Jaws

Rating:
Summary: a first rate thriller
Review: this book by Benchley is truly a remarkable book. Don't read it at the beach. Read it at home.

Rating:
Summary: This is even better than the movie!
Review: Peter Benchley's novel is so much more terrifying than the movie. The events that happen in the novel seem more natural and realistic. The characters are very colorful and somewhat different here. Not only does the suspense of the shark carry you along but also the ever rising tension between the characters Chief Brody and Matt Hooper. There are also more victims for the shark. As action-packed as the movie was, this book is much more riveting. It is a true classic and guaranteed to keep you out of the water for a long time!

Rating:
Summary: Plodding Book, Watch the Film
Review: I have to agree with previous posters on this book; the movie adaptation of this novel is much better than the novel itself. The movie was evenly paced, tense, suspenseful, and had its share of memorable characters. The book lacked all these qualities. It's hard to feel sympathetic for an alcoholic policeman who, despite being from the rough streets of the big city, is unable to spot corruption and mob involvement despite its obvious presence. In fact, the entire mob subplot (as well as the short lived affair subplot) seemed completely superfluous to me. Halfway through the novel I thought Benchley might be suggesting the shark was a hitman of some sort. I have heard that Peter Benchley once said, "It took me 15 years to discover I had no talent for writing, but I couldn't give up because by that time I was too famous." I don't know what took him so long to discover his problem, it only took me 15 pages.

Rating:
Summary: One of the rare occasions where the movie outdoes the novel.
Review: I watched the movie JAWS with my cousin on cable back in the seventies, when I was a child and very impressionable. Because of that movie, in my adulthood I still cannot swim out into the ocean water that is over my head. When the water starts turning that darker green and blue, I stay away and swim back in. Small fish bump into my legs and I almost panic, thinking it's a shark tasting to see if I would be good for dinner. The film affected me that much. I can't say the same for the book. I enjoyed it somewhat and despite several seemingly pointless, needless subplots, I read it at a pretty steady rate. But I felt like Benchley lost his way somewhere along the line when writing this book. The novel is called JAWS, after all, so why did it seem like the shark played such a small role. Maybe "JAWS" refers to Benchley's jaws, which flap on and on about secret love affairs and mob dealings. It was as if the shark was there just to serve as a catalyst for the other events of the story. Also, I was disappointed in Benchley's failure to capture what being killed by a giant shark would be like. He does a good job of precisely detailing what happens to the victims' bodies physically during an attack, but as for the emotions and mental states of the victims as they are pulled under the surface by a demon of the deep, all we are treated to is a very brief moment of fear and then death comes quickly. I am not a sadist, but one of my motivations for reading this book was to put myself into the place of someone who finds his or her life tragically and unfairly cut short by being attacked by a savage beast such as a shark. One of the victims even dies before he knows what has happened to him. Another victim's death we do not even observe, but hear about through another character's eyewitness accounts. To see a good example of what I consider to be good writing in this area, read CUJO by Stephen King and the thoughts that go through the policeman's mind when he is attacked by the rabid dog. His reaction is one of total shock but also one of gutwrenching sadness as he realizes he will never live to see his family again. What goes through someone's mind as this happens to them? Even Spielberg brought this across sucessfully in his film (note the scenes involving the female swimmer at the beginning and also the reactions of the boy on the raft). It's as if Benchley backed off just as his descriptions were heating up and whipping his readers into a frenzy of fear, and he left it as simply a bloodbath. These are PEOPLE that are being eaten, not just pieces of meat. It was like reading about a gazelle being attacked by a lion. We all know that gore alone is not what creates images of horror in our minds, and without fear and dread, it just isn't convincing.

Rating:
Summary: MORE COMPLECATED AND AS GOOD AS SPEILBERG'S.
Review: THERE ARE MANY CHANGES FROM THE MOVIE. OVERALL IT IS A CLASSIC, AND VERY SIMPLE, BUT THE BEST OF BENCHLY'S. THE MOVIE IS MUCH MORE EXCITING, FOR INSTANTS: IN THE BOOK HOOPER DIES, AND THE MAMOTH SHARK GETS HARPOONED TO DEATH, INSTEAD OF EXPLODING, AND MAYOR VAHGN IS IN MAFIA TROUBLE! BUT IF YOU ENJOYED THE MOVIE, YOU WILL LOVE THE BOOK, I MUST HAVE READ IT THREE TIMES!!!!

Rating:
Summary: Would have made a great romance novel
Review: I have read almost all of Benchley's books. I have loved them all. The Deep, The Island, White Shark, Beast, all great stories. I guess maybe I should have read Jaws first then watched the movie. I really was hoping that Hooper and Ellen would have become shark chum. The affair wasn't needed in this book at all. The actual subject matter of the book (what little there was) was wonderful. I am glad Peter wrote the screenplay for the movie, because it proves he was on heroin while writing the novel. I would love to see him re-write this story. I think he could make an excellent book of it.

Rating:
Summary: Movie is MUCH better
Review: This book drags too much and the ending is a little sketchy. The shark isn't mentioned enough and what the reader gets instead is long overdrawn scenes with characters they don't care about and storylines that generally dissolve too quickly to notice. Rent the movie, it's much better- and cheaper.

Rating:
Summary: The classic tale of a predator and a hunter. -SC
Review: When I first saw the movie, it scared the stuffings out of me. Now, it's just a great story. Benchley is a genius. I would LOVE to meet him. I hope he will make history in many other shark stories. I would also recomend, "White Shark." -SC

Rating:
Summary: Spine Tingling!
Review: I am compelled to rate this book as THE most primitively exciting that I've ever read. Being for the most part a History reader, yet familiar with all the works of Stephen King, Clive Barker, etc., NO OTHER BOOK has ever sent a "physical" chill up my spine as this one! Peter Benchley's presentation on the very first page actually translated to a physical "chill" up my spine that no other written word has ever accomplished. Kudos to Benchley for weaving the words that made this possible!

Rating:
Summary: Movie-Good Book-Bad
Review: I consider myself to be one of the biggest fans of the jaws movie, and was interested to see how the book differed. This book is very dull and contains the smut of a Paul Verhoven (director of basic instinct) movie. This book is as dull and confusing as a Mia Angelo poem. Do not bother trying to understand this book-it's like wallpaper-YOU CAN'T GET A READ ON IT!!!!