Revisiting 50 Shades, More Than a Decade Later

 Grey, Darker, and Freed: Fifty Shades as Told by Christian by E.L. James

Eleven years ago, when I started this blog, I read Fifty Shades of Grey, and I hated it. In fact, you can read my comments here. I thought Ana was vapid and simpering, and to some degree she still is. I thought Christian was controlling, and he is, don't get me wrong. Eleven years ago, I would have told you there was no way in hell that I would read this set of books. I am not sure what possessed me to read them now, but I did.

First, let me tell you about the writing itself. If I had to hazard a guess, I think James got a ghostwriter for this. The quality of writing between both trilogies is vastly different, yet still the same style. I also appreciated that each chapter of this trilogy matched up exactly with the corresponding chapters in the previous trilogy. Much like in the first trilogy with Ana always referring to her inner goddess (thank GOD I didn't have to read that a million times!), there some repetitive phrases. "Mighty fine" and "Fair point well made" are two that come to mind immediately. 

I liked Ana better in this book. I suspect it is because I didn't have to read her vapid inner monologue. I liked Christian better too, and that is absolutely because I got to read what was going on in his mind. As I said, he is controlling, but reading this, you see why he is the way he is. I am not saying it excuses his behavior, but it definitely elicited more empathy from me.

When I read the original trilogy, I felt that all the sex scenes were the same. I wonder now if it is because Ana was so inexperienced and didn't really know how to articulate what was going on. Because they were all the same, by the third book, I was skimming through all of their sexual encounters because I knew exactly what to expect. From Christian's point of view though, they were far spicier. I enjoyed reading his descriptions of their sex life--maybe a little too much. But I digress...

Speaking of their sex life, I am still bothered by the fact that Ana has an orgasm every. Single. Time they have sex. That is not reality. Even more absurd is that every time she orgasms, it triggers one for Christian. Definitely fantasy. Either that or I have been having the wrong kind of sex my whole adult life. 

So, having now read both trilogies, I think I am going to watch the movies based on them. I own them, but have never watched. It will be interesting now that I have been inside the minds of both Christian and Ana. 

And even though these took me far too long to read (I blame my ADHD), I can't say I hated them. I could even see me going back to reread this trilogy.