Fifty Shades of Grey

Book One of the Fifty Shades Trilogy

By: E. L. James

Narrated by: Becca Battoe

Length: 19 hrs and 48 mins

Publisher's summary

More than 150 million copies sold worldwide.

When literature student Anastasia Steele goes to interview young entrepreneur Christian Grey, she encounters a man who is beautiful, brilliant, and intimidating. The unworldly, innocent Ana is startled to realize she wants this man and, despite his enigmatic reserve, finds she is desperate to get close to him. Unable to resist Ana’s quiet beauty, wit, and independent spirit, Grey admits he wants her, too - but on his own terms.

Shocked yet thrilled by Grey’s singular erotic tastes, Ana hesitates. For all the trappings of success - his multinational businesses, his vast wealth, his loving family - Grey is a man tormented by demons and consumed by the need to control. When the couple embarks on a daring, passionately physical affair, Ana discovers Christian Grey’s secrets and explores her own dark desires.

This audiobook is intended for mature audiences.

Look for E L James’ passionate new love story, The Mister, coming April 16, 2019.

©2011 E L James (P)2012 Random House

Critic reviews

• Finalist, GoodReads Choice Awards, Best Romance

Not what I expected

Got boring real fast, the girl is very insecure. It was more hyped then necessary.

I won’t be grabbing the next book in the series.

It is the worst book I've ever listen to. It is poorly written with dull, overworked, childish love crap that goes on for pages with sophomoric dialogue and e-mails. Ana, the female lead did not sound like a collage graduate. She sounded more like an immature teeny bopper. Oh the irony, Ana has a degree in literature.

I can't imagine how anyone could think this book is in the least bit interesting or worth reading even with the erotica.

The narrator is monotone and sounds as bored with the book as I was.

The only one who has won with this book is the author who is probably laughing all the way to the bank. I just wish I had not contributed to that deposit.

Worst narration I have ever heard.

Would you try another book from E L James and/or Becca Battoe?

From E L James, yes. From Becca Battle, never.

Would you be willing to try another one of Becca Battoe’s performances?

I think she is the same girl who did the opening lines for "Baby Got Back".

What reaction did this book spark in you? Anger, sadness, disappointment?

Every time I hear "Oh My" in that Valley Girl accent I have the reaction of nausea.

Any additional comments?

The story is great, but I can't focus on it or take it seriously due to the terrible narrating. Her Valley Girl accent is so annoying, it would be perfect for comedy but is ridiculous for this story. My husband and I are listening to it in the car and are choking through it for the sake of the story. Do not buy this audio book, just buy the book.

Poorly written. Annoyingly performed.

What disappointed you about Fifty Shades of Grey?

The writing was average and predictable. The imagery was cliché and the characters were flat.

What didn’t you like about Becca Battoe’s performance?

Her voice was annoying. It went up like a valley girl and moaned at the end of each sentence like a teenager. What's worse, her pathetic attempt at a male voice made Grey laughable instead of sexy.

Any additional comments?

Save your credits.

Don't believe the hype!

Wow, what a total disappointment. I have never had a issue with not wanting to finish a book, but this was a real struggle. It's completely overrated and overhyped. I see a lot of other reviews saying all of negative things that I would say. Terrible writing. Repetitive. Drawn-out. Just bad all around. I'm really surprised this wasn't published by Harlequin. It's just that redundant and poorly written.

Listening to the audiobook actually made this a lot more painful then it should have been due to the fact that there is a ton of emailing that goes on between the 2 main characters and the narrarator is forced to read every single detail of every single email including the to, the from, the subject, the date and time, the content, and the email signature. This is excrutiating to listen to over and over and over again. Couldn't they have texted instead for crying out loud!

Before you spend your hard earned dollars on this book, take the reviews to heart and at the very most borrow it from a friend who already wasted the cash on it. Atleast then you will only be wasting your time and not your money.

Captivating Series

This book wasn’t for you, but who do you think might enjoy it more?

I thoroughly enjoyed all three books in this series.

Has Fifty Shades of Grey turned you off from other books in this genre?

Just the opposite. I am looking forward to finding more books in this genre.

How did the narrator detract from the book?

The narration was excellent. Becca's voice was noticeably varied with each character.

What character would you cut from Fifty Shades of Grey?

No character should be eliminated. The minor characters had minor parts but were all relevant to the storyin their own way.

Any additional comments?

Excellent reading material.

Unfortunately Anastasia is a Valley Girl?

This book wasn’t for you, but who do you think might enjoy it more?

People not familiar with literature, erotic or otherwise and/or the importance of identifying domestic violence early.

What was your reaction to the ending? (No spoilers please!)

Somewhat true of the cycle of domestic violence and relationships with anti-social personality disordered individuals.

Would you be willing to try another one of Becca Battoe’s performances?

Not really.
The characters are somewhat irritating and distracting.
In this one, knowledge of the Pacfic Northwest cultural norms (Seattle, Portland) would have helped rather than a Valley Girl intonation. It was whiny, pouty, then away overly moony, and lacked intuitive cues from the (albeit rather lame to begin with) direct descriptions. These characters are more intellectual and sexy testosterone fueled 'folie a deux' than this reading. It's not as if I needed help disliking the characters more with this reader's voice. Yikes. There's also no nuance to Christian Grey in this narration (and he's one of the more interesting characters in the books for that lost nuance). Anna has a soft musicality, and she's demure in speech - again totally lost in this version. Every time the listener hears 'Chrish-chun' from 'Anastasia' or overly snappy, haughty 'Chrish-chun' address Anastasia, you may understand what I mean? Double yikes.

What character would you cut from Fifty Shades of Grey?

Mia, Jose, if they sound like this rendition (nails on a chalkboard).

Any additional comments?

Pretty bad.
I listened to all 3 unfortunately.
The film is an improvement, I rarely say that about book to film adaptations.

A lesson to base purchases on more than popularity

What disappointed you about Fifty Shades of Grey?

Nearly everything about this audiobook is awful. The writing is repetitive and boring. Ana's neuroticism is obnoxious and she's extremely childish (just like the character she is based off of). She is supposed to be an intelligent, educated young woman, but she ends up seeming like a 13 year old doing adult things. Just as other reviewers have mentioned, "oh my", "holy sh*t," "so bossy", and other frequently used epithets get old about an hour into the audiobook. Interractions with her "inner goddess" are ridiculous (and not in an amusing way). No one would believe a 22 year old who drinks regularly has never been drunk, or has never experimented with self-gratification, yet is more than willing to engage in sexual relations with Christian when she gets a chance. The sex scenes are unrealistic and boring. The narration sounds extremely ditsy and amateurish. I could barely make it through the book. I was so bored by the time the book was half-way through; I couldn't care less about what happens by the end. I only finished the book to avoid feeling like I wasted my credit, but the end result was a wasted credit AND wasted time. I really don't understand why this series is so popular.

Would you ever listen to anything by E L James again?

Not unless someone paid me. I'm not the slightest bit interested in what happens to these irritating, unlikeable characters.

What didn’t you like about Becca Battoe’s performance?

Battoe's performance is dull. The end of nearly ever sentence ends in the same obnoxious tone. She sounds like a bratty high schooler rather than a young woman graduating from college. Her performance made the poor writing even more unbearable.

What reaction did this book spark in you? Anger, sadness, disappointment?

Pure disappointment.

Any additional comments?

Never again will I purchase a book just because the whole trilogy makes up the top three current best sellers. Listen to clips and read reviews!

If you like bondage and men beating women up

Would you try another book from E L James and/or Becca Battoe?

no

What was most disappointing about E L James’s story?

What story? It felt more like and introduction to bondage. Half of the book was Ana reading the contract between dominate and submissive.

How could the performance have been better?

I think that men beating women in any form is wrong. I don't know why this book is so highly rated.

horrible

Would you try another book from E. L. James and/or Becca Battoe?

nope

Would you ever listen to anything by E. L. James again?

nope

How could the performance have been better?

A little less repetition in tone: "Oh *myyyyyy*"

You didn’t love this book... but did it have any redeeming qualities?

There are a few somewhat interesting reflections on sm life/normal life/love, but you have to get through a lot of dreck to reach them. And they're not that interesting.