I'm debating whether to read 50 Shades of Grey...

Your right thurlow..it did remind me of twilight too now as I recall..I didn't finish it either for the same reason though..repetitive and generally just boring!

You know, I quite enjoyed the first book. It's actually a quite on-the-nose piss take of Twilight, with lots of added sex. In the first book I thought she was writing quite well as a piss take, it made me chuckle (yes, I've wasted time reading Twilight too). The characters are infuriating but all in all I found the first book amusing, and I got the impression she wanted it to be amusing, that all the repetition and that was deliberate, as she was ripping the shit out of how infuriating and repetitious Twilight was.

But the second and third books were utter shite. I skim read them - the third book I only got through on a point of principle.

Absolute load of balls..badly written, repetitive and as another poster above said all that 'stop biting your lip' business made me cringe! Also the kinky bits weren't even that kinky lol ..got a couple of chapters in and gave up

It is unbelievably badly written, it has the honour of being the only book I have ever actually thrown away and unfinished at that.

I tried, I really did...but I'm an longtime aficionado of BDSM and found it completely laughable.

Don't bother. I read the first one while on holiday. Absolute rubbish.

You might as well read it. Everyone else has.

You'll either think it's so bad it's good or it's so bad it's banging your head against a brick wall bad.

waste of time. I thought it was terrible. I didn't finish it which is unusual for me.

This is much better.

50 Shades of Mumsnet - gives a fair idea of the style of the original

I haven't bothered as I didn't intend to waste my precious reading time on rubbish when there is a wealth of wonderful reading out there. Sounds like a book for non readers.

Agree with all those who say it is dreadful. I tried to force myself to continue on with it, but had to give up before I got to half-way.

Ha, cross post with Hackmum

It's beyond shite. I managed till page 12 and couldn't continue.

Weeeell, after the first few sex scenes I started skipping them, and the inner goddess bollox annoyed me, but apart from that I kind of enjoyed them.

I persevered through about 25 pages of it and gave up, awful writing and trashy. There are so many other good books out there, don't waste your time reading this one.

hackmum really?

How odd. Everyone else I know me has done the exact opposite.

I read the first 'book' , because so many people were raving about how romantic it was. After a few pages, i was tempted to stop, it was so cliche ridden. I persevered so that i could go back to them with a full verdict: if someone buys you an expensive dinner, tells you they are damaged and then wants to hurt you as part of lovemaking, don't hesitate, just ruuuuuun.

Also hated, as someone upthread has already pointed out, the message that the love of a good woman can 'save' a damaged man. How many threads have i read on here, never mind RL, where exactly that story goes sooo badly wrong.

Gosh, I am extending my vowels, can you tell i feel strongly about this?

I haven't read it (sounds dreadful). But a friend of mine who read it said she skipped the sex bits so she could get on with the plot. I'm not sure whether that says more about her or the book...

I just found all that 'my inner goddess' and 'stop biting your lip Ana' nonsense beyond naff, cliched and cheesy. I've never read any Mills and Boon but I imagine if Mills and Boon and Ann Summers had a baby, this would be it.

Utter shite.

because I'm a book slut

Well to go against the grain here - I absolutly loved it all 4 times I read it

I like Nora Roberts much better, 50 shades made me feel uncomfortable; not so much the sex but the way that all his problems could and would be fixed by the love of a good woman. And that she should stand by him regardless. All seemed to be forgiven as he was rich and sexy if he'd been poor and ugly he'd have probably ended up in a dirty mac or a rapist.
My sisters on the other hand thought it was romantic

Don't waste your time.

It reads like it's been written by a 15yo boy.

It's sort of the ultimate book for people who don't read books.

You know that old writing advice of "show, don't tell"? ie, don't write "The house was scary" or "She felt scared" but put lots of description that implies she's scared, like "She shivered and looked around nervously" or a long description of a scary house.

This one basically has a really bizarre thing where it "shows" you that she's really unhappy, scared, worried, upset, anxious about everything that happens. But the author is simultaneously telling you "She felt excited" "She felt happy" "She loves him more than anything". And it gives you a long description of him being an absolute dick, and then says "He's such a wonderful and loving man"

If you took all of the descriptive stuff out it would be boring (and the descriptive stuff is terrible and cliched anyway) but if you took all of the direct statements of "She was happy" "He is the best boyfriend ever" stuff out, then it would read like an account of an abusive relationship. So it just comes across as really, really odd and repetitive and clashing and the story doesn't stick or make sense.

LOL how can you say it's a waste of time when you've read three of them?