Now I am no prude, but instead I found myself reading about a kinky sex story, every chapter had a new hot and steamy scene that ended up being well... not so hot and steamy. Instead of running for cold showers every chapter I was just left feeling cold as each session got more and more predictable (a bit like the story in general).
I also began to hate the characters. The girl Ana I just wanted to shake because lets face it, who (especially on their first try) would agree to becoming someone's well to put it bluently slave (not just in the bedroom but in every aspect). *Warning Spoiler Alert* I'm sorry but whilst I know whips and chains and the general dominatrix thing turn some people on, no girl, no matter how dashing and good in bed a bloke is, would agree to a) keep seeing him when told the only way they can be together is through a contract and b) the contract being full of rules like not being allowed to look him in the eye unless told. Any normal girl would run for the hills, instead in every chapter she mentions her Inner Goddess (a phrase I was seriously sick of by the end of the book as well as the use of panties to describe underwear on every page) doing backflips at the thought of this possessive man wanting her. She also kept constantly changing her mind from being able to cope with his kinky ways to needing more... what more was she never explained to us let alone the poor bloke. Which brings me to the male protagonist himself, the mysterious Mr Grey, dashing, rich and damaged but who mainly was just a character I loathed and no not because I am an avid feminist disgusted by the thought of a man claiming rule over a poor innocent young girl, he just wasn't a likeable character. Instead of feeling sorry for him I ended up "rolling my eyes" (another phrase very much over used) at all his "heart wrenching" problems because in the end he was just a control freak and didn't just want a girl to dominate in the bedroom but in life itself, telling her when to eat what to eat where and when to sleep etc. To be honest, he was a therapists wet dream!
To top things off, after determinedly persisting with this tedious book hoping to discover some big revelation of why it is so popular, the ending was actually the worst part. Disappointing, abrupt and completely ridiculous... I won't reveal it for those of you still interested in reading the book but let me tell you it's not worth dragging yourself through the appalling writing.
Overall, I did however read this book in a weekend and despite the poor narrative I was compelled to finish. As against all odds it was a page turner, and no not because of the kinky sex scenes (which by the end I wanted to skip past). Instead I just wanted to find out what was going to happen to the predictably doomed relationship... So if you love a trashy novel this may be the right book for you, if a bit flat. However, unlike the Hunger Games trilogy, all three of which I finished in a weekend (and was expecting this book to be more in the style of), I will not be buying the next two in the sequence because one can only take so much seductive lip biting and piercing grey eyes in a story and in all honesty, I couldn't care less what happens to the "star crossed lovers". In fact, next time I think I'll stick to New Feminist Art Criticism.
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