Fifty shades of grey: book 1

Top reviews from other countries

1.0 out of 5 stars Mills and Boons meets porn

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on 5 January 2020

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Sorry but its not better than that.
Porn is availablr if you want it, on the internet. I guess some women have not got involved in porn so this seemed like scandalous fun. I found it depressing.
Okay it turns out to be about a relationship and perhaps the woman gets to have a bit of power in the end in this relationship - wait and see, there are two more glorious books with the words "mumured" or " I pushed a lock of hair behind my ear" or "I bit my lip" till you want to scream. But it is very popular.

1.0 out of 5 stars About as attractive as diving head first into a vat of horse fertiliser

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on 23 January 2021

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Where do I start? The appalling and repetitive prose; the encroached sexist undertow that a woman would accept a man who RELENTLESSLY stalks her, micromanages her, sexualises her and, ultimately, harms her. This dreary misfire has all the trappings of mills and boons but with a ton of redundant BDSM content to layer over his cliched stink. The movie adaptation was better (although that was no saying much) because Sam Taylor Wood added much of the style the book was missing and toned down the appalling dialogue: "Oh my - sweat and body wash and Christian. It's a heady cocktail - so much better than a margarita, and now I can speak from experience."

Not even so bad its good; its just plain bad.

1.0 out of 5 stars Let me save your time

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on 9 June 2012

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I had to review this. As I'm really dismayed at how so many women are idolising these books as some work of art, with the lead male as a hero.

The lead male is a stalker, control freak and all round nutcase who should be in prison. The lead female is a doormat with split personalities.

The lead male is messed up as he was sexually abused as a teen, so now he is taking it out on the lead female. Erotic? Hardly.

It is written in the style you'd expect from an illiterate teenager. I can't believe grown women are fawning over this. The book is an empty shell, full of the same repetitive nonsense to fill a book. As far as erotica goes, it's unimaginitive and quite frankly boring. The hysteria reminds me of the days giggling behind the bike sheds. Surely the only people getting excited are the celibate, or those who have never come across erotica before. Also to note, those comparing it to twilight. You would be right. It was originally fan fiction. Bella-Ana. Edward-Grey. Jacob-Jose. Google it, the book is available in its original form on the net. Masters of the universe. Same book, same author under a pseudonym. Just the names have been changed for this to be released as "original" work. The characters are based on those of twilight.

To sum up this book, so you to don't have to waste your time reading it. Bella and Edward, I mean Ana and Grey have lots of boring sex, in a badly written book, repeat the following expressions......

"Biting lip"
"Rolling eyes"
"Foil"
"Oh my"
"Holy *!?* "
"Inner goddess"
"Darkening eyes"
"Shattering"
"Blushing"

That's the book basically word for word.

1.0 out of 5 stars Boring, Repetitive and Shallow

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on 11 December 2012

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Despite all the one-star reviews and against my better judgement, I bought the Kindle version of this book, mainly out of curiosity, but also to see if it was as appallingly-written as people say. It's much, much worse than that.

The author clearly has a very limited vocabulary and the same adjectives and exclamations are constantly repeated with maddening regularity. Mr. Christian Grey, who owns Grey Enterprises based in Grey House, has gray (not grey) eyes and wears gray flannel trousers; you get sick of seeing the word 'gray' (American spelling) very quickly.
As if that wasn't bad enough, how many times does the author have to say "oh my" or "holy crap" or "oh no". It's pathetic.

If any part of this book had been written as an O-level English composition it would have failed dismally, and the very fact that this book has become such a huge best-seller says a lot for the decline in the appreciation of our language and our literature.

The two main characters are extremely shallow and seem to have no redeeming personality features whatsoever. Even the sex scenes get boring after you've read the same stuff over and over again. A bit of variation, please! As other readers have pointed out, there is nothing clever or creative or artistic in the writing style at all. If this is all the talent it takes to make millions, then I've clearly missed my way in life.

I didn't even finish the book. I read the first ten chapters, did a quick keyword search on my Kindle to see if the other 400 or so pages were any different (they weren't) then deleted it from my device before any of my friends knew I'd been daft enough to buy it.

Cringe-worthy rubbish.

5.0 out of 5 stars An emotional rollercoaster

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on 19 February 2020

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Wow! Fifty shades is a fitting name for this story. Your up bringing is has a lot to do with the way you are, especially in your formative years. Christen has been through so much in is childhood and teenage years. Those experiences has contributed to the way he is. I find the story interesting and intriguing. Anastasia is so innocent and in over her head trying to navigate through Christen's world and he is also finding it difficult to deal with the feelings he is having for her because what he knows is far removed from what is deemed to be normal relationship. In the the end it is what is acceptable between the people in the relationship that is the important thing. Although it is hard for both of them, working through what is acceptable to both them is the only thing that will work, regardless of their background or belief. They still have a lot to work out because they definitely can't stay away from each other. How long will they be able to stay away from each other and how much compromise will they have to make?