Reviews

I really liked the first 2/3 of the book. The local politics and the divide between the year-round locals and the summer people intrigued me. I thought it was well-written. But overall, I'm not a fan of this book. I really hated the way Ellen was written. She was really the only major female character and to make her such a crappy, self-involved snob seemed sexist to me. And the book did nothing to make me love Quint, my favorite character from the movie. Weirdly, my least favorite part of the book was my favorite part of the movie: the hunt for the shark. Whoever wrote the script did a masterful job of turning this boring and seemingly endless hunt from the book into something that I really enjoyed on the screen.

hotdogbun's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional mysterious sad tense fast-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

shadow1ane's review against another edition

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adventurous 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

3.0

This book is a product of its time, and that should be remembered going in. Great story, and tense, but also dated.

Content Warnings

royalwaves's review against another edition

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

2.0

I’m so glad that I never bought a copy of this book and just borrowed it from the library. I would never recommend this. If you love the Jaws movies like I do save yourself the time.

The only good parts were the few scenes with the shark. I was expecting this to be a lot like the movie but this was like 90% about infidelity. The only reason I’m not rating this lower is that I don’t hate this book, I’m just
extremely disappointed.

Content Warnings

dagreatcatsby's review against another edition

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dark fast-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

2.5

I was so excited to read this, as I love the movie. But it fell so short of my expectations.

the_sunken_library's review against another edition

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2.0

The film was significantly better.

I get it's an old book but the casual racism, homophobia and sexism is jarring.

Peter Benchley has the seed of a good idea, hence such an iconic movie being spawned from it, but his writing is dull in my opinion. I didn't find it scary or tense. The attacks are fast and unimpressive. The shark simply sounds like a shark and every character in the book is awful. The descriptions of abject animal cruelty are quite frankly disgusting. I had hoped they would all get eaten and the shark would triumph.

What a boring ending as well. Beyond disappointing.

broe028's review against another edition

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4.0

Ahhhhh!! First off, Jaws is my top three favorite movie of all time, so it was a no brainer that I wanted to read this book. While the movie was incredibly accurate to this book, there were a few elements that were solely in the book and I can understand why they weren’t in the movie. An extra scene of suspense, mafia, and an affair I think all took away from the main point of a harassing shark. Even the final battle was a little different but I was very happy with this book. It was everything that I wanted it to be, and I was very happy that the movie payed with such respects. Definitely a book that I want to have in my personal collection. I have found that movie books, tend to be a hit or miss, but this hit it straight out of the park.

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