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Feb 04, 2012

Miriam rated it:

I went to the Monterey Bay aquarium for a teachers symposium where they generously gave us a lot of their discarded educational materials and clearance items from the gift shop that hadn't been sold in a long time. Among those items were stacks and stacks of Jaws. They didn't care what we did with them so I took a whole stack and passed them out as prizes at a church social before I had read this book.

What I learned from this book is to never pass out any book at a church social be More...

3 comments like (4 people liked it)

Sep 03, 2011

Andrew rated it:

Reviewing a book that was made into a movie over 30 years ago and which almost everyone has seen already seems a little pointless. On the other hand I don’t need to post a spoiler alert. If you are somehow unaware of the plot of Jaws, then it doesn’t matter if I give it away, because, I’m sorry to be the one to tell you this: you have Alzheimer’s disease. Yes, it’s a shame. There there.

But even if you already know exactly what is going to happen, this is still a thrilling, chil More...

6 comments like (4 people liked it)

Jan 03, 2010

Slayermel rated it:

Jaws was one of the first Horror movies I remember watching when I was younger, and it's still the reason I don't like to swim in open bodies of water ;op. Needless to say the movie made an impact.

I had stumbled across the book in a used book section and was drawn to it. I'm so glad I purchased it. This book was different enough from the movie to keep me interested and fast paced enough so I did not put it down. What I loved most about this book was right in the beginning they st More...

1 comment like (3 people liked it)

Jan 01, 2009

Lori rated it:

Finding Jaws on the library's new-release shelf was a surprise, one I couldn't walk away from. I'm not sure how I made it through my obsessed-with-thrills teenage years without reading it.

The new introduction by Bentley alone makes it worth picking up if you've ever seen the movie or read the book. It talks about how much science has changed in the years since its publication, how the book could never be written now because so much more is known about sharks, etc. It also gives a tin More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jan 09, 2012

Paul rated it:

If you are like me you can already hear the ominous introduction music to the movie “Jaws” - du dum, du dum.

But this is review of the novel “Jaws” though I can’t help relating it to the film, which I saw first way back when it first came out. In the novel the great white shark is about ten feet shorter than the movie version and eats one more significant player than the film version too.

But Peter Benchley also wrote the screenplay to the film so it’s not like anything done di More...

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Nov 28, 2011

Adam rated it:

Adam Bumbaco
Book Review: Jaws
Jaws by Peter Benchley, is one of the most intriguing and spine tingling books/movies of all time. The reader is catapulted into the calm seaside island town of Amity, New York where the main character, Police chief Martin Brody, maintains order with his wife and son on a July fourth weekend .Feeding on mankind’s primordial fear of the unknown, the antagonist is a rogue great white shark upwards of twenty feet in length, that is described as an “Eating M More...

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Oct 13, 2011

Steven rated it:

Spoiler alert----

First Time Ever---the movie was better than the book!

I liked this book, and might have liked it more had I never seen the movie or read the hype. But 30 years after release, it's hard to put the genie back in the bottle.

I was disappointed.

I have always admired the film for its lean pace. It is shark, from start to finish, with just the smallest bit of background and context to enliven the story of the main characters. The movi More...

4 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jan 12, 2011

Jeanette rated it:

Well, I have been meaning to read this book for many years now. I have seen the movie countless times; it is one of my favorites. I felt it only sensible to read the origin of a story that has become a cult phenomenon. Who knows how I would have judged this novel had I read it BEFORE I watched the movie 100 times. But that didn't happen so instead I am judging this novel, its characters, its plot fluidity and development and its execution against a Spielberg movie. That being said, this book get More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Sep 30, 2010

Megan rated it:

Just as a warning to everyone reading this review, I have never seen the movie 'Jaws'. This is one of the reasons I decided to pick up the book when I found out the movie was based on a book. So I really have little or nothing to compare the film to the book.

Now onto the review! I actually rather enjoyed this novel, much to my surprise. I say surprise because the genres of suspense and horror are not ones I typically venture into. And Yes, Jaws did scare me a little. How could anyon More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Sep 26, 2010

Harmonybites rated it:

I have a great deal of nostalgic fondness for this book about a great white shark stalking the beaches of a small summer island of Amity off the Atlantic.

My mother loaned the novel to me when I was about twelve. But she struck out words with black marker and tore out pages. So naturally I made note of the page numbers, went to the nearest bookstore where I found the book and turned to the (in)appropriate pages, found a bunch of swear words I was already well-acquainted with and read More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

May 22, 2011

Carissa rated it:

I read this over the summer while vacationing at a lake in Wisconsin. The book was entertaining. The affair between Brody's wife and Matt Hooper could have been edited out of the book and I never would have missed it. I very much dislike the part with the cat. No spoilers on that one, but it's awful. Otherwise, the book inspired me to learn more about sharks, read about the Matawan shark and similar attacks and also to read a little about the man that Quint was based upon, Frank Mundus.

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Aug 18, 2010

Idolwasp89 rated it:

Jaws is my favorite movie of all time. I could not wait to crack open the book that started it all. What got me really excited was the fact that the book is almost as well revered as the film. Sadly, I cannot fathom how this book is considered the least bit good. I've read it twice. The first time I was naive and just wanted a meat and potatoes shark attack book and was disappointed by the abundance of non-shark goodness. After a while I decided to read it again and with a more open mind. Well, More...

0 comments like (9 people liked it)

Apr 12, 2010

Sam rated it:

Peter Benchley's Jaws is at once unsettling, dramatic, and gory from the opening chapter. There's action on the first pages and the last pages. In a thankfully compacted amount of book, a story is told in a terrifying yet surprisingly human way. Benchley's descriptions are dead on and his conflict taut, which lends the book an excellent sense of realism. His characters (especially Quint) are lively in their own unique ways, but in the characters lie the book's most unexpected route, in my op More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Aug 13, 2009

Matt rated it:

I first read Jaws when I was 14 years old. I have not swam in the Ocean since. This summer, however, I went swimming in the waters of Catalina Island. This was the first time I set foot in the Ocean after reading Jaws 18 years ago.

I thought, therefore, it was time to re-read the book. It's really a marvelous read. Good characters, a quick plot, plenty of human and political drama, and the mystery and terror of the Great White Shark.

Jaws is a spectacular page turner that h More...

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Jul 13, 2011

Sarah rated it:

Trying to refrain from comparing it too much to the movie adaptation, I'd have to give this book a rather low rated-review for the simple fact that it was not a very scary book as it was made out to seem. When you're literally walking around saying things out-loud such as, "Terrifying my ASS!" and "BULLSHIT!" then you can count your funyuns that you've got a bad book on your hands. The only readable sections in this book were that which detailed the shark...which is funny bec More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Aug 12, 2010

Kathrina rated it:

Richard Dreyfuss is a near-god to me, so I have this soft spot for this story, watching the movie in my head as I read the words. But god, the words! Benchley's writing feels like witnessing a severe case of OCD -- touch, touch, touch here, then here, now again, three times, now we can forward the plot. Like this: "He detached the harpoon dart from the shaft, snapped the twine that held the shaft to a cleat, hopped down from the transom, and ran forward. When he reached the bow, he bent do More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Jul 29, 2010

Diane rated it:

Whether it's the Great White Shark or the Great White Whale, our fascination and terror for the ocean has permeated throughout the ages. We are awful swimmers, we are not able to hold our breath for more than, at best, a few minutes, we cannot see well underwater and we certainly can't dive very deep for fear of our bodies collapsing upon themselves. Yet, time and again, we are defied by what we consider lower forms of life. The creatures that we consider have nothing but pure instinct and drive More...

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Mar 03, 2010

Michael rated it:

The back cover of the audio book teased that if you'd only seen the movie version of "Jaws" but had never read the book, you were missing out on a lot of interesting subplots and characters that didn't make it into the final script.

After listening to the audio version of "Jaws," I can see why some of the subplots and characters were dropped. Steven Spielberg was quoted as saying that when he read the book, he found himself rooting for the shark because none of th More...

1 comment like (2 people liked it)

Jun 05, 2011

Sarah rated it:

I love the movie version of this book, let me just put that out there. However – this book is so much more amazing than the movie. Maybe it’s the fact that my imagination was available to augment the action rather than just having visuals provided for me. The shark was ever so much more terrifying. He was smarter in the book than in the movie – probably just because the technology back then was limited. In the book, the shark anticipated Quint’s attacks and counteracted them. He would also More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jan 31, 2011

Nicholas is currently reading it

I thought this book was pretty exciting with the hsark and all but overall I would give this book a 3 because for one the ending was horrible. I mean Brody was sitting next to the dead shark and hid dead friend Matt Hooper in the ocean in a yaught. To me this was a stupid ending. Also I didn't like how every body dies but Brody. I also hated the fact that about 80% of the book was about Brody's relationship with his wife, Ellen and how Matt Hooper and Ellen are starting to fall in love with each More...

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Oct 23, 2011

Mike rated it:

Jaws has always been one of my favorite movies, and when we had to pick a book to read for an English project, the first thing that came to mind was the monetization of Jaws. It took about a week of searching, but I finally came across a second edition copy of the book from 1974 for only a $1.
Had I known how good this book would have been, I would have paid $50 for it. The book itself is phenomenal. It has a lot of suspense, a lot of bone chilling moments, and is one of those books tha More...

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Oct 31, 2011

David rated it:

I think this has to be one of the most disappointing books I've ever read. Obviously this book was written before the excellent film, so it's not really fair to compare the two. But the movie was everything this book could have been...but wasn't.

After an exciting opening, where the shark actually attacks someone, the middle descends into tawdry soap opera fare, where we find out who's cheating on who. All very well, but not what you're going to expect from a novel called Jaws, wit More...

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May 19, 2010

Polymathic rated it:

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Feb 17, 2010

Ed rated it:

I was always curious to read this since the movie is one of my favorites. The book is like an extension of the movie with the characters seriously expanded. There is all kinds of human drama and ugliness which makes for some interesting parts but I'm glad they 86ed it for the movie. Hooper couldn't be more different from the Hooper of the movie and the physical description alone was enough to make me laugh. Brody is a gruff malcontent and at times difficult to root for. Quint isn't in much of it More...

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Sep 23, 2010

Cgrant rated it:

If you think the movie is terrifying, the book is even more so. I grew up going to the beaches of New Jersey quite a bit but after seeing this movie, I have never gone in the water past my knees, and never will. Too REAL; I know shark attacks are rare, but so did all the people who have been attacked by sharks, so I'm not taking any chances.
The book is, like all books made into movies, more detailed, and there are differences in some of the scenes, etc (for example, I won't say who, but More...

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Sep 20, 2010

Kelsey rated it:

I was shocked by this book— so much so that I found I was only shocked and disappointed and annoyed by what I was reading. This book is an entirely different story than the film made in 1975. While there is still a man-eating shark and Chief Brody and the small town of Amity, the book focuses mainly on an illicit affair between Brody’s wife and the young yuppie, Hooper. There are basically three parts to this book: an captivating beginning where an evil shark is terrorizing the shores of Amity a More...

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Sep 05, 2011

Tracey rated it:

I grew up TERRIFIED of sharks thanks to Steven Spielberg's movie (with more than a little help from my older brother). I was in my mid-20s before I could get through Discovery Channel's Shark Week without something akin to a nervous breakdown (at best) or a near-death experience (at worst).

So when I was able to not only make it through Shark Week, but grudgingly admit, "sharks are cool!" I picked up this book. I'm glad I did! Whereas I found the movie a little far-fetched ( More...

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May 13, 2011

Patricia rated it:

I read this book about the time the film came out in the 1970s. I was sitting in my university dorm room alone and as the shark came into the scene (see cover of book) I wasn't yet aware of John Williams' warning musical score about the shark's approach since I hadn't seen the film. About the time I got to that first shark-meets-swimmer scene in the book, my telephone rang and I threw the book up in the air!! I got THAT startled (and that doesn't happen often!) Sadly, I had purchased a defective More...

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Jan 22, 2011

Robert rated it:

Spoiler alert!

My all time favorite film so I figured I would give the book a shot. Thank God Spielberg got ahold of the script. While the book is well written and definitely a page turner, most of the characters have little to no redeeming qualities. In addition to a bizarre scene of infidelity, which comes across unnecessary and forced, there are several other additional subplots that contribute little to no movement throughout the story including the Mayor's alleged ties to the mob. More...

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Nov 24, 2011

Katie rated it:

Wait... what? Jaws dies... of exhaustion. Ok then. It turned out to be more of a book filled with political intrigue rather than shark attacks. It certainly wasn't a super novel filled with terror, but that might just be because I have already seen the movie. The shark doesn't always show up, but when he does, it is very bloody, gory, and satisfying. Hooper dies a very violent death via being bitten in half. There is no, "Surprise! I'm actually alive because I hid at the bottom of the ocean More...

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