Fifty Shades Darker

[ceinwyn81]

I know A million people have already ranted about just how terrible the Fifty Shades series are. I just finished the second book and I really have to rage. I honestly read it for sport kind of. I knew it was going to be awful. I was treating it like that kind of bad B movie thats so awful it's hilarious. Oh god no.

Comments

[insanepurin]

I think E.L. James needs to be away from the thesaurus, actually. Here's what I mean.

What gets me (aside from me wanting Christian to be poured with army ants and set on fire) is how obnoxiously repetitive the books are. I feel like I'm reading the same scenes and sentences over and over, whether it's Christian ordering Ana to eat or telling her not to bite her lip and uggggh. Like E.L. James thinks we've got the memory of goldfish.

I'm thanking myself for not reading the trilogy after the first book, or else I would've become a homicidal maniac.

[ceinwyn81]

I can't bring myself to read anymore of it and you are correct about the thesaurus, that was awful word usage, bad E.L. James!

[insanepurin]

Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar. :P

[vertfonce]

Christian is obsessed with her eating. Every other word out of his mouth is "Ana," "eat," "you need your energy"

Her name is Ana.

[5i94o67ink]

I was thinking this the whole time I read the first book as well, and it occurred to me that this was on purpose. Then I wondered if James had the skill to execute some kind of symbolism in the book.

[symkha]

I'm a grad student in a low-residency creative writing program, and the first time I heard about this book was at the June residency. A couple students were talking about how awful it is. I said. "What is it?" It seems that it's nothing but horrible to the point where I'm 3% tempted to read it. But being also a lesbian who isn't into graphic hetero sex scenes, I think I'll skip it. I do enjoy reading all the angst of people who've picked it up for a variety of reasons and feel as if they've been bludgeoned, though. ;)

Also, I was checking out the singles on OKCupid and this one woman announced it as her favorite book. Two things ran through my head: "what, you like straight sex scenes?" and, more importantly: "THANKS FOR THE WARNING." ;)

[alienfish]

I like that review, too. I went and read the books because my neighbor bought them. This way I would actually know what I was talking about if I commented. One thing I noticed was that half of the complaints about the story were about things that didn't actually happen. Of course, the books are badly written... the author has no interest in her female character, so we're never given a reason why a hot young woman, surrounded by people who seem to have perfectly normal sex drives, would never even have masturbated and be so convinced she's a plain girl. Not to mention her inexplicable ability to suck a man off on her first try without gagging at all.

I'm sure there are people who can do that. However, if the author wanted to prove that her female character mattered to her, there might have been a backstory about that third husband of Ana's mother, molesting Ana and traumatizing her.

[gabbygrl]

So Grey's magical penis can fix her trauma??? No thank you.

[alienfish]

*grin* Isn't that always the cure for all a woman's troubles in romance books? Well, and the man's. Don't forget that Disney's answer to a teen wanting to play and have adventures is to get her married off as soon as possible. "How do you solve a problem like Maria?" What happened to their Little Mermaid? How about Pocahontas? It's not like Twilight exists in a vacuum.

[youjik33]

...what? Disney didn't create The Little Mermaid and Pocahontas didn't end up with the guy she loved.