When I first started in on the Fifty Shades of Grey trilogy, I did not once think I would ever tumble into the group that likes this series. For the average fan of the series, they can care less about grammar and editing. It is the other group, book reviewers, book writers and anyone in the book industry including librarians who are up in arms about praising a book with so many errors.
So for the third and final book of the series (though a 4th book may be coming out) I took my reviewer hat off and just read the book as a fan. And you know what? For the most part I actually enjoyed what I was reading. I could even ignore all the stupid little errors. Until the middle of the book when I ripped off my fan hat, and jammed by reviewer hat back on with a vengeance.
Why you may ask? Because of one Anastasia Steele. My goodness, she has got to be the dumbest, most irritating character I have ever read, and I have read a lot of books over the past 20 years. I mean it is as if the author was in a corner and had no idea how to write herself out of it. For almost the entire darn book (ok maybe a 3rd), Ana made absolute stupid choices that I kept scratching my head and wondering, how many more pages of this do I have to go through?
Anastasia Steele, is now married to Christian Grey, and they are wonderfully happy. Well as happy as a possessive and co-dependent can be. They are on a long honeymoon and they have some issues, but I am fine with that. My problem starts when Ana starts to do stupid little things, as if she is trying to tick her husband off. There is a person trying to come after Christian and he has stepped up security. That means you listen to your man and security to make sure you will live to see another day.
What does Ana do? Defy everyone of course. She makes choices without thinking of the consequences, or how Christian will react, though it has been established since book one, Christian is not all there when it comes to Ana’s well-being.
She fights him every step of the way, until Christian does something stupid. At this point, I have exhausted whatever sympathy I had for Ana, even after her big reveal.
Except, the chick does something that made me sit up and take notice. Ana actually chooses to fight for her man, in an unconventional way, by trying to do something noble. Without going into detail, I was pleasantly surprise and actually wanted to hi-five her inner goddess.
For the most part I liked this last installment better than book 2, because I felt the characters were a bit more developed and the overall story was a bit intriguing that kept me wanting to find out the final solution. I even liked the small twist. Even the inner-goddess and her subconscious were welcomed.
With that said, the character of Ana is one that is completely flawed. At times she seems mature, sure of herself, at others you remember just how young she is. She also has this crazy logic that she is not only invincible as indicated by her dumb choices, but that she seems to forget sometimes just how determined and dominant Christian is. Like come on chick, you left him once for his overbearing ways; you think with marriage he will suddenly become docile?
And Christian for the most part has always been my favorite character out of this whole series. That is until he does one stupid thing. The female in me wanted to slap him silly, but I do understand why he does it. Fear can unfortunately make even a strong, sometimes confident person make stupid choices. But with that said, he is still my favorite character.
Now some may argue that Christian and Ana’s relationship is pretty much an abusive one, and for the most part I do see that. Grey is all about control, and will do things to ensure that control. Ana is codependent for the most part and will do anything to make him happy, even going to far as to give in and change her name. But with all that said, this book at its core, is about two unlikely people finding in each other dealing with their issues. Yes Christian is a beast and yes Ana gives him his way, but for me I felt their overall relationship worked. It just took some time for them to get it together, what with so many issues between them.
Overall this third installment was not bad, and had moments that I really thought were done well. But there are still things about this book that stops me from loving it completely. It is a fast can’t put down read, yet I still wanted more from the main characters. I like that Christian’s dark with issues. It gives him depth. I even liked the way the minor characters were presented, just there, enough to add to the overall story.
Ana is just dumb. She takes a situation, and without really weighing the pros and cons fully, goes off and then regrets her decisions later. For most of the book, hek for the most of the series I have had no sympathy towards her, only bitter hatred. Yet the last few pages shows that Ana, when push comes to shove, can have noble intentions, even if they almost get her killed.
I do recommend the book. Yes there are still massive amounts of sex, but that is not what I liked about the book. It could have been a great book series, if only an editor could have gotten to it. I know most fans don’t care, and that is fine, but as a reviewer, I can see the potential there and that is why this series will never be a highly recommend.
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© 2012 Acquanetta Ferguson, All rights reserved.
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