50 Shades of Grey

I've very nearly finished the Fifty Shades trilogy - you know the books I am talking about right? The ones that have been labelled "mom-porn" and in some form of puritan-hysteria, have been banned from libraries in America.  Despite the hype surrounding these books, I had read pretty mixed reviews so approached the books with some trepidation.

If you don't know the background, the Fifty Shades books were originally written as Twilight fan-fiction. Okay, that's probably enough to send most people running for the hills... However the slightly, erm, racy nature of them seemed to upset the Twihards and apparently the works were pulled as fan-fiction, rehashed and published as books in their own right with two new characters, Christian Grey and Anastasia Steele.

Did I enjoy the books? I did actually, once I got past the basic writing that it is - the style is more suited to young adult fiction and the terms she uses do get a bit repetitive. I wish I could count how many times the author uses the phrase "cocked his head to one side". In fact I may Google it in a minute. Then there was the constant use of "holy hell" "holy cow" and "holy f**k" or basically any other word that can be prefixed by "holy".  I quite enjoyed the storyline though, which kept me interested all the way through the trilogy and whilst in the first book I really didn't like Christian Grey at all, I found myself very fond of him in the second and third books as his character opened up and developed. Anastasia Steele? I'm afraid I didn't warm to her too much and I got a bit fed up of all the "inner goddess" stuff.

What about the "mom-porn" I hear you ask? Yes it was quite detailed and graphic, there is a lot of sex in the books, but it's not particularly out-there in terms of erotic fiction. There's nothing particularly untoward other than the pleasure they get out of doing the business to  the music of Thomas Tallis. 

As with all popular books these days, there's going to be a movie and due to the content of the book I can't imagine it's going to be less than an 18Cert - bah, you keep you're rubbish Breaking Dawn sex scene Twihards! (Must find out if there is a collective name for Fifty Shades fans...). There's been muchos discussion about who should play the main characters with the obvious ones being Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart. I mean clearly they'd work well in those characters due to the Twilight-factor and actually I think Kristen Stewart would be a great choice for the role of Ana. I'm afraid in my head though, as much as I love Robert Pattinson (and I do...) I imagined Christian to be a bit better looking, although they do the look the part on that picture above, I have to say and Kristen Stewart is just what I imagine Ana to look like.

I've heard it bandied around that Christian Bale could be in the running. NO NO NO. I can't stand that man. Seeing as the actor who has to play Christian Grey is going to spend a good chunk of the film on the job, I'm going to go for the people I'd most like to see naked right now. Which would be Zac Efron and Ryan Gosling. Not at the same time. Ooh...

 

Totally gratuitous. See. I can turn any blogpost around to being about nice-looking men.

Clearly I have too much time on my hands as I've also thought about who else should be cast. Now I'm not saying these people can act or would be any good but in my head this is what the characters look like. Bah. Films always ruin things for me.

Ana and Christian

Kate and Jose

Elliot and Mia

Carrick and Grace

Jack and Leila

Mrs Jones and Taylor

Carla and Ray

Elena and Dr Flynn

Ethan and Gia

What do you think to my casting? Those are the closest I could find to match the visual images in my strange little head.

All-in-all, it was enjoyable easy reading, light entertainment. It was Twilight fan-fic so it was never going to be high-brow!

Have you read the Fifty Shades trilogy? What were your thoughts and please, do tell me who you think should be cast in the main parts.  I'd love to hear who your Christian would be!