Soooo.....

[starrypawz]

I haven't read them, but have considered it just to see what all the fuss is about. There's so many problems for me right off the bat though, starting with the fact that this thing was birthed as a Twilight fanfic. Meaning all the issues we ever had about the dynamics of the Bella-Edward relationship carry over. So it's some kind of mutant fan-fic gone crazy for all the 40 year old twilight moms out there who want to fantasize about the exciting lives they're not going to have any more.

The other big problem is the fact that women are treating this as the first novel of it's kind, and it pisses me off SO BADLY! There are well established authors who have written hundreds of "romance" novels. Ladies! There's shelves of this stuff! And better written stuff at that.

While I'm actually okay with the graphic content of these books and encourage women to explore the subject of their own desires, most of these novels are just so utterly ridiculous plot-wise that they have no merit for me. I read a few pages of one where a woman actually falls in love with a man after he assaults her. Reaallly? It gives women the wrong idea about how the dynamics of a relationship should work, and often skews in favor of male power and from what has been described to me in these books, abuse.

Women's sexuality is very swept under the rug these days and it's not socially acceptable for a woman to express her feelings about it. Most women seem very very uncomfortable watching this kind of material, but somehow reading it in a book makes it more private and acceptable. So if the only portrayal of sexuality women are being introduced to is coming from books like THIS we have a very serious problem.

This.
What you said is one of my main beefs with this series, it's the way everyones acting like 'OMG adult women like... le gasp adult stuff' like it's a new revelation and then there's all the backlash.

Also, like Twlight there's the risk that this could lead to people getting into risky relationships because they want something like what is portrayed in the book and not realising there's a line which can be crossed and that there's probably certain people who wish to prey on that. :/

[Maniah]

Rhini, I "Like", +1, Reblog, retweet - whatever, your entire post 100%!!!

For the record, the BDSM world that these books supposedly explore, is said to be completely inaccurate of the society as a whole. The whole Dom & Sub relationship represented here is said to be about as broken and wrong as it can get. This is why I had considered reading them. Just to see how wrong they got it. I won't claim to be active in this lifestyle, but it is an area I have a strong connection with. I just can't bring myself to read the books after everything I have heard.

[starrypawz]

Rhini, I "Like", +1, Reblog, retweet - whatever, your entire post 100%!!!

For the record, the BDSM world that these books supposedly explore, is said to be completely inaccurate of the society as a whole. The whole Dom & Sub relationship represented here is said to be about as broken and wrong as it can get. This is why I had considered reading them. Just to see how wrong they got it. I won't claim to be active in this lifestyle, but it is an area I have a strong connection with. I just can't bring myself to read the books after everything I have heard.

I heard that too, bascially the author apparently has a serious case of 'didn't do the research-itus'

[Eviecorn]

This sorta thing just ... isn't my bag for reasons mentioned.  I am definitely no prude, but it's not appealing to me at all.

[Souffaloufagous]

Huh.  After reading that review on goodreads...I'm actually kind of tempted to read it and see how awful it is for myself.  The BDSM thing doesn't bother me at all, but I just want to see how bad the writing is.
Does that make me a bad person?  Nahhhh. 

[BrightSide]

In short...no.

this.

[starrypawz]

Huh.  After reading that review on goodreads...I'm actually kind of tempted to read it and see how awful it is for myself.  The BDSM thing doesn't bother me at all, but I just want to see how bad the writing is.
Does that make me a bad person?  Nahhhh. 

I warn you, it might make your brain hurt.

[SpaRx]

Ahahaha, after reading that review I kind of want to read it just to laugh at it 
But really, up until now I've had zero interest in reading those books  I've way too stuck reading fantasy/sci-fi 

[Loona]

no.
first I was only thinking "not my cup of tea". a little later it got translated to Hungarian, and came out at our no.1 "Poo Publisher" that's famous for picking up and publishing and making famous among I seriously dunno who (I only know they are famous because the underground is usually packed with ads telling a book they published became the no.1 book among women) so bad "books" that even the underground previews hurt my eyes and heart (bad narration, bad grammar and so on, even in just that single paragraph that is shown in the ad), and for this reason I kind of freak out by the sole thought of even touching a book connected to them, so when I saw this I somehow knew I was right when I said no.
this must sound full of prejudice now, but imho a book (not exactly this one, but the ones they deal with in general) with so bad a narration and so bad a grammar, and a publisher who still decides to publish such a piece and also fails to get an editor, not only for their books but also for their ads simply don't deserve to be paid read not only by me, but anyone...

SpaRx: ah, I wish I were you... I'm sure I would be alot happier if I could read some poo books just for a laugh, but usually they contain bad grammar too, and I'm pretty much a grammar nazi when it comes to my mother tongue, and it actually hurts having to read it

[ZennaBug]

The books are alright, I read all three when I was stuck on the couch after my first surgery.  The content doesn't offend me at all, there's lots of literature out there that is way more explicit.  It just wasn't very well-written.  I've read romance novels (guilty pleasure ) that are not only more explicit, but are also much better quality.  I enjoyed it enough, but I wish that I there had been someone to lend me a copy so I didn't spend my money downloading something to my kindle that likely I won't read again unless I'm super bored.

My thoughts on the actual content:

The characters aren't developed, the dialog is just downright bad in many places, the plot can be ridiculous and random, and it's super repetitive.  I was so tired of Ana's "inner goddess" and the phrase "oh crap" that I wanted to just shake her by the end lol.

I felt like the author sat around with a thesaurus and threw in random big words (which were often not really used appropriately) to make herself sound like a better writer.

My biggest problem was that there was just so much sex and so little real interaction.  It got to the point where I just started skimming those parts because I didn't care anymore.  And that's not really the point of a romance novel, now is it? 

But it does have the advantage of being the first truly mainstream book of its genre and there are women reading it that normally wouldn't touch that type of book with a ten-foot pole.  It may not be a fantastic book, but it's been empowering to many women I think.  I don't feel that it was demeaning towards women at all, which I have heard elsewhere.  I felt like Ana was really the strong one in that relationship and Christian was actually really insecure behind his exterior control freak/jerky attitude.  He was kind of charming, in an exasperating way.

tl;dr:

Overall, I wouldn't really recommend spending money on the book.  But if someone has a copy they can lend you, it might keep you busy for a little bit (I finished all three in two days, they're quick reads).  At the very least, it's certainly good for a chuckle if you're more familiar with quality literature.  I certainly don't regret reading it, so if you can sit and enjoy it for what it is, then it's good enough.  Just try not to think about the writing style too much.

*shrug*

ETA:  I have not idea how they're going to manage the movie without it just being rated X.  If you take out the parts that aren't PG-13, that would condense all 3 books into a relatively short movie.  I suppose it will be rated R, but they will still have to cut out over half of the whole series for the sake of pacing and plot.  I enjoyed the book just enough to be intrigued about the movie.  I will definitely go check it out.

ETA2:  I did think that the "laters baby" was kind of cute.

[Rhini]

......well. So I read the hilarious review Maniah posted, which pretty much made my week, and then decided to obtain a copy of the book to see if it was actually as terri-bad as the reviewer made it sound. I just.... I have no words. Or rather, I'm about to spew out copious amounts of words, none of them coherent and almost all of them expletives.

The level of poor authorship and lack of well, ANY kind of use of the English language is appalling. How on earth did this make it to print?! WHO EDITED THIS?! It is painfully painfully obvious that this is some mutant fan-fiction and not any kind of cohesive story of it's own. It's something I'd expect to see in the depths of fanfiction sites right alongside Snape/Harry ships.

I read the first few pages, which were so brain-melty that I had to stop and skip to the "good part" (spoiler: there is no good part). It was not only disappointly un-exciting and poorly written, but I was honestly shocked by the cruel and narcissistic behavior of the male protagonist and the female as she swooned over this d-bag. He said things to her over and over that she cowed to that were just unbelievable. The first time he said ANY of those things to me he would've gotten a swift foot to the groin and a *expletive* you, you don't own me! 

I honestly feel sick that women and girls are reading this and seeing it as a normalized relationship. Sick. While I agree Zenna that in some ways it does start the discussion about women's sexuality or perceived lack thereof, and that's always a good thing, I can't help but feel this is NOT the way to do it. I am honestly ANGRY about this, and angry that this rag is getting so much attention and exposure.

I'll stop ranting before I make myself too upset 

[karrie91]

I can't stand the obsession with these books! 

Everyone at work is reading it like it's the most amazing thing ever.. I really really disliked Twilight.. but after these came out, I decided Twilight wasn't so bad after all.. and that's huge for me! My mom didn't believe me that it's pretty much a knock off of Twilight and porn...

[kiwimlp]

I've read the triolgy.  They are rather repetitive and fairly tame imo.

[mercynova]

Oh God... Don't get me started.

What I have to say about that book is not fit for a forum like this.

All I can say is... this trend of taking strong female characters and turning them into wrecks is very sad (Twilight, FSOG, Hunger Games etc).

ETA: The best thing to come from FSOG is this:

Iago from Aladin's voice actor reads extracts from the book (Beware... some strong language...) :
*link removed*


[No. That is not arena appropriate. -kaoskat]

[Zombelina]

The X-rated genre, I have no problem with. Glamorized abuse, I have a major problem with.

Basically, everything Rhini has said!