Daunted by the singular sexual tastes and dark secrets of the beautiful, tormented young entrepreneur Christian Grey, Anastasia Steele has broken off their relationship to start a new career with a Seattle publishing house. But desire for Christian still dominates her every waking thought, and when he proposes a new arrangement, Anastasia cannot resist. They rekindle their searing sensual affair, and Anastasia learns more about the harrowing past of her damaged, driven, and demanding Fifty Shades. While Christian wrestles with his inner demons, Anastasia must confront her anger and envy of the women who came before her and make the most important decision of her life. Erotic, sparkling and suspenseful, Fifty Shades Darker is the irresistibly addictive second part of the Fifty Shades trilogy.
My husband bought me this book with the other two back when the trilogy was a big sensation and was causing an uproar. I was originally okay with the idea of reading the library book, but he wanted to surprise me. Naturally, he will say the series sucks and make fun of me for reading it, but that’s him teasing. Granted, he isn’t far off in his opinion of the series.
I decided to read this specific book because the movie was just released. I wanted a frame of reference and a comparison of the two medias. I should have stuck with just the movie, to be honest.
It took me about three times just to get past the first chapter. That’s three times with many days in between tries. I couldn’t get past how our heroine didn’t even give herself time away from Christian before jumping back in his arms. A few days after breaking up does not make a good reunion. I could set that aside though because that basically happened to me with my first serious boyfriend (who wasn’t a good match).
What also bothered me was her blatant apathy towards Christian’s stalker personality. Okay, maybe apathetic isn’t the right term. She did have feelings about it, but only voiced them on occasion and never really resolved that issue.
But what bothered me the most was her disrespect for mental therapy. Now, therapy isn’t for everyone, but don’t call a therapist a “con-man”. A therapist is supposed to help a person through their traumatic experiences. Christian Grey is a person with emotional and mental issues, he is technically mentally ill, and here is his girlfriend basically saying he needs to work out his issues, but scoffs at his chosen method of working things out. A method that has been seen to work. Is she a scientologist? Or just ignorant about mental health?
I honestly couldn’t get through the book I was annoyed with Anastasia with her disrespect for mental health and her whiny lack of self assurance. I’m not saying she didn’t need to have insecurities, but she sure as hell should have asserted her thoughts about her chosen love’s poor relationship skills.
The book is bad. Plain and simple. The movie is also better than the book. That is all I can say about this.
Casia's Corner 
I felt exactly the same when I read this book. I thought it was terrible, and Ana gets more and more annoying. It’s hard to care about her at all, because she is just…bleh. I enjoyed your review, and agree with absolutely everything you said!