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.

I literally only finished this book so I could rate it because I hated it so much. The only interesting/good parts were the parts about the shark, everything else was a nightmarish mixture of racism, misogyny, homophobia, and weird rape fantasies. And also some copaganda and animal torture/cruelty for fun, I guess.

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. 

-The movie was better~~ Spielberg did the impossible of making a bad book into a great movie!
-All of the characters are unlikeable
-sexism, racism, homophobia (and none of it is subtle)
-subplots (basically all of part 2) were unnecessary and uninteresting
-the first chapter with Chrissie was the only chapter I enjoyed


Just watch the movie and skip the book.