Fifty Shades Darker

By: E. L. James

Narrated by: Becca Battoe

Length: 19 hrs and 48 mins

Publisher's Summary

Please note: This audiobook contains graphic adult content.

Daunted by the singular tastes and dark secrets of the beautiful, tormented young entrepreneur Christian Grey, Anastasia Steele has broken off their relationship to start a new career with a Seattle publishing house. But desire for Christian still dominates her every waking thought, and when he proposes a new arrangement, Anastasia cannot resist.

They rekindle their searing, sensual affair, and Anastasia learns more about the harrowing past of her damaged, driven, and demanding Fifty Shades.

While Christian wrestles with his inner demons, Anastasia must confront the anger and envy of the women who came before her, and make the most important decision of her life.

©2011 E L James (P)2012 Random House

Critic Reviews

"In a class by itself." ( Entertainment Weekly)

I CAN'T LISTEN ANY LONGER! I'M BUYING THE BOOK.

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

Perhaps. It really depends on the subject matter.

Would you be willing to try another book from E L James? Why or why not?

Yes. I will READ the third book in this trilogy when I am done READING this second book. I will not LISTEN anymore to the "50 Shades" books. That is unless I could download the original version. I did not mind it. Anything is better than this second narration. I HATE it!

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

The male voices are absolutely horrible, paticularly Christian. I cannot listen any longer and I am only on Chapter 2. I am going to go buy the book today. I definitely prefer the first version of the narration. I did not mind Becca in the first version. Yes, she did sound young, clueless and a bit like a Disney character but I found her performance believable. Her voice reminded me of Amy Adams. In this new narration Becca sounds more like Christian did in the original version. Her performance comes across very flat and uninspired. Christian sounds like a large, clumsy, slow witted buffoon. I can't stand listening any longer. By the way, this is the first review I have ever written here. I have been listening to audio books for years and love Audible. This was the biggest waste of a credit for me.

Did Fifty Shades Darker inspire you to do anything?

The audio version inspired me to go out and buy the book.

185 of 207 people found this review helpful

Good Point, Well Made!!

Again, the only reason why I scored it so high was because I kept the audiobook at a faster speed, instead of the normal speed. If I kept it at the NORMAL speed, I think I would have been pissed and seriously would have wanted my $$ back. However, keeping at a FASTER speed did the trick. I was still captivated, is it possible to have that much sex? Holy Crap!! CRAZY!! Yet so intriguing. KEEP IT ON THE HIGHER SPEED TO GET THROUGH IT!! THAT IS THE ONLY WAY!!

96 of 107 people found this review helpful

grey

this book was actually good. I had to roll my eyes at the end. like I wish he would go away. I know part 3 going to be something . I can feel it because of how this book ended.

14 of 15 people found this review helpful

New narration is dull and uninspiring!

I didn't understand the reviews of the original narration being to young sounding. The original production sounded like a college student, the new production has no character and feels shallow. Male voices are HORRID. I think the people who reviewed the original narration as bad had it so wrong. If there are two separate productions already done they should offer listeners a choice of version to download. I am choosing to read the 2nd and 3rd book because this new version is so bad. Love the story though so I will take time to read instead of listening to these new horrid versions.

59 of 66 people found this review helpful

Great story but bad narrator for male characters.

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

I love the story so yes i would be another book from E L James.

What was one of the most memorable moments of Fifty Shades Darker?

How much Christian grow as a character.

How did the narrator detract from the book?

I think Ana's voice improved, however, I can not stand Christian's voice. What's ashamed b/c I love this story.

What would have made this romance irresistible?

The fatal attraction b/c Ana & Christian

Any additional comments?

Please redo with better narrator.

57 of 65 people found this review helpful

Random House trick me! Shame on ME for purchasing

Even so I told myself I wasn’t purchasing the 2nd or 3rd one I felt I should after the note posted regarding Random House “re-mastered” copy. For those that had anything to do with the producing or decision makers of this audible, this section is for you:

Re’mas’ter =(Noun) a new master copy of earlier recorder / (Verb transitive) make better quality copy of old recording. To make a new copy of a recording using new technology in order to improve its quality.

Well the 2nd book is not better and no new technology that improve the quality. Same narrator and yeah it lost the child inflection and fast marathon narration that Becca Battoe gives to the first one but its terrible when it come to the voices for the male characters. The inflections leave a lot to be desire too, pauses and emphasis on sections that doesn’t make sense and just confuse the listener. Also sometime she forgets to change voice inflection and I didn’t even know which character was speaking. I’m still blaming the producers or decision maker for the narration choice.
You really can’t ask more from the narrator when her only experience on narrating books is over teens (6 books) and children’s books (4 books). Look her up, I did. After listening to over 480 audio books I know what I like and don’t like from a narrator. I increase my review to 2 stars from the first book, just because she lost the "bubble gum" voice.
The love story between Christian and Ana is so intense, and so many unanswered questions from the first were answer on this one. The adult content take a second stage to their story.

94 of 110 people found this review helpful

i like her younger sounding voice

Is there anything you would change about this book?

The book nothing...A great book, my favorite of the series, but as an audio, it is painful to hear. i know there were many complains about Becca, but it now sounds as if someone slowed the recording to make her sound deeper. It is a drag. Please, as much as i hated the valley girl voice, it is still better than this.

What was one of the most memorable moments of Fifty Shades Darker?

i love the entire book.

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

the male voices, and lack of emotion

Any additional comments?

Make her sound the way she did in the first one.

31 of 36 people found this review helpful

Interesting but not great

The idea was a good one. To bring out such a taboo subject in a love story seems innovative. However, it could have been written much better. The main female character Anna, could have had more depth, and a less childish personality in every way.

I quickly grew tired of the constant inner monologues that were dumb. Even the repetitive descriptions of the main male character Christian's smell, had become overkill.

I can say that the Christian character was well rounded. Unfortunately, my patience for the lack luster heroin has worn out and I can't stand it much anymore. I started playing the whole thing at 3x the speed, just to get her dumb monologues over with.

I will finish the series just because I need to know how it all ends but honestly, I'm not looking forward to it.

4 of 4 people found this review helpful

Narrator better, and worse....

Where does Fifty Shades Darker rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

It's definitely a different type of story than I usually listen to

What did you like best about this story?

The personal journey Christian undertakes to make a better life for himself and Ana.

What aspect of Becca Battoe’s performance would you have changed?

Where to start? She does better in sounding more mature in regards to Ana's character, losing the "valley girl" intonations, but Christian and Jack Hyde sound absolutely ridiculous! Who talks like that? I didn't have a problem with those characters in book one....

And she definitely hasn't learned to correctly pronounce several words....

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

I listen to books constantly as I don't have time to sit down and read them myself.

Any additional comments?

I really think the author should be consulted when choosing a narrator to insure that the audio comes off the way she meant it to when she wrote it....

58 of 69 people found this review helpful

Dear Abbey, my girlfriend keeps exploding.

I was not a fan. I couldn't get through it. I've heard so much about these books, I decided to give them a try. Anna is a dead fish. My last review was deleted for extrapolating just how much of a dead fish she is.

The e-mails between Anna and Grey are unbearable, since the narrator has to voice out the to/from, message title, p.s.'s and signatures, between each and every message body. And the e-mails are used frequently during the book, as a major plot progressor.

When I first heard Becca Battoe's version of Grey, I thought she was kidding, and I started to giggle, until I realized she was serious.

E.L. James should be rationed on her uses of the words; mutter, murmur, whisper, gasp, explode, inner goddess, and Holy ____.

The Inner Goddess thing makes Anna sound schizophrenic. The plot and dialogue were weak. The ... scenes... were weak.

Perhaps this would be right up other people's alleys, and worth every penny, but for me, it wasn't even a lukewarm read.

20 of 24 people found this review helpful