A Review of Fifty Shades of Grey

Please welcome my first guest blogger, Lance Cummins, who does not appear to be the stereotypical reader of this series (see picture at left) although he does confess to a thing for Matthew Mcconaughey and Kate Hudson movies.

After much prodding, Lance heroically read the book and kindly consented to answering my questions about Fifty Shades of Grey by E L James(so I don't have to read it).

It seems like you really hated reading this book. Why?

I can't say that I "hated" this book. That is really reserved for 'Twilight' not just the first book but really the whole series. I think that my biggest problem with '50 Shades' is not so much the actual book itself but the way in which it came to be. The origin of this book and the story came right out of a 'Twilight' fan fiction page and while I do not have a problem with 'fan fiction' in fact I enjoy some 'fanfic' every now and then. It just feels like this was not a novel written on its own, but something that was compiled with the input of lots of other people and yet only one author was given credit for it and that bothers me.

I think it bothers me for two reasons. 1. It isn't fair to all of the other people who helped make this book popular.2. It is so badly written and really something that had some many collaborators should be better written. It does not make any sense for this to be so bad.




Well, did you like anything about it?

What did I like about the book? I liked the world that the author? had created for Christian Grey. His being super rich and the apt he owned were fun to read about and it was easy to imagine myself in that role. I mean, who wouldn't like to be that rich and powerful and have every need met.



How does Fifty Shades compare to other erotic literature you may have read?

How does it compare? I did not find this particularly erotic at all. There are other types of erotic literature that I have found far one interesting. The first one that comes to mind is 'Lady Chatterley's Lover", it was very well written and just worked more for me on an erotic level. Now that may say more about me then the book because the subject matter of '50 Shades' mainly BDSM is uninteresting to me. So with that going on and the sex being unrealistic in the extreme it was really hard for me to find any of this book either arousing or interesting.


How did you feel when you finished the book?

I admit that I was left feeling a little naughty as I read this book but that was mainly because anyone that I knew who saw me reading it would have a preconceived notion about what I was getting out of reading it. But in my case I was doing it for an assignment and not out of a desire to be titillated and sadly I wasn't even getting that out of it. I really had to work to get through it. Which did surprise me because I really had expected to get some enjoyment out of reading it.




What is your favourite quote from the book?

My favorite line is this one and only because it is so horribly written

"His pointer finger circled my puckered love cave. “Are you ready for this?” he mewled, smirking at me like a mother hamster about to eat her three-legged young.”

Just so bad.

I agree that is tres icky. Thank you Lance for sullying yourself for the sake of art.


Lance who on the internet goes by the alias Landrewc is a life long reader and writer. He has a degree in Political Science and a minor in Philosophy. If you would like to read some more of his writings feel free to check him out at landrewc.blogspot.com. He posts music reviews there along with some daily musings now and then.