04/ 25/ 2013
After finishing the second installment of the Fifty Shades of Grey series, I’d decided not to read the third book. I struggled to finish the second one, finding it repetitive and not well developed. However, a few weeks ago, I spoke to a bookish friend about the third novel. She found it “satisfying,” saying that the author, E.L. James, “wrapped it up nicely.” As someone who relishes the simple satisfaction of finishing what she starts, I decided to give Fifty another go.
And I’m glad I did. I continued to find the book bitter-sweet (as I did with it’s previous installments). The main characters — Ana and Christian — started to make more sense. James wrote them in a clearer way and I began to better understood their choices, personalities and compromises.
Also, James did “wrap it up nicely.” The ending was a great conclusion to a very complicated and somewhat traumatizing saga of 2 people in love. James made some excellent choices, making a declaration of sorts about Ana and Christian that entirely explained each in their own way.
I’d recommend reading the series just to get to the final novel. It’s the kind of tale that provides a similar sense of satisfaction to that which is gained from a job well done.
I think what I took away from the series (aside from the raciness) was how complicated relationships can be-granted these are extreme versions displayed here, but we see Ana constantly making choices…hard, stupid, naive but the kinds of choices we all have to make at some point. That said, I’m not sure i can handle the movie to come!
That’s good. They each made many choices — for the good or bad — but I also liked how they lived when the consequences and worked through them. Yes, I feel the same way; however, if Ian Somerhalder is cast as Christian, I’m going to have to see it. Thanks for your comment!