Paranormal author Jami Gold asked her readers: When Does Fan Fiction Cross an Ethical Line? Her pointed question generated more than 220 comments about Fifty Shades of Grey, an erotica novel by E L James that began as Twilight fan fiction and landed a seven-figure advance.

Gold had no disrespect for the art of writing fan fiction–she honed her craft by writing Harry Potter fan fiction.

Fifty Shades of Grey is about a young woman named Anastasia Steele meeting a man named Christian Grey; Twilight is about a young woman named Bella Swan meeting a vampire named Edward Cullen.  At Gold’s blog, a few readers listed plot similarities between the Twilight series and Fifty Shades of Grey. We’ve linked to a few examples below–what do you think?

We have only included a few samples from the longer comments. Follow this link to read the complete Twilight vs. Fifty Shades of Grey thread. WARNING: Spoilers abound in these comments.

Camaro wrote:

- both Edward and Christian were adopted.
- both Edward and Christian have a deep, dark, dangerous secret that no one is privy to, except for the heroine and by extension us…
- Both Edward and Christian give the heroine a car…
- Both Edward and Christian are piano-players

Jess added:

The Cullens & the Grays have loads of money and Bella/Ana is intimidated by this …

The Cullens brought clothes all the time for Bella. Ana also receives designer clothes.