Book review: Beast, by Peter Benchley

Beast is the first book I have had the pleasure of reading by Peter Benchley. I worked in a discount bookstore one summer, and we received in a half dozen or so old hardcover copies of Beast from some library. We were selling them for about two bucks each. I figured, it looked like a decent book, and supposedly the guy knew his stuff, so why not? (This is the brain behind Jaws, after all!)

Turns out, it is a great book. Benchley really does know his stuff, and it shows. He goes into major detail on everything from the currents of the ocean to the anatomy of the giant squid. But he does it like a master storyteller -- enough detail to wow you and color in the picture that he's trying to paint, but not so much that you get bogged down in it or can't understand it.

One mark of a good author is that he cares about the characters he creates. If he doesn't care about them, how can he expect you (the reader) to? It's obvious that Benchley cares about his characters from the amount of effort that he puts into fleshing them out and making them real. And he doesn't use the "expendable character" archetype, which is great. (You know what I mean -- you can always tell which characters are going to get killed off in a story; they're the ones who don't have names, or who play minor roles.) In Beast, Benchley breathes life into almost all of his characters -- from the ones who last the whole story to the ones who get killed to the ones who pop in for a minute and then you never see them again.

The story is about a giant squid that, due to ocean currents, has drifted toward the coastline of Bermuda. Not able to find its normal food, it resorts to plucking people off of boats and snacking on scuba divers. Of course, once its presence is discovered, people want to hunt and kill it. (Benchley does a very colorful job of pointing out the dangers of hunting giant squid.) The book is about more than the squid, though -- that's just the main plot.

It is unquestionably a book worth reading. Especially if you are a fan of the sea or a student of it; you will appreciate Benchley's extensive knowledge and the detail that permeates the book. Aside from the scientific motives, the book is a strong work of fiction, and the author is an expert at weaving his tale so subtly that you don't even realize, until the hunger pangs or need to use the bathroom hit you, that he's woven you into it.

(Originally posted on Helium.com, April 2009)

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