People read Fifty Shades for the love story like people read Playboy for the articles. That is to say, this book is primarily about kinky sex with a sloppy and trope-laden love story as a flimsy background distraction. More importantly, a more understated theme to the entire book is a frightening and abusive relationship.
Christian Grey might actually be Patrick Bateman. He is suddenly madly infatuated with Ana after meeting her twice, one of these instances involving watching her throw up everywhere - but not before stalking her to a bar where she was by tracing her cell phone usage. While she's being unwillingly sexually assaulted by the delightfully cliche token Hispanic, whose campy use of 'Dios mio' is worth of an eye roll all its own, Grey swoops in and saves the day, only to take her back to his hotel room while she's black-out drunk, undress her, and climb in bed after. He swears nothing happened, so that's good enough, right? There's nothing shady going on there. I kept wondering when he'd murder her and wear her skin as a smoking jacket.
Actually, most of the book revolves around Ana as a weak-willed shell of a woman who gets abused, coerced, and molested by the men and women in her life at every turn. Her "better senses," the ones telling her that Christian Grey is a terrifying psychopath, are written off as a shrill, harpy bitch that hates sex and fun and probably kicks puppies. Meanwhile, her "inner goddess" (who appears at every turn like an irritating Tinkerbell you want to swat away) is painted as a fun-loving, sex-positive, glowing and ideal woman. Her "inner goddess" is painted as a positive influence who silently encourages her to normalize things like Christian Grey sprouting a boner over strapping her into a helicopter, or the fact that Grey stalks her halfway across the country and shows up when she's trying to have a nice visit with her mother.
Grey isolates her from her friends and family, encourages her not to talk about their sex life to anyone but people he designates, is constantly getting Ana drunk, and then trying to get her to agree to things and eventually sign their 7-page dominant/submissive sex agreement.
I can't name even a single conversation they have through the course of the book that goes beyond superficial topics where neither of them storms off or gets pissed. Out of nowhere - surprise! - they are magically in love with each other. Ana loses what very little personality she was already grasping onto whenever Christian isn't around to patronize her, and instead resorts to hysterical crying and degrading her self-worth. Very healthy stuff.
If I had to give the writing a "style," it would most likely fall under "adult erotica written by a semi-illiterate senior citizen for foreign teenagers who have never had kinky sex before." It uses the same, painfully simplistic expressions like they're the last words and phrases on earth. A few examples include usage of the word "holy" (holy crap, holy shit, holy hell, etc.) 166 times, "Oh my" occurs 78, and Ana is found biting her lip several times in each and every chapter.
Some of the language is frankly outdated and antiquated, leading me to dub the main characters "Grandmastasia" and "Christian Greybeard." Examples of this:
"You look mighty fine trussed up like this, Miss Steele."
"You taste mighty fine."
On top of it all, Ana Steele is a recent college graduate in 2011 and needs others to teach her how to turn on a laptop and send e-mail. She has never had alcohol and is a pristine, virginal woman who deep throats Grey's godly cock on the first try. There is also never any usage of the word "vagina" or any variation thereof. I had to double-check my anatomy books to make sure that "down there" wasn't actually the name for my pussy - the language is oddly Puritanical at times like that, especially for a book of its content. Ana claims she identifies with "misfits," and yet has at least three men besides Grey in the book who express sexual interest in her, is well-educated, best friends with a popular and outgoing woman, and reads British literature. Dream on, lady.
EL James is out of date and out of touch with not just American culture, but American youth, American vernacular, and American mannerisms.
Something blue and boring with no shades of anything in this book.
Great review, thanks