Fifty Shades Better: E L James's Sequel is Superior

One would be hard-pressed to find a woman in her mid-twenties to early forties who hasn't read or heard about the popular Fifty Shades of Grey trilogy by English author E L James. These readers and the men who love them seem to be addicts: if not reading the novel, somebody is at least talking about it. The series' popularity, which has skyrocketed in the past several weeks, is largely due to the author's conquering of a brave, new literary world: taking fetish erotica and turning it mainstream.

The second installment of Ana Steele and Christian Grey's intensely emotional and physical romance fares far better than its predecessor. The sequel, Fifty Shades Darker, is more plot-driven, involving a greater attention to character development with several well-placed plot devices that propel the novel past erotica into more action- and mystery-oriented hints of genre. While James's novel is primarily classified as erotic romance, Fifty Shades Darker is less erotic, but, in fact, darker, than the first novel in the series.

I criticized the first novel for following Stephenie Meyer's Twilight series too closely, a mistake that could have ended the success of her work had the books been released in print on a traditional printing schedule. Her advantage, self-publishing digitally for an e-reading audience, meant that fans could pick up all three novels together in one fell swoop and attain that 'finished collection' feeling of bibliophilic accomplishment. James's reliance on Meyer's successful model (read: commercially successful) takes a refreshing turn to a more unique voice and style while still maintaining some of the merits of Fifty Shades of Grey that attracted her readers in the first place. For instance, Fifty Shades Darker shows James's attention and love for her characters by recalling earlier snippets of dialogue and then-insignificant plot pieces to better age Ana and Christian (and their romance) into personas that are more tangible, more believable, and less static.

Where James surpasses Meyer, perhaps, is in her experimentation with voice, although its jarring effect on the reader results from her novice skill as an author and lack of quality editing (the latter a fate also suffered by Meyer). Utilizing a third-person narrator, for the first time in the series, Darker opens with a brief prologue that introduces the reader to Christian's tormented past of physical abuse and neglect, describing him as a child, reliving the moments of his pain. The novel concludes with a similar piece, but shifts at this point into a polyphonic narrative, even if only for a few paragraphs. The final passages of Darker are narrated by a seemingly minor character; it becomes clearer, after reading those passages, that James does not intend this character to be minor in the final installment of the trilogy. A weakness is that the narration tends to 'frame' the story, but without being cohesive in doing so. James neglects to develop the third-person narrator who opens the novel and use him consistently, and indulges a first-person perspective from a different voice to finish the novel. A bit like whiplash, these oddly-constructed and inconsistently used narratives do little more than make the reader scratch her head. Why not use flashback or dialogue to further develop Christian's character? What function is served by the impersonal narrator?

Weaknesses aside, Darker is a fun read. While the erotic passages that popularized the series are greater in number, their impact on the reader is noticeably diminished. As Christian begins to separate himself from his 'darker' tendencies, the steamy page-turner becomes more vanilla (a term Christian uses to describe ordinary, 'normal' sex) by the chapter. Readers are less interested in the sexual aspect of the characters' relationship than they are the future of it. The fact that James can create this type of concern in her reader by exploring it through her characters is enough to forget about the repetitive phrases ("sweat, bodywash, and Christian, the most delicious smell in the world") and move forward into the plot.

The most exciting plot development, however, is not the development of the romantic relationship at hand, but is the appearance of 'Mrs. Robinson', Christian's former dominatrix, and her interactions with Christian, Ana, and the Greys throughout the novel. Coupled with a few eerie appearances from Leila, a former submissive, the arrival of new characters who are 'in' on Christian's fetish certainly adds much-needed plot tension that is not sexual in nature.

Overall, James's work in Fifty Shades Darker is better. A stronger command of her plotline along with a noticeable sensitivity for (and care in creating) her characters results in a more worthwhile read. While her claim to fame and writing talent lies predominantly in her ability to construct eye-popping erotic prose, the strategies James uses for cohesion are not effective: the scattered attempts to incorporate varied narration and the reliance on repetitive language do take away from the novel's attempt at polish.

The final book in the series, Fifty Shades Freed, awaits, taunting the reader with a gleaming pair of handcuffs on its cover. Will James's conclusion show a greater evolution of talent? Perhaps. The differences between the first and second novels are measurable. As for the plot, whether or not James chooses to experiment with narration and borrow from the action/adventure and mystery genres remains to be seen...laters, baby.