When I first heard that a book had outsold Harry Potter, I was intrigued to find out what it was. Harry Potter is, and will remain, my absolute favourite books in all eternity. Nothing can ever surpass is, so I had to check out this new book! The book on the market was “Fifty Shades of Grey” so I picked it up at Costco to see what the hype was about. If you don’t know the plot, read it on Wiki here– since I want to keep the post kid/teen-friendly. 😛

 

First off, here’s a summary of the book between the two protagonists :

Christian: Hi, I’m Christian.

Ana:

Christian:  EAT YOUR FOOD

Ana:

Christian:  I’M ANGRY

Ana:

Christian: Let’s Kiss and snuggle

Ana:

Christian: We are going to take off our clothes, but DON’T TOUCH ME! I WILL LOOK LIKE THIS

Ana:

Christian: Apart from my private helicopter and giant apartment and that  I can buy you a car and a macbook and a blackberry and an ipod, here’s $500000000 worth of clothes! 

Ana: How come you can give me this?

Christian: I’m rich.

Ana:

I can go on forever, but you get the idea (I hope.)

Many people have noted that this book is similar to Twilight. Funnily, the author actually started her story writing a fan fiction based on Twilight, but she got criticized and moved her story to her own site. The original title was called “Master of the Universe.” Before judging any book, I will most definitely read it. I’m not a fan of those Twilight/Harry Potter haters, since half of them probably only read one or the other, or just seen the movie. Books need to be read and thought about before giving them their final verdict.

When I started reading, I could notice the similarities in Twilight almost immediately. Extremely good looking man that takes every single girl’s breath away, a girl who consistently thinks she’s never good enough for the man, but he thinks he is not good for her. We have Christian Grey, who reminded me of Edward Cullen, and Anastasia Steele as Bella Swan. Even when reading, images of Edward/Bella popped up in my head.This story focuses on the world of Christian Grey, a domineering man with secrets and darkness, and the one and only girl, Anastasia Steele, who manages to bring him to the light.

I could seriously depict my emotions through memes.

Anastasia (Ana) Steele:

Despite the raunchy descriptions of the happenings between Grey and Steele, their conversations and witty banter via email was a nice delight to read. However, beyond that, everything else is questionable. Oh, Anastasia Steele, how glad I am to not have met anyone like you, and I hope I have the fortune to never meet anyone like you.

How many pages have I read on girls who see themselves with no value? I can see a bit of myself in Ana’s perspective, but I don’t think I would be naive enough to be her. So many pages were full of “why me?” and “I can’t fulfill your needs” and “I will never leave you” – I wanted to yell at her to set her mind straight. Reading enough stories like this in the past, I can already predict where the story is going.

She yells at Christian being controlling, yet she lets him be controlled. I think the writer writes it in a way to make you think Ana has her own independent thinking, but she ends up fulfilling Christian’s wishes every, single, time. She’s pretty much like a funnier version of Bella Swan. What happened to the Hermione’s of the world?

Other things that annoyed me:

• Why couldn’t she use her freaking blackberry? The guy emails her at least 20 times telling her to use a blackberry, a blackberry is sitting right beside her, and I would freak if I knew my emails were to be screened so I would never email such obscene stuff via a work email anyway!
• Her inner goddess- I seriously think of a gymnast when Ana brings her conscience up.
• Eat the food. Seriously. I was getting bored reading how much she doesn’t eat.
• She questions Christian about friends, and I’ve only read like 2 friends she had in the story.
• If you don’t want the macbook, sell it on craiglist.

Plus, who wears pigtails when they’re in the final year of university? I can’t wrap my head around this.

Christian Grey:

No, girls, do not delude yourself. Do you really want Christian Grey? He’s a sadist, a masochist, and definitely messed up. Put together a man like that and Anastasia Steele, you get a cliché. He’s as controlling freak, and states that all he wants to do is protect Ana.Oh, apparently he can buy everyone and everything.  Next time he will probably buy  a million dollar spoon that’s only used for caviar.

Conceptually, I can see the addictiveness of the book,but the general plot and style of the writing is overused and overhyped. It’s slightly entertaining, but horribly written. What bugged me the most was the repetitiveness. I started to wonder if the author was running out of words cause everything seems to repeat themselves. If everyone took a shot everytime he made Ana eat, and everytime she refused, everytime she bit her lip, everytime he widens his eyes, everyone would just die from alcohol consumption and the human population would be wiped out of existence. The whole relationship/conversation between them ends up being a cycle, and I’m rereading a sentence I read a couple pages before. I’m reading a book on a 27 year old man, and a 21-22 year old woman; but I feel like I’m reading a book on a 50 year old man and a 12 year old girl. My face after reading this book:

 

There were also many grammatical errors (not that my grammar is perfect either, but at least close some quotations and add some commas,) and I find the prose lacking. Being a fan fiction writer myself (yes, I write for fun, and I tell no one my pen name) I could make out the plot line so I wasn’t gasping or being shocked at anything.The element of surprise was absent to me. This book is sort of therapy for the teens who loved Twilight, but are getting old.

If the future of the world rests upon the past of Twilight, I am seriously, very concerned.

Fifty Shades of Grey vs Harry Potter? Harry Potter. And I’m pretty sure there’s fanfiction on Harry Potter better than Fifty out there.