Media Hype

I really debated about doing a blog about these books: Fifty Shades of Gray; Fifty Shades Darker and Fifty Shades Freed. But decided to go ahead.

Now, I have not read the books.  I have read what Amazon will let me read for free in all 3 books only because I feel that $9.99 is way too much for an e-book, unless it's a research book.  The print books will be out soon for about $10 each and I might just buy them, but I'm not sure.

All the media hype around these books started a few weeks ago, I really kind of ignored it because everyone said it was fan fiction about Twilight.  But them the hype kept getting bigger and bigger.  So I started poking around Amazon and Barnes & Nobel reading reviews.

Some people hate the books, others love them, others are middle of the road.

From what I've read the books are about a 21 year old college student who is a virgin, she interview the owner of a corporation (he happens to be the hero) and he's 27 and he likes his sex a bit kinky.  The story is about the two of them and their journey.

Spoiler Alert - do not read below this if you don't want me to spoil the books for you.


I started reading the first 36 pages on-line from Amazon's look inside feature.  I gagged.  The writing needs some serious editing, there are lots of repeated words and phrases.  There are numerous mistakes in the book, such as you have to drive through Portland Or, to get from Vancouver Washington to Seattle Washington.  (For those of you who don't know Portland is South of Vancouver while Seattle is North). There are timing issues, plot issues and overall writing issues.

I found the same issues with the second and third books as well, from what I could read of them. The characters were not that interesting to me. But that maybe because I've only read the first 36 pages. But I honestly expect a book to catch my attention in the first 50 pages.

From people who have read the book discussing it on various blogs, forums, etc. I've found out there is little BDSM in the book and the love a good woman cures the hero of needing kink in his life.

This alone has made me not want to read the books.  As many of you know my books have what I call light BDSM in them, but there is no such thing as a "cure" for BDSM.  Either your into it or your not.  And it's not all whips and chains but that's another blog post.

As I've said, I'm not sure if I'll buy these and read them or not, yet.  I just found all the hype around the books interesting and how their making this author to be the next great writer, when the writing itself could use some work (a good editor).

And there are some interesting debates about fan fiction being picked up, having names changed, removing certain aspects (in this case vampires) and then selling the book to a publisher.