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Thursday, August 23, 2012

From Chick-Lit to Erotica? Part II

So, I did it. I read them; all three of them. What am I talking about? The “Fifty Shades” trilogy by E.L. James of course! What are my thoughts? Well, for starters, they certainly do not live up to all of their hype, that’s for sure!

In my opinion they were OK, no more than that. Definitely not the page turner I had anticipated and the storyline was a bit unrealistic but they ARE fiction after all. The main thing that bothered me was the writing itself. The level and/or style of writing which the author uses are horribly repetitive and amateur! As one review said, if you were to pick one of the many “repeated phrases” used in this book and drink every time you read it you would be blackout drunk by chapter 4! Thankfully, I got used to the writing by the end of the first book which made it easier to read the remaining two.

As for the sex scenes, this is most likely where all of the hype came from I assume. The scenes were probably quite shocking to A LOT of people. But, after an average of one scene per chapter I found myself getting quite bored with them and wanting to just skip through and get to the story amidst all of the sex. As you all know, I have now learned that I don’t mind a good sex scene thrown in now and then, but when the book has a higher percentage of smut than plot it is a little discouraging. In the last book I would literally jump through pages to get back to the storyline because I didn’t care for the garbage anymore.

I think this is a series that most will either love or hate, but I am still somewhere in the middle. Once I was reading I didn’t want to put it down, but after putting it down I would go days without picking it up again. It kept me busy on the bus to work and waiting for appointments and such, but I wouldn’t read them again.

It’s back to chick-lit for me for a bit! Oh, and to the “Fifty Shades” readers… Laters!