Monday, June 4, 2012

50 Shades of ...WTF?

Those of you who know me know I've been in a state of transition for about a year now. I took on a new career, moved to a new city ... temporarily without my husband. Let's face it: a girl's got needs.

When a co-worker was reading the book Fifty Shades of Grey, I asked her if it was good. She said, "It's porn!" That piqued my interest because I'd heard of this book and it did not look like a romance novel.

No good way to read this in public
Once every person I knew personally and professionally asked me if I'd read the book, I decided to give it a shot, if only to intelligently discuss it. After all, I just wrote a post about how to write sex scenes, and reading a steamy book might just .....(Censored).................

Oh holy hell. What happened with this book? I'm approximately 20% through the first in the trilogy and I've found myself sighing (audibly) with exasperation (in crowded subways, no less) at writing which I can only assume is the first draft. A recent review on Amazon sums it up perfectly. If I were laughing or cringing at things the author intended, that would be fine. But when your protagonists are caricatures, and serious moments make you snort with laughter, that's a bad sign. Not sure I can finish this one. A nice bodice-ripper doesn't sound so bad ...

Edit: Here's another article about someone who'd rather read this book with a red pen.
And another.

3 comments:

  1. I got approx. 30 pages into it I believe and then I just gave up. It was recommended to me by a friend who usually knows her romances, but this was just horrible.

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  2. I would be happy to have a recommendation of a good romance

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