Fifty Shades of Grey

Welcome to my blog! Books to Combat the Rain. For those who don't know my name is Jessica and I live in the beautiful (but wet) town of Vancouver, WA. (which happens to be a suburb of Portland, OR) We get on average 180-200 days of rain a year which means that I end up doing a lot of reading. We also have one of the best used bookstores in the country (Powells Books) a few blocks away from where I work, so most of my extra money goes into buying more books. That is what this blog is going to be about, books. I love books and love sharing them even more. Now before I jump into my first book I want to warn that there will be spoilers (though none that will ruin the book for you) and depending on the book there might be some controversial topics that will be brought up.

This first book is one of those that contains a lot of controversial material. Everyone has been talking about it, from Dan Savage in his advice columns to the L.A. Times. It made the New York Times bestseller list and was banned from Florida libraries for a while. Yep, I jumped on the Fifty Shades of Grey band wagon. I couldn't help myself! A super edgy erotic novel that's featured in the Literature section at my local used book store?! How could I say no?!
This book turned out to be a fast easy read, it was also nothing like I imagined it would be. Let me start with a quick synopsis of the story. The main character is Ana Steele, she's in her early 20s (I think 22 or 23) and is a virgin who has never been attracted to anyone before, until she meets Christian Grey who happens to be a gorgeous billionaire dominant who is big into BDSM (Bondage, Domination, Sadism, Masochism). From the first moment Christian meets Ana he knows something is different about her and he wants her to be his submissive. Despite the fact that Ana is afraid of pain and wasn't even spanked as a child she decides that Christian is to gorgeous to pass up and so their crazy awkward relationship begins.

So why all the hype? What makes this book so special? That's a very good question and even after reading it I'm completely baffled. Ana and Christian are both very one dimensional and very stereotypical. Ana is gorgeous but has very low self esteem and is awkward to boot, while Christian is a power hungry bad boy that just needs someone "different" to show him that he's deserving of love. This is nothing new, grab a Danielle Steele book and you'd be able to find the same basic story with a slightly different backdrop. Anyone who has ever read any romance novel has come across this typical make up multiple times.

Of course none of us were reading this book for the story now were we? No. The real reason was because it's a socially accepted book that happens to fall into the erotic romance category. But even that was oddly disappointing, despite the fact that he likes to tie her up and occasionally tickle her with a riding crop it's nothing different, not even really erotic. It's the same sort of thing that you'd find in a Nora Roberts or Christine Feehan novel (which both fall into the basic romance category). Now there is nothing wrong with 50 shades being a typical romance novel, in fact for the most part I enjoy the occasional romance novel, the problem with 50 shades is I expected it to be different, and it wasn't. I assumed that somehow E.L. James had created something that was new and edgy, something that would not only pull at my heart strings but maybe convince me that having a little bit of BDSM in my life would be hot, but James failed to live up to those expectations. It's not her fault that my expectations were high and inevitably I like the book so she did her job well enough that I'm reading the sequel.

So what did I like about this book? It's a simple, don't have to think romance novel. Yes, all the things that I just complained about made me like this book. Did I love it? No. The only part about it that I absolutely loved was the fact that it bounces back and forth between Portland and Seattle. E. L. James does a wonderful job describing such Portland landmarks as the Heathman Hotel, The Portland Coffee House and Seattle's Pike Place Market. I always love when an author is able to capture even a tiny piece of home in a book, but that's about the only good thing that I can say about E.L. James that stood out. In the end I strongly suggest reading this book if you're in the mood for an average romance novel, or if you want a very easy introduction to the BDSM life style, but if you're looking for something more you won't be missing out if you skip this book.