Seeing Twilight in Fifty Shades of Grey?

E.L. James’ book, Fifty Shades of Grey, has garnered plenty of positive reviews on various book review sites, and has had fans of both romantic fiction, and erotica, swooning. Fifty Shades of Grey is the first in a trilogy of the same name. It is followed by Fifty Shades Darker. The final book in the trilogy, Fifty Shades Freed, is due for release on Jan 19. The trilogy follows the very young and naive English major Anastacia Steel as she navigates an intense romance with billionaire entrepreneur Christian Grey. Written from Ana’s perspective, we get a glimpse into her thought processes as Christian introduces the innocent to his interest in BDSM.

As a fan of Cherise Sinclair and Joey W. Hill, I have read and enjoyed the first and second books in James’ series, and am waiting impatiently for the final book in the series. The books were more romance than erotica (although the sex scenes were indeed hot). For the squeamish among us, the BDSM element was fairly light, and in fact, J.R. Ward’s portrayal of V’s predilections in the Black Dagger Brotherhood (BDB) series is far more graphic and dark.

Given the incredibly romantic nature of the books, and the gentle BDSM elements, it came as no surprise that Hollywood scouts have been sniffing around the Fifty Shades of Grey trilogy for a possible movie or series. (I for one, would love to see how the book translates into film or television – particularly since James is herself a TV executive!) But I was stunned by the follow-up article detailing the responses from readers who claimed that because Fifty Shades of Grey began life as Twilight fan fiction, there could be copyright infringement issues.

Now, I’ve read the Fifty Shades books very carefully, and read some parts (heh) more than twice. I’d be hard pressed to find a single sparkly vampire in the book. Nor have I come across any fangs, werewolves, or even high school students. There’s nary a single drop of blood in the books. (Well, if I must be indelicate, Ana does talk a bit about tampons, but that’s hardly the stuff that Edward’s after.) I’ve also read the Twilight books. No matter how hard I try, I simply can’t see the similarities between the two! While one might argue that like the Twilight books, Fifty Shades is also written from the point of view of a young female narrator, surely Stephenie Meyer can’t have a monopoly on that, or Little, Brown (Meyer’s publisher) would be suing authors left, right, and center.

Although Little, Brown has said that its policy is to “proactively monitor and investigate all reports of potential copyright infringements” I doubt they’ll be able to pin anything on James. The similarities, if any, are far too nebulous. No doubt, I’m not the only one who thinks so. Amanda Hayward, CEO of The Writer’s Coffee Shop, which published Fifty Shades of Grey, said James’s book “bore very little resemblance to Twilight…Twilight and Fifty Shades Trilogy are worlds apart, new readers are totally surprised it was ever a Twilight fan fiction story.” To quote Christian Grey, “fair point, well made”.