‘Fifty Shades Of Grey’: Spin-Off Novel ‘Grey’ Breaks Sales Records Despite Beat Down By Critics

The highly anticipated spin-off to E.L James’ erotic trilogy Fifty Shades of Grey, entitled Grey: Fifty Shades of Grey As Told by Christian, which retells the story of Anastasia Steele and Christian Grey from the point of view of Christian, has broken sales records in the U.S. and is expected to do the same among U.K. readers.

The novel, which was released last Thursday, has already sold 1.1 million copies in the United States, and a spokesperson for U.K. publisher Arrow says that their numbers, when released sometime on Tuesday, will be “record-breaking.”

All of this, despite the fact that the Fifty Shades of Grey spin-off has been extraordinarily destroyed by critics across the board.

“Grey, the fourth book from E.L. James, is about as sexy as a misery memoir and as arousing as the diary of a sex offender,” writes Bryony Gordon in her review for the Telegraph.

“[In Grey, Christian’s] look is that of a desperate sexual predator. [A] cut-price Mr. Darcy in nipple clamps. The message here is clear: we are supposed to pity him. And yet the only person I pitied was poor old Anastasia, who has been written, in this book, with all the personality of a blow-up doll.”

Grey‘s review in Newsweek doesn’t see the book faring any better. Quoting a few of the many instances where Christian discusses his genitals, the reviewer adds “Grey would be far more compelling a read if the c**k in question were an anthropomorphic rooster, but there’s no barnyard fun to be had here, nor fun of any other kind.”

Jenny Colgan, of the Guardian, compared Christian Grey to her dog.

“All Christian thinks about is sex and food. It’s a bit like peering into the inside of your dog’s head – if your dog spent 80% of his day pouring out glasses of chilled Sancerre.”

Leanna Italie laments Christian’s predictability in her review for the Associated Press.

“Grey’s self-loathing comes alive in predictable expletives — and predictable cliches as [he] realizes his pull to Ana is ‘like a moth to a flame.’ “

And Jamie Altman, a college contributor for USA Today, says “[T]he book is nothing more than 50 shades of monotonous.”

“The sex scenes are just as drawn out and indulgent, and Christian uses similar descriptors and phrases when narrating these scenes — something that just seems lazy on author E.L. James’ part.”

The scathing reviews don’t seem to be hindering the sale of Grey: Fifty Shades of Grey As Told by Christian at all. Amazon.com, which had offered the book for pre-order, reported that E.L James’ fourth Fifty Shades novel broke the site’s record for Kindle pre-order sales, and the book’s publishing company, Vintage Anchor, has already ordered a third, fourth, and fifth printing of the Fifty Shades of Grey spinoff to keep up with demand, which will bring the number of print copies to 2.1 million in total.

[Image Credit: Cosmopolitan]