Christian and Ana go back to Seattle. More newlywed stuff that gets pretty tired pretty fast. Christian continues to use mock threats of punishment against Ana, and it still is maddeningly unclear to Ana and to us whether he means it.
Dec 162012
Dec 162012
The scene I have anticipated for some time has come. Ana wants to go out shopping out and Christian’s security detail won’t let her. Being Mrs. Christian Grey means being a bird in a gilded cage.
I want to roll my eyes at him, but I narrow them instead, sighing heavily and expressing, I think, the right amount of frustrated indignation that I am not mistress of my own destiny. Then again, I don’t want Christian mad at Taylor—or me, for that matter.
I know some people want to see (and have written fan works) that go inside Christian’s head. I’d like to get inside Taylor’s head, and find out what it is like to bodyguard a neurotic, obsessive-compulsive, borderline-personality-disorder billionaire and his dimwitted, paranoid, gold-digging new bride. “I resigned from the FBI to do this?”
Dec 152012
Ana is shocked when she discovers that Christian deliberately left hickeys all over her breasts, in order to discourage her from showing her breasts to anyone other than him.
I gape at my reflection. My wrists have a red welt around them from the handcuffs. No doubt they’ll bruise. I examine my ankles—more welts. Holy hell, I look like I’ve been in some sort of accident.
That’s what can happen when you wear handcuffs while doing something strenuous. (I suspect this is a nod to a scene in Twilight when, after consummating her relationship with Edward, Bela awakens covered in bruises.)
Dec 132012
I’ve divided the commentary on this chapter into two because I want to dissect the scene between Ana and Christian carefully.
Christian has asked Ana for her safeword.
Dec 112012
I have a half-baked theory that the E.L. James we see in interviews is actually a J.T. Leroy-like front for the real author of Master of the Universe/Fifty Shades: a 15-year-old girl with serious mood and identity disorders. That’s the only way I can explain these books.
Dec 052012
They say the only way out of hell is through, and here we go into the last third of the Fifty Shades trilogy.
If Fifty Shades of Grey roughly parallels Richardson’s Pamela, Darker is also a rough parallel of Richardson’s Clarissa. Ana is drawn into a reality completely controlled by Christian, just as Lovelace completely controls Clarissa’s environment. Unlike Clarissa, Ana eagerly accepts her man’s marriage proposal, despite that nothing has really been resolved in their relationship.
Nov 252012
On a strictly literary level, Darker is worse than its predecessor. EL James’ prose style hasn’t improved, and her plotting has gotten worse. Fifty Shades of Grey is built around a back-and-forth between Ana and Christian, while Darker is mostly just forth. Ana isn’t seriously resisting Christian anymore. A large part of this book is external challenges to their relationship, but they are handled in such a way to remove any tension or excitement.
Nov 132012
When Ana and Christian visit his parents to announce their engagement, Kate shows up and stages the intervention she should have held for Ana a book and a half ago. Somehow she has a printout of an email about the contract. Ana gets pissed off that Kate is ruining her big moment with petty concerns like possible abuse and shady documents.
Nov 112012
In this chapter, aliens abduct Christian Grey, remove his brain, replace it with the brain of a competent and responsible dominant and return him to his penthouse. That’s my only real explanation for the change in character. For nearly two books, Christian Grey has been a textbook example of the overly aggressive male dominant, constantly pushing inexperienced Ana into a heavy duty relationship, not to mention waging a campaign to control every aspect of her life.
Now, suddenly, he’s tender, passionate, considerate, patient and reassuring.
Nov 112012
This being Ana and Christian, they immediately go for sex, even though Christian had a life-threatening experience.
More vanilla sex in the shower. El James seems to have a particular thing for bathing, which is fine.
We also find out that Ana bought her gift that said “yes” to his proposal, before she went to see Dr. Flynn, which means that she had again denied herself power in this relationship.
