I promised myself I would do a book review of Fifty Shades of Grey as soon as I finish reading it. Basically, my motive for reading this is CURIOSITY. Everyone's talking about it... it's sold out in book stores... and it surpassed the sales of Harry Potter books. O_O

So I said, what the heck, I have to know what everyone is going on about. So I searched for a downloadable file in Google and of course there was none. So I settled for an online read. And after a few chapters, I wanted to stop. I couldn't take it... especially the part when the BSDM finally started. I actually cried... and I had to force myself to stop reading. The next day when I was more emotionally stable, I consulted in a forum whether I should finish the book or not. A number of people told me to finish it and one of them gave me a reason to finish the book: Christian's past.

CHRISTIAN GREY is the leading male in the book. He is a CEO of basically EVERYTHING. He is hot as described in the book, since everywhere he goes, women practically salivate and men squeeze themselves into a corner. He earns $100,000 an hour, owns three houses in different states, and owns a number of cars. But he has a secret passion, he likes to be a DOMINANT who controls a woman, which he calls his SUBMISSIVE. When he gets a submissive, the woman signs a contract and she needs to do whatever he tells her to do. He is controlling and suffocating. But he found his weakness when he met Anastasia Steele (the novel uses her POV).

With Ana Steele, he was completely hooked. The reason why he was so attracted to her was never fully given. But because of her, he was willing to lessen his urges to control and dictate whatever she wants to do because she doesn't follow him anyway. In turn, she was completely hooked by him as well. Christian told her about his secret... and gave her a contract. In the end, Ana gave herself to Christian and they slowly got to know one another as they fall in love.

There were some intriguing facts about Christian that the author used to pull the readers to finish the story. He doesn't want to be touched, more specifically his chest, shoulders, and his upper back. He also doesn't want a relationship. To him, only a contract connects him to his submissive. He doesn't give flowers or sleep with his submissives on the same bed. Until Ana came into his life. Everything he doesn't want to do, she slowly starts to let him.

I wanted to know why Christian doesn't want to be touched. I wanted to know about his past... I wanted to know how someone so successful, so perfect... could be traumatized so much that he didn't want anyone to touch him... that he wanted to pleasure women by physically abusing them. It didn't make any sense to me... so I read on. Until I finally finished the book.

Guess what the ending of the first novel is... COMPLETELY HANGING!! It left me hanging so much. If I had the real book in my hands when I finished the novel, I would have thrown it across the room. The ending revealed completely NOTHING about Christian. In fact, it made readers more curious because in the end, Ana left him. He hurt her too much physically, so she ran. And that was how the first book ended. Ugh.

I don't completely hate the book. I must compliment the reader on her ingenious way to make her readers finish the whole series. But I'm afraid that is where my compliments stop.

It was too disturbing. It's a pornographic material actually. It described the sex scenes in detail and even added other knowledge that only selected people in this society should know about. It should only be sold to those who are mature and/or emotionally stable enough to read the content.

If a percentage of readers said that Twilight encouraged teenage pregnancy... what do you think could be the effect of Fifty Shades of Grey to this liberal society of ours?

That is my general opinion to this book... I am not forcing this opinion upon you. But if you do not accept the concepts of Sado-Masochism, then I highly discourage you from reading this book. However, if you are mature and bored and simply want something to read while you lounge around in the house, then go for it.

If my curiosity will kill me too much, I might finish the series. But I will definitely NOT read this first book again. The controlling nature of Christian brings back too many traumatic memories for me. Don't take that statement the wrong way. I never experienced BSDM... but I did experience a controlling boyfriend... and remembering those times when I felt like I had to watch everything I do or say because it might offend him is just painful.

P.S. If you have read the book and want to see more of Christian's sweet and playful side, read the second book. (I'm on Chapter 12.) Again, it's more of curiosity that actually liking the series. I'm a Potterhead for life... and Fifty Shades of Grey will never surpass what Harry Potter has done for this society. :)

~End of Review