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Genre: Erotica/Erotic Romance, Romance
This guest review is from Gloriamarie. As she described herself, she’s a fan of the original 50 Shades of Grey series: “I actually loved the original trilogy… read it four times. I understood the theme of the original trilogy to be the redemption of Christian Grey, abused as a toddler and sexually molested as an adolescent, however much he enjoyed the latter. I came to it late and never actually understood the bit about it being Twilight fanfic which I’ve also read four times because I loved it.”
EL James cheated her audience and did not deliver anything new.
My overall reaction is that the cover copy is extremely dishonest when she describes this book as “in Christian’s own words, and through his thoughts, reflections, and dreams, E L James offers a fresh perspective” because I would estimate that about eighty-five percent of this book is cribbed from Fifty Shades of Grey and, hence, there is very little “fresh” about it until approximately the last three chapters. Had someone else done this, we would call it plagiarism but I daresay we cannot accuse James of plagiarising herself though I want to.
As a result, I was pretty danged bored and extremely resentful of the $7.99 I paid for this e-book. I’ve already read the first volume four times and I was curious about what made Christian act out of character. It’s clear in the original volume that he does, but we don’t really know why.
What little bit of new that there was in the first couple of chapters, quite frankly, was creepy. There was nothing in here to make me like Christian at all. If his thoughts and POV in these first chapters had been included in the original book, I probably would not have read it and dismissed him as an abuser of women. But because the book was written through Ana’s eyes, and she saw something in him, so did I.
But in Grey, James avoided original material, except for the occasional sentence, until much too late. Was there more to Christian’s attraction to Ana than lust? What actual goes on inside his head? We are denied any of that insight.
My guess is that James herself has no idea. It’s as is James herself didn’t figure it out before she wrote it. I don’t think that’s how a good author works. A good author knows and understands her characters before she starts writing about them. A good author does research. Especially if she is writing about abuse and the effects of abuse.
Yes, I knew from reading the previous three volumes that Christian confronts his own inner demons and we have hints about what they are. I knew from reading the previous three volumes that Ana challenged Christian from the very beginning. I wanted to know more about his demons. I wanted to experience that challenge from his POV. James let me down.
It is not until after Ana breaks up with him that we get anything substantially different and new. James cheated me. That kind of information, that sort of struggle, that insight into Christian’s psyche is what I wanted. But it is not worth $7.99 and wading through all but three chapters of essentially repetitive material, except for some conversations with Elena aka Mrs Robinson and some stuff about Leila, that I already read in Fifty Shades of Grey.
In fact, I feel so cheated that I have deleted Grey from my e-reader and have requested a refund of the purchase price. Further than that, I will go on record and state that I will not bother to read the next two volumes that will be allegedly from Christian’s POV unless someone whose opinion I trust assures me that there is, in fact, substantially new content and not as much cribbing from the next volumes in the series as there has been in Grey.
Had Ms. James really wanted to tell the story from Christian’s POV, and not merely cash in some more from the story she has already told, she might have delved into Christian’s actual story starting when he was a child, living with his mother. Certainly his relationship with Elena, aka Mrs. Robinson, would have titillated Fifty Shades‘ fans as would his training to become a Dom. All of that would have been original material.
Also, perhaps, it could be an important story to tell of redemption of a horrible past of abuse, not only as a child but also as a young adult, because, let’s agree: Ana is correct, Elena did sexually molest Christian, however much he enjoyed it.
Unfortunately, EL James did not choose to write an important story. Instead, she chose to write a story that would only make her wealthier.
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Of course she didn’t know the motivations of her character! She stole the idea! That’s why she doesn’t know, and will never know, what happens in her characters’ heads. She can’t write more about their origin stories, that would require her to be actually creative.
You can’t technically plagiarize yourself, but I guess she plagiarized the idea to write this crap from S. Meyer? It’s all very meta as far as I’m concerned, but not in a good way.
Came here to say that I also loved the Twilight books (except for the last one) and have read them multiple times. Only reached page 50 of Fifty Shades though. Sorry you had to go through ‘Grey’.
P.s. Is she really going to write all books from his perspective? May God have mercy on us all.
I also loved the original 50 Shades trilogy and have read it three times. I always hoped James would let us revisit the Greys later on in the marriage. So many ideas! One of their children develops a life threatening illness. They both become so busy with their individual work lives, they find their relationship drifting. They need to find each other again; rediscover the incredible love that made them shine. A woman from Christian’s past decides she will find a way to drive a wedge between Christian and Ana and take Christian for herself. I can’t believe James only had this one story to tell – over and over and over….
At the university level at least, self-plagiarism is actually a thing. Some professors will mess you up if they find out you’re using your own work uncited. It’s the biggest load of bull. You can get kicked out of the class, program, or college, depending on what the professor chooses to do. And some of them won’t even let you cite your own work, because you (or your work) are not accredited.
I am not a 50 shades reader but I do feel for its fans because it seems like you guys got cheated. Change in POV books are rarely as good as you hope they will be. Often they are disapointing because what the reader has thought the person was thinking and what the author decides they are thinking are quite different. What bothers me here is the price because they are so repetative change in pov books are usually cheaper, I think I might have paid $2.99 for one but that is the most I have paid. Many authers even offer free pov scenes on their websites. James should have been more considerate of her fans.
I have read similar stuff (Curran’s POV from Ilona Andrews comes to mind) but they offer it free, and if someone wants to purchase it just to own on their own device, I believe it is $2.99. If an author is upfront about it being practically the same story with different narrator thoughts and offers it free or cheap, then I’m ok with this sort of thing. But to add to her tons of money with more tons of money for the exact same story is crap. I can’t respect an author that cheats her fans that way.
You say you “never actually understood the bit about it being Twilight fanfic.” It’s actually pretty straightforward. The story that was published as Fifty Shades of Grey originally appeared on the Internet as a Twilight fanfic (alternate-universe, or AU, meaning that the Twilight characters were put into a new setting) called “Master of the Universe.” Then names (and probably a few other details) were changed so that the book could be published as original fiction.
I don’t think that starting life as fanfic makes something inherently bad, though. (I have plenty of criticism for 50SoG, but “it started out as fanfic” is not one of them.)
You’ve hit the nail on the head and I’m with you about wanting money back. Sadly, I bought a paperback copy as I’ve got 50SofG trilogy in paperback as keepers and have read them all twice so far and enjoyed them as much on rereading as I did originally. I wanted to add my copy of Grey to them too which I probably will. I doubt I’d get any money back by trying to return a paperback copy. 🙁
However, I feel that we readers have been desperately short changed by E.L.James with this book. I too am sure that she will possibly continiue to milk everyone twice more by writing the others from Christian’s POV too.
Don’t waste your money folks, try another erotic Author instead there are plenty more out there.
Maggie, thanks for explaining how Fifty Shades as Twilight fanfic happened. As I said, I missed out on all that. Don’t actually see the resemblance, myself.
Also, I’ve seen on her website that S. Meyer had intended to write another set of Twilight books from Edward’s POV but never did because some stole it what she had so far written or something and put it out there. So instead of continuing with it, she just posted what she had written onto the website. While I cannot approve of theft, IMO, the thief did us a favor as I was Not Impressed. And I loved the Twilight books.
Just thought of something that would have been great to read: Christian’s struggles with the fact that Ana sees good in him.
I have a terrible feeling that having read Grey, I can never again enjoy the original 50S.
You can totally plagiarise yourself and this sort of thing is a great example of it. It cheats readers by promising new material but delivering old material.
In academic circles self-plagiarism is also a problem because you aren’t supposed to receive credit for the same work twice.
I have never read any of the 50 Shades books, so I definitely won’t be reading Grey. I have no problem with writing fanfic as I did so when I was a teenager. However, trying to claim that someone else’s characters are yours–even if you have given them new names and settings–is shady as hell (and closer to black than grey). I, honestly don’t think E.L. James has a creative or honest bone in her body. This whole thing smacks of greed and dishonesty. I guess she figured she got away with it the first time, so she’d be able to do it again. It makes me wonder if her manuscript of Grey was actually stolen or if she decided she needed to model her situation as closely to Stephanie Meyer as possible. Next thing we know, she’s going to go full on Single White Female and start dressing and wearing her hair like Meyer did. She needs help.
Here’s something that has me astonished. Are the Bitchery the only discerning readers? Looking at the reviews on Amazon and Goodreads, I kinda want to answer my question in the affirmative, because it is rather repulsive the way they are gushing in high praise over this book.
Gloriamarie, the only thing I can think of is that the reviewers over on Amazon and Goodreads are suffering from Cognitive Dissonance. They’re probably some of the rabid 50 Shades fans and are now trying to equate their hatred of Grey with their love of and defense of 50 Shades. The only way for them not to feel like total crap is to delude themselves into thinking that it is good. I look at some reviews and actually find myself thinking that they protest too much. Oh, well.
Maybe so, scifigirl1986, maybe so. I’ve been thinking further about my comment above. I realized I simply don’t trust the reviewers on Goodreads any longer. I haven’t trusted any reviews on Amazon (except my own LOL) for a very long time now. I thought the Goodreads reviewers were more careful readers but, now I think not.
What I would love is this. I’d love Sarah etc to expand the website. I am positive they are offered more guest reviews than they can publish on the blog. But how about instead of publishing them on the blog, they publish them sorta the way Goodreads’ reviewers do and we discerning readers could search for a book to see if it has been reviewed.
Additionally, guest reviewers might write about a particular author. It’s obvious reading comments, especially to HAO requests, that there are readers here very familiar with the work of authors who are unknown to other readers. For example, I’ve read just about everything Jennifer Blake wrote, and under the name Patricia Matthews, even some of her ridiculously complicated early thing with the poor heroine staggering from one catastrophe to another, maintaining her virtue at all costs, faithfully loving the hero who is the last person to deserve, what with his pride and sense of honor getting underfoot and all.
In this manner, we who are discerning readers can help each other and possibly guide the not so discerning readers out there. I especially hope authors would read the entries because I am sick nigh unto death of spending what little money I have available for books only to discover I have purchased something I regret.
@Gloriamarie There are just as many discerning readers on GoodReads as anywhere else. You just have to realize that we’re vastly outnumbered by the same people who think the Kardashians are interesting. I always read the two and three star reviews.
Thanks for this one. Trash needs to be called trash. Seriously, why aren’t you all demanding your money back?
If only it were possible to sort the reviews by the number of stars.
@Bernie Robinson and anyone else interested in getting money back for a print copy–go for it! As long as the book is in reasonably good condition (no water damage, the spine is not hugely bent, no stains, etc), most bookstores should take it back, even if just for credit. If you have your receipt and the above criteria apply, Barnes & Noble will give you full credit within 30 days of purchase. I’d imagine Amazon might not be too picky either, although I’m not too familiar with their return policy. At any rate–don’t be afraid to try!
D’oh! I should have said within *14* days of purchase. Big difference. Sorry. Still, after 14 days, store credit is a possibility.
Gloriamarie – while I don’t think it’s possible to sort by rating on Goodreads you can ask to only look at 1 star reviews (or 2 star, 3 star etc.)
At the top, before all the reviews begin, click on ‘filter’ and then on the number of stars you want and it will give you only the reviews with that number of stars.
That way you needn’t wade through page after endless page of 5 star reviews you are (probably) not interested in reading.
[…] But this guest reviewer at Smart Bitches knows what’s up. […]
Jean, thanks for telling me how to filter the reviews on Goodreads. Because I know I won’t remember that, I’ve copied and pasted that into a document and saved it on my laptop.
Everyone who has bought Grey for e-reader or print copy: return it or make the attempt to return it. Amazon has a pretty liberal policy about returning copies for Kindle. Every copy returned not only helps decrease Jame’s royalties, but also keeps Grey off of bestseller lists.
Seems to me swill should not be rewarded with big sales. Bad writing should not be rewarded with big sales. An author’s irresponsible attitudes to child abuse and sexual abuse of teenagers should not be rewarded with big sales. Stalkers, abusers of women, etc should not be rewarded with big sales.
Let’s return our books today!!
Preach on sister. Preach on!!
I hate this book Gray, this book is so boring. I don’t care what filth is in his mind, it just ruined the story for me. You should not of strayed from the original story as much as you did. I’ve read every book and I think you should of went back and reminded yourself what you had written so then you would not have changed the story so much. By the way your movie was much to short, and I did not care for the way you ended it at all. I like leaving the movies felling good not sad. I did like the movie, but was a little disappointed in it. Please re-think your books, and your length of and endings of your movies. Your first set of books were amazing, don’t stray from them so much. Listen to your fans, there the ones that will let you know.
Self-plagiarism is a thing; we learned this in junior year of high school when our teacher told us it’d be penalized. Even in an English class where nothing we wrote would make us any money, it was unacceptable to just steal our old ideas to carry us through the year; actual creativity was required. Not that I expected any better from James, but you’d think that an already-published author would do better.
Considering doing a parody of this. How much interest would there be?
I actually made a trip to the local barns n nobles to pick up a copy of gl Grey. But a couple of other books caught my attention at the time. Now I am glad I didn’t waste my money lol. Yes, I would be expecting more than just a simple regurgitation from the trilogy. I would so wanted to have read about Christian going into further deeper details of his past and just more into everything for a juicy read.
[…] feels like he’d absolutely go running to her in another crisis, given the chance. And any real interrogation of this, of how she met his sexual needs but not his emotional ones, is missing. If Christian had some real […]