kandicez's review against another edition
5.0
Terrific book! Books that are meant to be scary have such an impact on me when they COULD happen. I don't mean that it's likely, but the possibilty is there! Great, quick, easy read.
kandicez's review against another edition
5.0
I reread this because a friend recently read it only after having seen the movie and was so surprised, and honestly, disappointed at how little a part the shark takes in the drama of the novel. I love the novel and the movie equally, just like I love [b:The Shining|11588|The Shining|Stephen King|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1353277730l/11588._SY75_.jpg|849585] novel and movie equally. They are worlds apart. So far apart that the only way to describe the distance is to point out that the novel ends in fire and the book in ice. I think King himself said that, but it sums it up perfectly.
The difference between Spielberg's movie and the novel is that Spielberg's version is a hidden danger thriller and the Benchley's is a deep-seated disturbance in a marriage resulting in an affair. A regretted affair, but an affair nonetheless.
I think people who have only seen the movie, reading this for the first time can't help but be impressed with Benchley's writing. His characters are so three-dimensional you really, really feel for them. The characters who act in less than moral ways are still able to elicit sympathy from the reader because they are real, their problems are real, and their motivation is understandable.
I listened this time and loved it. The reader was amazing. He added a layer to the characterization of every player with his voice that showed real skill. Even amazing actors can't always read well, but this guy certainly did.
The difference between Spielberg's movie and the novel is that Spielberg's version is a hidden danger thriller and the Benchley's is a deep-seated disturbance in a marriage resulting in an affair. A regretted affair, but an affair nonetheless.
I think people who have only seen the movie, reading this for the first time can't help but be impressed with Benchley's writing. His characters are so three-dimensional you really, really feel for them. The characters who act in less than moral ways are still able to elicit sympathy from the reader because they are real, their problems are real, and their motivation is understandable.
I listened this time and loved it. The reader was amazing. He added a layer to the characterization of every player with his voice that showed real skill. Even amazing actors can't always read well, but this guy certainly did.
walenchao's review against another edition
adventurous
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Overall a great version of the classic movie you know and love, with a well-executed if a bit underbaked subplot about infidelity, class and insecurity in vacation towns. There’s a whole segment that isn’t in the movie regarding Hopper and Brody’s wife that makes the bizarre dinner sequence from the movie make a lot more sense.
Overall fantastic - less explosive than the movie but a bit more compelling from a pacing perspective.
Overall fantastic - less explosive than the movie but a bit more compelling from a pacing perspective.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death and Violence
Moderate: Sexual content
reading_w_dee's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.5
readingwithcoffee's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.5
The book is weirder about women then It is about sharks which is saying something. It is weird about race but not in a way that’s coherent on way or the other that I could really go into it but if you have sensitivity to slurs there’s slurs about Japanese people and lesbians in the latter chapters.
The book tries to have some conversation about toxic masculinity and the performance of it that the book is too sexist to have a coherent message about. For a book that comes across as respecting the main protagonist for being a cop it does have conservations about corruption and classism in tourist small towns including in politics, media and police.
It’s an interesting experience because a book you go in assuming is man vs nature type of book it is more man vs man.
The book tries to have some conversation about toxic masculinity and the performance of it that the book is too sexist to have a coherent message about. For a book that comes across as respecting the main protagonist for being a cop it does have conservations about corruption and classism in tourist small towns including in politics, media and police.
It’s an interesting experience because a book you go in assuming is man vs nature type of book it is more man vs man.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Classism, Misogyny, Animal death, Death, Infidelity, Fatphobia, Sexism, and Racial slurs
Moderate: Rape
aguattery's review against another edition
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.0
This was so so bad. It's amazing that someone read this and was able to twist it into an incredible movie. So many irrelevant plot lines with no ending, and extraneous use of discriminatory language, really turned me off to it.
Also, calling it a horror or suspense book is misleading. This is a small town drama at best.
Also, calling it a horror or suspense book is misleading. This is a small town drama at best.
eves_reads_'s review against another edition
adventurous
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
sabregirl's review against another edition
5.0
Four-and-a-half stars. Jaws is one of my favorite movies and I have been wanting to read the book for years. I finally found it in my local Barnes and Noble and picked it up. This is a very easy and enjoyable read. It was probably a fairly easy read because the first two parts of the book (minus some subplots that they left out) were almost exactly like the movie. The subplots added to the book and made a few people you hated in the movie even more unlikable. Though I really don't get the subplot with Ellen and Hooper. It just didn't add anything to the book besides making you feel even sorrier for Brody and giving Brody conflict with Hooper. Which honestly could've been done a hell of a lot better without it.
zakcebulski's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
1.5
Spoiler
You know in school when teachers always talk shit about movies "oh the book is always better than the movie"?
This book... Jaws is absolutely the exception.
If I read this book in 1974 upon release I don't know that I would have been able to stomach reading this shit.
Every single character is some level of slimey, or unlikable. I thought the reviews were being funny when they said that they were eventually rooting for the shark. But, holy shit, they were not. I could not stand any of the characters, and I think that that shows what a fucking mastermind Spielberg and Gottlieb are for taking all of these shitty ass characters and making a truly remarkable adaptation of this book.
Why is Hooper such an asshole "shit-don't-stink" type in this book?
Why was there a fucking affair between Ellen Brody and Hooper? Why was this shoehorned in?
I mean this with every single fiber of my being that if this book was 70 pages long and the only mentions of land were when the shark attacked, this book would be so much better.
I don't think that characterization matters when the characterization is fucking garbage.
Like, Ellen is an unsatisfied housewife who opts to have an affair, and then we are supposed to turn around and be so on her side when Brody wants to go risk his life to kill the shark? Fuck off. What an annoying ass character.
That drunk dinner scene was one of the most annoying scenes I have read recently. Fucking hell. And then, the whole affair was in the book for what reason? Who fucking knows. It was just there to I guess add background to Ellen and Hooper and increase tension between Hooper and Brody... But, it ultimately goes nowhere when Ellen realizes that she actually loves her husband and her tryst was for nothing. Great, this would have been such an awesome revelation with some nuance into Brody and Ellen's marriage if either character were not a fucking slog to read.
Quint was colored in to be an animal abuser in the worst way possible, for the sport of torture under the guise of being a weathered sea captain and fisherman. But, in reality it just makes him so hard to care about.
Brody is an uncertain, whiny and stymied at every turn cop who can't do fucking anything and when he does he keeps falling back on him trying to do right.
Boy oh boy can we talk about the lack of depth in subplots? Why is there a whole mafia thing that goes exactly.... nowhere? In the movie the mayor is just worried about the town going under because of the risk of closing beaches... Why can that not be in the book? Instead we have a whole ass undercooked fucking mafia subplot that makes things unnecessarily complicated.
And even the main plot- hunting a giant fucking shark- is boring as shit. Yes, the attacks are intensely written, which is great. But, when the three are on the Orca it is so fucking boring to read. Hooper dying by forcing himself to go in a shark cage? Hilarious. Fucking moron.
Quint going out not unlike fucking Ahab was cool. But, goddamn what a drag to read. I wish that the tension and thriller tone that Benchley had during the individual shark attacks translated over to the "final battle".
I was absolutely rooting for the shark throughout this book. Fuck these melodramatic ass underdeveloped ass whiny ass complaining about everything ass characters.
The only reason that this book gets a 1 star is because it served as the basis for the movie adaptation which holy fucking hell, there is no goddamn competition between this book and the movie. That, and the research that Benchley put in to reading about sharks.
This book review could have easily devolved in to a hyping up of Steven Spielberg and Carl Gottlieb and honestly it would have been more worth my time.
I don't even have anything else to say.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Animal death, Child death, and Animal cruelty