and you got to read about what Christian was doing whilst he was away from Anna. You got to see his love for her developing in a way you didn’t get to in the first novel. You also found a little more out about his past and how it troubles him. The sex scenes were just as boring. They contributed slightly more to the story as you learnt more about how Christian felt about being touched, and you saw a more vulnerable side to him than in Anna’s telling.

I also thought that E. L. James’ writing had improved, if only slightly. It was less repetitive than the original, except for stating that Christian felt ‘ten feet tall’ every several pages. Strange really, because there a millions of other ways I can think of describing that feeling of being, say, on top of the world, even just off the top of my head. I was glad that the phrase ‘my sex’ was only written once, as it seemed to be the only way Anna could describe her vagina in the entire trilogy. It used to make me want to throw the book at the wall.

The Fifty Shades trilogy is an odd phenomena. It definitely earned it’s name of Mummy Porn as it’s entire fanbase seems to be made up of middle-aged women with bored sex lives who have fallen head over heels in love with Christian Grey. His lifestyle is obviously desirable, and I doubt the books would have been successful at all if they hadn’t been set in a multi million dollar penthouse suite in Seattle, with a hero who just wants to spend all his money on timid, undeserving, innocent Anna. Who obviously, is so humble that she won’t accept a single gift. Her life is changed forever through meeting Christian. Helicopter rides, a whole new designer wardrobe, a brand new car, and the chance to be the one woman who can actually fix the damaged man. A lot of women are extremely drawn into that fantasy. I can definitely understand the pull.

However, it is a shame because I feel that James could have used this chance to retell the story as a way of improving the Fifty Shades trilogy. Considering it was from Christian’s point of view, it could have gone much, much deeper than it did. She obviously just does not have the writing talent or ability to do that. I felt that most of the book was very lazily written, and almost identical to the original. Obviously it’s expected that the scenes shared between Christian and Anna would be the same, but it definitely had the potential to be more intricate and detailed than it was. I was naively expecting a much more thorough insight into Christian’s thoughts and emotions than we were given.

So overall, if you can appreciate the Fifty Shades trilogy for what it is: a mediocre, poorly written and repetitive franchise, then I imagine you will adore this novel. If however, you were expecting something far better than the original, or you hated the trilogy to begin with, then do not waste your time with this book.