'50 Shades of Grey': What is the appeal?

“50 Shades of Grey” is not exactly your typical book club read. An erotic novel with fan-fiction origins, penned by a mysterious British mother named E. L. James, this first book of a now infamous trilogy, includes explicit scenes and heavy doses of bondage and sado-masichism. It's being described by bloggers and reviewers as “Mommy porn."

Needless to say, Oprah has yet to bestow her seal of approval.

But across the country, this originally self-published romance which now stands at the top of The New York Times bestseller list, is taking over the discussion at book clubs – mystifying more than a few industry experts and dismaying some social commentators in the process.

In Shari Von Holten’s neighborhood, it started with a buzz among friends on Facebook. Then Van Holten’s Long Island neighbors started asking each other about the book the street, discreetly, or during chance encounters the market. “My friends were saying things like: 'I just finished it, it’s the best,'” says Von Holten.

Intrigued, she floated the title at her book club’s next meeting, and the women quickly agreed to read it for March.  “I knew it was a little explicit,” Von Holten says, “but I thought maybe we could try it."

A mother and the owner of her own celebrity news and review blog, haveuheard.net, Von Holten admits it wasn’t the easiest read – at first. “Initially, I had to put it down,” she says. “The sexual part was just, it was disturbing to me. At one point, I couldn’t even read it. I wasn’t enjoying it.” But in the name of her book club, Von Holten persevered, and this time, she couldn’t put it down. “Once you get through the initial shock, like anything else, you become desensitized in a way, I think,” she says.

Von Holten went on to finish the next two books in the series on her own.  In her review of the book on her blog, Von Holten wrote: “If you do read the series, consider yourself warned.  Once you pick it up – there is a 99.9999% chance you will not put it down.”

"50 Shades of Grey" tells the story of the very unconventional “romance” between the dashing, wealthy Christian Grey, a tycoon with a taste for the whip, and the innocent Anastasia Steele, a college literary student who willingly enters into a complicated dominant-submissive relationship with Grey.

“It’s erotic and sadomasochistic,” says Rose Fox, Publisher Weekly’s fantasy and romance reviews editor.

It's also a spin-off of sorts on the Bella and Edward dynamic from the popular young adult "Twilight" series. Although James created different lovers and a different plot, she drew her original inspiration from the romance between the "Twilight" characters – one a 100-plus-year-old vampire and the other an innocent young teen.

"Twilight," however, has been noted for its rather chaste depictions of love and romance.  "50 Shades of Grey" takes readers into a very different universe.

“James got her start on fan fiction forums, where word of mouth recommendations are highly valued and readers tend to really get into works that sexualize a familiar story in outrageous ways,” Fox says.

When the book first began receiving some attention on sites like The Huffington Post, more than a few commentators accused James of ripping off the idea from a 2009 story entitled “Master of the Universe,” published on fan-fiction site www.fanfiction.net. It has since been established, however, that Snowqueens Icedragon – the author of “Master of the Universe” – and E.L. James are indeed one and the same.

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