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A review by mirrorchaser
Freed by E.L. James
2.0
You guys, I'm practically shaking with rage about how awful this book was. I toggled back and forth between one and two stars at least twenty-five times before settling on one and a half which I rounded up to two for Goodreads. The half star is because I finished it. Honestly though, I think I should have awarded that star to MYSELF for finishing. I have multiple marked points where I noted that I wanted to DNF. I chose to keep pushing because I didn't make it through five books of this series to stop here... but I should have. I should have put it down and saved NEARLY A MONTH OF MY LIFE.
Here's my rub, y'all:
It took me so long to finish because this book lulled me to sleep many a night. I didn't even want to read it most of the time but I was like "ugh, I need to spend some time with these losers if I want to finish this book."
It was pretty tame smut wise which is totally fine with me because [a:EL James|21652032|EL James|https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/user/u_50x66-632230dc9882b4352d753eedf9396530.png] has been known to overdo it a time or two but it was also pretty tame in every other way and by tame I mean LAME. If you thought [b:Fifty Shades Freed|13536860|Fifty Shades Freed (Fifty Shades, #3)|E.L. James|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1336418837l/13536860._SY75_.jpg|18034963] didn't really have a plot, I've got a surprise for you.
At least Ana's books didn't have a plot but they had a lot of sex. We can all just be like "okay, this is erotica. This either is for me or it isn't." Christian's books don't have a plot or a lot of sex or decent characters or good editing or any of the things that Bestselling novels should include.
This book was page after page after page of Christian explaining the mundane tasks throughout his day, thinking about Ana a lot but very superficially, and talking to his security team. I can't tell if James' goal was to make Christian more relatable or likeable or what but it just ended up being very slow.
Most of the book looked like this:
Actual footage of Christian Grey waiting for his black coffee while looking at his photo of Ana and wondering what Mrs. Jones will cook for dinner.
I was so excited for this book because I thought 1) after this many years of writing, it would have to be so much better quality wise 2) after this many years of best selling, James would have a decent editor 3) with so much changing for Christian we would finally get some of that complexity. We might finally learn why he is the way he is and see how he thinks.
Well I'm here to tell you that none of those things happened.
Just for an example of editing issues: 1) Christian shares that he has permission from "Ana's Step-father" to spank her.... nope, Ana's DAD gave you permission to do that. Also, ew. 2) SEVEN uses of the word "Yar," four of which happened before any explanation. I've never seen A Philadelphia Story Christian. 3) SIX uses of "she made me feel ten feet tall."
The scenes we waiting for years to read from Christian's perspective like the meeting with Elena were so shallow.
It is also very clear that this book was written by a woman. I confirmed with my husband that men don't think the same way Christian Grey does. Too much internal monologue apparently.
Overall, just... disappointing. Such a waste of 700 pages of precious reading time.
Here's my rub, y'all:
It took me so long to finish because this book lulled me to sleep many a night. I didn't even want to read it most of the time but I was like "ugh, I need to spend some time with these losers if I want to finish this book."
It was pretty tame smut wise which is totally fine with me because [a:EL James|21652032|EL James|https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/user/u_50x66-632230dc9882b4352d753eedf9396530.png] has been known to overdo it a time or two but it was also pretty tame in every other way and by tame I mean LAME. If you thought [b:Fifty Shades Freed|13536860|Fifty Shades Freed (Fifty Shades, #3)|E.L. James|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1336418837l/13536860._SY75_.jpg|18034963] didn't really have a plot, I've got a surprise for you.
At least Ana's books didn't have a plot but they had a lot of sex. We can all just be like "okay, this is erotica. This either is for me or it isn't." Christian's books don't have a plot or a lot of sex or decent characters or good editing or any of the things that Bestselling novels should include.
This book was page after page after page of Christian explaining the mundane tasks throughout his day, thinking about Ana a lot but very superficially, and talking to his security team. I can't tell if James' goal was to make Christian more relatable or likeable or what but it just ended up being very slow.
Most of the book looked like this:
Actual footage of Christian Grey waiting for his black coffee while looking at his photo of Ana and wondering what Mrs. Jones will cook for dinner.
I was so excited for this book because I thought 1) after this many years of writing, it would have to be so much better quality wise 2) after this many years of best selling, James would have a decent editor 3) with so much changing for Christian we would finally get some of that complexity. We might finally learn why he is the way he is and see how he thinks.
Well I'm here to tell you that none of those things happened.
Just for an example of editing issues: 1) Christian shares that he has permission from "Ana's Step-father" to spank her.... nope, Ana's DAD gave you permission to do that. Also, ew. 2) SEVEN uses of the word "Yar," four of which happened before any explanation. I've never seen A Philadelphia Story Christian. 3) SIX uses of "she made me feel ten feet tall."
The scenes we waiting for years to read from Christian's perspective like the meeting with Elena were so shallow.
It is also very clear that this book was written by a woman. I confirmed with my husband that men don't think the same way Christian Grey does. Too much internal monologue apparently.
Overall, just... disappointing. Such a waste of 700 pages of precious reading time.