Why Fifty Shades is overrated

A month ago, I witnessed the new hype about this book which talked about BDSM communities. So, I decided to give it a try. So I read the first two books… “Fifty Shades Of Grey” and “Fifty Shades Darker” by E. L. James. Here is what I felt while reading it.

With the latest hype about the book describing the kinky aspects of the bedroom, I decided to try the FS series, as the subject caught my attention. With what started off as a seemingly romance novel, I was introduced with the world of a 21 year old undergraduate Anastasia Steel who’s too beautiful, but too “innocent” and the 27 year old disturbed(or so the book tries to portray), excessively handsome and excessively wealthy Christian Grey, and their falling in love(and sex) despite their dissimilar sexual tastes.

Towards the end of the book my soaring interests and expectations were betrayed but I was hooked enough to go through the second book too which turned out to be an even bigger disappointment. Needless to say, it surely is entertaining, but for those looking to get a good quality-read or those who are already familiar with the genre, the book might come as a disappointment.

1. It makes the BDSM community look like sadists and psychologically disturbed.
The book’s main protagonist Grey is the one with the kinky interests who introduces it to his too “innocent” to be true lady love Miss Steel, which is a revelation to her. The problem here is not that after discovering his unique tastes she assumes him to be disturbed, but the problem is he actually has been shown to be disturbed, specifically by his history of abuse and his phobia of being touched. So those not familiar with BDSM might assume the same, which is actually far from the truth. Esp. in the end of the first book, Grey is shown to have deeply sadistic needs, which may add to the unfair treatment of the genre because though Sadism is included in BDSM, not all BDSMers are as sadistic or abusive as Grey. Not all BDSMers are disturbed or need psychiatric help. In fact it is a proven fact that BDSMers on an average have higher IQs than non-BDSMers.

2. The book gets repetitive after some time.
The book does not go beyond portraying more than 2-3 styles of practicing BDSM into the bedroom(or as shown in the book, mandatorily in a “play room”). BDSM is a very varied and vast genre in which many styles can be accommodated. It includes role play, training, denial, etc. but the book rarely tries to try something new. Though the second book does try to experiment with new ways of practicing BDSM, it eventually gets more soft(or should I say “Vanilla”) than the first one. In fact the erotic writing got so ho-hum that I had lost all interest in reading the third part.

3. It is not smartly written

With all the jargon about the “contract”, which self-contradictorily is made irrelevant in the second book, the book seems to be childishly written. It gets so silly that I started thinking that the writer is trying to increase the word-count by just blabbering about irrelevant things. In fact, the most funny, boring after a point and even irritating after a later point is the mention of the “Inner Goddess” and more so the personification of it . The logic of the whole concept completely escapes me.

4. It borrows heavily from Twilight
Though this can’t be considered to be a relevant negative point, but for readers, who are twi-hards, this book will come as an unsatisfactory side version of “Twilight” by Stephenie Meyer. Though the book originated as a fan fiction for Twilight, there is a difference between writing for online fan-fiction and writing for an internationally published book-trilogy. There are many similarities between the two, like the low self-worth of the lead protagonists(like Bella and Ana thinking they are not good enough for the glorious men), similar family backround of the main characters, etc. This made me wonder if the writer eventually gave any serious thought about “original” writing.

The FS series might work well for those who seek erotic entertainment, but otherwise, it does little to the readers, weather a BDSMer or non-BDSMer.