Review | E.L. James’ The Mister: absurd erotica that verges on uncomfortable
- The charmingly affable writer publishes yet another hanky-spanky page turner
- Venturing away from the Fifty Shades universe, although not too far, The Mister introduces a new romantic hero
The Mister
b y E.L. James
Vintage
3/5 stars
The Mister is E.L. James’ sixth novel. Or is it her fourth? The exact total depends largely on what you made of her two previous books, Grey and Darker, to all intents and purposes remakes of James’ mega-hits Fifty Shades of Grey and Fifty Shades Darker. Does replacing Anastasia Steele with Christian Grey as narrator constitute new works or the world’s most profitable exercises in “find and replace”?
The size of James’ bibliography is not the only uncertainty surrounding The Mister’s publication. James’ reputation is going through a somewhat ambiguous patch. This can partly be expressed with one question: can E.L. do anything other than Fifty Shades? James hasn’t just rehashed the original trilogy in prose, she’s also rehashed it on the big screen. Is she even now planning screen rehashes of the prose rehashes?
