Rating: 
Summary: To some people it's scary...To me it's interesting.
Review: I first saw the movie JAWS when I was seven years old. Unlike other kids, I liked it. About five years later, I had to get the book. I read it and I thought it was way better than the movie, except the big detail at the end. I'm not gonna tell you what happens (Even though I love spoiling) but it's not a book you want to get spoiled on. Jaws was totally awesome! I loved the movie and book equal. Although, most people say the movie is better, which is partially true, but overall, it's a pretty damn cool book. WARNING: If you're planning to take this to your vacation at th ebeach and read it, It'll make you afraid to go in the water. Litterally. I was wading at the two foot deep level, then I got scared and ran back to lay down and rest. I went in the shoulder-deep once, but-ahhh, I'm wasting your life. Buy this book! you'll be glad you did! An remember: Don't go in the water!
Rating: 
Summary: A decent novel, but a better movie
Review: Jaws wasn't to bad of a book. It is obvious that Benchley spent tons of time researching this subject and it is all here for us to read. Very well written. But for people that love the movie, the book is a major dissappointment. The similarities are few between the two and the book is fairly short.
I found that most of JAWS is mor about the inner struggle of the town Amity than the shark itself. The book is broken up into three parts. The first part is about how the shark comes around and starts to eat innocent people. During this time, you will get good visuals that you remember from the movie, But then part two (which is most of the book) is almost nothing about the shark and more about the affair between Ellen Brody and Matt Hooper (not in the movie). This drags on for what seems like forever, and all you really want to do is get to more exciting shark attacks. Part three is about Hooper, Brody, and Quint trying to catch the shark, but it is cut very short. There is literally only one part of the fight that was put in the movie, and that was the famous sceane of Brody throwing fish in the water when the shark appears two feet from him.
Im not saying that this book is no good, but I do think that it could be better. Benchley is a wonderful writer and when the exciting parts do come along, they are great, but the book just needs more of them. So if you are in the mood to have a read that mirrors the movie, look elswhere, because you will not find it here.
Rating: 
Summary: Gross Plagiarism
Review: Ever read Melville's Moby Dick? Let me promise you that it is one heck of a lot better than this piece of wholeasale plagiarism. It's a real shame, too. This author wrote an absolutely brilliant early work titled "Eaters of the Dead" -- and then descended this low. Of course, Moby Dick is public domain. Nobody gonna sue this guy. What a shame.
Rating:
Summary: The movie was so much better
Review: After I bought the Jaws DVD I had this obsession with finding the the book.
My library, and all the town bookstairs didn't have. But eventually I found it on the net, and I discovered that it would have been better If I'd bought something else.
I'll admit, the book was good, but not for why you love the movie.
The book's few similarities to the film are basically names, and two of the attacks.
Difference's are many, Brody's wife has an affair, Quint drowns instead of getting eaten, Hooper dies, and the shark asphyxiates instead of blowing up.
Good book with much more exciting movie.
Rating:
Summary: Jaws
Review: Yes, ive sunk to a new level.... I actually read Jaws. I do have to admit that it really was not that poorly written. I found some parts a bit unecessary and rather over played, but all and all, it was not the worst thing I have ever read. The movie follows it pretty closely, but the book focuses more on the whole love and finding oneself theme instead of actually the shark itself. There is a small, interesting lesson that it tries to teach about the danger of obsessions.
Rating: 
Summary: Great because it was the first, the original
Review: I loved "Jaws" when I first read it, because it broke new literary ground and it terrified me to think what could be deep in the ocean where I swam so often. Subsequent readings have disappointed, somewhat, and I gloss over the tawdry relationship between Hooper and Ellen Brody; which has nothing to do with the story and rather cheapens the book, IMHO. The SHARK is what we want to read about; HIS effect on this tiny community, and his fateful encounters with various unfortunates. The reader who first received "Jaws" as part of his daily assignment was fired on the spot when he dismissed the book with the comment: "Who wants to see a movie about sharks?" He was blackballed, quietly, and is now most likely selling vacuum cleaners door to door. The more astute reader who brought this to the studio's attention deserves rich praise indeed, because this was a blockbuster and continues to be, on screen. Not to denigrate the book too much, the shark encounters are fantastic, and the descriptions of the attacks are fabulous, and you really feel for the poor people trapped in the territory of the unseen monster...From the first chapter and the first attack, you are mesmerized, and on the run with Brody, Hooper and Quint (based on the real life shark hunter, Frank Mundus, who landed the largest Great White ever caught on line; 17 feet in length and almost 4000 pounds!!!!)The REAL Quint: "Frank Mundus, born in Brooklyn, NY in 1925, is the most famous shark fisherman of all time. Since taking his boat CRICKET II on it's maiden voyage in 1947, Capt. Mundus has caught some of the largest great white sharks on record. He pioneered the sport of sharkfishing and was the innovator of many of the fishing techniques used today. Although Peter Benchley has never publicly acknowledged him, it is generally known that he was the inspiration for the character "Quint". Much of the action in JAWS is based on Capt. Mundus' real-life experiences. In 1961 Capt. Mundus caught a 3,000lb great white off the bathing beach of Amagansett (Amity?), NY. The following year he caught a larger great white off Block Island. His greatest claim to fame came in 1964 when, after a 5 hour struggle, he captured a 17 1/2', 4,500lb great white 10 miles off Montauk, Long Island. The shark required 5 harpoons, each attached to a beer barrel by a 400' rope, before it could be towed to shore. Benchley refers to this incident during his interview on the 20th anniversary edition of JAWS, but doesn't mention Capt. Mundus by name. In 1986 Capt. Mundus and Capt. Donnie Braddick caught the largest fish ever taken on rod and reel, a 17', 3,427lb great white. Capt. Braddick was the angler, while Capt. Mundus baited the shark, drove the boat, and supervised the capture of the shark." The book, being the prelude to a whole new genre of shark books, and caused a simultaneous "shark ephiphany" world-wide, is the forerunner of such books since it's publication, and how glad I am it was published! Well worth reading, if you haven't (how come you haven't?) yet had the expereince, and you can still enjoy it and be frightened by it even if you've only seen the movie...
Rating:
Summary: Potboiling dreck
Review: Jaws the film was terrific entertainment by a filmmaker who knows how to entertain. Jaws the novel was an obvious by-the-numbers potboiler that wanted so badly to be a bestseller that Benchley stuffed sex and profanity into it even though it had no place in the story (see movie for proof) and merely stuck out like speed bumps in the plot's momentum. An awful, dreadful, amateurish book. If it had been a good book by a good writer, you'd have seen Benchley moving on to other things over the last few decades instead of rehashing the same old concept for maximum exploitation.
Rating:
Summary: Pretty Good book but the movie is better.
Review: I like the book, but I think the movie is better because the book has swear words galore.
Rating:
Summary: Jaws
Review: The book Jaws is about a police officer named Brody. Brody lives in the small New England town of Amity, where nothing significant ever happens. It all changes when a massive great white shark begins a series of bloody attacks against the citizens. Soon, Brody is forced to make difficult decisions and do even harder tasks. I thought that Jaws was a very interesting book. Peter Benchley does a very good job of keeping you interested by making the attacks come at unexpected times, keeping you on the edge of your seat. I think what made Jaws really good was that he managed to put enough shark attacks in the book to keep you interested, but not too much that they became redundant.
Rating:
Summary: THE greatest creature on this planet
Review: Benchley captures the essence of the great beast. There is no other greater creature on this planet than the shark. The shark is perfect in all ways. so why not write a book about the sharks terrors and loves. benchley did, he found out what matters and made it even better. This is a great book written by a great man about the greatest creature. Sharks Rule!
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