High potential for this topic, but not fully executed. Lacks polish to really make it hit home. Could be really awesome during the 50th anniversary of the movie.

In the summer of 1916, a series of shark attacks off the New Jersey coast sparked widespread panic and cemented the enduring, often inaccurate, fear of sharks. This compelling and informative book examines the attacks, the resulting cultural impact, and their legacy of fear.

Thanks, NetGalley, for the ARC I received. This is my honest and voluntary review.

In July 1916, a series of shark attacks along the Jersey Shore left 4 people dead and 1 critically injured, forever changing the public's perception of sharks. The attacks occurred during a deadly summer heat wave and polio epidemic that drove thousands to the seaside resorts.

*The Attacks*
- July 1, 1916: Charles Vansant, 25, was attacked by a shark in Beach Haven, New Jersey, while swimming in the ocean. He later died from his injuries.
- July 6, 1916: Charles Bruder, 27, was attacked by a shark in Spring Lake, New Jersey, while swimming 100 yards off the shore. The shark severed both his legs, and Bruder died en route to the hospital.
- July 12, 1916: Lester Stillwell, 11, was attacked and killed by a shark in Matawan Creek, New Jersey. Stanley Fisher, 24, dove into the creek to rescue Stillwell but was also attacked and killed. Joseph Dunn, 14, was attacked by the same shark but managed to escape with severe injuries.

*Aftermath and Impact*
The attacks triggered nationwide hysteria, with President Woodrow Wilson allocating federal funds to "drive away man-eating sharks." Fishermen launched a massive hunt,killing hundreds of sharks using sheep guts as bait.The tourism industry initially downplayed the attacks, but after the second incident, panic set in, and tourists fled.

Sharks are vital in maintaining ocean health by regulating prey populations, distributing nutrients, and maintaining healthy coral reefs.However, they face significant threats:
- *Overfishing*: Many sharks are killed annually, primarily for their fins.
- *Bycatch*: Sharks are caught accidentally in fishing gear meant for other species.
- *Habitat Loss and Pollution*: Coastal development, plastic pollution, and climate change disrupt shark habitats and migration patterns.

Sharks have been on Earth for over 400 million years. There are over 500 recognized species of sharks.Most sharks are harmless to humans,and attacks are rare.

*Popular Culture*
The 1916 attacks indirectly inspired Peter Benchley's novel "Jaws" and the subsequent film adaptation by Steven Spielberg, and the TV program Shark Week further solidified sharks as villains, impacting shark conservation efforts.

So interesting to read because I love the movie Jaws. I watched the movie in connection to reading this book, enjoyable!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

I personally have always been equally fascinated by and terrified of sharks. I have seen the movie Jaws a million in one times, I was obsessed with the ride at universal, I own the book ( though I admit I haven't actually read it!), I have swam in the ocean many times ( even though it gives me anxiety) and watch shark week faithfully every single year.

I liked that this book was divided into 2 of main parts. The first half telling the events of the 1916 attacks, other historical attacks and the the influence of the book Jaws on how sharks are treated and viewed by society. And how the second half focused on how change is needed. Change in how we treat these animals and the mindset that we have about them. I also loved that there are resources (quite a few actually) included at the end of this book.

One of my biggest issues with this book was in relation to some of the statistics. There was one repeated a couple times and that was dying from a coconut is more likely to happen then being bit by a shark. I understand what the statistics say, but to compare death by coconut to death by shark.... is truly apples to oranges. I feel there are valid and healthy reasons why we fear sharks. That aside I agree they are important for the ecosystems and shouldn't be killed needlessly.


I appreciate what this book was doing, especially in trying to provide education and provide resources...BUT... it was a bit repetitive at times and came across a little judgmental towards the end. The majority of the book highlights various shark attacks ( with the biggest focus on 1916) and then towards the end chastises our fear of sharks.


I received a copy in exchange for my honest review.

Super interesting and informative read. Obviously well researched and I throughly enjoyed it.









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I ATE THIS UP!! I'm a big shark girly and totally fascinated by the animal. Full disclosure, I'm completely land-locked in Midwest USA, and still think about sharks/shark attacks more than I probably should! This was one of the most detailed books I've ever read and was exactly what I was looking for!!

Thank you for the opportunity!

I have been fascinated by this story since first hearing about the Jersey Shore shark attacks close to twenty years ago, so I was excited to read more about the events. However, this book fell way short of my expectations and felt like a book written by someone who either didn't have all the facts or wasn't able to communicate them well. The book was so informal, it felt like a draft of a blog post - which it very well could have been.

There is a book written by Michael Capuzzo in 2002 entitled Close to Shore: The Terrifying Shark Attacks of 1916. I read it when it was released, and I was hoping this more recent telling of the story would fill in some more details, but alas, it did not. Readers would be better served by reading the book by Capuzzo.

The Real Jaws by Rachel Lee Perez is a highly recommended review of the 1916 shark attacks in New Jersey, a look at historical views of sharks, shark fear, ultimately, how the movie shaped how sharks are perceived, and then an opinion section. The movie Jaws was released in 1975, fifty years ago, so this is an opportune time to look back at both the history and the movie.

While the 1916 New Jersey shark attacks, which occurred over a two week period, induced plenty of fear, part of that interest and fear was exacerbated by the newspapers at that time which ran the news on the front page. A case can easily be made that the headlines made the fear worse than the actual attacks. As Perez says, the attacks caused the deaths of nearly five people, not hundreds, over a course of two weeks. This event changed how sharks were viewed and made them into man-eating machines. Once the US entered WWI in April 1917 and the Spanish flu epidemic took hold in 1918, the shark headlines disappeared.

Once the book exits the 1916 attack and the aftermath of the movie Jaws, Perez loses the historical and cultural thread and the book becomes an opinion piece. It is pointed out later in the book that the result of the log term fear of sharks has resulted in precautions taken to keep sharks away from beaches (which can harm other species). It seems she wants to protect the sharks, but I'd have to firmly stay on the side of protecting humans. There are around 80 unprovoked attacks are reported worldwide every year. Yes, it's not a huge number, but there are many things we take precautions for that aren't killing a high number of people. I will agree with her on banning shark fin soup.

I really very much enjoyed much of the book until the last part. A look at the page count will confirm that The Real Jaws isn't meant to be a complete, in-depth look at shark attacks throughout history or deep insight into the movie. It's more some moderate shark and movie information followed by an opinion piece. The book is short and does include Notes, a list of Resources, a Bibliography, and an index, so those looking for a more scholarly book can find further books to read on the topic. Thanks to Pen & Sword for providing me with an advance reader's copy via NetGalley. My review is voluntary and expresses my honest opinion.

The review will be published on Edelweiss, Barnes & Noble and Amazon.

The description of The Real Jaws, a book that details the events of the shark attacks in 1916 along the Jersey shore that was the basis of the book Jaws, and our fear of sharks seemed like it would hit many points that I’d love to learn more about. I knew enough about the shark attacks, but few of the details. I know the book Jaws and its movie adaptation sparked a fear of going into the water along with an uptick in shark hunting. I hoped this book would fill in the gaps and expand my knowledge. The first 80 pages or so did just that. However, I agree with other reviewers in that at no time did I feel like I was reading the words of an expert. The author wrote in a non-academic style that felt like I was reading a blog or listening to a podcast. She’d describe an event and then put her own personal feelings in the mix. It felt like talking to someone who, no matter what you have to say, they’ll find a way to make it about them. The last 50-66% of the book turned into full-blown preachy, save the sharks mode and tried her best to make sharks cute and cuddly. At one point while chastising people for their fear of sharks, she pointed out that more people die from falling coconuts a year than from shark attacks, even going so far as to condemn people for eating shark. Now, hold on a second. First, a falling coconut will never frighten someone as much as a 4000lb torpedo swimming toward you filled with razor-sharp teeth. Second, I never want to see any species eliminated by man, but I do believe in having a healthy respect for something that can chomp your leg off if it mistakes you for a seal while paddling on a surfboard. And third, I don’t respect people carelessly hacking off a shark fin while the creature is still alive and then dumping it back into the ocean, but I fail to see the difference between responsible fishing practices of sharks and other seafood, if the end result is the same and the species isn’t endangered. Again, these are my thoughts, and I don’t expect everyone to agree with my take.

The Real Jaws was a disappointment to me. Too preachy and unprofessional when I wanted more details. There are better options to choose from, which Perez references over and over again - Close to Shore: The Terrifying Shark Attacks of 1916 by Michael Capuzzo and Twelve Days of Terror: Inside the Shocking 1916 New Jersey Shark Attacks by Richard G. Fernicola M.D.



2 Cuddly Sharks out of 5

This is SO podcast-coded. To explain myself: it is super digestible, blending brief sources and background information with the juicy details. It gets you hooked, spooked, and fascinated, but ultimately leaves you no wiser. I take the facts presented with a grain of salt.

It is enjoyable to have so many referenced materials and incidents gathered in one place, but it did not offer any unique takes, perspectives, or theories per se. I am not sure if the author is going for the “save the sharks” message, the “sharks are terrifying” message, or if she herself is unsure.

I was quite disappointed in this book. I love sharks, I think they are beautiful and fascinating creatures. I doubt we will ever fully understand their behaviors, so when a book like this comes along I am interested to see what has been learned. This book doesn't really offer any insight. It reads like someone sharing a report based on papers they have read without fully understanding the original source. The writing style also lacks the crisp definition that one usually find in history and science books.

I think I was in about 5th grade when I read this wild story in my parent’s Reader’s Digest about these random shark attacks in New Jersey. That’s why I was so excited to see this book available and requested it. Thanks to NetGalley and PUBLISHER for the digital copy of this book; I am leaving this review voluntarily.

I really am drawn to meticulously researched nonfiction books like The Real Jaws. Part of the reason is because of how human narratives are constructed. The fact that one sensational event was mythologized it reshaped public fear to this day.

I think we’re all aware of how media distortions can flip predator-prey roles, and this book’s spotlight on maritime ecology exposes that fact. As The Real Jaws mentions, historically, sharks have rarely attacked humans. Over the course of two weeks in 1916, there were shark attacks that killed or nearly killed five people. That was enough to subliminally give Peter Benchley to write his novel Jaws decades later. That, of course, led to the movie Jaws and its sequels.

But here’s the thing, as mentioned in this book, sharks attacking humans has been very rare throughout history. However, since the movie Jaws was released 50 years ago, the perceptions of these animals has become ingrained in people’s minds. Also mentioned in this book is the fact that one TV channel (I think Discovery) has a Shark Week every year, which gets great ratings. And let’s not forget the Sharknado movies, too, which have run on the SyFy channel for years.

Overall, this was a very interesting book that has broad appeal to those interested in history or the movie and TV show lovers.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book; it was highly informative. I will certainly recommend it to others. Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for the ARC.

While I appreciate the opportunity to read this ARC, aside from a handful of interesting tidbits, I did not feel like this brought anything new to light nor that the author had a "take" or a perspective different from the many articles and books written prior on this same topic. As a New Jersey resident, I'm very familiar with the 1916 attacks, and was curious as to how they could form the basis for an entire book. It turns out, they really cannot without a severe amount of repetition and redundancy, and therein lies the problem with this book. There are so many repeated phrases, reminders of content from previous chapters (this book is not long enough to run the risk of forgetting), and rambling stream-of-conscious thoughts and non-sequiturs that I seriously suspect their use was a push to extend "content" to hit publishing minimums. There's a real need for a red-pen editing pass along with stronger supporting data. While trying to uncover what may have led to this remarkably abnormal shark behavior, Perez proposes several theories from the time, including higher water levels, a warmer gulf stream current, trash and waste being thrown in the water, U-boat activity, the presence of dogs--but being that we're over a hundred years removed from the incident, there is no way of knowing which if any of these contributed and each theory is mentioned, given a summation and which so-called expert from the time period proposed it, and then she moves on to the next. There is so much author opinion sprinkled throughout that just to make this book stand out, it would have been nice to see her blow out a theory she felt strongly about and argue its truth through each attack. But this is not where Perez has opinions, instead she focuses more on making ridiculous puns (or non making them but reminding you that they're there) and seemingly bashing the film Jaws and its subsequent 50th anniversary. There is a very strange negative tone to most of the epilogue, which mentions the anniversary celebration as though it's a failed or disappointing get-together. It also would happen about a month from this book's release, and by the time most readers pick it up, it would be irrelevant to even mention at all.
Having finished this book I can say that my original thought of "how could this be an entire book" was spot on because in this case, it really cannot.

I grew up watching the Jaws movies thanks to my dad , and out of them the one I actually like is the first one , plus I've read the book by Peter Benchley, and liked it even though it was a little different from the movie, so as soon as I found this I knew I wanted to read and I'm so glad I did , because it brought to life just how dangerous sharks can be , but at the same time I can see why people also give them the respect they deserve. Plus thus book also it gives the reader a in-depth look at each one of the attacks , what makes the shark the ocean's apex predator , as well as various theories explaining how or why thus attacks happen ,

I really enjoyed this
I adore sharks and jaws is one of my favourite movies so I was super excited for this book
It was jam packed with information and facts
So many things I didn’t know
I

Had a tough time with this. At no point while reading did I feel like I was learning from an expert-- rather, I had the experience of talking to someone who had read a couple of books and was sort of summarizing their findings in a casual way. In some ways, this made the book very readable, and I really felt like I absorbed what was being said. In other ways, I took everything being said with a grain of salt. I never really trusted Perez as an authority, especially since she often seemed to sacrifice the integrity of the facts and her mission in order to say something pithy (ie. spending an entire book talking about how people shouldn't be scared of sharks and then ending the final chapter with 'I won't be sea bathing anytime soon!') I felt the book itself was rife with contradiction, and in a way I understand, because it's complex to know in your heart that most sharks are not 'man-eaters' or 'bloodthirsty' but also know that the inexplicable behavior of the shark(s) in the 1916 attacks contradicts that, but in my opinion, if you're still working through that inherent contradiction, don't publish the book! Look for more facts! Read more primary sources! Spend less time writing sensational sentences about sea monsters and then scolding Jaws for sensationalizing! Like, the whole project lacks self-awareness.

Peter Benchley's late-career hand-wringing aside, I know that The Jaws Effect is an academic term and people smarter than me have had more thoughtful things to say about it, but I'm also so reticent to continue this cultural phenomenon of blaming art (fiction! that never claimed to be anything but fiction!) for the actions of real life people. Terribly sorry, but it's not Benchley or Spielberg's fault that the Australian government kills so many sharks in the interest of public health. Perhaps someone should have told the Australian government that Jaws is not a documentary and they shouldn't be legislating based on American horror movies. This is just as stupid as putting every American male to death because someone watched Silence of the Lambs.

A little off track here, but these are the questions raised by this book that go unanswered. It is impossible to write an entire book about the 1916 shark attacks and then be baffled that people are afraid of sharks. I do actually think Rachel Lee Perez knows this, and it wouldn't surprise me if she understood her own complex thoughts here, but she didn't interrogate them or write them down. The end of the book feels like she's hurrying through it (and it's only about 200 pages, it's okay to keep going!) in order to get to her main point which is: Save the Sharks. And I agree, but you know... that could have been a tweet, and you wouldn't have needed to quote Joseph Goebbels, of all people, TWICE to make it.

Have you ever wondered what inspired the movie Jaws or what really has fueled the fear of sharks that the public basically since the movie came out? This was a super thorough and interesting peak into the shark attacks in 1916 that inspired Jaws the novel, as well as, influenced the film.

This is a fascinating look into real life shark attacks that happened, as well as how Jaws changed the public's perception of sharks and really has exacerbated the fear of them and sparked a phenomenon that could not have been replicated today. Perez did extensive research and was able to tell the stories of these attacks really well and made them interesting even when there was a lot of data behind them or hardly any material from eyewitness testimonies. I would highly recommend this book to anyone who is even remotely interested in sharks!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC of this book!

If you love the movie Jaws, shark week, and thrills, then this book is for you! Showcasing a series of shark attacks in New Jersey shore, this book gives us the details on the attacks, why they happened and who is at risk of being a victim in the future. I was intrigued and hooked on this read. It kept my attention the entire time. The author did a fantastic job with the details, statistics, and capturing the interest of the reader and I love the cover! Very well done! I highly recommend this book!

Thank you NetGalley, author and publisher for the eARC!