My Review
About a month ago, I went to DC for work & needed something to read on my Kindle. Since I had downloaded & read Fifty Shades Of Grey the last time I flew, it only seemed right to continue on with the trilogy. It makes me feel better about myself that I primarily read these heinous books while in transit, as opposed to curled up in a chair with a glass of wine. A few thoughts:
- The second book in the trilogy, Fifty Shades Darker, is less intense than the first. Their relationship is more traditional, at least as far as the "red room of pain" goes.
- In this book, E.L. James takes the inner goddess stuff to a whole new level, a figure skating level, if you will. There's a whole section of the book where Ana's inner goddess is "doing a triple axel dismount off the uneven bars" & "performs a perfect triple salchow in her ice skates". I'm not making this up. THESE ARE ACTUAL QUOTES.
- There's a suspense subplot in the book that's a) totally unrealistic & b) tedious. But don't worry, as soon as you think you can't take anymore of it, it goes away.
My Final Thoughts
If you read & hated Fifty Shades Of Grey, I obviously don't recommend continuing on with the trilogy. But, if, like me, you find yourself needing to read these books out of some misplaced cultural &/or societal obligation, the second book isn't that bad, especially in comparison to the first.
The second book gets going a lot faster & has a little bit more suspense/action/plot than the first book. For sure, the things that annoyed you in the first book, the eye rolling, the inner goddess, will make you LOSE YOUR MIND in the second book, but it's the nature of the beast. I mean, there's just no way around it.
I'm on the fence as to whether or not I'll continue on & read the third book in this trilogy. I am hilariously & embarrassingly somewhat interested in what happens to these characters, but I feel like every time I read another one of these books, my brain melts a little. We'll see...
