Yes, yes... I did it. I spent another 10 bucks for the last Fifty Shades book in the series....
I know that I've been mentioning that I bet I can guess how the third book was going to go. Well, I just lost my own bet! Fifty Shades Freed by E.L. James actually exceeded my expectations and I hang my head in shame that I didn't give the writer a benefit of the doubt.
The third and final series writing-wise was a little choppy and just didn't feel that finished and refined to me like the other two books did. But then, my opinion doesn't really matter. I'm just another nobody that spent my hard earned money on a new genre of stories that I just found out are called "mommy porn", which after hearing that, makes me feel quite different about this book.
Like I started saying, the beginning of the book was one of those current day, then flash back, then back to current day type of writing. I'm usually not that crazy about this type of story telling because to tell you the truth, it just confuses the hell out of me sometimes. I didn't really get lost while reading this story, but it still got on my nerves. I was just glad that the whole book didn't go like that.
Two of my favorite characters, Ana's subconscious and inner goddess are not as visible as they were in the second book and I kind of missed them. I found these two additions to Ana's personality a bit annoying at first, but by the end of the first book, I was really enjoying them. They made the sex parts kind of funny and helped me tolerate the fact that Ana's Mr. Grey was mentally unstable - and anyone who knows me even a little bit will know how I feel about that.
So Ana and her Mr. Grey continue their adventures together and do what they do best - have lots and lots of sex. What made this book popular, what Ana calls "kinky fuckery", makes it's appearance, but I don't think it's as much part of the story as it was in the first book. Ana continues to put pieces of her puzzled Mr. Grey back together and he is almost like a normal guy at this point.
I was expecting a little more with Ana's former boss but that last chapter in the second book just inflated my expectations for such a tiny balloon in the third book! :-) The story went completely different (with the exception of the sappy ending) to what I was guessing. I knew that Ana was going to end up getting hurt or something to that extent and that it was going to be Mr. Grey's turning point to finally fully accepting Ana's love.
The story was sweet and I guess it was nice to finally have Christian open up to his Ana. I was totally expecting that, but the flow of the story just didn't go like I was expecting. It wasn't bad, it was different. Just like I mentioned after reading the first book, Ana was her Mr. Grey's salvation. I expected him to change - and he did like every romance novel male (not real life at all) - but it took so much longer than I thought! I really give credit to the writer to being able to pull that off without making the story sound too repetitive. Even the sex parts didn't seem as repetitive as so many romance writers tend to do... ie, Christine Feehan and her Carpathian series. *shuttering* You want to talk about boring and repetitive? Almost as repetitive as I've used the word "repetitive" in the paragraph! :-) Ha ha!
*clears throat noisily* Okay... back to the book.
So, now that the story of Ana and her Mr. Grey is done and over with, the writer did give us two tid bits extra at the end and one that I really enjoyed. The first was a short story written from Christian's perspective as a four year old experiencing his first Christmas. It was written pretty good and I think she makes a pretty good attempt at making it sound like it was coming from the a four year old's mind. My favorite part was how he described his New Mommy's teeth being so white and small. :-) Yeah, kids have a funny way of looking at things. My son is 8 so these kinds of observations were not that long ago for me. I'm so glad that my son opened up to me and let me into his head whenever I asked him to describe what he saw to me. I wonder who's head the writer had to get into to be able to write this short story so well?
The second tid bit was the beginning of the first book from Mr. Grey's perspective. It was as dirty and full of cursing as I expected. It was interesting but crude. I'm glad that the book didn't share his perspective because I really wouldn't have liked this character at all. I'm not crazy about Christian Grey (which is why I call him "Mr. Grey" through my writings instead of his first name) and I think it was really selfish of him to prey on young Ana. Sure, she was old enough to make her own decisions, but come on! Really? How the heck could she really fall in love with a domineering, controlling ass like Christian Grey? Sure, she had a little bit of a back bone, but not that much. But then, I guess these characters kind of rub me the wrong way anyway because they are so unlike me! I am what some may say as having a strong personality, but I'm not rude or mean about it! Now, I can get mean if someone tries to push me or my family around or take advantage of us, but I would never be able to do what Grey did with a few of the characters in the book. I believe that there are people that actually exist that can ruin a person's life without thinking twice about it. Oh, I don't know. These characters are just so fucked up beyond their fifty shades - yes, both of them! - that I guess they deserve each other. I just feel really bad for their kids...
But then, thinking back on it, it makes me really happy that this was a fiction book. Hearing that this new "mommy pron" is the whole new fad makes steam come out of my ears, but then what can I say? Sex sells. I'm just sad to see that good writers like E. L. James has to go to this trashy level to make her living. She's a good writer and I believe that she can still write a good story without all of the sex, bdsm (or whatever it's called) or even vanilla sex in it. I just found out that one of my other favorite writers, Laurell K. Hamilton, has a new book that just came out last month. A new Anita Blake book... but I don't want to read it. I know that it will be 'mommy porn' like the last 10 Blake books and I'm not sure I can handle another story like that right now. I need to look for a good fantasy fiction book to put my mind, nerves, brain or whatever at ease. I don't need to read about sex to be entertained. When I read I want to relax and escape. Fifty Shades was a well written book series, but it was not that relaxing for me. I hope that it relaxes someone out there though... :-)
Happy reading,
Pinka
No comments:
Post a Comment