I have to admit I only joined the Fifty Shades craze after seeing the film earlier this year. After attempting to read the book a few years ago (I gave up a few pages in) I couldn’t in all honesty get swept away by it as so many other people were.
However, after seeing it on film it gave me a better understanding what was really at the heart of the book and so I read them all the way through in March this year.
So with Grey, I was curious to get inside the mind of Christian Grey and whether he was as bad as he comes across in Fifty Shades. My conclusion? You do get a better understanding of his past and why he is so angry but it doesn’t explain why he feels he has to take it out on women in the way that he does.
We get a sense of his confusion for his developing feelings towards Anastasia and not being able to admit them or understand them until it is too late (well in this book anyway). In a way this is a stronger book than Fifty Shades as Grey has more of a background than Anastasia does and is a stronger character.
But it has to be said that sometimes (just like Ana’s references to her ‘inner goddess’) his comments in his mind can become slightly irritating and unnecessary. Yet in complete contrast it is interesting if slightly shocking to read about his nightmares about his past as a child.
It is brutal in places and can come across as lacking in emotion but considering the character perhaps this shouldn’t be a surprise.
The writing also seems surprisingly stronger, even if the cynical part of me still feels that by writing this it is just to keep the money coming in from this story.
I have to admit that I did enjoy this version a lot more than the original but I still don’t feel that I will ever be a die-hard Fifty Shades of Grey fan.