Honestly, this is a 1.5/5, but GoodReads doesn’t do half stars. TLDR: watch Folding Idea’s A Lukewarm Defense of Fifty Shades of Grey for a basic overview of my thoughts.

Now, let’s get into this.

Firstly, I wanted to abandon this book after one very specific section, which I will get into. I didn’t. I knew superfans would say “well you didn’t read the whole book, so your opinion is invalid!!!” So, I finished it.

I will first start off with the abuse, and overall shades of bigotry, then go into the story itself.

The moment I wanted to put this book down is when Ana first mentions she felt abused. That she was assaulted by Christian spanking her. She felt she was beat and assaulted. The book seems to rationalize this action as okay because she was turned on by it. That’s not how assault works. If a person feels as if they are assaulted, then it’s assault. Real life court cases have thrown out rape victims cases on the account that their body got turned on. It’s utterly ludicrous and how then he says “can’t you just deal with it for me?” Like... no!
Let’s also quickly touch on how the word assault is used throughout this book. It seems like Erica thinks that assault can be used in a good light, which it can’t. If any other word can describe what she is feeling without using the word assault (because it has very heavy implications to it), then use that word. It’s like the unspoken rule in media, if you can use anything other than rape, don’t use rape.
Now, let’s touch on the shades of bigotry throughout this book. There is the obvious homophobia littered throughout, and one moment that was very transphobic. Even when this book was originally written including those things were starting to become really not okay to do (not saying that it ever was, but at points it was socially acceptable). Then the misogyny. How Erica hates woman in general, but blondes in particular. I’m pretty sure a woman who was blonde must’ve started dating someone Erica liked because there is legit no reason for all of the hate that she gives them. Even Kate, Ana’s best friend (and the best character in this book), gets grouped into this category. 

Now the story. Yes, we all know this was Twilight fanfiction. Yes, it is pretty much a worse version of Twilight. As a fanfiction, you know there will be pretty much the same story there. The main problem is, this is no longer a fanfiction. Fanfictions get graded on a different scale. Some are masterful (Twist and Shout, for instance), and some awful (My Immortal, for instance). You have a lot of wiggle room in that genre. Here, once it gets turned into a book, you get graded on a novel scale. The main flaw is that no one was really allowed to edit this book. It has been said that the first editor was taken off after major disagreements with Erica. 
The story is the first half of the first Master’s of the Universe. It reads pretty much like a story you cut in half. There is no climax, no real end. There is a beginning, but the rest of the novel is the rising action. There is no resolution at the end, and the climax hasn’t happened yet because this is the first part of a story. If real editing and re-writes were allowed then that basic plot structure would be there. I will also touch on continuity and writing style. Ana’s inner monologue is annoying. We all know that. A real problem is continuity. There was one section where Christian grabs Ana’s elbow, they share two lines of dialogue, he lets go of her hand to grab her elbow. See the problem?
There is also the issue of how the topic of BDSM is used. Not well. Erica has it in her mind that people who practice BDSM are broken, in need of fixing. No, not true. Also in a professional setting, a contract is put in place. They bring up the contract probably 8 times, but never take the 15 seconds after reading the contract to sign it. Then there is assumption that Doms have sex with their Subs. Professional Doms don’t. It doesn’t really apply to the story here, but just wanted to mention it since a lot of peoples introduction to BDSM was this book.

The rating. See, giving this book a 1 would be too low of a score. Why? If this story was in the hands of a better writer, then there is a really good erotic story in here. If you go beat-by-beat, the story isn’t half bad. There is a good erotic thriller or horror here. But because of the writing, you are left with a sociopath and a girl who was born yesterday, but down for anything. The sex scenes are actually the best part of this book. They are well written, and can be actually erotic, but the rest of the story has to happen. The rest of the story isn’t well written at all. Ana is confused by everything. I swear you could cut out half of the sentences on every single page and make Ana a more competent character and make a better story, doing no other edits, but that. So, it has potential. Giving this book a 2 gives it too much credit. It doesn’t deserve a 2. So a 1.5/5 it is. 

No, I will not be reading the rest of the series.