Freed

July 1, 2021
Ten years after the publication of Fifty Shades of Grey, the series closes with the final installment of the trilogy from reclusive billionaire Christian Grey's point of view. The book opens in the summer of 2011 on the night of Christian's engagement to his girlfriend and submissive, Anastasia Steel. There is no summarizing or recapping, just a plunge back into the fast-paced life of Seattle's favorite billionaire. In the last book, Darker (2017), Christian's helicopter crashed, and now the investigation shows evidence of foul play. Christian's main concerns are securing his future with Ana, battling the inner demons that have plagued him since childhood, and finding the mysterious villain attacking him both personally and professionally. The plot is episodic, just a series of small, urgent crises that fail to gel into a cohesive or interesting story. Christian is not an introspective man, which makes the 755 pages of first-person narration difficult reading. A description of his favorite turkey sandwich merits as much space as a fight with his father. When Ana challenges him--for example, by refusing to use the word obey in her wedding vows--he stomps and rages but doesn't once consider why she might find it offensive. One of the flaws of the series has always been the stereotypical portrayal of childhood abuse leading to an interest in kink and BDSM. Both Christian's father and therapist hold him responsible for having had sex as a teenager with one of his mother's friends, and only Ana is clearheaded enough to insist he was abused, both morally and legally. By the end, Christian learns the truth about his birth mother and makes peace with his past, but there is nothing new or interesting in the tale. Of interest only to long-term fans of the series, and even they might be disappointed.

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