50 Shades of Grey Review

This book’s main characters consisted of Anastasia Steele, an independent, driven college student, who speaks is telling the story, and Christian Grey, CEO of Grey Enterprises Holdings and Co, and is portrayed throughout this book in a sense as if he is every girl’s dream guy. Anastasia is forced to interview Christian Grey for her roommate, Kat, because she had fallen ill. When Mr. Grey meets Anastasia, he is intrigued with her.
He then starts to make appearances at her work to buy different items, which come to find out is used sexually for binding and arousal. She is skeptical when he shows up to her hardware store because of his status and wealth. He asks her out for coffee but only for him to draw away from her afterwards. She “kicks herself” for thinking he would want anything to do with her but he in reality, he withdraws for other reasons than what she had assumed.
He sends her a number of really expensive, old school books that she had said she liked but didn’t feel comfortable keeping them because of how pricey they were. Christian comes over to her apartment and discusses the “contract” to her, which basically states that she will be his sex slave but will not do physical harm to the point of injury, but she lets him know that she is a virgin. Christian eventually ends up taking Anastasia’s virginity, but she still says she needs time to think about the contract, and whether or not she is going to sign it.

She is open-minded and willing to trying new things, but more importantly, trying to be a part of his world. Due to the fact that she was inexperienced and unfamiliar with what people are sexually involved with, the crazy things she sees as a curse, she is open to try. He doesn’t want to show her “his world” all the way because he feels something different for her. She is not just like any of his other submissive partners, but when she asks for it, she experiences something she can’t bare, and then leaves him.
Due to this being the first book in a set of a trilogy, it ends with the reader anticipating more, and with much more of a story to tell. Overall the book was a good read and touched on some various topics that are discussed in our class. The main topics that were displayed in this book to me were the sexual response cycle, spontaneous vs. planned sex, intimacy, as well as the use of erotica and fantasy. The sexual response cycle is pretty apparent throughout the majority of the sex scenes in the book.
Anastasia is clear to document her stages of arousal and climax during her moments with Christian Grey and is often times overwhelmed or subdued by what she is experiencing. “He leans down and kisses me, his fingers still moving rhythmically inside me, his thumb circling and pressing. His other hand scoops my hair off my head and holds my head in place. His tongue mirrors the actions of his fingers, claiming me. My legs begin to stiffen as I push against his hand. He gentles his hand, so I’m brought back from the brink …
I come instantly again and again, falling apart beneath him … then I’m building again … I climax anew, calling out his name. ” (pg. 195, 196) I also noticed the correlation between spontaneous sex and intimacy. It seems that when the sex was planned in this book, there was more intent to have casual sex and heavily influenced with lust. When the sex scenes were spontaneous, the intimacy levels were definitely increased, and often times it seemed as if the sex was more meaningful. Before I know it, he’s got both of my hands in his viselike grip above my head, and he’s pinning me to the wall using his lips … His other hand grabs my hair and yanks down, bringing my face up, and his lips are on mine … My tongue tentatively strokes his and joins his in a slow, erotic dance. ” (pg. 78) The main points of this book focused around the topic of fantasy’s and the use of erotica. Christian Grey is into dominance and submissive styles of sex, and makes it very apparent to Anastasia that this is what he enjoys.
Since Anastasia was a virgin at the beginning of the story, she was oblivious to how adventurous and creative sex can be. “At the touch of leather, I quiver and gasp. He walks around me again, trailing the crop around the middle of my body. On his second circuit, he suddenly flicks the crop, and it hits me underneath my behind … against my sex … The shock runs through me, and it’s the sweetest, strangest, hedonistic feeling … My body convulses at the sweet, stinging bite. My nipples harden and elongate from the assault, and I moan loudly, pulling on my leather cuffs. ” (pg. 323)