As promised, I will be recapping this tripe. But first, I want to comment on the name. When searching online, there’s nothing at all to set it apart the other books. Nothing. No subtitle. Nothing at all that isn’t in the first book’s title. The official title is just Grey. The “Retold by Christian Grey” isn’t an official part of the title. This is a titling fail.
Also, for supposedly having grey eyes, the eye on the cover is awfully blue-green.
Now I shall dive in.
We start with some rather bland acknowledgements, which would usually go in the back. A few stand out.
The FP ladies for help with my Americanisms.
Numerous counts number her Britishisms in the first books in the hundreds. She’s banned people on Twitter for pointing them out.
Professor Dawn Carusi for help in navigating the U.S. higher education system.
I speculate this is due to how panned she was for how badly she misrepresented colleges in the US. Something tells me Dawn Carusi is a fan of these books. Let’s see if there’s any improvement in the book.
Dr. Raina Sluder for her insights into behavioral health.
This one is alarming. Dr. Sluder has assisted before. She also specializes in family medicine, which is nothing like mental health. While all doctors have the most basic overview on all aspects of the human body, you don’t go to a family doctor for your deep mental health needs any more than you’d go to a cardiologist or your gastrointestinal needs. Family medicine is the most basic of medical degrees. All else builds on that with additional years of schooling. Dr. Sluder is credited as a source for information on Christian’s mental health needs, though in reality, she isn’t qualified as a therapist, and so could not act as one.
In other words, Dr. Sluder is reaching outside of her area of expertise, and listing her in this way is irresponsible, and she should know that, and have veto’d it. I wouldn’t trust her to be my doctor if she won’t acknowledge the limits to her practice. This is a doctor I would worry would refuse to send me to a specialist when I need one because she thinks she can handle it.
This book’s chapter titles are dates. It starts on May 9th, 2011, and ends on June 9th, 2011. This means this book covers the first book, and will end on the day that Christian decided he wasn’t going to respect the break-up.
In the first trilogy, Christian tells Ana he has no memories of his mother, though he recalls two stories about her. One is when she made him a birthday cake, and the other is after she was dead. This book opens with the memory of playing with a few toy cars.
The date is Monday, May 9th, 2011.
So. Right away we have confirmation that the man Ana trusts is a liar. This doesn’t set a favorable tone for the rest of the book.
He gets out of bed, determined to have a bad day, and to spend time with his personal trainer. Grey’s pissed his personal trainer kicked his butt. So in other words, how dare the trainer do his job instead of stroking Grey’s ego.
He’s bored. Bored, bored, bored. All the money in the world, and he’s bored.
The sobering truth is that the only thing to capture my interest recently has been my decision to send two freighters of cargo to Sudan.
This is not altruism. As we learned in the first book, he enjoys knowing he can take everything away from people. It was with glee that he told Ana that he can make half his workers miss their housing payments by withholding their paychecks. Let’s see if he tells her that again in this book.
While waiting for Ana’s roommate, Kate, to arrive to interview him, he internally whines about how interviewer are nothing but ill-informed people who are outright envious of him. Anyone with two braincells to rub together knows that this is wrong, and is nothing more than Grey thinking too highly of himself. He think is this interview is such a massive favor that he plans to make Kate’s father pay dearly later on.
How long to you think it will be between first seeing Ana, and wanting to hit her? This long:
A commotion at the door brings me to my feet as a whirl of long chestnut hair, pale limbs, and brown boots dives headfirst into my office. Repressing my natural annoyance at such clumsiness, I hurry over to the girl who has landed on her hands and knees on the floor. Clasping slim shoulders, I help her to her feet.
Clear, embarrassed eyes meet mine and halt me in my tracks. They are the most extraordinary color, powder blue, and guileless, and for one awful moment, I think she can see right through me and I’m left…exposed. The thought is unnerving, so I dismiss it immediately.
She has a small, sweet face that is blushing now, an innocent pale rose. I wonder briefly if all her skin is like that—flawless—and what it would look like pink and warmed from the bite of a cane.
First, he’s annoyed.
Then he seems to think that an embarrassed young woman can see all his inner secrets. He likes to boast that he can read people, yet he misreads Ana. She is indeed guileless in all manners of sex. The first book reveals she has never masturbated, didn’t know what an orgasm was, and was shocked–SHOCKED–that a penis can go into a vagina. So no, he’s not exposed. She doesn’t know what sex even is, and so she can’t see into him the way he things.
Third…oh good lord. That’s how fast, that right there. That’s how fast he goes from seeing her to wanting to beat her. Anyone who is so quick to have hitting thoughts should be avoided at all costs.
I need to dispel that admiring look from those eyes but let’s have some fun in the process!
How…kind of him. He’s excited to mess with her. Despite a heads-up from his assistant that a Miss Ana Steele is coming in, he called her the wrong name, and mentally insults her clothes. And once again his thoughts go to sex with her. He barely hears her “They’re lovely. Raising the ordinary to extraordinary” commentary on some paintings. That critique has been thoroughly panned in other reviews because both Ana and Grey think this is an insightful, professional review of artwork.
If you read the first books (I won’t blame you if you haven’t), you might remember Ana having trouble setting up a tape recorder out of the 80’s. Grey’s thoughts?
As she fumbles and grows more and more flustered, it occurs to me that I could refine her motor skills with the aid of a riding crop. Adeptly used, it can bring even the most skittish to heel. The errant thought makes me shift in my chair. She peeks up at me and bites down on her full bottom lip.
Fuck! How did I not notice how inviting that mouth is?
I don’t understand how women are turned on my someone who wants to whip a stranger.
Despite having no bearing on the story, he tells us the reason he’s agreed to give the commencement address at Ana’s graduation.
Sam in PR tells me that WSU’s environmental sciences department needs the publicity in order to attract additional funding to match the grant I’ve given them, and Sam will go to any lengths for media exposure.
I feel really bad for WSU Vancouver’s environmental sciences department (in the first book, he was there for their farm sciences program, which doesn’t exist at that location), which is a graduate program. I am a firm believer in not dragging real people and places through the mud unless you’re using their real actions. In this book, he’s all but saying that the school’s chance of survival hinges on him handing out diplomas for some people getting their bachelor degrees. Unless you’re a truly big name, like Steve Jobs, or a figure who attracts some major ire among the students, the general public won’t care, and there’s a good chance corporate America won’t pay any attention to whose speaking at which graduation.
In an unexpected twist, he tells us something I agree with wholeheartedly. She had no idea he was giving the address at her own school.
Miss Steele blinks once more, as if this is news to her—and she looks disapproving. Hasn’t she done any background work for this interview? She should know this. The thought cools my blood. It’s…displeasing, not what I expect from someone who’s imposing on my time.
This is fair. Even tough Ana was filling in for Kate, instead of sitting in the waiting room doing nothing (which we know from the first book), she could have read through the interview questions, or at least have been paying attention at school. Students know ahead of time who will be speaking, but Ana didn’t pay one iota of attention. Filling in or not, she owed it to the person she was interviewing to have done at least the most basic of research, instead of being as uninformed as possible. It’s not cute. It’s disrespectful.
Oh, FML. A couple more chapters ahead, and Grey uses “not one iota,” though in reference to the most unoriginal interview question of “to what do you owe your success.” I’ll be interviewing a well-known author soon, and you can bet I’m specifically aiming to avoid questions she’s asked a lot.
His internal answer is a lot of grandstanding and back-patting and tooting his own horn about how he’s just that good at what he does. Also he’s amazing at reading people. Except when he’s not and thinks the most virginal of life-virgins can see right through his secrets with one glance. He gets unjustly pissed when Ana suggests he may have had some luck.
Luck! He’s too awesome for luck! It was all HIM!
Let’s take a moment here. All of business requires some measure of luck. Let’s take a look at Betamax and VHS. Those are what we had before DVDs. DVDs are what we had before BluRays. Now you kids are caught up. There was the Betamax/VHS war, not dissimilar to the HD-DVD/BluRay war. Betamax had everything going for it. Better quality images, better sound, more stable picture, sturdier construction. By all reasoning, Betamax should have won. But in a stroke of luck, a public that had once been more interested in things that would last decided that the lower cost of a VHS-player and the longer run time (longer run time further lowered the sound and picture quality) resulted in VHS winning, and Betamax went under.
So yes, Christian Grey had a lot of luck. Not only luck there, but in having someone willing to take money from a spouse to give to him to start a business. How many of us wouldn’t be thrilled to be handed six figures in seed money to start a business? How many of us know anyone with that kind of cash at all?
Anyone?
Thought not. That was also luck.
He went into telecommunications, an area for which there is no shortage of already-established companies. AT&T, Verizon, TMobile, you name it. Somehow he managed to become the single richest of all, and in a few short years. That’s luck.
Now for a laugh.
Flaunting my erudition, I quote the words of Andrew Carnegie, my favorite industrialist. “The growth and development of people is the highest calling of leadership.
Do you know why this makes me laugh? Erudition means to have great knowledge. He follows this up with a quote by Harvey S. Firestone, not Andrew Carnegie. Real erudite there.
And he’s turned on again and starts thinking about sexually controlling her.
If I were to decide I was no longer interested in the telecommunications business and sell, twenty thousand people would struggle to make their mortgage payments after a month or so.”
Her mouth pops open at my response. That’s more like it. Suck it up, baby. I feel my equilibrium returning.
Yes. He did. He boasted about how he could screw people over, while making a mental demand for a blow job.
And E.L. James shows, again, how she knows nothing of American businesses.
“Don’t you have a board to answer to?”
“I own my company. I don’t have to answer to a board.” She should know this.”
The name of his company is Grey Enterprises Holdings Inc. The Inc. means that the businesses is incorporated. It’s a corporation. Corporations are required by law to have a board of directors. So either he’s lying, again, about having no board, or his company is illegally set up. I’m going to go with his company being illegally named. If the business really is a corporation, there’d be a board, and a board can vote to kick out the founder. It happened to Steve Jobs. Yes, he was fired form Apple! He was brought back on board, but still. He was fired. Grey is such an incompetent person at the business that a real-life board would fire him in a heartbeat.
And…again.
I have varied interests, Miss Steele. Very varied.” Images of her in assorted positions in my playroom flash through my mind: shackled on the cross, spread-eagled on the four-poster, splayed over the whipping bench.
This is old already. And it’s painfully clear that she is a sex toy to him, not a human being.
One one-sentence paragraph later, in a switch to his hobbies…
What do I do to chill out? Sailing, flying, fucking…testing the limits of attractive brunettes like her, and bringing them to heel…
What can I even say at this point?
The girl is a mass of contradictions: shy, awkward, obviously bright, and arousing as hell.
A couple paragraphs later, we get that. On behalf of the shy, awkward, bright girls everywhere, I’d like to tell Christian Grey to go to hell for thinking it’s a contradiction for us to be arousing to anyone. That may seem like I am making a contradiction or being hypocritical, but I’m not. While shy girls can be arousing, he should be reining in his thoughts about wanting to beat the tar out of someone he’s just met for his sexual thrills.
He fakes being philanthropic for half a page, before returning to business talk.
“It’s shrewd business,” I mutter, feigning boredom, and I imagine fucking that mouth to distract myself from all thoughts of hunger. Yes, her mouth needs training, and I imagine her on her knees before me. Now, that thought is appealing.
I need some wine, and not that Fifty Shades-branded wine either. I have more respect for wine than to lower myself to that stuff Give me some boxed Zinia before that crap.
Ana asks him if he has a philosophy, and this time the attribute is correct. Carnegie did indeed say, “A man who acquires the ability to take full possession of his own mind may take possession of anything else to which he is justly entitled.”
He decides she talks like a rich brat whose always had what she wanted, but dismisses the idea and determines she grew up poor because her clothes are from Old Navy and H&M. Oh. So Katie Holmes and Blake Lively aren’t rich then because they wear Old Navy. And actresses ranging from Helen Hunt to Kristin Stewart to Nichole Richie are also not rich because they wore H&M to events such as the freakin’ Academy Awards! I wonder how poor he’s thinking I am for wearing Gap jeans, a Capezio leotard, and a Disney Parks shirt. I’d probably be too poor to be worthy of one of his food shipments.
That starts this thoughts that she should be his sex slave since it’s been two months since his last one. Poor baby. Two months since he’s had someone to hurt. Apparently he did hurt that one pretty bad. I’m sure he’ll tell us later, and so I’ll tell you then.
Ana’s questioning take a turn for the inappropriate, such as pushing for information about his adoption and family, even when he clearly states he doesn’t want to talk about it. Then she asks if he’s gay, which is none of her business. He…internally responds well…
I have a sudden urge to drag her out of her seat, bend her over my knee, spank her, and then fuck her over my desk with her hands tied behind her back.
And by well, I mean bad.
This assistant informs him his next appointment is about to start, and like the courteous businessman he isn’t, he tells her to cancel the next appointment. I guess he thinks other people aren’t busy. Then he turns the tables on her, and the interviewee becomes the interviewer. This isn’t as interesting as it could be. He asks basic questions, tells her the company has some intern spots, and gets turned on again. No, not again. He never turns off. He just makes sure to tell us a few more times.
Ana calls an end to the meeting, and Grey realizes he made her too uncomfortable. I’m surprised he’s aware enough to pick up on that. I’m sure he was leering this entire time, like the creep that he is. He does make a mild effort to get her to stay, though thankfully it’s just with words, and not physically. That’ll come later, though we do get get another mention of how he wants her mouth at his beck and call.
They shake hands and…
Yes, I want to flog and fuck this girl in my playroom. Have her bound and wanting…needing me, trusting me. I swallow.
Ana later says, in the first books, that she trusts him, yet she’s constantly afraid, and all she can really trust us that hell get mad and hit her. That’s not a healthy trust.
As she’s leaving, another assistant, Olivia, gets Ana’s coat, and this leads Grey to believe Olivia has a crush on him. Your guess on how this makes sense is as good as mine. He does take a moment to comment, silently, on how “cheap” Ana’s coat is. Go to hell, Grey.
I hold it up for her, and as I pull it over her slim shoulders, I touch the skin at the base of her neck. She stills at the contact and pales.
Yes! She is affected by me. The knowledge is immensely pleasing. Strolling over to the elevator, I press the call button while she stands fidgeting beside me.
Oh, I could stop your fidgeting, baby.
She could be turned on by the contact, or, more likely, she’s highly uncomfortable with a stranger touching her in an intimate spot. It’ll be the second, since she pales instead of flushes, though flushing could be embarrassment. Paling isn’t a good thing.
As soon as she’s gone, he orders an assistant to get one of his bodyguard on the line so he can run an overly-comprehensive, and illegally-in-depth, background search on Ana….
Alys Marchand 
Pingback: Recap Directory for Grey, the pseudo-new Fifty Shades book | Alys B. Cohen
I’m Bored
by The Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band
I’m bored with everything I touch and see
I’m bored with exposes of LSD
I’m bored with Frank Sinatra’s new LP
And so I roar (shoo-be-do-be-do)
I’m bored.
The Today Show in Australia, a world wide syndicated show, Studio ten Australia, syndicated shows contacted me last night, they gave me the link to them tearing Fifty Shades of Grey and the book Grey apart, slam dunking it, in the toilet.
My comments are on their article. here are the links to their video channel on youtube. These are syndicated TV show networks.
crap delete, wrong videos, you can delete. there is no delete button sorry.
The Today Show in Australia, a world wide syndicated show, Studio ten Australia, syndicated shows contacted me last night, they gave me the link to them tearing Fifty Shades of Grey and the book Grey apart, slam dunking it, in the toilet.
My comments are on their article. here are the links to their video channel on youtube. These are syndicated TV show networks.
Lisa Wilkinson’s review absolutely destroys Fifty Shades of Grey – Today… https://youtu.be/PEgAAcjF3CQ?list=PLaqDkEs_5rh2ocdPbleM5ikJ9h45KKzlM via @YouTube
Jason Isaacs aka Lucius Malfoy Reads The Fifty Shades of Grey Sequel https://youtu.be/7uWZEWtUt_c?list=PLaqDkEs_5rh2ocdPbleM5ikJ9h45KKzlM via @YouTube
Oh goody! *claps* It starts! Thank you so much for doing this. Recaps such as yours provide Grey-shaded entertainment for people who would otherwise have no time at all for these books or the characters in them. I’ve been a little worried about this new book but it seems it might be entertaining, after all. For all the wrong reasons! 😀
I’m absolutely delighted that the erudite Mr Grey gets his favourite industrialist mixed up with Harvey Firestone?! Major snafu, James! Are we to infer that Grey has stuffed up, or that James has failed to do her research, yet again. Or both! 😀 It’s so obvious it’s tempting to think that James is intentionally mocking Grey.
Christian Grey is an abusive sexist pig of a man who objectifies women, and in these books James is giving him the chance to prove it by his own thoughts and actions. Great idea, Erika!
I did an article on this “GREY” crap, sexual abuse, dribble yesterday, its on our site, i will link your article here also to the article.
Great article.
As a victim of abuse for 18 years by my ex husband who was a Christian Grey, with power and money, now a survivor and Psychologist, i can not bring myself to read this trash at this point. Far too painful.
I can only go on the previous three books of trash-porn-sexual violence and the already shockingly bad reviews that are now all over the internet to read.
E L James has no boundaries, she also does not have one single clue “NOT ONE” when it comes to writing, writing about abuse, sexual violence, sex, love, romance, it showed all the way through her dribble of porn. Not one clue about what real BDSM is, not the sexual violence in her crap book trilogy she passed off as BDSM and romance.,
Here are the links to our articles with full medical researched information to back this up, about E L James books from her franchise and now the sexual abuse crap book “GREY” as promoting sexual violence once more.
Feel free to use any of the information if you need to, we do not mind at all, the more people that address the sexual abuse, violence in these FSoG books the better.
💜💚E L James manuscript has been found, full story here💜💚http://50-shades-of-abuse.blogspot.com.au/2015/06/e-l-ja
💜💚Fifty Shades of Grey legitimizes and glamorizes violence against women💜💚http://50-shades-of-abuse.blogspot.com.au/2015/06/fifty-shades-of-grey-legitimizes-and.html
💜💚”Laters Baby” Makes me vomit every time I hear it💜💚http://50-shades-of-abuse.blogspot.com.au/2015/06/no-more-ffity-shades-of-grey-grey.html
This link is to our own co-written book addressing abuse, sexual violence by professionals.
💜💚Shades of Grey by Edward Grey, my untold story 💜💚 http://shades-of-grey-edwardgrey.blogspot.com.au/
💜💚The untold story of Edward Grey, proceeds to abuse charities💜💚 https://shadesofgreyedwardgrey.wordpress.com/2015/06/18/my-name-is-edward-grey-and-this-is-my-untold-story/
💜💚💜please support @shadesofgrey_EG proceeds to abuse charity …http://shades-of-grey-edwardgrey.blogspot.com.au/ pic.twitter.com/hh0T4aMRM3
💜💚 http://shades-of-grey-edwardgrey.blogspot.com.au/
Reblogged this on 50-shades-of-abuse and commented:
Erica James has once again been caught copying Stephenie Meyers-twilights book.
Come on lets face it who hasn’t Erica James copied, and ripped off.
Alys has written over night a new article on the failings of the new tripe of Erica James and her dribble “GREY” And i do mean fail. Lets face it people, we new it was a fail from the start, the women can not write, she is obsessed with Christian Grey, his sexual violence, he is her rape fantasy, all rolled up in her billionaire Psychopath Christian. And the world hate this book so do the media giving it a hammering. Grey full story, review here.
I’ve also noticed that EL James has copied (or should it be stated as “borrowed”) A LOT from The Black Dagger Brotherhood series by J.R. Ward. J.R. Ward is a lawyer, hummm, copy write infringement?
It’s legal to borrow ideas, but that’s the limit. There’s been talk about whether or not Fifty Shades is entirely legal since it directly lifted the story from Twilight, even using their names clear up through publication. Fan fiction’s legal IF both the author allows it (GRR Martin is famous or notorious, depending on your view, for disallowing online-published fan fiction) and it’s not being done to make money. Stephenie Meyer never objected to fan fiction, but EL James did write the story using Meyer’s characters and storyline with the intention of making money off of it.
hello thank you letting us know that, we will put that on our abuse website in the articles. We now have The Today show Australia, a syndicated morning show following us not showing support, they will be interested in that information. If you want to check out our abuse website here are the links we have very informative information and medical information also regarding FSOG. We have just done an article about James copying other authors, i have included the link at the end of comment.
email address is shadesofgrey.EG@gmail.com
We also have our won book dealing with Abuse, Shades of Grey, 100% proceeds going to abuse charities, i will post all the links here. Thank you.
💜💚 https://shadesofgreyedwardgrey.wordpress.com/2015/06/18/my-name-is-edward-grey-and-this-is-my-untold-story/
💚http://50-shades-of-abuse.blogspot.com.au/2015/06/fifty-shades-of-grey-legitimizes-and.html
💚http://50-shades-of-abuse.blogspot.com.au/2015/06/fifty-shades-of-grey-legitimizes-and.html
💚http://shades-of-grey-edwardgrey.blogspot.com.au/
💚💜💚E L James found copying from Stephanie Myers again, slandering authors, read more here💜💚http://50-shades-of-abuse.blogspot.com.au/2015/06/e-l-ja
Erica James, copied-stole from the Movie
“Secretary” Mr Grey, the original Mr Grey- James Spader-2002 movie about a sadomasochistic very rich lawyer (psychological thriller-erotic romance, with sadomasochism DBSM). being your biggest that you stole from, people if you haven’t seen the movie, then I suggest you get it out, you will see what I am talking about.
Twilight-Stephanie Myers,
Delta of Venus-Anais Nin,
Zalmin King-Nine &a half weeks, Mr King died a few years ago sadly at the age of 72 years old, one of the most famous directors and producers of erotic, sensual romance, he won many awards for his work.
Jackie Collins are just a few.
Numerous counts number her Britishisms in the first books in the hundreds. She’s banned people on Twitter for pointing them out.
^ She sounds extremely immature. I think I’m a few years over half her age.
listing her in this way is irresponsible, and she should know that, and have veto’d it.
^ She should, but it’s possible that she DID and James didn’t listen.
It’s POSSIBLE that I know someone with six-figure income or savings, but I generally don’t ask about that sort of thing. But yeah, luck definitely played a huge part in Grey’s enterprises.
—
I have varied interests, Miss Steele. Very varied.” Images of her in assorted positions in my playroom flash through my mind: shackled on the cross, spread-eagled on the four-poster, splayed over the whipping bench.
This is old already. And it’s painfully clear that she is a sex toy to him, not a human being.
One one-sentence paragraph later, in a switch change to his hobbies…
I have varied interests, Miss Steele. Very varied.” Images of her in assorted positions in my playroom flash through my mind: shackled on the cross, spread-eagled on the four-poster, splayed over the whipping bench.
What can I even say at this point?
^ Erm… did you mean to quote the exact same thing twice?
—
Hah, “obviously bright”? Where? In what universe?
he should be reigning in his thoughts
^ Reining, actually. Reigning refers to ruling over; reining in refers to pulling something in or taming it.
He decides she talks like a rich brat whose always had what she wanted,
^ Yep, I came to the same conclusion.
Sidenote: I love Capezio dancing shoes.
Lol H&M clothes are too pricey and poorly made for me, but I love Old Navy.
He never turns off. He just makes sure to tell us a few more times.
^ Because we care SO MUCH.
Duuuude. I depend on clothing closets for quite a bit of my clothes, so Grey’s classless classism is really grating on me.
Oops on the double-quote. 😀
The reasons I don’t think Dr. Sluder veto’d that is because she was listed in the credits at the end for the first books, and if James has a habit of ignoring what a doctor says, why continue to be involved and have your name listed as a source of info? It looks irresponsible. And the other reason is that Dr. Sluder is a family medicine doctor, a PCP, hardly an expert on mental health. She probably didn’t know.
Ana herself might not be rich, but she IS a brat who always get what she wants. Other people always pay, first Kate and her parents, and then Grey. So, while her own account is meager, she’s not living a poor life.
Capezio? Depends. I’m a fan of Bloch Axiom for pointes, MDM Intrinsic for soft leather shoes, and Bloch Pump for soft. I’ve tried so much, and reviewed it, that I’m one of Discount Dance’s Top 10 reviewers. 🙂
Grey’s classism is James’s classism. She doesn’t understand what being poor is. H&M has pricy pieces, so Ana wearing it means poor? WTF?
Thanks for including notes on the Acknowledgements. Was any editor named or thanked? If not, that would confirm what we already know – that if there WAS an editor, they wouldn’t have let so much tripe in this go to publication.
If they had the same instructions as Tish Beaty had (to go very easy on her), then it wouldn’t be any wonder that such a large group let so many problems slip through. Otherwise they look like a bunch in incompetent people.
Why do I feel like the comment about interviewers is EL James making jab at journalists? She’s been known to be pretty rude in interviews.
I think so too. She treats interviews as huge favors when almost everyone else views them as publicity.
Wow, thanks for doing these recaps. I hadn’t even taken a look at the acknowledgement section and hadn’t considered what kind of people James is getting massively wrong information from…
I’m still horrified at the reaction he has at the gay question–it’s bad enough he’s fantasizing so freely and graphically on a stranger, now he wants to explicitly punish her sexually for a questiom that bothered him? WE HAVE A WORD FOR THIS KIND OF BEHAVIOR.
I watched the movie months ago and while it was still bad, Christian didn’t sound half as psychotic as he does in the books, let alone now that we’re in his head. This is just…horrifying.
(And lolwat. The first book takes place in a month?!?! I knew they moved way too fast, but that’s just so little time.)
Either she’s getting wrong info, or she’s ignoring it. I’m inclined to believe she’s getting wrong info, the info she wants, because if she was ignoring them, surely none of them would have stuck around and continued letting her name them in future books.
I could understand more if his reaction was more along the lines of wanting to grab her by the scruff of her neck and toss her out of the office Jazzy Jeff-from-Fresh-Prince style, but he wants to rape her as a punishment!
I livetweeted watching it, and then organized my tweets in this post. He was bad enough in the movie, even though there was a clear attempt at toning him down (this caused a lot of fighting between the director and James, and is why Sam walked out).
Yup, one month for the first book. They only dated three weeks of it. The first book starts in May, and the third book ends with her married, pregnant, and in the hospital, in September. Four months. Four measly months.
Pingback: 💜💚E L James found copying from Stephanie Myers and other authors again, slandering authors | 50-shades-of-abuse
I think James is operating under the erroneous assumption that all men think about sex every three seconds (or some such bogus statistic). So, naturally Christian does too. Except when he does it, it immediately seems incredibly rape-tastic because he’s an arrogant schmuck who clearly does not care about consent.
I agree. But then she takes it a step further and, rather than just have him telling himself to calm down, he fantasizes about outright rape.
A lot of fans of the initial trilogy are avoiding this book like wildfire to not ruin their fantasy of him.
To be fair, a bunch of the fans are probably also avoiding this book simply because it adds nothing.
A story told from a different perspective could be really interesting if Christian were presented in a different light (which he isn’t: he’s the creep he always was, even though Ana didn’t want to see it) or if we were shown things that Ana didn’t witness, but James doesn’t seem to care about that. She has literally copied and pasted the first book of the original trilogy with some stupid inner dialogue from Christian.
This is so obviously purely a money grab that I doubt even hardcore fans can look past that.
Do you want to know something incredible? This book was meant to show him in a sympathetic light. Talk about a FAIL.
And yeah, there’s next to nothing that Ana wasn’t there for, and there’s literally nothing more than scenes with her, or scenes where he’s scheming to get her. That might change, but I’m not holding my breath.
Stephenie Meyer, for all the faults in her writing, did give us a lot more in her first few chapters of Midnight Sun, which is Twilight being retold from Edward’s point of view, than I think we’ll see of Grey. I’m not a fan of Meyer by any means, but we did indeed see more of Edward, and his thoughts on other people. How has it come to a point where Twilight is defensible?
How is this guy attractive?
He’s rich, physically attractive, and is good at giving orgasms (just to be clear: orgasms don’t mean sex was consensual). That’s it. He has no love for others, enjoys intimidating others, is such a control-freak that when Ana calls him one, he readily agrees like he’s proud of it. Basically his personality is a jerk! He really shouldn’t be attractive to women. It’s like Chris Brown though. He beat Rhianna, and fans of his said they’d let him beat them up any day. We’ve reached a point where women will submit to harm for the same of money and orgasm-achieving sex.
This is scary. I find this is just confirming his controlling and abusive nature that we noted in the first three books. It’s surprising to see how many positive reviews that this and the rest of the series has.
It’s like James took non-fan speculation, and decided to prove us all wrong. “He’s SOOOOO not like that. He’s WORSE!”