E L James
2011 & 2012
Vintage Books
pp. 514 and 592
I started reading the Fifty shades series last year and gave up, quite wisely after the first book. Reading the first one was a harrowing experience. To finish a book you do not enjoy is pure torture. However, I took it as a challenge and finished the first. For the uninitiated, the trilogy revolves around the lives of Christian Grey and Anastasia Steele and their less than conventional relationship. Their lives present a luxurious lifestyle and a relationship that is shrouded in a mysterious attraction. I am guessing both these along with the obvious erotica have been the key factors in making the series so popular. Having said that, the language and the story line are quite pedestrian.
Having finished the first, I said goodbye to the series and attempted to search online on the story so that I could get away without reading the books. Turned out that there isn’t much anyway, until a friend told me that Steele goes ahead to become a mother. And so curiosity got the better of me and I picked up the third one. To be fair, since I haven’t read the second, I should not comment on the trilogy. But while reading the third, I did not feel that I had missed out on anything from the second. So basically you can pick up the series and start reading from anywhere. Barring that she does become a mother, there is no story line to the third as well. Reading it did not add much value.
Considering that the books are so popular, I would have thought these books have some substance. Unfortunately, I can’t think of who I would recommend these books for.