Tom Y. reviewed on 8/19/2009 + 2 more book reviews

Helpful Score: 1

JAWS the novel will never live up to JAWS the movie, but anyone who loves the movie would be more than rewarded for chomping into Peter Benchley's deep blue vision of a shark terrorizing the local holiday resort of Amity Island. Jaws topped the bestseller list for 44 weeks and had massive appeal. It is a well written horror story about a shark attack and a local cop, Chief Brody, who needs to restore order to a town that is quickly loosing its summer trade. There are many different plot elements not found in the movie, like the Amity rapist, the mafia connection, several variations in the shark attacks, Ellen Brody's character is more fully developed and she even tries to have an affair with Hooper. Vaughn is up to his eyeballs in dept. There is also the character of Whitman, the newspaper editor. Yes there are many elements in the movie that are not in the book and similar scenes are not played out as good. You are forgiven to pass on the lengthy dinner sequence or the Ellen Brody / Hooper after flirt. However the ending is so very different that it will have you extremely surprised in the final 30 pages that are just as shocking as the movie. In fact it is the variation in how it was originally conceived that should make any fan happy. There are some very shocking things that Quint gets up to in his boat with sharks and dolphins. The man versus beast element is very strong and the book is considerably violent in many ways other than just shark attacks. It is much darker than the movie which was aimed at a family audience. The book is a lot harsher and doesn't shy away from some stuff that will have you look away from the page. It is absolutely shocking stuff at times and so lives up to its hype.

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