Review of Fifty Shades Trilogy by E. L. James

Back in 2018, I read and reviewed these books for the first time. I loved them, and they sparked a desire to read more romance. When I did, I read a lot of books in this same vein—billionaire, BDSM, erotic romance.

It's now 2023, and I've read a lot more romance novels, erotic romance novels, billionaire romance novels, and BDSM relationship novels. I've also been writing my own novels. It's given me a different perspective on the books.

The conclusion I've come to about Fifty Shades, in general, is that Christian Grey is one fucked up dude, but then he flat out tells Ana that—he says he's "fifty shades of fucked up." His abuse from Mrs. Robinson and his young childhood with his birth mother really screwed up his view on life and relationships. His need for ultimate control leads him to desire to be a Dominant for the wrong reasons, and he uses his money, power, and role as a Dominant to behave in an abusive manner toward his submissives.

I'm not talking about the BDSM. That is consensual and therefore not abuse. Kinks are fine as long as everyone is on board. What Christian does outside the act of sex is not normal and not okay, and it shows complete disrespect to Ana, a disregard for her feelings, tramps all over her boundaries, and betrays her trust. The dossier he has on her that comes up in Fifty Shades Darker is so unbelievably screwed up, and Ana is right to accuse him of seeing their relationship as ownership. Honestly, I think he does despite how much he shows love and devotion toward Ana. He doesn't respect her.

Nevertheless, I find Christian to be a fascinating character. The reason I do is not depicted in the movies. Christian is in therapy for all the ways his past has screwed him up. His coping mechanism for dealing with the chaos in his past and the lack of control he felt over his life is the BDSM lifestyle. At first, it was being a submissive. Now, he find the most comfort in being a Dominant. He's also a sexual sadist.

At the end of Fifty Shades of Grey, and reiterated at the beginning of Fifty Shades Darker, Ana will not participate in a Dominant/submissive relationship, and he will not cause her pain or punish her. Ever. So, unless Christian wants to leave Ana, he has to find a new way to cope with life. In a very strong but quiet declaration of love and devotion, he decides to change the way he copes so he can have Ana in his life. To me, this shows he could probably in the future adjust the way he views her and the way he asserts control over her, though that would have to come from a decision he made on his own. She can't force him to do that. He'd need a massive "come to Jesus" moment in order to be willing to make that change.

Ana for me is rather bland. She asserts that she has certain qualities but then they never materialize, such as she's sooooo clumsy, but then she trips like twice in the whole series. Ana is a prime example of the empty character romance authors use to let readers insert themselves into the role and pretend they are the protagonist.

E. L. James is not a good writer when it comes to technical skills. She can put together a good plot, good characters, and fill it to the brim with conflict and tension, but writing well? Nope. In writing circles, her reputation is pretty much a joke.

She managed to write an erotic romance novel with serious kink geared toward mainstream audiences and had it become insanely popular. And she did it by demonizing Christian Grey and the BDSM community. She portrayed Christian as a deviant and he used tactics applied by cult leaders in order to draw Ana into his lifestyle. Christian learned about his desires in BDSM from a sexually abusive relationship, further presenting the lifestyle as deviant and wrong.

The BDSM community was up in arms about these books and the following movies because they are so inaccurate and demonize the community. Having read other books about the lifestyle since then, I can totally see that.

Additionally, she made a lot of mistakes about the Seattle area and Pacific Northwest, American culture and more specifically PNW culture, and the spelling and colloquialisms we use here vs. her native UK. There were also a lot of basic spelling, punctuation, and grammar errors.

While I do still like the books, I see many more flaws in them than I did when I first read them.

As a whole, given the balance of the story, characters, setting, writing quality, and factual accuracy, I would give the series a much different rating.

Photo Credit: Katherine Elizabeth

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