J: Grey

Hello everyone and thank you for stopping by, once again! I have now completed 'J' on my 2015 A-Z Author Challenge, and chose to read 'Grey', by EL James. I really want to start a conversation about this one, because I have heard such mixed reviews, and have debates with people who haven't even read it *ahem...Ben*, but I would love to discuss this with people who have read either this, or the original trilogy...so please comment below!

I have to say, that this one has thrown me slightly! I read it because I felt like I was in no position to comment on any FSoG things when all my knowledge of it was what I got from the film! I have never read the original trilogy, but thought I might get a really interesting perspective if I read this first, so I had very few pre-conceived ideas about how this story would play out in print. Looking at other people's reviews, it seems that that was a good idea, as apparently it is very repetitive of the original trilogy?

So I didn't go into this book with high hopes, I just wanted to see if I could get any inkling about why it received such a huge hype! I have to say, however, that I was extremely pleasantly surprised! In the first 100 pages, before any of the hardcore stuff happened, I was really enjoying the plot! I thought that James' use of italics to portray Christian's thoughts was really effective, particularly as it gave him such a playful voice, where he seemed excited and challenged by Anastasia's strong-mindedness. I was pleased to see that Anastasia wasn't the docile 'submissive' I expected her to be, and that she was actually very strong-willed, and they actually had very cute and hilarious banter, not only in person, but also via subject lines of emails!

I was quite addicted to this, as even if you take the sex scenes away, this story has a lot stronger plotline than many ChickLit books I have read! I read it extremely quickly, and now feel quite guilty for including Christian in my 'Top 5 People I Would Like to Drown'. Can we really condemn a man for getting confused over how to deal with a situation when he falls in love for the first time, after expecting that he never would? I was actually surprised by how much he seemed to care for her, given all the commentary that he is abusive and that this glorifies domestic violence.

I would love to hear from people who have read the original trilogy...are things portrayed differently in those? Get in touch!