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FIFTY SHADES OF GREY by E.L. James
The fifty shades of phenomenon we love to hate. Could there
be a success targeted more than E.L. James’ FIFTY
SHADES of GREY?
For a time, I was aware yet, innocuous to the story’s
actual premise. Influenced by chatter, I was naively under the impression it was
nothing more than an erotic tale. Then suddenly, everyone is talking about it.
The rumors were and still are brutal: “She can’t write. It’s repetitive. The
main characters are a couple of schizophrenics. It’s the worst book I ever
read.”
This combined with experience and my background left me
baffled and far too intrigued. How could a book sell 20 million copies
generating 145 million dollars of revenue in such a short period of time have
nothing to offer? It simply had to be striking a deep seated chord within the
reader’s psyche. As soon as I could muster the time, I downloaded the
unabridged audio version and set out to see what all the fuss was about.
The truth is; FIFTY
SHADES of GREY is a well thought through story about a deeply wounded man
and the very young and naïve woman he longs to share a relationship with…At the
root of his wounds, like many wounded individuals, everything is a
magnification; an extremism that becomes the personal norm. In Christian Grey’s
life, power, sex, money, and particularly trust are all contorted inside a man
that is basically good.
For the reader FIFTY
SHADES of GREY delves into the question: how far would you go to form a
pact of trust with another human being?
Outside of sitcoms, society is familiar yet, shaded and
bored with stories about the abused child that grows to become a deviant
criminal, but they are mostly unaware of the stories about the alternative
coping mechanisms. However unexpected the looming reality is individuals often
learn to adapt in order to deal with the two war powers sparring within their
damaged souls.
Christian Grey was born the son of a crack whore. Her evil
pimp inflicted vile pain upon the young Christian. Compounding the abuse was
his lack of basic needs being met. He was hungry and neglected. Abused and
starving, upon the death of his mother, Christian is adopted by and affluent “good”
family. Despite his good fortune, through adolescence he continues to find
himself tossed into the darker side of humanity by yet another abuser. Unfortunately, this does happen all too
often.
The author brilliantly portrays an all too common syndrome
that society prefers to overlook. Hyper-sexuality is a very real result of many
types of abuse. On the other hand, trust is an issue the vast majority of the
population longs for, and is acutely aware of their own deprivation.
The story is told by Anastasia Steele the winner for better
or worse of Christian Grey’s misunderstood affection. The two are very young.
Anastasia in particular is only 21 years old. Staying true the character’s age
and immaturity the verbiage is often repetitive, and perhaps for the love of
the reader, should have received one more edit. However, the way it has been
left is more true to life, sometimes it is about story not about a literary
masterpiece.
FIFTY SHADES of GREY is a mature story teetering on the
extremes. It peeks into a place where the dark needs and wants to meet the
light halfway.
My copy:
Version: Unabridged
Publisher: Random House Audio
My copy:
Version: Unabridged
Publisher: Random House Audio
Wednesday, November 13, 2013
PRESS RELEASE: The Wilde Passions of Dorian Gray by Mitzi Szereto
Publication date: Nov. 2013 (North America); Dec. 2013 (UK, Mainland Europe, Australia, New Zealand, Latin America, Asia, etc.)
Trade paperback
288 pages
ISBN # 978-1573449656
Publisher: Cleis Press, USA
(From the back cover):
What if Dorian Gray Faked His Death and Led a Secret Life?
Inspired by Oscar Wilde’s classic novel The Picture of Dorian Gray, Mitzi Szereto’s The Wilde Passions of Dorian Gray continues where Wilde left off with the Faustian tale of a man of eternal youth and great physical beauty who lives a life of corruption, decadence, and hedonism. The story begins in the bordellos of Jazz-Age Paris, moving to the opium dens of Marrakesh and the alluring anonymity of South America. In his pursuit of sensation and carnal thrills, Dorian’s desires turn increasingly extreme as he leaves behind yet more devastation and death. He ultimately settles in present-day New Orleans, joining forces with a group of like-minded beings known as the Night People. They inadvertently return to Dorian his humanity when he falls in love with a young woman he rescues from becoming their victim. Will she be his redemption? Or will she be his final curse?
Oscar Wilde’s iconic character Dorian Gray has captured the imaginations of readers for well over a century. A Gothic classic in the tradition of Faust, The Picture of Dorian Gray tells the tale of a young man who barters his soul in exchange for eternal youth and beauty, leading him down a pathway filled with vice and sin. Of course in a moral world such an existence couldn’t continue indefinitely, for those who commit terrible deeds are inevitably punished.
Or are they?
What if Dorian Gray hadn’t died? What if he’d staged his own death so that he could continue to live a life brimming with every decadence and debauchery the imagination could conceive of—and then some?
“Dorian Gray has fascinated me ever since I first read the novel when I was ten years old. The quintessential bad boy of Victorian literature, Dorian’s sex appeal doesn’t diminish no matter how evil he becomes. He’s an erotic villain no one, either male or female, can resist; perhaps I too, fell a little bit in love with him!” says author Mitzi Szereto, who boldly picks up the story where Oscar Wilde left off, chronicling Dorian’s whirlwind journey around the world and through time as he indulges in an endless orgy of corruption, depravity, and sex.
From consorting with the self-obsessed glitterati of the literary and art worlds in jazz-age Paris to enjoying a life of extreme sexual degradation as a war-refugee in Morocco to his calculated seduction and destruction of a monk in 1960s South America—Dorian continually searches for the next thrilling sensation until he eventually encounters another creature even more corrupt than himself when he joins forces with a group of like-minded beings in modern-day New Orleans.
The Wilde Passions of Dorian Gray is Gothic decadence at its best and will titillate and shock you until the very last page!
What others have to say:
“How could I not have loved Mitzi Szereto’s new novel about the very much live afterlife of Oscar Wilde’s wonderfully dissolute character? It touches all my buttons and begs to be read after dark...”—Maxim Jakubowski
“A debauched adventure through time and decadence! Szereto brings an authentically ‘classic’ voice to this modern tale of Dorian Gray.”—John Everson, author of Siren and NightWhere
"The Wilde Passions of Dorian Gray is a hedonistic rush that doesn’t shy away from the darker side of passion. I loved it!”—Sam Stone, author of The Vampire Gene Series
“Sizzling erotica that would make Oscar Wilde blush!”—Lucy Taylor, author of The Safety of Unknown Cities and winner of the Bram Stoker Award for Best First Novel
“With extraordinarily lyrical prose, (Mitzi Szereto) paints a portrait of Dorian that will stay with you forever.”—Janice Eidus, author of The War of the Rosens and The Last Jewish Virgin
About the author:
Mitzi Szereto (http://mitziszereto.com) is a bestselling multi-genre author and anthology editor, has her own blog “Errant Ramblings: Mitzi Szereto’s Weblog” (http://mitziszereto.com/blog)
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