Book and Movie Review of Fifty Shades of Grey (Fifty Shades #1) by E. L. James

Fifty Shades of Grey is the first book in the series Fifty Shades.

Ana Steele gets roped into interviewing business mogul Christian Grey when her roommate falls ills. What begins with Ana falling into his office turns into something neither of them expected.

Christian Grey pursues Ana, wanting to have a relationship with her, but it turns out not to be what Ana had in mind. Christian's world is darker and stranger than Ana ever imagined.

Warning: this is an erotic romance. It has a lot of graphic sex, much of it not "vanilla," to use one of Christian's phrases. He's into BDSM and intends to introduce Ana into the lifestyle. A lot of sex, and a lot of kink.

I was shocked at how good of a story the book is. The sex scenes are all relevant to the plot and none of them feel like they're stuck in for the hell of it. Ana and Christian fly off the page, and even the more minor characters feel full. The story is lively and there are no real lulls in the pace, which was excellent. E. L. James's writing was wonderful and she brought Ana's world to life.

This book, and the series, are as wildly popular as they have been for good reason. There is no intellectual merit to them, but they're absorbing and entertaining. I was able to lose myself in Ana's life for 500 pages as she explored Christian's world and enjoyed reading about her experiences. I'll admit I liked reading about the sex, but what carried the book was the plot and characters.

I don't normally like genre romance, but this was excellent.

A move was released in 2015 starring Dakota Johnson and Jamie Dornan.

The movie was a pretty good adaptation of the book. They did a good job of representing the story and cutting it into a two-hour movie. They kept the key sex scenes for Ana's development in the book, but most of the sex scenes from the book were cut. Then again, there were a lot.

The one thing I didn't like was that Jamie Dornan does not look like Christian in the book. He's described as having copper hair, gray eyes, and being very tall. Jamie is none of those.

It's not a great movie. Some would say it's a really bad movie. But I liked it.

Photo Credit: Katherine Elizabeth

Stars Image Credit lovethenerddesigns