Jaws (novel)

The original reason not to go in the water, how many few movies have ever become as legendary as Jaws? Well, like Spielberg’s other book based classics Jurassic Park , Schindler’s List, War of the Worlds, and Ready Player One, Jaws came from a novel as well. If you aren’t familiar, Savior covered Jaws (1975) back when, so I’m going to skip the synopsis and stick to the novel’s content.

Well, let’s start by saying Jaws is a story of many things, and the shark just kinda feels there for most of it. The story mostly focuses on the town of Amity’s struggling finances, Sheriff Brody looking into political corruption and his budding marital issues that becomes a whole other tangent as Ellen Brody sleeps with Matt Hooper…oh and did I mention a shark is killing people? Seriously, if you thought there was a serious lack of shark in the movie, well, the book doesn’t give you much more except for some gory aftermath. While their are some good tense moments towards the end, there are a whole mess of times I unintentionally laughed my ass off or asked WTF aloud much like IT (the novel) . For example, the comical over the top reaction to finding the first victim, Ellen and Hooper’s WTF sexual fantasies, and the cartoonish, sleazy mayor gave me a lot of laughs. Like the movie, Quint is awesome but he doesn’t show up until almost 2/3s of the way through the book. I also have to give the book credit on the serious downer ending. As for pacing, the book is a slow draw; on audiobook I feel it’s more effective because I feel like if I was reading it I would’ve lost myself easy. So I honestly have to say the book is meh overall and I think the movie is a much better story and unless you were a super fan of the movie, the book is pretty skippable. May the gaming gods bring you glory.