A quick statement from Illusyon and I:
Reader Beware: This is not a book review per se, but rather a discussion about the different aspects of the book and all it encompasses. If you aren’t reading it along with us please be aware that we will be discussing things happening, so if you hate spoilers and such please don’t read the discussions of the book, but wait for my book wrap up post which will have much less spoiler aspects then the discussion pieces. I hope you are reading along with us, and that you get involved by discussing your views on your own blog or through my comments section.
Sincerely Yours,
illusyon from The 3L’s Book Chit Chat!
Wanna read what Illusyon thoughts on Chapter 1-13, click right here.
Brief Summary of chapters 1-13:
This book is in the eyes and head of Ana. Anastasia “Ana” Steele is a 21 year old WSU student soon to be graduate who isn’t rich nor thinks very highly of herself. At times, she may seem like a push over and usually does what she is asked told to do, but at the same time she is stubborn. Her best friend and roommate, the beautiful (and rich) WSU student Journalist Katherine “Kate” Kavanagh has an interview with handsome 27 years old mega-rich CEO Christian Grey for the school’s newspaper. Unfortunately, Kate has the flu and asked Ana to interview instead.
Needless to say, Ana is unprepared and wasn’t expecting a young beautiful CEO. The first time they touch, Ana felt this instant electricity between them.
After the interview, Ana tells Kate her thoughts of Christian.
He’s very attractive, confident, commanding, at ease with himself – but on the flip side, he’s arrogant, and for all his impeccable manners, he’s autocratic and cold (Chapter 2, page 17).
We quick find out that Ana has some admirers like her friend, Jose Rodriguez and bosses’ brother, Paul. She doesn’t feel the same way as they feel for her. The only time she feels butterflies in her stomach is with him…Christian.
For the past four years, Ana has been working at a hardware store called Claytons. Ana unexpectedly sees Christian. He is there to pick up a couple of things like: rope, masking tape, overalls, and cable ties. During his visit in Claytons, Ana manages to arrange a photo shoot for the article.
After the photo shoot, Christian asks her out for coffee. They exchange some personal information, but Ana gets this feeling of sexual tension. As they walk out of the coffee house, a cyclist almost runs Ana over and she falls into Christian’s arms. There is brief moment where Ana wished, for the first time in her life, that she wanted to be kissed.
Anastasia, you should steer clear of me. I’m not the man for you, said Christian (Chapter 4, page 49)
Of course, Christian can’t stay away from Ana. There is just something about her.
Ana’s finals are over! She and her friends are ready to PARTY and celebrate their upcoming graduation. Christian unexpectedly send Ana a “sorry for not kissing you” gift, first editions to all three volumes of Tess of the d’Urbervilles. Ana’s favorite books. Instead of calling him, she decided to go to the bar with her friends. She gets drunk and drunk dials Christian. The conversation doesn’t go as she plans, so she ends up on him. Ana doesn’t feel too well, so she decided to get some fresh air, Jose follows. Jose, drunk as well, decided to kiss Ana, while she is pushing him away, Christian comes along and saves her and takes her back to his hotel.
From this point, Christian starts introducing Ana to his “environment”. Ana signs a Non Disclosure Agreement (NDA) on the discussion and relationship between her and Christian. Christian shows Ana his “playroom” and instead of running, Ana tells him that she is a virgin. Christian takes Ana’s virginity. Ana is over the moon. Although she often has to tell her “inner goddess” that it wasn’t making love, but fucking. During this whole “fucking” time, Ana meets Christian’s mom, Dr. Trevelyan-Grey.
During their time apart, Christian give Ana the BDSM contract. This is the “negotiation” part of this “business” transaction. Ana is too overwhelmed with the contract, but still can’t be away from Christian. She wants him and only him. The only thing she can hear in her head are Christian’s words:
Anastasia, you should steer clear of me. I’m not the man for you.
I don’t do the girlfriend thing.
I’m not a hearts and flowers kind of guy.
I don’t make love.
This is all I know (Chapter 13, page 230).
My thoughts:
Man, this book is slow! I had a hard time passing Chapter 5. For me, this book didn’t peak my interest until Chapter 9.
So far, I can see the Twilight similarities. Ana is very similar to Bella. Christian is sorta like Edward. I’ll leave Illusyon to go more in-depth about the comparisons of these two books, because she is the expert of Twilight.
I’m interested to see how Ana will handle all this. I can see a little of myself in her. On one hand, her inner goddess is scream YES, but her heart is scared of pain. That is exactly how I feel about relationships. I can totally relate to Ana.
For me, the back and forth between Christian and Ana is exhausting. Christian is hard to understand. At one point, he is telling Ana to stay away, but yet he is running to her all the time. He has moments where I feel like he may want more with Ana, but quickly turns into this controlling domineering personality. It’s quite exhausting. I can’t stand how demanding he is, but I love the fact that Ana questions or challenges him. When she walked away from Christian during dinner in Chapter 13, I was giving her a mental high five. Honestly, I like Ana.
I love how EL James uses music in the book. It’s almost a pinhole into Christian’s thoughts.
- Transcription by Bach (Oboe concerto by Alessandro Marcello)
- The Flower Duet by Delibes
- Sex on fire by King of Leon
Commenting on the writing:
I’ll be the first one to say that my writing is terrible. Grammar is not my strong suit. I get it. I accept that. Do I expect books to be at a higher level when it comes to being well written and grammatically correctly? No. I believe in personal style. If you want to read a grammatically horrible, but powerful book, try reading Once Were Warriors. As long as the author has me locked into the book, grammar and such doesn’t bother me too much. Is 50SOG grammatically perfect? No and I wasn’t expecting it to be. Does the author capture my attention? Yes and that’s all I ask in for a book.
Rules for the Discussion questions:
- All participants may comment down below or blog about it on his/her own blog. If you do choose to blog about it, please leave a link down below, so we can all read and comment.
- We ask all participants to NOT talk about chapters that we have not covered yet. Please keep the comments strictly to the assigned chapters.
- Feel free to share your honest opinions, but please respect everyone else. If we feel that your comment is unjust, Illusyon and I have all rights to edit or delete your comment as we see fit.
- Illuyson and I will have total different discussion questions, so we suggest that all participants check out both blogs.
- Due to the graphic nature of this book, we will be talking about adult-like things. Adult and sexual language may be used. Please be advised.
My discussion questions:
- Why do you think EL James used these songs (Transcription by Bach, Sex on Fire by King of Leon, and The Flower Duet by Delibes)? What does these songs say about Christian?
- What’s your thoughts about the following characters: Christian Grey, Ana Steele, and Mrs. Robinson? Do you think Mrs. Robinson is good or evil?
- What’s your soft/hard limits?
- Your thoughts on EL James’ writing style? Like? Don’t like? Why?
Next assignment:
Next week Sunday, January 6, 2013, Chapters 14-26.
Jen,
Very in-depth mine less so, but I have anxiety about how long mine was as it is. So it is what it is. I love the songs that you included, but I didn’t really think much about them while reading. I am all in with the relationship development.
That contract was through and the one thing that would be hard limit for me would be gagging, fisting of any kind, and all those they listed in the book like poopy play that is a no no of epic proportions. Body piercing would be another hard limit oh and meat hooks which I know that some folks are into…no no…for me anyways.
I am okay with her writing style, but there were a few missing words in sentences that I stumbled over and
it disrupts my reading flow cause then I gotta go back over the sentence after the stumble. I look forward to you next one. Keep up the great work. Love the quote.
<3 illusyon
@Illusyon: When I was writing the summary, I felt like I was writing too much. At the same time, I didn’t want to leave any key things out for all the people who didn’t get to read it. I’m sure I missed a lot of potatoes, but gave everybody the meat. (Get it…meat and potatoes? LOL)
Thanks for the comment about the music. Actually, it wasn’t until I re-read the book where I picked up the songs. When I first read the book I was like you, into the relationship development. I actually missed a lot of things the first time around. For some odd reason, I didn’t remember the whole Christian visiting Clayton’s. Then again, when I first read this book I was hella bored! LOL
Your hard limits are my hard limit! Flogging might be one too…I don’t know. It keeps on switching from soft to hard limits.
As of right now, I feel like Mrs. Robinson is good. BUT….we all know how I feel about her later in the series. I just have to be true to what I said in the beginning and that’s what I”m sticking to.
I’d rather read your recaps than the book! And if it’s that slow, I’m sure I’d lose interest really fast. And bad grammar. Eck. Bad writing. Eck. That’s why I put Twilight down within the first few pages.
@Lisa: Thanks. Honestly, I’m not reading this book because of the sex scenes unlike other people out there. When ever a sex scene starts, I kinda just skim right over it. I really like to read the conflict between Ana and Christian. It’s kinda fascinating.
Yup, this book is not the most well-written book. If I noticed it, then it’s really bad. LOL
I didn’t think you were reading it for the sex scenes
. The conflict sure sounds intriguing though!
@Lisa: HAHA! Honestly, I thought the sex scenes were going to be too graphic (which I was afraid of), but it was pretty bearable. There are times where I roll my eyes and think “Riiight, that doesn’t happen in real life”. LOL
the parallels between bella and ana are astounding: they are both fucking annoying and stupid. i could barely get through the book because reading about her stupidity made me angry! LOL
@Kat: HAHA. Your comment made me laugh out loud (literally!). Thank you for your honesty. I always value it. I found Bella to be more annoying for some odd reason, but I figured it was because she’s a teenager. Ana…there are times where I roll my eyes at her, but on the other hand, I’m rooting for her. We’ll see. I know you read the whole series, so maybe there is something that will happen later that will make me change my mind.
Thanks for giving your 2 cents. I hope to see you when we talk about the last chapters in the book. Enjoy your vacation before work starts!