Book: Jaws

 Book: Jaws

Author: Peter Benchley

Pages: 368

This is my 150th read for the year

A great white shark is terrorizing the small town of Amity.  In a matter of 24 hours it has attacked and killed three people.  The police chief wants to close the beaches, but for this small island - approaching July 4th is a terrible time to close down a beach town that relies on tourist revenue.  The mayor makes the chief keep the beaches open and another person is killed.  The beaches are forced closed and a shark expert is called in to try and capture this huge shark so the town can reopen.  This proves a daunting task and the shark eludes capture leaving the towns people worried that they may never be able to go into the water again.

This was an okay book.  It started VERY strong and quite scary.  I found myself grasping the book hard as I read the first few chapters as this shark claimed its first victims.  However - the middle of the book is dull.  We veer quite a bit away from hunting the shark (or at least the scary aspect of what I have come to know of Jaws by watching the movie) to the lives of some of the towns people and a small love triangle that I couldn't quite figure out how it fit into the story of a great white shark.  There really aren't any likable characters.  

In this case, sadly I found the movie better.  The book lost its momentum and I found myself not caring what happened in the end.

Stars: 3