Fifty Shades of Grey - E.L. James

There is BDSM, and there is abuse. The two should never meet. BDSM is based on the surrounding rule of "consent". Consent is something earned by a Dominant, not demanded, not manipulated, it is earned. Grey does not earn consent. In fact, he does everything and anything wrong. Fifty Shades brings up a few small BDSM rules such as safewords and hard limits, and then immediately breaks them. It turns safewords and hard limits into jokes, and gives Dominants a "they'll say yes if you push it" energy that they just should not have.

This book is not a hot, sexy book on BDSM. This book is abuse. It teaches Dominants and submissives that the Dominants are in control, and guess what? They're not. submissives give their submission as a GIFT. To those who EARN it. It is not to be given freely, it is not to be given through manipulation, and any "contract" you sign is not BINDING to a relationship. A submissive reserves the right to take away their consent at ANY time, for ANY reason. That is what BDSM is. The two, Dominant and submissive are there to fulfill each others fantasies, not to give the Dominant his kicks. The main character is persuaded into a relationship in which she knows NOTHING about, because big hot Mr. Grey is all money and "dominant vapors". This is a book that if someone goes into it taking it seriously, they're going to either get hurt, or hurt someone. Now, there are fantasies about non-consensual relationships out there. Consensual non-consent exists. But the main word, before non-consensual is...consensual. In order to give up your consent and freely submit to someone you must first give them your hard limits, you must first draw lines, you must first establish trust. These characters do NONE of that and the second the hard limits are drawn, they're broken. This isn't fantasy porn, it's flat out dangerous. If the author wants to sell Grey as an abusive Dominant then she MUST make it CLEAR that what he's doing is wrong. But he is written as hot, as sexy, as someone everyone wants. He's not the antagonist, he's the whipped puppy who lashes out because he needs a widdle wub. You can write an abusive relationship and have it read well, without pissing off an entire kink community. This book did not do that. It fantasized and romanticized abuse. Sure, we can all curl up with this book and go "oh dear, those spanking scenes are HOT", but the problem is, some people are going to take this as a guide to BDSM. You can appreciate this book as a sexy non-consent fanfic, but that's all it should be taken as. Because of the way this book is written, because it struggles SO hard to make Grey a sympathetic character and not the abuser he actually is, I simply can't recommend it to anyone.

On top of the obvious abuse, and all the problems the author has with what BDSM actually is, let's look at the writing.

“My inner goddess is jumping up and down, clapping her hands like a five year old.”

What is this "inner goddess"? Why does she keep popping up at the weirdest times? It's jarring, it's clumsy. I think that's the word I like for this writing, clumsy. This book was supposedly a fanfiction. Fanfiction can be a GREAT way to get into writing. A wonderful start to writers everywhere. Even I used to sit down and knock out some Harry Potter fanfiction in my younger years (go Hufflepuff!). The problem is there are steps from fanfiction to novel. I'm not saying fanfiction can't become a great novel, it CAN! Some of the best things I've read have been fanfiction. But the writing and characters are awkward, the dialogue can sometimes be cringe worthy, and yeah, some scenes can be hot, but they're peppered with writing that takes you away from any erotic feelings you might get about it and bring you right back into the realm of "wait what?"

I almost feel guilty for ripping apart a book like I am here, I never like to speak ill of authors or their works, even if they're not for me. I usually think "well, it has to have SOME redeeming qualities, maybe I just can't see them!". But honestly...not this book. It's a novel of horrible abuse, awkward writing, and everything BDSM is not. Obviously it's popular for a reason, because it breaks the mold of some writing and came out as an erotica that had sustenance to it. It made people feel "naughty". It made non-kinky people want to look into the world of kink. But it did so at the cost of its own worth. Sure, this book can be someones dirty secret, you can probably find it under someones pillow, and they'll take it out at night and giggle over the sex and general "bad boy" vibes you're supposed to get out of our star abuser. The only solid reason I gave it two stars instead of a single one is because of what it could have been, and because I can see it struggling to achieve it. This could have been a great book teaching about the fundamentals of BDSM. Teaching what to look for in partners, teaching that while you can't heal another persons pain on your own, you can help them cope, and be a staple in their life. I wanted to see a hot, erotic, romantic book so bad, soooo bad. But unfortunately Fity Shades of Grey fell so flat for me.

Fifty Shades gets 2/5 stars from me.