Piranha

by John Sayles, Leo Callan

They came downriver in their thousands. Their teeth could strip a living man to the bone in seconds. Their hunger for flesh was insatiable and their vicious attacks had already left a trail of carnage and mutilation in their wake.

As the waters flowed, so the deadly fish went with them, ever nearer, nearer to the unsuspecting Lost River Holiday Camp. Children bathed, couples lingered in the shadows, water-skiers sped unknowingly towards the horror that was surging towards them.

And for the piranha, it was feeding time.

Genres: Horror, Fiction

143 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1978

About the author

John Thomas Sayles is an independent film director, screenwriter, novelist and short story writer who frequently plays small roles in his own and other indie films.

Reviews

[Michael Fierce · Rating 3 out of 5]

3 1/2

As far as novelizations/movie tie-ins go, this was better than most but not as good as a couple I remember reading (the ones I remember liking most were Alien by Alan Dean Foster and, even more-so, Gargantua by K. Robert Andreassi.

Based on a story by John Sayles - writer of many films I'm into, Alligator, The Howling, Lone Star, etc., and director of the beautiful selkie film, The Secret of Roan Inish- this is the novelization for the film, Piranha (1978), directed by Joe Dante (director of Gremlins, The Burbs, Innerspace and the best sequence of Twilight Zone the Movie), this short read has good characters, a simple straightforward plot, some good Piranha chomping moments and is a fast read at only 143 pages long.

The cover said "BUY ME" and so I did, adding it to my growing-out-of-proportions Cryptid Horror mound which, at this point, is as big as Bigfoot and on its way to Megalolodon-size proportions (wow...did I just use that word twice in one review!?!? o_O?

Though the cover says 'A novel by John Sayles', it is actually (ghost?)written by Leo Callan, who did a fine job fleshing out Sayles story.

Yes, you could find a better book in the Cryptid Horror sub-genre but I wasn't disappointed and had fun with this.

[Mark · Rating 4 out of 5]

Their teeth could strip a living man to the bone in seconds and now the deadly fish, their hunger for flesh insatiable, got ever nearer to the unsuspecting Lost River holiday Camp. Children bathed, couples lingered in the shallows, water-skiers sped unknowingly towards the horror that was surging towards them. For the piranha, it was feeding time.
A fun novelisation of the Joe Dante/John Sayles film (the latter gets the cover credit), this sets off at a cracking pace and doesn’t let up (143 pages long with each chapter heading taking up a page on its own). Characterisation is briskly efficient (but works) and there’s little attention paid to the locations, but there’s plenty of action and Callan does well with the piranha attacks, though he does like to have the water churning constantly. I thoroughly enjoyed this as a late 70s gory horror treat and it made me want to watch the film all over again, which can’t be a bad thing. If paperback original horror of that era is your thing, you’ll love this - if it’s not, you wouldn’t have picked this up in the first place. I’d very much recommend it.

[Kelly · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a fun read--a short novelization of the 1978 movie by the screenwriter John Sayles. Interesting to see how he did a prose version. The descriptive text is often very sparse but he writes carefully and some of it reaches poetic quality. Out of print but worth it if you can track it down.

[Fishface · Rating 4 out of 5]

A delight. Takes you through the movie almost frame by frame.

[Stephen Melvin · Rating 2 out of 5]

I really liked the film, in that schlocky, B-movie sort of way. The book, on the other hand, is forgettable. At a mere 143 pages, it darts along faster than the mutant piranha in the water, more or less rehashing the events of the book, though a few details are changed for some baffling reason. (Also, [MILD SPOILER] in the book, the fish get the dog. How many times do I have to say it: DON'T KILL THE #$%ING DOG!)

That it mind, the prose vacillates between cringe-worthy purple and slumber-inducing flat. The movie will definitely play a role in my research, and I suppose I'll take a snippet or two from the book as well. Nonetheless, I could have done without it.

It's out of print and hard to come by in the first place. (I snagged the last used copy available on Amazon.) Perhaps that's for the best. While I highly recommend the film, I can aver that reading the novelization adds no depth or further insight to the narrative.

[Scott Oliver · Rating 4 out of 5]

Searching for two lost hikers, Paul and Maggie accidentally release a shoal of mutated piranha from a secret army testing facility into the local river.

The race is on to stop them before they reach Paul’s daughter at summer camp and the new marina opening down stream

This is a novelisation of the 1978 film which was one of my favourites when I was younger. The sound effects for the swimming piranha and their gnashing teeth is worth it alone

[Menion · Rating 3 out of 5]

If you liked the movie, you will like this. However, the book seems less cheesy, since you don't have to see the bad animation from the movie when reading. This one follows the film very closely, I wished there had been a bit more added material. There were a couple new scenes, such as the kid stuck on a tire swing over the piranha-filled water, but not much else. Also, the scene with Dr. Menser (the chick doctor) explaining how she knew Dr. Bob Hoak is mysteriously missing from the book. The author did a good job on the 'chomp chomp' scenes, and he did have a couple of kids get eaten up, unlike the film. Hollywood never shows kids getting eaten, for some reason. Either way, this book is a fun read for a couple of hours.

[Mikepottz · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a classic and when Piranha's are let loose (mutant and intelligent ones) into a river unsuspecting swimmers are going to be bitten and eaten alive. Yes it is a rip off of Jaws but it has such a great combination of gore and chessiness that is so entertaining. And the cover is cool!!!!