And I consider that to be extremely dangerous - much more so than anything that takes place between Christian and Anastasia in the Red Room of Pain.Ĭould the character of Anastasia Steele be any more of a stereotype? She is an introvert, has low self-esteem, has abandonment issues from her father, apparently has only one close friend who bullies her and even though she works in a hardware store, she doesn’t seem to possess any self-sufficiency aside from cooking for her roommate and herself. After reading this book series, I am deeply afraid that this type of relationship will be viewed as the romantic ideal for women.

I did out of exasperation, boredom and disgust, but also out of fear. But not for the reasons Anastasia, the protagonist, did. I attended a talk titled ' Fifty Shades of Grey – Bad for Women, Bad for Sex” at Revolution Books in New York and decided that I should see what all the fuss was about. Why would I devote the limited amount of time I have for reading for pleasure to a series like this?īut as the dialogue about Fifty Shades of Grey increased, both in the media and amongst my friends, my curiosity was piqued. I found the relationships between Edward and Bella and Bella and Jacob to be patronizing and emotionally abusive, and I also thought the writing was pedestrian at best and boring to read. I have read all of the Twilight books and I did not enjoy them. When I first heard about Fifty Shades of Grey and learned they began as Twilight fanfiction, I swore I would not read them. I am admitting this because I feel the need to share my opinions about what I consider to be the incredibly - and dangerously - abusive relationship portrayed in the books. I set my Kindle to count how many times the word 'gasp' is used in the third book and the total was more than 70). I have read all three books in the Fifty Shades of Grey series.I am not admitting this because I am ashamed of my sexual desires or even because I feel the need to rant and rave about the poor writing quality of these books.

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