I keep thinking I’ve hit bottom with this book series, but it keeps on surprising me.
Nov 052012
Nov 022012
Reading this chapter brought me to a whole new level of hatred and loathing for these characters, and this book.
Oct 302012
At long last, Leila shows up with a gun, confronting Ana in her apartment.
As I argued before, Leila functions as Ana’s doppelganger, the reflection of her fears and hatreds. Specifically, she represents Ana’s fear that Christian will abandon her: she keeps saying, “Alone.” Ana assumes that it’s either lifetime monogamy with Christian, or a life of being a crazy cat lady.
Oct 282012
Ana doesn’t step out when Elena visits Christian. Instead she sticks around so she can passive-aggressively seethe at Elena. Elena tells Christian that someone is blackmailing her. Does this book really need another subplot?
Oct 272012
Christian is acting in a dom-y sort of way, which is fine. The problem is that Ana isn’t really into the Scene.
When he turns and gazes at me, his eyes are burning. I stand paralyzed like a complete zombie, my heart pounding, my blood pumping, not actually able to move a muscle. In my mind, all I can think is— this is for him—the thought repeating like a mantra over and over again.
Doing it “for him” is the problem. Ana is unaware of her own desires, or at least unable to express them. Again, she’s still thinking of this interactions in terms of “if I do what he wants, he will be nice to me”, instead of “what can he and I do that we will both enjoy?” It’s a recipe for slowly building up a reservoir of resentment.
Oct 272012
Leila is really slacking off on this whole jealous deranged stalker/champion of class warfare thing. No sign of her in this chapter either, as Ana and the Expander finish their boat ride and have lunch. This makes me want to watch Fatal Attraction and Basic Instinct again. Somebody really needs to boil Ana and Christian’s bunny, unless you count Leila trashing Ana’s car.
I should also mention that Ana has not asked Christian anything about Leila. That a former submissive has gone rogue and is stalking a dominant’s current squeeze isn’t necessarily his fault, but it does raise questions.
Oct 222012
I submit that Ana is a passive-aggressive sadist, delighting in Christian’s emotional pain. Witness the words I have bolded:
Oct 212012
False alarm. They settle into the apartment. And Ana dozes off by herself, only to wake with a glimpse of a Dark, Shadowy Figure staring at her, who Mysteriously Vanishes. She does not, of course, tell anybody about this. (Bet you she’d go down into the basement alone in a horror movie.)
Oct 202012
Continuing the rich-bastard party, Ana somehow gets into the auction for the first dance of the evening. I say “somehow” because that’s how she gets into everything.
“Now, gentlemen, pray gather round, and take a good look at what could be yours for the first dance. Twelve comely and compliant wenches.”
Jeez! I feel like I’m in a meat market. I watch, horrified, as at least twenty men make their way to the stage area, Christian included, moving with easy grace between the tables and pausing to say a few hellos on the way.
Oct 182012
We open with more vanilla sex. There must be a layer of dust in the Red Room of Pain by now.
