Grey: Fifty Shades of Grey as Told by Christian - E.L. James

Source: Bought it on Amazon for Kindle
Publication Date: June 18, 2015
Page Count: 576
Publisher: Vintage
(My) Format: Kindle ebook

 

Report Card:
Characters: B
Character Development: A+
Plot: B
Writing: C-
Star Factor: B+
Overall Grade: B+

Characters
If you know anything about this series (and I'm fairly certaineveryone knows something about this series) then you're probably already aware of what the characters are like.
Since this story is told from Christian's perspective, we learn a lot more about him, but nothing you wouldn't get from the reading the original three books. This just tells us everything that we learned, especially, from the third book. His part, his relationships with other subs, and of course, Elena, whom I still loathe. :) We get a much better glimpse of what his childhood was like and it was heartbreaking.
Ana is more watered down here, just because we already know so much about her from previous books. Most the story focuses solely on Christian. Solely. Rarely do we get any insight into any other character. For the most part, it's what's going on in his head. I think this is because we already know everyone else, and this is, after all, just a retelling from his perspective. That's pretty much it's only purpose.

Character Development
This is where Grey shines. We already know that Christian changes through the first three books. That's pretty much all they're about. But here we get to actually see it from his perspective and how difficult it is for him to give up any control. He goes leaps about bounds for Ana just in this book, which we didn't really see in Fifty Shades of Grey , mostly because we're in her head, not his.

Plot
Again, the plot is nothing new. It's an exact replica of Fifty Shades of Grey , as it was intended to be. However, we do get to see more of what was going on with Leila, whom I also hate :)

Writing
This is where this book lacks, as did the others. The writing is repetitive, and really, just not that good. It really does come off as a fan fiction, and not even a very good one. I'd known from her previous work, that this was to be expected. I'd just hoped for more after three book's worth of experience. Oh, well. It is what it is. After all, this isn't meant to be a masterpiece.

Star Factor
I gave this part a B+ simply because the Grey series does XXX better than other books. There's a reason it's the #1 "mommy porn" out there. Sure, there is a lot of erotica out there that better written, but it lacks the uumph factor.