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 worth it.

The book is not really good. It is noticeable the author lacked ideas for this book. She used email traffic to make the book larger which annoyed me so much. If this book was a car, I can say it has a lots of dents. No idea what was the fuss about this book. Totally waste of time and money. The person reading the book is really good. She tried her best to make the story better.

Wrong narrator for the book

Narration: I read this series years ago and enjoyed it. The narrator for this book ruins it for me. Her intonations are overdone, up and down too much, often sounds like she’s an ignorant teen. While she’s inexperienced in sexual situations, she’s an intelligent human … the narrator missed the mark, for me.

Story: as mentioned in other reviews, there is a lot of redundancy but I didn’t find it detracts from the story. I would suggest reading rather than listening, tho. Or you may not make it thru.

Abusive

Disturbing, coercive, abusive, and disgusting, a perfect portrayal of exactly what this kind of relationship should Not be.

My Inner Goddess hates this book

I waited a very long time to give this a try and regret doing so.
Beyond the absurdity of the unoriginal story is the annoying stupidity of the main character, the constant use of inner goddess, which must be the Goddess of Vapidity, comes the reading of emails between the leads.
I could not develop any interest in the characters as they offer nothing to me.
The sex is uninspired.
I have no ideas what made this book so successful.

Junk

Junk, nothing worth remembering. A total waste of time.. and complete insult to/of women. Not worthy of any stars, but you can't rate as "no stars".

Ugh.

From An Annoyed Listener
Subject: This book is painful
January 17 , 2018
14:45 pm
Listening to this book is an insulting test of my patience.
Signed,
Mrs. D
CEO Mrs. D Holdings, Incorporated

Read the above aloud 9 times in a row and see if you aren’t willing to whip YOURSELF Into submission. I would think an abridged version, leaving out obnoxious email exchanges would be step one in producing the audiobook.The great thing about art and literature is that there’s something for everyone. So I humbly admit that while I criticize, the author and possibly the narrator have laughed their way to the bank and back many times over. But this basic novel has made me use the word “basic” in this context for the first time in my life. Thinking that this would entertain me on many long road trips I had to take, I purchased it to see what all the fuss was about. I hope I will be able to hear someone say “oh my“ again without twitching the way I did every time I heard those words in the book. Not only was I shocked at the lack of intensity and story arc that is so ready to be written, but the language was Embarrassingly unimaginative. The narrator’s childish voice is enough to make me stop listening regularly. It has now become kind of a challenge to see if I can get through it. I suggest renaming it “50 shades of just get on with it already”. If this had been written by a 12-year-old girl I would probably be impressed. A published author? No. Just, no. If anything, it makes me feel like anyone can write a bestseller if you just find your people. In this case your people would be the illiterate, unaccustomed to interesting metaphor, dialogue, and plot. Meowwwe.

Disappointing

What would have made Fifty Shades of Grey better?

This book would definitely benefit from more accomplished writing skills. Was it really necessary to use emails and contract verbiage as fillers?

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

It is just another book depicting educated young women as not so bright. It wasn't even very good erotica.

How could the performance have been better?

Maybe a different narrator. The Valley Girl voice was irritating.

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

Disappointment, boredom from too many emails and contracts.

Any additional comments?

This was an extremely disappointing book. I'm not sure that it qualifies as an "adult" book. the writing style is reminiscent of that of young adult books. It's not even very good erotica. I think this book would have truly deserved being on the New York Best Sellers' List if it was better written and if the author had taken more time to develop the storyline. The main character was supposedly educated in English lit and was going to intern for a publishing company. Her use of the English language was deplorable under those circumstances. She uses words that aren't in any dictionary I could find. I will not be reading or listening to the rest of the trilogy.

Worst book and narrator ever

This is the worst book I've read in a long time. The valley girl narrator gets on my nerve so bad that it makes the writing sound even worst. Save yourself and move along.

Is it over yet?

What would have made Fifty Shades of Grey better?

Cut out all the dreadful email headers. It is pointless. We know the emails are beween the two characters. The from and subject woild have been fine. The to and date stamo got annoying fast! It just got to be too much.

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

Probably not. With the low quality of this book I can't see reading another.

Any additional comments?

Overall, the story was weak and unrealistic. Not a good story and not good porn either. Not something I would recommend to anyone. I can't see this becoming a good movie.

Ugh...

It needs a minus 5 stars... Story was okay, but the book is written awful. The messages between them so repetitive... I skipped chapters and still was reading the same boring thing. Not worth a credit for sure!