History YMMV / FiftyShadesOfGrey

** Some readers have diagnosed Christian with a number of [[AmbiguousDisorder personality disorders]], in particular Narcissistic Personality Disorder. Symptoms of NPD that Christian displays include:
*** Disregarding the feelings and wants of others
*** A willingness to manipulate or coerce others to get what they want
*** A sense of entitlement and strong desire for attention/admiration
*** Expecting special favors or complete compliance with their demands
*** Belittling or avoiding people they see as beneath them
*** Insisting on having the best of everything
*** Displaying an arrogant, aloof and haughty attitude

* RelationshipWritingFumble: Ana and Kate are just supposed to be good friends, with Kate saying she loves her like a sister, but a lot of their interactions can come off as LesYay, especially from Ana's end considering how often she points out Kate's physical attractiveness with similar terms she uses for Christian. It doesn't help that Kate cares a lot more about Ana's happiness and well-being than [[FetishizedAbuser Christian]] seems to.

* DesignatedHero: [[BastardBoyfriend Christian]] is viewed as such by several readers. To give it context, some people feel that the only major difference between Christian and [[BigBad Jack Hyde]] (a manipulative sexual predator and stalker) is that the plot presents Christian as being the 'good guy'.

* RelationshipWritingFumble: Ana and Kate are just supposed to be good friends, with Kate saying she loves her like a sister, but a lot of their interactions can come off as LesYay, especially from Ana's end considering how often she points out Kate's physical attractiveness with similar terms she uses for Christian. It doesn't help that Kate cares a lot more about Ana's happiness and well-being than [[BastardBoyfriend Christian]] seems to.

* WhatAnIdiot: Carrick and Grace apparently never thought to get Christian therapy when they first adopted him, even though he was a clearly troubled little boy who had been neglected, abused and left alone with [[spoiler: his mother's corpse]] for four days. It's especially bad in Grace's case, as she's a pediatrician.

* HoYay: Quite a bit between [[RomanticTwoGirlFriendship Ana and Kate]]. Ana often makes rather detailed, gushing descriptions of her beauty and physical appearance with similar terms she uses for [[LoveInterest Christian]] (and Kate isn't the only woman she does this to), they start out living together and consider each other the most important person in their lives, if either of them are upset or in trouble their first instinct is to go to each other, they rather casually talk about their sex lives with each other (Ana is in fact disappointed she can't share more with Kate due to the NDA) and Kate goes into full {{Tsundere}} mode if she thinks Ana has been hurt or endangered in some way.

** Due to her often rather glowing and detailed descriptions of attractive women, including (but certainly not limited to) Christian's sister Mia, Dr Flynn's wife Rhian and especially [[RomanticTwoGirlFriendship her roommate Kate]], a few readers believe Ana is actually AmbiguouslyBi.

* {{Narm}}: Plenty of it, particularly in sex scenes. For example: ''"You. Are. So. Sweet,” he murmurs, each word a staccato.'' For the rest, see [[http://50shadesofsuck.tumblr.com/ this tumblr]].

** The first book actually has a potential ''inversion'' ; it ends with Ana deciding she and Christian are incompatible and leaving him, which the book treats as a DownerEnding, but many readers see this as a good thing because the relationship is unhealthy and disproportionately skewed in Christian's favor.

* FetishRetardant: All the BDSM acts come off as this to people who are actually involved in the subculture, mostly because it's a ''wildly'' inaccurate portrayal, and in fact feeds into some of the community's most hated misconceptions. (Mainly, that a dom/sub relationship completely negates the sub's right to say "no," or that being into BDSM is the same as being an abusive partner.)

** Ella, Christian's biological mother (yep, she actually has a proper name, not that Christian ever really uses it). Christian constantly refers to her as "the crack whore", blames her for the emotional trauma of his early years, admits he likes beating women who remind him of her and generally has a disdainful attitude towards her. Ana never seems to refute this (save for one moment in the epilogue of ''Fifty Shades Freed''), even stating at one point she doesn't think Ella loved Christian and that she was a "shitty mother". However, some readers point out that [[ParentsAsPeople Ella actually did seem to love Christian and tried her best to care for him despite struggling with drug addiction and an abusive pimp]], such as baking him a birthday cake, stroking his hair and letting him braid her hair, teaching him to read and buying him a toy car. Christian himself admits Ella never directly abused him – it was her pimp who harmed him, but he never really expresses the same hatred of or attributes blame to the pimp, instead focusing solely on his mother. It also doesn't help that Christian admits to barely remembering his mother at all, so he's hardly the most reliable source about what she was like. The film adaptation of ''Fifty Shades Freed'' actually adds a scene where Christian and Ana track down and visit Ella's grave, with Christian laying flowers there with the implication he forgives her for not being able to care for him properly and thus presenting Ella in a far more sympathetic light. In the books, Christian continues to resent her, to the point where he rather viciously shuts down Ana's suggestion they [[spoiler: name their unborn daughter after her]].

** They don't seem to have much in common and their relationship is built almost entirely around sex. Neither of them want the same thing from a relationship – Ana wants a more typical romantic relationship with hearts and flowers where she's treated as an equal, while Christian just wants another submissive and no-strings-attached sex. Christian rarely considers what Ana wants from the relationship and tends to pressure or coerce her into doing things she's uncomfortable or hesitant about, such as forcing expensive gifts on her and trying to renegotiate her expressed hard limits (which is really only scratching the surface of his problematic behavior). Christian often keeps things from Ana even if it concerns her, while she often evaluates whether she should confide in Christian about certain things out of concern over his reaction. Ana also isn't into most of Christian's more extreme kinks and seems to think of it a 'problem to be solved' more than anything.

** Several other characters also express reservations about the relationship. Kate (who arguably knows Ana better than anyone) finds Christian to be a controlling creep and finds it troubling that Ana is reluctant to talk about the relationship; most damningly, she says Ana looks upset and asks her if she's having second thoughts [[spoiler: at Ana and Christian's ''wedding reception'']]. Both Ana's parents think she's rushing into the relationship and Carla actually assumes Ana is only [[spoiler: marrying]] Christian because she got pregnant. Christian's father also seems to have little faith in the longevity of their relationship, as he strongly suggests they [[spoiler: sign a pre-nup]]. These characters are generally presented as 'misunderstanding' Ana and Christian's relationship, but a lot of people think [[StrawmanHasAPoint they make very good points]].

* WhyWouldAnyoneTakeHimBack: Ana breaks up with Christian at the end of ''Fifty Shades of Grey'', because she realizes they're sexually incompatible after he hits her with a belt; she isn't turned on by it ''at all'' and is disturbed that Christian gets off on her pain and humiliation. Then there's Christian stalking Ana and trying to control all aspects of her life, which she finds irritating at ''best''. However, at the start of the next book, Christian tells Ana he's changed and wants her back to have a 'vanilla' relationship. Even though it's been a mere five weeks and Ana has no proof of Christian's claims, she takes him back almost instantly.

* RomanticPlotTumor: Ana and Christian's romance ''is'' the main plot in the first book, but beginning with the second book, important things like Jack sexually harassing Ana and carrying out an elaborate revenge scheme against her and the Greys, Christian's ex Leila stalking him and Ana and so on, are barely given any attention at all or occur mostly off-page, so we can focus on Ana and Christian's relationship drama and [[CoitusEnsues sexy times]]. It doesn’t help that their romance is based mostly around sex and comes off as dysfunctional at the best of times.

** Too much of the text is copied and pasted from the original book.

** In the first book, the email conversations between Christian and Ana, and the submissive rules and contract he sends her, are printed in the book twice, taking up a lot of space without adding much content.

** Several other characters also express reservations about the relationship. Kate (who arguably knows Ana better than anyone) finds Christian to be a controlling creep and finds it troubling that Ana is reluctant to talk about the relationship; most damningly, she says Ana looks upset and asks her if she's having second thoughts [[spoiler: at Ana and Christian's ''wedding reception'']]. Both Ana's parents think she's rushing into the relationship and that she and Christian haven't known each other very long before getting very serious; Carla actually assumes Ana is only [[spoiler: marrying]] Christian because she got pregnant. Christian's father also seems to have little faith in the longevity of their relationship, as he strongly suggests they [[spoiler: sign a pre-nup]]. These characters are generally presented as 'misunderstanding' Ana and Christian's relationship, but a lot of people think [[StrawmanHasAPoint they make very good points]].

* EsotericHappyEnding: For readers/viewers who [[AlternativeCharacterInterpretation consider Christian to be]] [[DomesticAbuse an abusive partner]], the fact he and Ana [[spoiler: get married and have children]] by the end comes across as this.

** In the third book, there's an entire subplot where Ana, Christian, Kate, Elliot, Ethan and Mia go on vacation o Aspen, where all that happens is the girls go shopping, they all go clubbing, [[spoiler: Elliot proposes to Kate]] and Christian gets into a fight with a guy who gropes Ana. Almost none of this has any significance to the main plot; notably, in the film adaptation the club fight is cut in the theatrical release (though it's re-added in the Extended Edition, along with extra sex scenes).

* {{Padding}}: The Email conversations and the submissive rules and contract that are printed in the book twice take up a lot of space without adding much content.

* {{Wangst}}: Early in ''Fifty Shades of Grey'', Ana's reaction to believing Christian isn't interested in her, when they barely know one another at that, is very melodramatic. She ends up huddled in a fetal position in an underground carpark, crying and "''Mourning something that never was – my dashed hopes, dashed dreams, and my soured expectations''".

** Their relationship occurs over a very short timespan; after only a few weeks of dating, Ana is proclaiming her love for Christian. By the end of ''Fifty Shades Darker'', which takes places only a few weeks after the previous book, [[spoiler: they're engaged to be married]]. In all, they only know each other for about two and half months [[spoiler: before getting [[FourthDateMarriage hitched]]]]. They also start immediately having relationship problems around things like Ana changing her surname, her job, where they'll live and having children, none of which they discussed [[spoiler: before marriage]]. In ''Fifty Shades Freed'', Christian says they've only "known each other five [[PrecisionFStrike fucking]] minutes" and Ana also wonders if she [[spoiler: married him]] too quickly; even ''they'' think their relationship is moving too fast. Furthermore, Christian [[spoiler: spontaneously proposes]] to Ana when she indicates she cannot cope with his emotional baggage, which makes it seem he [[spoiler: proposes to her]] not because he genuinely wants to [[spoiler: marry her]] but because he doesn’t want her to leave him. Ana outright accuses him of this ''in the book itself''.

** Some people think Ana's supposed love for Christian is actually just [[LovingAShadow infatuation which she mistakes for love]] due to her naivety and poor self-esteem (look up articles comparing infatuation and love, and see how many infatuation checkboxes Ana ticks off). Despite her repeated assertions that she's in love with Christian, she admits she knows very little about him personally. She often talks about how physically attractive she finds him and how much she likes having sex with him, but this, combined with the fact Ana is very inexperienced when it comes to relationships (Christian is her first serious boyfriend) doesn't exactly come off as true love. Ana also strongly implies or even states outright on several occasions that she doesn't actually like most of the kinky stuff Christian is into; she only puts up with it because she hopes for a more emotionally intimate relationship from him and doesn't want to lose him.

** Some people think Ana's supposed love for Christian is actually just [[LovingAShadow infatuation which she mistakes for love]] due to her naivety and poor self-esteem.

* ProtectionFromEditors: It makes sense that the original story, ''Master of the Universe'', would have some spelling and grammatical errors, as well as several [[CriticalResearchFailure research errors]], as fanfictions usually aren't looked at by a formal editor. However, once they had the SerialNumbersFiledOff and properly published the books, many of these errors were actually left in. It almost makes one wonder if the books had an editor at all...and the according to James's acknowledgements, they ''did''. And this is actually case where it was the author's first published novel seemingly getting this treatment. The same can definitely be said of the film adaptations after the books proved to be bestsellers, with James being given a surprising amount of creative control and vetoing several proposed changes (which actually led to the director of the first film quitting after it was finished).

* ArcFatigue: The plotline involving Leila stalking Ana in ''Fifty Shades Darker'' starts to show signs of this. It lasts nearly the entire book (which is over 500 pages long) and yet nothing truly significant happens with it until the last third, when Leila unexpectedly shows up at Ana's apartment with a gun. It doesn't help that it has pretty much [[TrappedByMountainLions no impact on the story in the next book]] and that the situation [[IdiotPlot could've been resolved early on]] if Ana and Christian had just called the police, instead of trying and miserably failing to deal with the problem themselves.