I want to get through the Fifty Shades trilogy by the end of the year so I can start 2013 without this particular kidney stone in my system. Given that I hate this book more and more with each page, that could be difficult. Part of the problem is that, as the story unfolds, there’s actually less and less BDSM, and more and more of Ana and Christian’s hideously dysfunctional marriage. That’s not what I signed up for. I was under the impression that this was a book about BDSM, and assumed that it would basically be a standard-issue romance with some extra kink in the sex scenes; at worse, silly, harmless fluff. Instead, only a minority of the sex scenes involve any kink at all (I should total up the number) and the great love story of 2012 is the most abusive nightmare I’ve ever read. I’m more angered and baffled now than when I started this project.
Okay, where were we? The Expander takes an afternoon out of running his empire to force his wife to take his name by threatening to rape her. Mrs. Expander is a drunk paranoid slut-shamer, learning to exercise her right as a member of the one-percent (by marriage) to verbally abuse underlings. Everybody up to speed?
