book review: Jaws by Peter Benchley

⭐️⭐️⭐️ 3/5

The suspense in Jaws by Peter Benchley is expertly crafted - characters are put in situations where as the reader you're just yelling for them not to do what they are about to do. Particularly in the beginning of the book, the narrative goes from the person to the shark and continues back and forth creating such wonderful suspense. I wish that would have continued a bit more in the later parts of the book (the shark's perspective wasn't provided any longer). The characters were interesting and had compelling back stories. However, I did find some of the commentary and situations quite raunchy, racist, and unnecessary. I don't think these would make it through it to the final copy if this was published today, which I think is good. Even in 1974, though, even if they weren't considered taboo or unacceptable, the plot probably would have benefited if more focus was put on the situation with the shark versus so heavily character driven. I wanted to read the actual book since I never had and overall I enjoyed it and am happy I did.