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Jaws

3.9 of 5 stars 3.90 · rating details · 40,756 ratings · 876 reviews

"Relentless terror." The Philadelphia Inquirer.
The classic, blockbuster thriller of man-eating terror that inspired the Steven Spielberg movie and made millions of beachgoers afraid to go into the water. Experience the thrill of helpless horror again -- or for the first time!

Hardcover, 320 pages

Published May 31st 2005 by Random House (first published February 1973)

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Aug 23, 2012 Andrew Breslin rated it 4 of 5 stars

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, chilling read. You sh...more

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Mar 03, 2013 Jeffrey Keeten rated it 4 of 5 stars

”Duuun dun
duuun dun
dun dun dun dun dun dun BOM BOM
dun dun dun dun dun dun
doo dedoo doo dedoo dede doo dede doo dededoo.”

Has there ever been theme music used in a film more effectively than for the 1975 blockbuster movie Jaws? A movie so powerful that there are legions of people that have refused to go into the water ever since seeing that movie. I’m not a water person, growing up in the landlocked Midwest I don’t like being in water deeper than the depth to which I can see the bottom of the...more

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Feb 04, 2012 Miriam rated it 2 of 5 stars

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 before reading i...more

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view all 13 comments

Samantha I think part of the appeal and "horrir" of this book is that nobody really knows why the shark turns up and sticks around. If you dont know why, you c...more
Feb 12, 2013 09:17am

Lindsay Zan Actually if you had WATCHED the movie and how they made said movie that question would have been answered as it provides insight as to why Peter Bench...more
Apr 19, 2013 10:20pm

Apr 20, 2012 Stefan rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This is the book that launched the film that made us all afraid to go in the water! (And don't tell me that you can't instantly come up with John WIlliam's ominous theme music!)

Having seen the film multiple times (and having experienced the "ride" at Universal Studios,) I wasn't expecting too much to be surprising in the novel. I was wrong. Although the movie's plot follows the book fairly faithfully, what I was surprised with was the amount of tension that I felt while reading the book even tho...more

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Aug 29, 2012 Brad rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: forty-for-2012-personal-challenge, doing-the-dishes, in-the-shower, hackosaurids, personal-mythology, popular-culture

Jaws is the tale of a marriage on the edge of failure. Chief Brody, head of the Amity police, is married to Ellen. They've three kids. He's a native of the area; one of the poor boys who spent his days on the beaches while the rich folks came down to vacation from the big cities. She's from one of those big cities, from one of those rich families, and since she married Chief Brody she's been an outsider amongst the natives and outsider amongst the tourists. She belongs nowhere and feels herself...more Jaws is the tale of a marriage on the edge of failure. Chief Brody, head of the Amity police, is married to Ellen. They've three kids. He's a native of the area; one of the poor boys who spent his days on the beaches while the rich folks came down to vacation from the big cities. She's from one of those big cities, from one of those rich families, and since she married Chief Brody she's been an outsider amongst the natives and outsider amongst the tourists. She belongs nowhere and feels herself wasting away in the tiny beach town, and she pines for what once was. (view spoiler).

Jaws is the tale of shady land speculation, organized crime and local governmental corruption, wherein another poor local boy "makes good," becomes Mayor, becomes one of the "nouveau riche," then winds up putting lives at risk to save his own skin and pay his bad debts.(view spoiler).

Oh yeah ... Jaws is also the tale of a killer shark that starts eating swimmers off the coast of Amity. Chief Brody, Matt Hooper and Quint (the infamous modern Ahab captured so wonderfully by Robert Shaw in Spielberg's movie, although he only shows up in the book in the last eighty pages after one brief half page cameo early on) go out and try to save the people and Amity's economy by catching the greatest of great white sharks. (view spoiler) It all feels like an afterthought, a tacked on third act of a book that never knew what it wanted to be, and the total lack of closure as the novel ends is pretty disappointing.

Once again, the movie proves to be better than the book. Much, much better.

Glad I reread this, though. A woman I loved told me to read this again, once upon a time, and I promised I would. It took a decade, but I lived up to the promise.(less)

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Aug 14, 2012 John rated it 4 of 5 stars

I forgot that I read this, long ago, after I had watched the movie. I must have been in ninth grade, maybe? I remember the little Leonard Maltin review of the movie Jaws said "a rare case of a bubble-gum book scoring as a terrific movie," and in retrospect, he was right about the book. It is sort of a "bubble-gum" book, whatever that means, and it isn't as good as the movie. But that's ok. There's something about it, anyway, because parts of it have stuck with me over the 15-20 years since I rea...more

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Jan 03, 2010 Slayermel rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: anyone who enjoyed the movie, or wants a good classic horror

Shelves: 2009, american, fiction, horror, made-into-film, male-authors, thriller, 20th-century, bookcrossing

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 start off with the...more

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Jan 01, 2009 Lori rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2009january

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 tiny bit on the...more

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May 05, 2013 Michael Kenneth added it

Jaws is a very intriguing book, it tells the story of a sherif in a small town in California. Amity island. The sherif, chief Brody as he is known as by the locals, is convinced a string, of missing people, is related to a massive shark hunting around their island. He is turned down, by the mayor as this publicity would destroy the small town who rely heavily on the income of tourist. So this uprising of a huge shark puts Brody in a tough spot. To alert people, and be hated by the town. Or leave...more

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Apr 03, 2013 Jake rated it 5 of 5 stars

I've been a fan of the film for nearly 25 years. I saw the film way too early and it left a deep impression on me. The movie permanently changing my relationship with bodies of water. I had to get over the hurdle of telling myself "that's not what the movie did" to begin to appreciate this novel. There are many deviations from the movie and I think having experienced both I've gained a greater appreciation for both. Each medium did some things better. 25% of the book deals with a potential extra...more I've been a fan of the film for nearly 25 years. I saw the film way too early and it left a deep impression on me. The movie permanently changing my relationship with bodies of water. I had to get over the hurdle of telling myself "that's not what the movie did" to begin to appreciate this novel. There are many deviations from the movie and I think having experienced both I've gained a greater appreciation for both. Each medium did some things better. 25% of the book deals with a potential extramarital affair and at first I hated this element of the story because I loved Hooper and Brody's relationship in the film. It may be a little drawn out, but Brody's wife's struggle with infidelity ends up working within this book.

The movie was wise to cut out certain elements that were a product of the time. Jaws as a novel was wise to include them. I didn't really love this original version of the story until reflecting on it upon completion. The third act contains one heavy ode to Moby-Dick and concludes in a way far superior to the film. Where you'll find lovable characters and deep relationships in the movie, you are almost given a reason to hate every prominent character and Quint actually ends up being the most likable of the bunch. Robert Shaw wrote the USS Indianapolis speech, so that is nonexistent in this book, but there is still plenty of the film's character present.

Maybe it is not proper to write as if the film were released first, but you must understand that I experienced Jaws the movie first and that is why this brief review was written in such a way. Peter Benchley's novel is tense and people have commented that the shark in the movies was not able to be featured early on, as intended, because of technical issues. That may have been the case and I've seen the crew comment this was the reason why as the first rendition of Bruce immediately sunk. Maybe Spielberg and Co. figured it out after testing the shark-eye view on their own. However, this book should get credited for having that iconic viewpoint depicted and Benchley acknowledged for being able to make the great white almost always loom in the back of our mind through this superb read. Part of this terror comes from the fish striking on and off page. The book was gripping and it became apparent that I was hooked on the novel when I looked up at the clock one night and it was actually 2:15 in the morning.(less)

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Mar 25, 2013 Beau Scott rated it 1 of 5 stars

I get that this was written 40 years ago, and society was different, but this book was exceptionally awful. It is one of the few books adapted to film where the adaptation was far better.
(view spoiler)...more

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Mar 03, 2013 Samantha rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: animals, adult, books-i-own, marine, movie-videogame, reviewed, ships-boats-yachts, show-off, shark

I love sharks....I only saw this movie last year around the time of Shark Week. I finally had my very first Shark Week. I borrowed shark videos from the library and finally watched Jaws. Just last month, on one of many out-of-town excursions, I stumbled across this. Imagine my delight...

This review has taken me a really long time to write, partially due to my busy-ness with college and partially due to my having to digest this book...think this is the longest I've ever had to digest one. I wasn'...more

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Dec 01, 2012 Matt Carter rated it 2 of 5 stars

Most of the time you hear people complaining how the book was better than a film adaptation. Jaws is not one of those books. Stephen Spielberg's film adaptation of Jaws is one of the classic thrillers, tightly paced, incredibly tense, and ultimately focused on the character drama of three unlikely men teamed together to kill a man-eating shark. The book, on the other hand, lacks most of these. Sure, the character drama of three men and a shark is there, and it does make a solid attempt at being...more

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Nov 23, 2012 Bree Toni tovoy rated it 5 of 5 stars

Firstly, Is it horror? Despite the protestations of one of my dearest friends, "What's scary about a big fish?" I would respectfully submit to you that yes, Jaws is in fact a horror. If you are of the opinion that a masked man stalking teenagers in smalltown America, picking them off one by one is horror; then a man-eating shark preying on unsuspecting bathers off the coast of smalltown America is no different.

For me, if there was a physical embodiment of fear, it's a shark. This is an absolutel...more Firstly, Is it horror? Despite the protestations of one of my dearest friends, "What's scary about a big fish?" I would respectfully submit to you that yes, Jaws is in fact a horror. If you are of the opinion that a masked man stalking teenagers in smalltown America, picking them off one by one is horror; then a man-eating shark preying on unsuspecting bathers off the coast of smalltown America is no different.

For me, if there was a physical embodiment of fear, it's a shark. This is an absolutely primal fear of an animal whose basic design has not evolved or changed in millions of years. Sharks are effectively living fossils, an apex predator so perfectly acclimated to its ecosystem that they have survived for million of years at the top of their food chain. So yes, `Jaws' is a horror novel.

Released in 1974, `Jaws' hit the bestseller lists and stayed there for nearly a whole year.

The author (Peter Benchley) drew his inspiration for this novel from a number of real-life incidents, most notably the 1964 landing of a 2000kg Great White Shark caught off the coast of New York state and the infamous Jersey Shore attacks of 1916.

As stated previously, `Jaws' is the story of a small American coastal town, reliant on summer tourist trade that is preyed upon by a man-eating Great White Shark; and the subsequent hunting of said shark by the town's police chief, an Ichthyologist and the local seasoned shark hunter. Many will already be familiar with the Spielberg film adaptation but I would suggest to you all that the novel is by far the superior of the two.

`Jaws' the novel provides far greater depth to the characters involved with the backstory to Ellen Brodie and the Chief's marriage, the Mayor's shady dealings and other aspects that I choose not to reveal to those who are not familiar with the book. As opposed to the film, the book offers significantly different relationship dynamics for the lead protagonists and a palpable feeling of tension on board the boat that viewers of the film will already be familiar with. Overall, there is a generally darker tone throughout the book and an ending that is poles apart from the distinctly Hollywood finale of the movie.

This is one of my shorter reviews but I fail to see the point in a book review that simply gives the whole plot of a novel away, effectively ruining it for any potential reader!

In my opinion, `Jaws' is an incredibly satisfying read that easily drew me into the world created by Benchley. My only warning with this book would be to save it for dry land; this is not a book you want to be reading on the beach! (less)

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Nov 12, 2012 Nickolaus Pacione rated it 4 of 5 stars

Weighing in on the classic here by Peter Benchley, JAWS is a lot of things to a lot of people -- and they stayed the hell out of the water because of it. I found myself thinking of there being a shark in the Great Lakes and that is an urban legend here of a bull shark let loose in the lake. JAWS has an ending that I am not going to giveaway and what happens to Hooper in the book is one of the grim things -- the movie version is toned down with the language in the book. There are a lot of dirty j...more

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Oct 26, 2012 Paul Fitzgerald rated it 4 of 5 stars

The book was very good. It was intense suspenseful and dramatic. Unlike the movie it is very intriguing and not cheesy. The characters are made to sound like there real (obviously), but in most books characters are predictable and over stressed ruining the ratings of the book. But in Jaws, the characters make the situation that these people are in, believable. I know that a giant 20 foot shark may not seem believable, but the way Peter puts so much detail on the shark's attacks, not the shark it...more

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Oct 13, 2012 Todd rated it 2 of 5 stars

This has been sort of weird reading experience since i am so much more familiar with the movie than i am the book.
In this case i don't think the book can compete with the script of the movie in many areas. Honestly i think the most exciting part of the novel is the tension between Brody Hooper and Ellen. In the end Benchley might be a better romance writer than he is in writing suspense. I'm not being sarcastic here, the relationship and drama between the main characters is actually pretty good...more

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Sep 30, 2012 Christine Blachford rated it 5 of 5 stars

I absolutely loved this. I’ve seen the film, naturally, and was pondering watching it again but instead I set about reading the book. It’s split into three parts, each with their own journey – the first introducing the terror of the shark, the second navigating the politics of closing the beaches, and the third getting out on that fishing boat to try and dispatch the creature.

Each one is different but they have a common theme of the overriding threat and the difficult position police chief Brody...more

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Sep 14, 2012 Lynn rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: horror, drama, icthyology

I first read JAWS in the early summer of 1975, shortly before the movie came out, which I saw four times. I was about thirteen, and I'd begged my mother to let me read the book. You have to understand, back then EVERYONE was reading it. They even had a special Scholastic Books version without the naked woman on the cover (and probably missing some profanity and intimate scenes, too).

So my mother let me read her copy of JAWS, complete with naked woman, but she put a paper clip over a short sectio...more I first read JAWS in the early summer of 1975, shortly before the movie came out, which I saw four times. I was about thirteen, and I'd begged my mother to let me read the book. You have to understand, back then EVERYONE was reading it. They even had a special Scholastic Books version without the naked woman on the cover (and probably missing some profanity and intimate scenes, too).

So my mother let me read her copy of JAWS, complete with naked woman, but she put a paper clip over a short section of pages. "Don't read this part," she said. I promised not to. You're probably thinking that I went ahead and read it right away, aren't you? Nope. I was a good girl--probably *too* good, but there you have it. I didn't touch that paper clip, although I did scour the page immediately before and after it. I kept this up for years afterward.

Then one day I was rereading the book as a young adult, got to that section, looked around with guilt and then tore off the paper clip. And wondered what the fuss had been about.

Funny, really. My mom didn't object to scenes of sharks eviscerating people and Mafia thugs murdering cats and language that would shock a dockworker (in 1974), but one conversation about sexual fantasies leading up to an affair was too much for her sweet young teen daughter. Go figure. I might have done the same.

Anyway, JAWS the novel doesn't deserve the bad rap it's gotten from modern-day young reviewers. Unlike the film (which, I agree, is better on its own merits), the point of the story is not the terror of the shark attacks: it's their effect on the small coastal town Amity. The shark's arrival figuratively rends the town to pieces, as well as endangering Chief Brody's marriage, which is the point of the affair between her and visiting ichthyologist Hooper. This subplot was dropped (wisely) for the film, but it has its place in the book.

The final scenes with Brody, Hooper and Quint battling the shark are an obvious homage to MOBY-DICK, which is missed by those unfamiliar with classic literature. Again, I found them to be realistic and engrossing. Those looking for nonstop action may well be disappointed. However, this novel has much more to offer.

I will say that Benchley wasted some time on extraneous dialogue. Some of it is very Seventies, like the frequent mention of "grass". My favorite came when Hooper and Ellen Brody are having lunch (the infamous paper-clip scene) and the server asks her what kind of dressing she wants on her salad. Wasted space! But there isn't that much of this sort of thing. For the most part, the prose is lean and moves right along.

In my edition, Benchley composed a new (2005) introduction explaining how he came to write JAWS and why he couldn't do so today. Sharks are not territorial, they don't seek out humans to eat (we don't taste that good), and they don't attack boats except by accident. Like wolves, they're maligned. All true, I'm sure. If not for the legends, however, we wouldn't have the magnificence of JAWS the novel, and even more so of the film.

(less)

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Aug 14, 2012 Caleb Abel rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2010

**BOOK CLUB ROUND 2**

As most of my close friends and family are well aware, Steven Spielberg’s film adaptation of Jaws is my favorite movie of all time. Some may challenge my reasoning on that, and if you really want to argue about it at least read my 1,000 word diatribe about it found here (it was one of the first reviews I ever posted after starting the original Bullshish).

After Michael Crichton’s Jurassic Park damn near ruined Spielberg’s amazing adaptation of that for me back in the early 20...more **BOOK CLUB ROUND 2**

As most of my close friends and family are well aware, Steven Spielberg’s film adaptation of Jaws is my favorite movie of all time. Some may challenge my reasoning on that, and if you really want to argue about it at least read my 1,000 word diatribe about it found here (it was one of the first reviews I ever posted after starting the original Bullshish).

After Michael Crichton’s Jurassic Park damn near ruined Spielberg’s amazing adaptation of that for me back in the early 2000’s, I’ve been pretty terrified of reading this one for fear of the same result. I’ve since been able to get over the fact that Jurassic Park the book and Jurassic Park the movie are two completely separate entities that must be appreciated on entirely different levels, and with that realization came a renewed desire to take on Jaws. Since Laura is awesome, she was totally game for tackling it with me once we started our two person book club.

For the first fifty or so pages, the book seemed almost completely in line with the film. The opening scene was practically shot for shot, with just as much terror and a little more gore as the night-swimmer gets her comeuppance. As the story continued, it still seemed pretty close to the film I’ve grown to love, albeit with the additional detail into character and setting backgrounds that literature allows. And then it took one major turn (and several little ones that are destined to happen during the adaptation process).

While all of the pacing involving the shark attacks is just as beautifully orchestrated as the attacks Spielberg put on the silver screen, there’s one particular subplot that occurs on land that was extremely nerve grating. Basically, two characters engaged in a completely superfluous affair that didn’t accomplish anything besides making one of the leads completely detestable and padding the pages a little (I’d estimate around 50 pages total). Thankfully, Spielberg knew better and ended up turning this prick into one of the film’s most likable characters.

Another subplot also left out of the movie was far more interesting and did well to explain why the mayor is so intent on keeping the beaches open, in spite of the obvious danger. While the movie’s pacing flows far better without this diversion, it’s a welcome bonus for reading the book. Another major positive of reading the book was that Chief Brody is still awesome and now gets to stand as one of my favorite heroes in both literature and film, and the book actually made me like Quint considerably more than the movie (though Laura still hates either variation).

Benchley is a very talented writer and his knack for suspense is seen perfectly in just about any scene the shark shows up in. I’ve been afraid of the ocean ever since I saw the movie when I was eight, and while I’ve solely credited Spielberg for that in the past, I’d now have to say Benchley deserves just as much blame. The intensity he builds up and the way the shark’s instincts are explained gave the film director a hell of a lot to work with, and every scene where Jaws shows up in the movie follows a very clear guideline for terror that Benchley outlined every time the shark took another victim in his book.

Overall, I’m glad we read it. Despite my fears, it didn’t come close to making me question the movie, as I’d happily stand by Spielberg’s adaptation as the superior version of this story if only because of book’s waste-of-time side story. Adultery is stupid, Mr. Benchley. Keep it out of my horror books.

Spielberg also made the better ending. By a lot.

(less)

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Aug 13, 2012 Alex rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I hardly ever say this, but: The movie is better. MUCH better.

I decided to read this while at the beach this past weekend, thinking that the setting would make the experience of reading this for the first time even more fun. However, I am so very confused by this book. It had been years since I'd seen parts of the movie, but I seem to recall that there were shark attacks of some sort, correct? Hmm. Not in the book.

Seriously, where was the shark in this book? 90% of this book was about this stup...more

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Jul 28, 2012 Nicole rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

As a marine biologist, I am ashamed it has taken me so long to read this book! Adding insult to injury, my parents went to see Jaws on one of their first dates. I was destined to eventually read - and LOVE - this book!

This the ultimate suspense novel. A huge shark is stalking the shores of a small New York summer town. He strikes without warning. And before you know it, the body count is escalating and Chief Brody must find a way to stop it before more deaths weigh on his conscience.

Most of us...more

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Jul 06, 2012 Stephen rated it 1 of 5 stars

Shelves: pop-lit

“Jaws” is my favorite movie of all time. It’s perfect. Quite literally. And while I was perfectly aware that it was based on Benchley’s bestselling novel of the same name, I never brought myself around to reading it. I think it was mostly because I was worried it might change my opinion of the movie, for better or worse. But recently the novel kind of fell into my lap, and it being summer and all, I decided to give it a go. Why not, right?

Having just finished it, I can honestly say this is one o...more “Jaws” is my favorite movie of all time. It’s perfect. Quite literally. And while I was perfectly aware that it was based on Benchley’s bestselling novel of the same name, I never brought myself around to reading it. I think it was mostly because I was worried it might change my opinion of the movie, for better or worse. But recently the novel kind of fell into my lap, and it being summer and all, I decided to give it a go. Why not, right?

Having just finished it, I can honestly say this is one of those most rare of occasions when you can claim the statement that the movie is much better than the book. I don’t even feel like I’m being a fanboy when I say that. I think it’s just a simple fact. There is so much that’s bad and weak and superfluous about the novel that I don’t even really know where to start.

**HERE THERE BE SPOILERS**

Let’s start with the characters, I guess. How about, there’s not a single main character you really want to root for. Chief Brody, our hero, is a morally upstanding character, at least, but for all that, he’s a terrific jerk—constantly getting into arguments with his wife and making fun of her dreams and wishes and cooking and friends. There’s a dinner party in the novel that he seems to be at pains to deliberately ruin. His wife is not much better. She comes from an affluent background but married an island cop. Better than a dozen years later, she still regrets leaving the circles in which she once traveled, and takes just about every opportunity to lord it over Brody. She rues her life so much (even though it’s never made out to be a bad one) that she has an affair just to secretly lash out at her husband. Which brings us to Matt Hooper, our ichthyologist, who should really be there to explain just how out of the ordinary the shark really is. However, what he lacks in adding to the science angle behind the book, he makes up for in adding to the creepy-rape-fantasy-affair-with-the-hero’s-wife angle. Lastly, Mayor Vaughn’s character was perfectly fine, up until his motivations for desperately wanting to keep the beaches open during this disaster were revealed to be that he owes money to the mafia. What?! What’s so wrong with, Amity is an island community that is overtly dependent on summer tourism dollars and that losing that income to the threat of the shark is eating into revenues for the community as well as his own island-based real estate business? That’s a pretty damn compelling argument. You don’t need to bring the mafia into it to make it more urgent.

Which brings us to the writing. Before reading Jaws, the only other book of Benchely’s that I read was White Shark, which was really awful. (Like, Nazi experiment to create a genetic crossbreed between a man and a white shark run amok awful…) What is so awful about the writing in Jaws, though, is not how fantastical it is, but how pointless and useless it is. There are whole plot lines that are built up that 1. Take away from the true action of the story, 2. Don’t really add anything substantial to the overall narrative arc, and 3. Get dropped without any real resolve. There are multiple sequences like this in the novel. They all take place on the island and away from the water. And while I suspect Benchley inserted them in there in order to develop characters and give them depth, they don’t really do this very well at all.

An example of this can be seen in the Ellen Brody/Matt Hooper plot:
Brody’s wife longs to be a part of the wealthy, summer residents again, and she sees a chance to experience this again when Matt Hooper, a pseudo-acquaintance from her younger years, shows up on the island. At first she’s attracted to the idea of getting back into that old social circle; then she’s excited about the idea of sleeping with Hooper in order to enact a kind of secret punishment on Brody. They have an one-time affair (filled with some really awkward and embarrassing dialogue between the two), and go their separate ways. Brody, ever the cop, suspects that something happened but never really comes out and says it. At one point, Brody and Hooper have a confrontation over the matter, which Hooper defuses with a well-told lie. Then, shortly thereafter, Hooper is killed by the shark and Brody literally has a moment where he thinks “I guess I don’t have to worry about whether my wife cheated on me now.” That’s it. All the build up and no payoff. Not to mention the fact that it doesn’t do anything to advance the story. The whole plot line seems to exist off to the side on it’s own.

Also, Benchley’s dialogue is horrific. It’s very very stilted. There’s (honest-to-God) a moment when a waitress describes the types of salad dressing available. Not because it’s significant or important. Not because it’s being used to describe how droll and dull the environment or character is. Not for any reason in particular, other than Benchley wanted to depict the scene as it would occur. Unfortunately, this makes for narrative motion that’s as compelling as the phone book. Benchley is clearly from the tell-it-don’t-show-it school of writing…

Lastly, I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention the finale. The action wraps up pretty well, but then everything ends abruptly. Literally. In the final pages, Brody finds himself in the water, the shark, with four harpoons in him, is bearing down on him. All hope is lost. There’s no way out. And then the shark dies…. Let me repeat that. The shark…the terrible beast that has enigmatically stalked the residents of a coastal community for weeks and has been playing cat and mouse with The Orca for a few days and has proven itself to be intelligent, vengeful, impossibly strong, terrifically large, incredibly dangerous, and relentless….dies. Without warning. Without event. Without any action. It just sinks below the surface of the water and dies. It is, without a doubt, one of the most anticlimactic endings I have ever read. And worse, the book ends in the next sentence. It’s over. There’s zero resolution of any of the outstanding plot lines.

By the time the novel was over, I was ready to clear it from my memory. I will gladly take the far superior film version over this, any day!
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Jun 11, 2012 Zhao Yong Chen rated it 3 of 5 stars

Jaws, a book written before the movie, is about a Killer shark who attacks people along Amity. It tarts out with one victim, Christina, who was skinny dipping in the ocean when she was eaten. After he was attacked and reported missing, Officer Brody and several other Amity police men search for her body. They find out that she was attacked by a shark and they set out on a shark hunt. Officer Brady wishes to close the beaches until the right shark is caught, however, mayor Vaughn disagrees since...more

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Jun 10, 2012 Nenia Campbell rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: x-1970s, are-you-afraid-of-the-dark-yet, the-butler-did-it, reviewed, repulsive-protagonist, icky-sex-fantasies, island-of-hype

WOULD YOU SURVIVE IN JAWS?
(A reader's guide)

1. You and your friends are in a quaint ocean-side town in New England. You decide to:
(a) Sample the local seafood. $6.99/lb lobster? It don't get no better than this!
(b) Hang out at the beach. You want to show off your new swimsuit and get a killer tan.
(c) Get totally wasted and go skinny-dipping. Come on in, guys! The water's great!
(d) Take tons of photographs on your iPhone to show off to your friends on Facebook.

2. It's a hot day. You go to the bea...more

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Jun 01, 2012 Chris Thompson rated it 2 of 5 stars

I was unaware until a few months ago that Jaws was a book before Steven Spielberg made it into a movie. It just so happened that my Young Adult Literature professor had it on her bookshelf and handed it to me for my Man vs. Nature book ladder assignment. The difference between the two versions is huge, as Spielberg has a better knack for storytelling. That's not to say Peter Benchley's novel is without its entertainment; it's just that his cynicism shifts the story in a bad direction.

The opening...more I was unaware until a few months ago that Jaws was a book before Steven Spielberg made it into a movie. It just so happened that my Young Adult Literature professor had it on her bookshelf and handed it to me for my Man vs. Nature book ladder assignment. The difference between the two versions is huge, as Spielberg has a better knack for storytelling. That's not to say Peter Benchley's novel is without its entertainment; it's just that his cynicism shifts the story in a bad direction.

The opening will likely sound familiar. A man and woman, drunk, have sex in the backyard of his family's house. She decides to take a dip in the ocean while he is passed out. Little does she know a shark lurks in the dark.

Chief of police Martin Brody is put on the case of the missing woman, and when he finds her detached head, there's no doubt she was the victim of a shark attack. Brody proposes closing down the beaches for several days, but it's bad timing for the town, Amity. Harry Meadows, editor of the town's local paper, and Mayor Vaughn don't want the beaches closed because the town relies on summer tourism for revenue to survive the winter. So, against Brody's better judgment, the beaches remain open and the shark attack is covered up. However, when a second and third shark attack occur, the mayor has no choice but to close them down.

Brody calls on shark expert Matt Hooper to help out. Hooper can't explain why the shark, which he identifies as a great white, is hovering around the area, especially when the waters are still chilly, but he does know it's a really big shark (which inspires the famous line in the movie, "I think we need a bigger boat"). He also recognizes Brody's wife, Ellen, who dated his older brother back in the day. Ellen loves her husband, but despises her life as a "winter" person, meaning she lives in Amity yearlong rather than as a summer getaway. She's clearly attracted to Hooper, a "summer" person, and Brody suspects this. Also joining the scene is Quint, captain of a fishing boat. He despises sharks, but loves slitting open their gut and dropping them in the water to watch them eat their own insides over and over until they die. Like in the movie, these three men go on the final quest to hunt down the shark.

The novel is actually pretty good for the first half of it. Benchley writes with a lot of humor, similar to Stephen King, although some of his humor relies too much on bodily functions. I grew to like the police chief, Brody, and even Harry Meadows, as well as another policeman, Hendricks. However, Benchley's mistake is to forget about the shark plot about halfway through the novel in order to develop a romantic subplot between Ellen and Matt. This subplot takes up a significant portion of the novel and only serves to undermine it. Those who don't like graphic sexual language might want to skip this section of the novel. While the scene produces a lot of tension, it also changes the tone of the novel for the worst, making the rest of the novel difficult to enjoy.

In exploring a Man vs. Nature theme, the novel does have some interesting points to make. Matt Hooper says some fascinating things about sharks. Everyone wants an explanation as to why the shark is hanging around, and Matt makes it clear that sometimes there are simply unexplainable anomalies in nature. The shark's presence is a threat to the town's economy, and because the shark lives in the ocean, it is difficult to find and kill. Thus we find how humans are sometimes powerless to fight off mother nature, no matter how big their boat is.

Though my Young Adult Literature teacher had this on her bookshelf, I wouldn't consider it YA, due to the graphic language. However, it's not difficult to imagine teenagers in the 1970s reading the novel due to the popularity of the movie. I wonder what they thought of it. You're probably familiar with the claim that the book is always better than the movie, but I think Jaws proves that wrong. Spielberg's movie remains a classic, while Benchley's novel has fallen into relative obscurity, and with good reason. (less)

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Jan 09, 2012 Paul Darcy rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: thriller

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 differently in the fil...more

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Nov 28, 2011 Adam rated it 4 of 5 stars

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 Machine” and...more 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 Machine” and devours multiple innocent people in its quest for appetite fulfillment. Two other sub characters assist the chief in his mission to protect his town and get rid of the great white; Dr. Hooper, a renowned shark scientist who goes on brief affair with the chief’s wife and Captain Quint, the grizzled shark hunter and owner of the ship that they use to find the shark. Due to the great sense of adventure and the fact that three men and a boat kill a gigantic shark, I found this book hard to put down and enjoyed it greatly.
The constant pace of action in this book is very well thought out and the author did a very good job organizing the pace. The adventure starts when the chief asks the captain to hunt the shark. “This shark, swallow you whole. Little shakin', little tenderizin', an' down you go. And we gotta kill it quick, that'll bring back your tourists, put all your businesses on a payin' basis. But it's not gonna be pleasant. I value my neck a lot more than three thousand bucks, chief.” At that point the chief is desperate to find any solution to try to kill the shark after it has eaten multiple townspeople. Peter Benchley is trying to set the tone for the Captains attitude and shows that captain knows this is a pretty daunting challenge.
I found that the story represents a true human accomplishment that truly can never be duplicated. After watching both of his partners disappear at the hands of the shark, the chief cleverly feeds the shark a compressed air tank and shoots it, blowing it to smithereens. When the two surviving crewmates, Hooper and the Chief reeunite they are forced to swim back to Amity from the middle of the ocean. The ending dialogue of the movie comically brings a fitting end to the chief’s great feat. “Chief Brody, I used to hate the water.” Hooper replies, “ I can't imagine why.”
In conclusion, Jaws is one of the best books I’ve read because its sequence of events keep the reader very interested throughout the entire book. Peter Benchley’s ensemble of characters kept me wanting to read more because of how they were presented. I would recommend this book to people who like action but appreciate character depth. Any one of Peter Benchley’s books is written with such fervent description that I can confidently say that he is one of my favorite authors. Jaws should go down as one of the best adventure stories ever told.
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Oct 13, 2011 Steven rated it 3 of 5 stars

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 movie is a lean, taut, muscular tale of man versus beast...more

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Jan 12, 2011 Jeanette rated it 2 of 5 stars

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

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Jaws the Book	7	51	Apr 01, 2013 01:37pm
The movie was definitely better	12	54	Nov 21, 2012 04:09pm
Enchanted Bookends: Jaws	2	7	Oct 05, 2012 06:55am
Devlin's Advocate...: JAWS by Peter Benchley	1	1	Feb 25, 2012 02:58am

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About Peter Benchley

Peter Bradford Benchley was an American author best known for writing the novel Jaws and co-writing the screenplay for its highly successful film adaptation. The success of the book led to many publishers commissioning books about mutant rats, rabid dogs and the like threatening communities. The subsequent film directed by Steven Spielberg and co-written by Benchley is generally acknowledged as th...more Peter Bradford Benchley was an American author best known for writing the novel Jaws and co-writing the screenplay for its highly successful film adaptation. The success of the book led to many publishers commissioning books about mutant rats, rabid dogs and the like threatening communities. The subsequent film directed by Steven Spielberg and co-written by Benchley is generally acknowledged as the first summer blockbuster. Benchley also wrote The Deep and The Island which were also adapted into films.

Benchley was from a literary family. He was the son of author Nathaniel Benchley and grandson of Algonquin Round Table founder Robert Benchley. His younger brother, Nat Benchley, is a writer and actor. Peter Benchley was an alumnus of Phillips Exeter Academy and Harvard University.

After graduating from college, he worked for The Washington Post, then as an editor at Newsweek and a speechwriter in the White House. He developed the idea of a man-eating shark terrorising a community after reading of a fisherman Frank Mundus catching a 4,550 pound great white shark off the coast of Long Island in 1964. He also drew some material from the tragic Jersey Shore shark attacks of 1916.

His reasonably successful second novel, The Deep, is about a honeymooning couple discovering two sunken treasures on the Bermuda reefs -- 17th century Spanish gold and a fortune in World War Two-era morphine -- who are subsequently targeted by a drug syndicate. This 1976 novel is based on Benchley's chance meeting in Bermuda with diver Teddy Tucker while writing a story for National Geographic. Benchley co-wrote the screenplay for the 1977 film release, along with Tracy Keenan Wynn and an uncredited Tom Mankiewicz. Directed by Peter Yates and starring Robert Shaw, Nick Nolte and Jacqueline Bisset, The Deep was the second-highest grossing release of 1977 after Star Wars, although its box office tally fell well short of Jaws.

The Island, published in 1979, was a story of descendants of 17th century pirates who terrorize pleasure craft in the Caribbean, leading to the Bermuda Triangle mystery. Benchley again wrote the screenplay for the film adaptation. But the movie version of The Island, starring Michael Caine and David Warner, failed at the box office when released in 1980.

During the 1980s, Benchley wrote three novels that did not sell as well as his previous works. However, Girl of the Sea of Cortez, a beguiling John Steinbeck-type fable about man's complicated relationship with the sea, was far and away his best reviewed book and has attracted a considerable cult following since its publication. Sea of Cortez signposted Benchley's growing interest in ecological issues and anticipated his future role as an impassioned and intelligent defender of the importance of redressing the current imbalance between human activities and the marine environment. Q Clearance published in 1986 was written from his experience as a staffer in the Johnson White House. Rummies (aka Lush), which appeared in 1989, is a semi-autobiographical work, loosely inspired by the Benchley family's history of alcohol abuse. While the first half of the novel is a relatively straightforward (and harrowing) account of a suburbanite's descent into alcoholic hell, the second part -- which takes place at a New Mexico substance abuse clinic -- veers off into wildly improbable thriller-type territory.

He returned to nautical themes in 1991's Beast written about a giant squid threatening Bermuda. Beast was brought to the small screen as a made for TV movie in 1996, under the slightly altered title The Beast. His next novel, White Shark, was published in 1994. The story of a Nazi-created genetically engineered shark/human hybrid failed to achieve popular or critical success with Christopher Lehmann-Haupt of the New York Times saying it "looks more like Arnold Schwarzenegger than any fish". ("Peter Benchley" Contemporary Authors Onl(less)

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“Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water...” — 12 people liked it

“There's nothing in the sea this fish would fear. Other fish run from bigger things. That's their instinct. But this fish doesn't run from anything. He doesn't fear.” — 11 people liked it

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