Grey, the fourth book from EL James, is about as sexy as a misery memoir and as arousing as the diary of a sex offender. … This, then, is the best the 21st century can come up with in terms of romantic literary heroes – a cut-price Mr Darcy in nipple clamps.
The first book was a rather fun and fairly mild portrait of a woman’s sexual fantasy. Yet it is almost impossible to read Grey and not assume the narrator is going to end up in jail. It is most reminiscent of those thrillers that open from the point of view of the heavy-breathing murderer stalking his prey. Instead of lighthearted and repetitive mild S&M, the ‘love affair’ is now the twisted work of an utter psychopath

—There is quite a bit of hoopla surrounding the release of GREY-Christian Grey’s point of view-from E.L. James’s Fifty Shades of Grey series and as in my review of the original series, I am not going to focus on the style of writing (which hasn’t changed); or the similarities to Stefanie Meyers’s –never released-Midnight Sun (Edward Cullen’s POV) because the Fifty Shades Series is a work of fan fiction based on the young adult Twilight Series by Meyers. GREY is what it is –Christian’s version of the events, his emotions and thoughts, as it pertains to his growing relationship with, and need for Anastasia Steele.
We all know the backstory behind Christian’s need for Dominance, and I was hoping for a little more insight from the now adult Mr. Grey. We get a front row seat into some of Christian’s nightmares and what occurred in his first few years of life but I found there was something lacking in the retelling of the events- perhaps it is the mind of a four year old that is unable to comprehend the extent of what had happened, and in this, the details are limited and inadequate.

But, most of all, I’m insulted by James’s sloppiness. How could she inaccurately attribute Harvey Firestone’s quote in FSOG/Book 1 (“the growth and development of people is the highest calling of leadership”) to Dale Carnegie in “Grey”? Compounding this egregious error is that James refers to Carnegie as an industrialist when it’s Firestone who’s the industrialist. And then, there are the misquotes, such as Kate telling Christian, “Grey – your cards are marked” in FSOG/Book 1 to “you’re on my s*** list” in “Grey”.

I strongly suspect James had easy money in mind for little effort when she wrote this book, without caring that it’s the reader who gets short- changed. My hope is that the next two books in the “Grey” series are written with more care and substance. Books where the reader sees Christian’s evolution from a self-loathing sadist to a loving husband and father. But, not sure I’ll read them to find out.

This book did not provide Christian’s point of view with any depth or insight into what motivates him as a character. Feels more like the author did a lot of copy and paste, rather than actual writing. Boring and predictable

NB Ik heb de engelese versie gelezen