Where No Straight Man Has Gone Before

The Lady in My Life has been reading the Fifty Shades of Grey book series lately.  She's about halfway through the second book and is completely hooked on them.  She's even encouraged me to give them a read because of how...intense (?)...they are.  I know the books are extremely popular with women readers right now, and almost every woman I know has at least started reading them (if not finished them) or wants to check them out. 

So last night, I cracked open the first book in the series to see what the fuss was about.  I read about 60 or so pages before calling it a night.  I didn't get to any of the "good stuff" so to speak, but I got far enough to meet the main characters and the general sense of why the books were popular.  I might even continue reading the first book to finish what I started, despite how it's clearly written for women audiences.

Now I have to say that it's refreshing that while Fifty Shades is certainly about romance and relationships, it isn't the childish tripe that is Twilight.  I couldn't tolerate even the commercials for the movies in the Twilight series, and I certainly never got the appeal behind them.  A teen vampire and a teen werewolf bicker over the love of a human girl?  So what?  What's at stake? 

There are issues I have with Fifty Shades, but they aren't anything quite like what I have with Twilight.  I think my biggest issue is the sheer amount of time the lead character Anastasia ogles over Christian Grey.  From the moment she lays eyes on Grey, she is immediately drawn to his physical attractiveness, and from that point she daydreams about him and lusts after him constantly.  I know she's around 22, and that kind of behavior isn't that uncommon for a 22 year old woman, but COME ON.  After about 30 pages of reading paragraph after paragraph over how much she can't stop thinking about him or lusting after him, I found myself wanting to scream, "OKAY, I GET IT!  SHE HAS THE HOTS FOR HIM!  MOVE ON!"

The inherent flaw, if you will, with my issue is that I also know her emotional state is very central to the story itself.  From her first meeting with Christian Grey, it was very clear every response, facial reaction, and gesture on Grey's part was designed to intimidate and control Anastasia.  I guess I wish subtlety was used more instead of putting Anastasia's thoughts in bold-faced capital letters so the reader has little to figure out.  Not to get too far off on another tangent, but it's the same problem I have with Dan Brown; his lack of subtle hints kill any chance for tension or surprise in his novels.  He has no faith in the reader's ability to remember details early on in his books, so he has to spell everything out in order for the payoff later on. 

In any case, I'm not trying say Fifty Shades is bad.  I still have a feeling I'll be more satisfied reading Game of Thrones while I lay out on the beach this weekend.