Thoughts on "Shades of Grey"

Fifty Shades of Grey Trilogy by E. L. James

This is going to fall somewhere between a review and just random thoughts/comparisons to Twilight.

For those who don’t know “Fifty Shades of Grey” started as “Twilight” fan fiction. The characters names have been changed, but the story is the same.

As I’ve said many times, I really enjoyed reading Twilight. It wasn’t until I started analyzing it after reading all the books that certain elements started to bother me:  Edward’s controlling nature, Bella’s constant need of rescue, and the absolute co-dependency of their relationship in general. The Fifty Shades of Grey Trilogy parallel’s Twilight very closely, but without anything supernatural and adding a whole lot of sex (seriously if you cut half the sex scenes my guess is that each book would have lost 100 pgs – HALF). And Oh. My. God. When you take out the supernatural distraction the main relationship is so beyond creepy that I don’t know how to read it without constant eye rolling. Christian is a control freak and somehow that’s suppose to be sexy? And he (and Ana) fall apart when they break up (for a week). Christian has a breakdown at one point when he’s just afraid she’s going to leave him – how suffocating would that relationship be if your partner’s happiness was totally dependant on you? But all of these questions are true of Twilight. I really think that the lack of Vampires (and werewolves) and putting the whole thing in a semi-normal setting highlights how unhealthy the inspirational relationship between Edward and Bella was.

I have no idea how to rate this book. Which is why this is not an actual review. It's an easy read (otherwise there is no way I would have read all three), but I think I was more entertained by the parallels to Twilight then the actual story.