Reviews with content warning for Racism - Jaws

The opening scene is one of the most haunting and thrilling I have ever read/listened to. Really, all the scenes with “the fish” are amazing. Very well written and suspenseful.

However, keeping in mind that this book was published in 1974, the explicit sexism and racism is so unnecessary (yes, even for the 70s) and really impacted my experience. Props to Spielberg, who definitely knew what to leave out and keep in when he created the motion picture.

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aghoststory's review against another edition

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adventurous fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? N/A
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

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bookswithlauren's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

1.0

To say I am disappointed in this book is an understatement. The shark wasn't even the main focus of the book!

I adore sharks and shark movies, especially the Jaws franchise, and yet, I had never read the book before. Having read the book now, I appreciate all the changes Steven Spielberg made for the movie adaptation so much more. I understand Jaws was written in 1974 and I have tried to keep that in mind but the movie came out the following year and all the problematic issues from the book had been taken out and the plot line had been improved greatly, so although it was a different time back then, Spielberg still made those much needed changes.

The first issue I have with the book is the homophobic language: within the first few pages we see homophobic slurs being used to describe a group of men. Again, further into the story, more homophobic slurs being used against a girl who lives on the island.

Secondly, the sexist language, remarks and behaviours were just ridiculous. The descriptions of the female characters and women on the beach from the male characters point of view were disgusting. After the first shark attack the mayor of the town wanted to over ride the cause of death concluded by the coroner to a potential suicide on the basis that the girl may have been on her period at the time of swimming in the water and therefore, asking to be attacked by a shark. I could not have rolled my eyes more heavily at this scene. There was the very stereotypical dominant male theme throughout the book: husband makes the rules, belittles the wife, makes crude and abusive remarks, threatens physical abuse, doting wife is tempted by the new, smart guy in town and has a brief affair with him.

There was unnecessary focus placed on the corrupt police department on the island: treating rape like an inconvenience and covering it up. The whole book glorified rape, racism and rape and rape fantasies to be perfectly honest. One of the main characters was possibly raped throughout the story and it was written as a sordid affair and fantasy of a housewife, which again, was just an unnecessary added plot line.

Another thing that just ruined the story for me was the introduction of the mafia into the story... yes, you read the correctly. The mafia had a hand in all the shark attacks because they were forcing the town mayor to keep the public beaches open because he was in debt to them and they did not want money, they wanted favours, in the form of keeping public beaches open...

Lastly, there was so much unnecessary killing and torturing of sharks and other animals for enjoyment throughout the book. It was disgusting to read, in great detail, the injuring and suffering of the sharks and other animals at the hands of the main characters in this book.

What was the main plotline of Jaws? Was it the mafia infiltrating a small seaside town? Was it the decline of a marriage resulting in an affair? Was it a corrupt police department? Because it definitely was not the shark. The chase to catch the shark lasted two chapters and in the end, the shark just died randomly, 2ft away from Chief Brody, mouth open, ready to attack. An even more disappointing ending to a disappointing book.

Honestly, Steven Spielberg made some much needed changes for the film adaptation and I am so glad he did. He turned a badly written book into an iconic, well written and directed movie.

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kdailyreads's review against another edition

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This book had way too much racist, sexist, and homophobic content for me. And not enough focus on the shark! A rare case of the movie absolutely being better than the book.

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brookey8888's review against another edition

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dark mysterious 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

2.5

I’m sad I didn’t like this. I don’t know if the characters are supposed to be unlikable but I literally hated all of them. The few shark parts were good and kind of creepy, but other then that I was just annoyed and rolling my eyes.
What I didn’t like

Weirdly mentioning a black man raping rich white women multiple times(had nothing to do with the plot)Brought it up again because it’s bad for tourism
the weird sexual talk about children
Cheating (I listen to the audiobook and I swear there was an hour chapter of a wife cheating on her husband)
Weird sexual things(i’m looking shaming but there was taco CNC which is fine but I feel weird when a man writes it just for I don’t know I just didn’t think it was well Done)
Hardly any shark action(there was about three scenes before they went after the shark and even then they were like very short)
Racism and antisemitic just casual
Fat phobia
Character said I don’t care if he’s out laying girls scouts(like those are children sir).

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melanyseescribecony's review against another edition

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1.5

empezo bastante bien pero se fue por las ramas con la trama donde la esposa del policia le quiere poner los cuernos con el cientifico experto en tiburones (y sus fantasias sexuales y racistas). literalmente un tercio del libro es sobre eso. y el último tercio fue un embole. no se qué le ven de terrorifico a esta historia.

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expertbooksmuggler's review against another edition

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adventurous

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

Parts of this book were pretty good, but the casual racism and the affair plot line really brought this book down. While you could argue that the racism is ‘era appropriate’ it didn’t actually lend itself to the story whatsoever- so what was the point?

It’s similar to how I felt about the affair plot line. I suppose it is rather difficult to write an entire book about a shark, but perhaps it didn’t NEED to be a full length novel? Or maybe it would’ve been better to focus more on the politics than the MMC’s wife and her rape fantasies.

Throughout the book, it was fairly obvious that the author had some weird hangups about sex and women and oh boy did that distract from the plot.

Overall it was… fine. It was fine. The parts that involved the shark? FANTASTIC! The other stuff… meh.

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lucys_library's review against another edition

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adventurous tense medium-paced

3.5

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