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Grey, the Fifty Shades of Grey sequel, disappoints


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June 25, 2015/0.36


The highly anticipated sequel to E. L. James’s Fifty Shades of Grey novel, Grey, as told through Christian Grey’s perspective, was released last week.
   I’m a fan of the first three books and I was excited to see how the events that helped us all fall in love with Mr Grey in the three books, as told through Anastasia Steele’s perspective, would differ from Mr Grey’s. I have to admit, I feel utter disappointment.
   Not only does the book feel like a cut-and-paste section of a badly written essay leaving the reader thinking, ‘Hang on, I’ve read this before,’ but Grey gives the impression that it was written way too fast with not enough time or thought given to explore the psyche of Mr Grey.
   Sure, it has some funny points, I’ll give James that, but it hasn’t had great reviews so far. Maybe I expected too much; maybe I thought that Grey would reveal something more than a 27-year-old man behaving like a 15-year-old boy who has to analyse every single little comment that is made to him by Miss Steele. The amount of self-loathing and hate Grey describes is enough to drive the reader to throw their hands in the air and say, ‘I’ve read enough,’ and leave the book lying on the floor.
   For a series that has won a lot of acclaim and attention for being fresh, there is nothing fresh in Grey. So much of the book is a repeat of the first, as told by Anastasia, with minor insights into the psychopath that Grey is.
   What I found interesting was that his psychologist is called Mr Hyde. This observation made me think of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. Grey has two personalities that battle for dominance over him, and therefore, over Anastasia. That small reference could have been explored, in my opinion, in more depth, but I guess the pressure to produce a sequel was too much for James.
   As a fan, I was let down completely. I felt James was just changing a few words and names around, and didn’t really explore the psychopath enough. We know he has childhood issues, we get it, but that doesn’t give him the right to tell Anastasia how she should behave. Perhaps, someone should have given Grey a lesson on how he should behave towards he woman he claims to love.
   In this case, the movies will be better than the books.—Snjezana Bobič


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