Truly hated this. What a great film made from such a waste of time. 

I was rooting for the shark after chapter 2. But...

the book is about everything BUT the shark. And then after a lackluster book, it just dies.

TW: Rape

I was struggling with what to rate this.. I think I would’ve given it a 4/5 if not for the horrid dialogue between two specific characters in the book. 

Exhibit A:
“‘That’s supposed to be every schoolgirl’s fantasy,’ she ventured playfully. ‘What is?’ ‘To be a … you know, a prostitute. To sleep with a whole lot of different men.’”

Exhibit B:
“‘To fantasies,’ he said. ‘Tell me about yours.’ His eyes were a bright, liquid blue, and his lips were parted in a half smile. Ellen laughed. ‘Oh, mine aren’t very interesting. I imagine they’re just your old run-of-the-mill fantasies.’ ‘There’s no such thing,’ said Hooper. ‘Tell me.’ He was asking, not demanding, but Ellen felt that the game she had started demanded that she answer. ‘Oh, you know,’ she said. Her stomach felt warm, and the back of her neck was hot. ‘Just the standard things. Rape, I guess, is one.’”

Exhibit B then evolves into Ellen describing examples of the above. Being a book about sharks, I never expected dialogue between the characters to be anything close to this. Especially after seeing the movie first.

Also, I don’t think I’ve ever heard of a “yawning” vagina before now.

Fashioning a mean grin like a knife, Jaws is a jagged toothed beast that carves through each page with ease. It perfectly balances character driven drama with its unforgivingly gory horror. Each page feels grimy and dirty with peak summer heat, so much so that you’d think you could smell the fish guts coming from the words. I can see why this is a classic, and why Spielberg chose to adapt it to screen, I would too.

Wow, another book that's worse than the movie on multiple levels. I felt like I struck gold reading a cult classic (or maybe just classic?) horror with The Stepford Wives. I hoped to do the same here, but no. The movie was just a better overall piece of fiction than this book.

While I don't agree with the assessment that the majority of the book seems tied up in the town instead of the shark (or the fish, as is more commonly used in the book), there's a lot of distracting elements that are pretty much one and done and take up far too much space for what they are.

A brief overview of what I came into reading this book: giant shark terrorizes tourist town by the ocean that's in danger of completely dying off if the shark isn't taken care of. The sheriff, an ichthyologist, and a rough and tumble fisherman/shark killer for hire take on the shark. Subplots include

infidelity and the mafia involvement.

I definitely disliked this book. It's hella dated all things considered. A lot of random throw-aways when it comes to calling people dykes, faggots, and weird ideas about women as well as some casual racism. I think this sort of stuff probably would fly in the 70s when this was written, but it's just cringey and uncomfortable now. Pretty much every time something like that happens, it's super unnecessary and seems to be humorous? Or tries to be anyways.

There's a line where one of the shop owners says that he "might start a race riot" because he has to choose between two new hires now because he can't justify two. When asked who he will pick, "the black one and thank god the white one isn't a Jew". Jesus fucking Christ.

The wife of the sheriff has around 50 pages where she's fucking the ichthyologist behind her husband's back and they have a lovely conversation where she says that all schoolgirl's have a secret dream of being prostitutes so they can have sex with as many men as possible and she has the very common desire to be raped but don't worry, it's not too crazy! She, and I quote, "some women have fantasies about being raped by black men, but I never have."

Did I mention that the guy she cuckholds her husband with was the baby brother of a guy she used to date and she's a decade older than him, obsessive about him (until she's done with him and realizes she loves her husband, actually, of course), and that she knew him when he was nine years old? Disgusting. I almost believe the author just hated women, considering she's the only woman who says more than a handful of lines and actually has some degree of character development who is a woman.

My main gripe here is that there's a lot in this book that is so totally unnecessary and, most importantly, detracts from the narrative and the tension being built up. This book has three parts. The first is really strong because it introduces the shark and the problems of the town. It introduces the main character and some of the themes that will continue to come up. It offers up a certain mystery and has quite a bit of action and suspense.

The second part is where this truly goes off the rails. It's where we see the adultery plotline which seems to only be around to make sure the readers really enjoy

the moment that Hooper, the ichthyologist, is eaten by the shark.

Otherwise it's pretty unnecessary and it's written in such a disgusting way. Pretty much all of it was gross on many levels. The mafia plotline justifies why certain characters acted the way they did, but it introduced an idea that essentially goes nowhere and has not much to the plot other than a reason for the sheriff to open up the beach very briefly. Even more so, it added a weirdly cruel animal death that, once again, was just so unnecessary. I get it that this book is gory as hell and you know it as soon as you step in, but it seemed so weird to include it.

The third part is where the plot actually kicks in again and there's character tension, suspense, and action as the three of them actually hunt the shark. I've heard some people say that the ending is a cliffhanger. Well, not really. The resolution of the actual plot is pretty much done. The only thing that's left out is the sheriff getting back home which is implied to be the case, I think. Plus, he already seemed to be nonplussed by the idea that his wife cuckholded him and the mafia plotline should be done with since the beach will reopen.

Were there any strengths here? I think the author is highly readable, definitely. The characters are highly unlikable but that seems to be the point. There was good characterization there and it made them very distinct. Yes, even Ellen, the Sheriff's wife. There was good culture clash as well and in a different book or written in a different way, it might have been interesting. The clash between the summer people and the locals is an interesting concept but it really isn't done much justice because the only vehicle for it was through Ellen. She was made so unsympathetic in every way, from being essentially a harpy, a hypocrite (anyone else want to scream when she said the sheriff didn't love her?), and a degenerate. The action was good, the initial suspense was good, and the overall plot was fine.

Terrible misogyny, clunky dialogue, too much cheating wife, not enough shark. 

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.