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3.49 AVERAGE
3.49 AVERAGE
challenging
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
This feels like a pretty good short story that was turned into an awful novel. I think 1970s popular fiction is my least favorite genre.
This book was about a woman having an affair, not about a shark. The only good chapters were the first one and the last two...
The first quarter of this book isn’t bad. The last quarter, particularly Quint’s existence, isn’t bad either. The middle half is repugnant trash. It’s amazing that this was turned into even a good movie, much less a classic.
adventurous
dark
informative
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:
No
dark
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
adventurous
challenging
dark
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:
Complicated
A very easy, relentlessly gripping read. The movie captures the thrilling aspects of the book very well, but miss some of the deeper characterization that the book creates. I loved the wonderful tension between the winter folk and the summer folk. Benchley weaves colorful descriptions to bring the people and places, the thrill of the hunt, to life. While it's a shame that the book has bred a lot of misconceptions of Great White sharks, it also does well at capturing their power and majestic qualities as well.
Jaws is very very 70s and very very shit.
An important note at the top… I love sharks, absolutely fucking LOVE them, I’ll watch any bad movie that features them, binge on documentaries during Shark Week and one day want to do a cage-dive with a great white. However, I do not love sharks enough to ever read this book again. That is, in part, because there simply was not enough shark in it!
I’ll start with the good stuff, the descriptions of the shark, the ocean and the boats were all great. As a lifelong water-baby, with a childhood spent sailing on and swimming in the sea, there’s something about a maritime-based book that tugs a little on the sheets (😉) of my heart. It’s obvious Benchley has a love of the ocean and drew on his childhood sea-fishing expeditions to create some really immersive and engaging scenes in and on the water.
However, when the most likeable character in your novel is a 25 foot, 3 tonne killing machine, I’d say you’ve missed the mark somewhat. Chief Brody was boring, judgmental and jealous… with no authority or backbone to speak of and there was no part of me that wanted him to prevail over the shark. Ellen Brody was a dull, snobby housewife whose only ‘interesting’ moments came from an entirely unnecessary affair subplot, in which it became clear that the author must have spent a lot of time at sea and not much time around women. At one point Ellen coquettishly declares to her secret lover that it’s “every schoolgirl’s dream, to be a whore”! Is it Ellen? IS IT THOUGH?! I mean, you do you hun, have your kinks, but I did think that was a little unnecessary over a midweek seafood lunch.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for a little bit of smut, but not in my shark books! I came here for the hardcore fish drama not the soft-core porn!
Honestly I probably put more time and effort into this cover recreation than the author did into this book, this one is a hard no from me.
An important note at the top… I love sharks, absolutely fucking LOVE them, I’ll watch any bad movie that features them, binge on documentaries during Shark Week and one day want to do a cage-dive with a great white. However, I do not love sharks enough to ever read this book again. That is, in part, because there simply was not enough shark in it!
I’ll start with the good stuff, the descriptions of the shark, the ocean and the boats were all great. As a lifelong water-baby, with a childhood spent sailing on and swimming in the sea, there’s something about a maritime-based book that tugs a little on the sheets (😉) of my heart. It’s obvious Benchley has a love of the ocean and drew on his childhood sea-fishing expeditions to create some really immersive and engaging scenes in and on the water.
However, when the most likeable character in your novel is a 25 foot, 3 tonne killing machine, I’d say you’ve missed the mark somewhat. Chief Brody was boring, judgmental and jealous… with no authority or backbone to speak of and there was no part of me that wanted him to prevail over the shark. Ellen Brody was a dull, snobby housewife whose only ‘interesting’ moments came from an entirely unnecessary affair subplot, in which it became clear that the author must have spent a lot of time at sea and not much time around women. At one point Ellen coquettishly declares to her secret lover that it’s “every schoolgirl’s dream, to be a whore”! Is it Ellen? IS IT THOUGH?! I mean, you do you hun, have your kinks, but I did think that was a little unnecessary over a midweek seafood lunch.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for a little bit of smut, but not in my shark books! I came here for the hardcore fish drama not the soft-core porn!
Honestly I probably put more time and effort into this cover recreation than the author did into this book, this one is a hard no from me.
tense