You may or may not have heard of a little book called Fifty Shades of Grey. It's been on top of Amazon's best seller list for three months now. The success of the novel is an interesting story. It is by no means the first erotic fiction to be written; thousands of erotic/romance novels are published every year. This book got popular the way many books do - good luck on word of mouth circuit. But here is the interesting thing about the word of mouth with this book: the word of mouth is not entirely positive. Tons of readers (myself included) have picked up a copy of this book because we're heard that this erotic tale gives its audience the wrong impression of what a BDSM relationship is like. But I know that I am in no place to criticize the content until I've read it. Likewise, I know others who have heard it's just a ridiculous, trashy novel - they just want to read it because everyone is reading it. They want to be part of the conversation.What many people don't know is that Fifty Shades of Grey started out as Twilight fan fiction. That doesn't make it inherently bad, but it is done explain a bit of the character development. And now, E. L. James has managed to take her Twilight fan fiction and turn it into something amazing - a book that people want to read even if they think it's pure crap. And that, is kind of amazing.
The amount of absurd actions done by the characters was shocking and cringe worthy at times. It's a crazy, misleading, unrealistic fantasy, but I would be lying if I said I didn't enjoy it.
ReplyDeleteAfter finishing Fifty Shades, a friend recommended I read Bared to You: A Crossfire Novel. It's really weird/creepy how similar it is to Fifty Shades. The writing is better, and it isn't as heavy on the BDSM (yet), but still unrealistic. I think in the craze of Fifty Shades, it got swept under the rug.