Review: Fifty Shades of Grey

Fifty Shades of Grey by E.L. James
My rat­ing: 2 of 5 stars

I did­n’t intend to read this book, as I’d large­ly heard snark about it. A dear friend rec­om­mend­ed it, though, so I final­ly gave it a read.

The writ­ing def­i­nite­ly needs pol­ish and a good editor—I could­n’t pos­si­bly give it more than 3 stars due to that alone. The sexy is there, though, and that’s the whole pur­pose of the book. It does fol­low most of the tra­di­tion­al romance tropes, which explains most of its accep­tance, but the addi­tion of spici­er sex seems to be what has every­one talk­ing. (I’d call it spicy more than tru­ly kinky.)

The entire plot takes place in just three weeks, which isn’t bad in the romance world. That does­n’t leave much time for char­ac­ter growth, but there is a lit­tle. That brings the book up a star from where I’d put most romance novels.

If you want some light, sexy sum­mer read­ing and don’t mind the fact that this is so very obvi­ous­ly a self-pub­lished first nov­el, go for it. Some peo­ple will want to read it just because of all the uproar, I imag­ine. If you’re look­ing for lit­er­a­ture or true erot­i­ca, pass this one up.

View all my reviews