Fifty Shames of Earl Grey by Fanny Merkin

Fifty Shames, Book 1

Synopsis: A shrewd, laugh–out–loud parody of E. L. James’ bestselling Fifty Shades of Grey series:

Young, arrogant, tycoon Earl Grey seduces the naïve coed Anna Steal with his overpowering good looks and staggering amounts of money, but will she be able to get past his fifty shames, including shopping at Walmart on Saturdays, bondage with handcuffs, and his love of BDSM (Bards, Dragons, Sorcery, and Magick)? Or will his dark secrets and constant smirking drive her over the edge?

Review: I did read a long time after everyone else, Fifty Shades of Grey, when I was given the opportunity I confess. It wasn’t my favorite book as it was for some but I still had a good time without actually having the urge to read the other volumes in the series. But when I saw the release of Fifty Shames of Earl Grey, I was intrigued right away. It must be said that the summary is quite appealing, and it is true that I thought it could be a great idea to make a good parody of the original novel. Besides, I had seen some very good reviews for this book and I was curious to see how it was in the end. Yet it is true that I didn’t really get into the story and even if it’s possible to read the story fast enough, I think it was a little too crazy for me to really get into the book.

The history between the two novels, as you can imagine, basically remains the same. Some small differences are made without really changing the whole thing. Anna, for example, does not bite at all her lip, but she keeps putting her fingers in her nose. Yes a bad habit that’s for sure. It’s funny because while reading the summary and when I saw the explanation of BDSM (Bards, Dragons, Sorcery and Magic), I thought that the story might not turn out not around their intimate relationships, but ultimately it is still the case and we don’t really have something about Bards, Dragons, Sorcery and Magic. But it might be me and I just made a misconception about what the story was going to be.

It is true that the whole is a fast read, the writing is airy, simple, which is really nice but I think for me the problem is the history itself. I have not really hung on the humor of the author or understood why she had chosen to achieve certain events so. Everything is really crazy, maybe a little too much for we to have a bit of realism. I do not think that this will impair everyone but it’s true that it’s the first parody novel I read and I have perhaps not enough critical sense to really appreciate it. Yet it is still interesting to discover all that but like for the original work, I do not think I’ll read more.