Book Club Mondays: The Fifty Shades of Grey Series

This week's Book Club Monday is a little special, in that I read three books instead of just one! Those three books just so happen to be three of the most popular books in recent history - the Fifty Shades of Grey series. 

I didn't really want to read these books, if I can be honest. I just wanted to see what all of the fuss was about. I went in knowing three things: they've been nicknamed 'mommy porn', they were all based off of a Twilight fan fiction story, and the writing isn't that great. These are all things I learned based on reviews I read online, so at least I wasn't surprised. 

Did I enjoy the books? Not really. Did I get some sort of weird sexual enjoyment out of reading all of the BDSM-laden sexcapades of one Anastasia Steele and one Christian Grey? No. The story has been done so many times before - disadvantaged, naive girl meets filthy rich businessman, they sleep together, and drama ensues. Of course. 

From what I learned going in, the books' events all take place in a matter of weeks. Anastasia meets Christian by going to do an interview for her college's student magazine in her friend Kate's place, and makes a great first impression by tripping and falling into his office face first. That, and she had nearly no interviewing experience, and asked the powerful businessman if he was gay. Of course. Because that would happen. Christian Grey starts all but stalking this poor girl, and then, of course, they fall in love with each other. At least E.L. James got the emotional abuse part of the Twilight storyline in there without fail. The first book, Fifty Shades of Grey, chronicles Anastasia's feelings through meeting the untouchable Grey, having her virginity taken by him, and trying to wrap her head around him wanting her to be his newest of sixteen submissives. Eventually, she realizes that this is absolutely ridiculous, and leaves him. And you're suckered into reading another book.

Fifty Shades Darker starts off with a strange Christian Grey flashback (since at this point we've learned he had a totally fucked up childhood), and gets right into the middle of Anastasia's pity party. She leaves him, but she feels badly. She got a new job as assistant to a commissioning editor at a prestigious publishing company in Seattle, and tries to fill her time working, crying, and sleeping. Such an uplifting message. Of course, at this point, Christian starts to weasel his way back into Anastasia's life, by creepily showing up at places she goes since he's tracking her movements via her phone - at the exact same time as her skeezy boss, Jack Hyde, decides that sexual harassment is the sure way to a woman's heart. Anastasia and Christian get back together. They bang each other - a lot, she changes his mind about wanting her as a submissive and wants to have a boyfriend/girlfriend relationship, they bang, they fight, they bang, etc. Honestly, I could only read the gratuitous sex scenes until about halfway through this book. At that point, they were almost mundane. As mundane as Anastasia's constant musing about how beautiful and untouchable Christian is in comparison to any other guy ever born. Christian continues to be creepy - even going so far as to buy the company Anastasia works for, and shortly after, fire her creepy boss, Jack - this is, after Jack attempts to force himself on her and causes a whole heap of trouble. His creepiness must be alluring to Anastasia, since she agrees to marry him. And they bang. And they bang. and Jack Hyde seeks revenge. Aaaaand then the book ends. 

By the time I read Fifty Shades Freed, the third (and final) installment of the series, I was so utterly and completely over Anastasia Steele and Christian Grey I could puke. Her undying love for this guy was sickening. He obviously had issues, and she did what girls do every day - she tried to fix him. We all know that never works. Now, I'm not entirely positive when Freed takes place in comparison to the first book, but the fact that Christian and Anastasia get married kills any thought of this relationship - and story - being even remotely believable. Or does it? They get married, Anastasia gets used to being the wife of a rich dude, Christian's helicopter is sabotaged and everybody thinks he's dead - but of course he isn't, and of course Jack Hyde is to blame… I'm sure you can guess the rest, so I don't want to spoil it for you. As far as entertainment went, though, Fifty Shades Freed took the cake.

All in all, I didn't find anything really worth liking or taking away from the Fifty Shades series. If anything, it just makes me sad that this is what writing has to be in order to be popular, and that this is what people all over the world are turning to in an attempt to fix their broken relationships and spice up their marriages just makes me shake my head. Although, I suppose the money spent on these books is cheaper than marriage counseling.