Star Wars: The Jaws of Jakku

by Lucasfilm Press, Helen Sadler (Narrator)

Following the events of The Last Jedi, Rey struggles to let go of her lonely childhood on the desert planet of Jakku. Hoping to have a breakthrough in her Jedi training, she returns to her home world with Finn and BB-8 in tow. When they meet a young girl on a dangerous mission to save her family, they travel through pitch-black tunnels beneath the sand where they encounter scurrying gnaw-jaws, a haunting terror from the past, and maybe—just maybe—hope for them all.

Genres: Star Wars, Audiobook, Science Fiction

Audible Audio

First published October 9, 2025

Reviews

[Declan O'Keeffe · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm not one to complain about Audible freebies, and I have loved most of the Star Wars Audible originals to this point. And I can understand that Cav wrote this with his young daughters in mind.

But this was the weakest Star Wars Audible original to date for me. It's not an era bias thing, I love Rey and the sequel characters even if the movies aren't my favourite.

This just wasn't a very interesting story in my opinion (Rey going back to Jakku to see how far she's come) and it just wasn't as fun to listen to as the previous "written for Audible" stories.

[Alyce Caswell · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think this audiobook works really well as a middle grade story, with a suitable voice performance to match, but if you're not the intended audience (i.e. an adult), then you might have trouble connecting with it. Personally, I really enjoyed it.

[mibvb · Rating 3 out of 5]

really cute but wished it was in Rey’s pov

[Joe Kessler · Rating 2 out of 5]

I picked up this audiobook-only Star Wars title in the hopes that its premise -- following Rey, Finn, and BB-8 on a soul-searching mission back to the young woman's homeworld after the events of The Last Jedi -- would help smooth the transition between that film and The Rise of Skywalker. Unfortunately, the story instead turns out to be pretty generic filler content of the Disney+ Tales of the Whatever variety, telling us little about the characters or this stage of their respective journeys. The most interesting thing that happens isn't the heroine gaining a degree more control over her Force powers, but rather the droid temporarily getting overwritten by a virus that causes him to turn on his friends.

I would probably call it all inoffensive and award this a baseline score of three-out-of-five stars, especially given the relatively short length of the piece, except the colloquial childishness of the excitable alien narrating the adventure proved rather irritating. Here's how the second chapter begins, for example:

"Okay, so Rey wasn't a Jedi yet. But she wanted to be! She wanted to be a Jedi so bad. But being a Jedi is hard. It takes years and years of practice and training. Legend has it that the original Jedi, the ones before the Empire, started training when they were kids. Like, really little kids. And Rey? Oh, she had a lot of catching up to do. So she worked hard on her lessons day and night, first with Master Skywalker and then with his sister, Princess Leia Organa. I know! An actual princess. And a general, to boot. Leia is kind of a big deal, out there in the stars…"

A whole book of that sort of tone (four hours on regular speed) was really too much for such a thin plot, so I'll adjust my rating accordingly.

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[Connor Stompanato · Rating 3 out of 5]

'The Jaws of Jakku' is the first of the 'Star Wars' Audible original audio dramas that I have listened to. It was entertaining to listen to something that was made specifically for the format, rather than a book being read aloud. You can definitely feel the difference in the writing style and I don't mean that it was badly written, it was simply different.

What also makes this book unique is that it was written in first person. I've read and listened to a lot of 'Star Wars' books at this point and this was a new experience for me. There were good and bad parts to it. It meant that we were only really experiencing Rey and Finn through the thoughts of the protagonist rather than getting their own internal feelings. On the flip side, it made some scenes even more dramatic and exciting. It also gave the book a much younger feel, I would guess this is aimed at a middle grade audience.

Unbelievably, this is the end of the pre-'The Rise of Skywalker' canon timeline for now! I'll need to go back and read 'A Crash of Fate' whenever it arrives but to be honest, that wasn't going to affect my experience in any real way. Now that I have spent so much more time with the Resistance trying to rebuild, bonding and planning I look forward to experiencing the film tonight with a much wider perspective. Then, I can read 'The Last Order' when it arrives! I'm very curious to see what direction the timeline is going in post-'TROS'. So that is my plan tonight: watch the last couple episodes of 'Resistance' season two then go straight into 'TROS'. You can see my full timeline of reviews here.

[Jacqui · Rating 3 out of 5]

Finished listening to this tonight.

Would rate it 3 out of 5 stars. It's a decent adventure especially for any Star Wars fans who want to see more of Jakku and scavenging thereon. Which isn't exactly something that I am personally clamoring for so the setting and plot is just inherently meh to me.

I was most looking forward to more development and exploration of the friendship between Rey and Finn so it was kind of disappointing that this story despite prominently featuring Rey and BB-8 on the cover upstaged Rey and Finn by making the protagonist a previously unknown girl from Jakku but Disney Star Wars has been sidelining Rey and Finn's stories ever since TLJ so I suppose this is just another chapter in that tradition.

Also, the whole narrative construct of the protagonist telling the entire tale to a peer of hers who is likewise from Jakku fell fairly flat to me especially in moments when the narrator feels the need to info dump about Jakku on the audience and clunkily says something like, "Oh, but you know that, being from Jakku." Lampshading the clunkiness doesn't make the clunkiness go away. And all that clunkiness could have been avoided if the story had just focused on Rey and Finn as advertised.

It's overall fine for what it is, a free listen from Audible, but it's more for fans of the ST and Jakku and scavenging plot lines than it is for someone like me who wanted to see Rey and Finn without having them sidelined yet again.

[Zettifar · Rating 4 out of 5]

I always love getting more sequel content and especially with more Rey and Finn, But for me this one felt like a real slog and I just can't put my finger on why.

The book being voiced by Helen Sadler was great as her voice matched so close to rey but at the same time I felt their wasn't much variation in other female characters which made it different for a few seconds on who was talking.

While these Audible original books are never going to give us A tier star wars story telling because of how short they are, but we get great moments from Rey, Finn and even Leia . The book being centerer around Leia teaching Rey and helping her on her journey as a jedi but Rey needing to learn to let go of her past but not forgetting it .

This book for the most part is a fun time but i did find interesting that Rey sees Leia as the legendary character and general that can never do anything wrong but we know Leia has those doubts just like all of us because of past mistakes and learning from failure. At the same time when Rey goes back to Jakku and strikes up a friendship with a young girl who views Rey as a legendary jedi and hero who can do no wrong, When we see in the movies those doubts rey has about her self.

In the end this book left me with thinking about my hero's and how I view them and a reminder everyone has their own doubts and struggles and that is the power of Star Wars and Cavan Scott writing.

[Matthew Rushing · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is one of the most disappointing stories recently in Star Wars. The reason, because the idea of dealing with Rey between "The Last Jedi" and "The Rise of Skywalker", her growth as well as finally coming to grips with being a Jedi is a good idea!

The Bad: The framing device of this story ruins everything. This book should have been about Rey and her alone. The framing device steals everything from the book's potential as a deep dive into Rey, while adding nothing but clichéd tropes.

The Ugly: Like too many tie-in works these days, the way the characters speak feels too modern, therefore pulling you out of the universe you're suppose to be in. Star Wars, like Star Trek is more classical and Shakespearian in its tone and dialogue. This book misses that mark completely.

Just so disappointed in this, because the idea has promise but the execution is abysmal.

[Jackson · Rating 3 out of 5]

An alright audio story. I enjoy getting more stories set between TLJ and tRoS. I am not super hot on this being from the perspective of a young girl telling a story in the 2nd person. You can tell they wanted this story to be fit for young audiences who had maybe never been exposed to Star Wars. That isn't me, but I can't fault the writer for going in that direction.

It was cool to see Rey return to Jakku, and how that return affected her personally.

In the end, this isn't a story that I would see myself coming back to. I like that they are putting out these audible originals, but they all have left me wanting a bit more from them. I would recommend this to maybe a young Star Wars fan who likes Rey.

[Hana · Rating 2 out of 5]

I know I am not the audience for this, but this Audible Original was a slog to get through. It was a classic bottle episode, somehow even less consequential than a shounen anime movie. Despite going back to Jakku, Rey doesn't help the poor people she meets there, besides giving a broken medical device to the narrator's father. Finn was completely pointless to the plot, as was Leesa, the narrator.

I was grinding my teeth every time Rey was referred to as Luke Skywalker's apprentice--she was on Ahch-To for like two days!

The narrator, Helen Sadler, was energetic and did an okay job on voices. Finn sounded nothing like himself and her Leia was the weirdest American accent I've heard attempted, but her Rey was fine and most of her work was either original characters or narration.

At least the music and sound effects were the best I've encountered in all the Star Wars titles I've listened to.

[Andrew · Rating 4 out of 5]

I listened to this book via Audible.

For a free Audible Original Star Wars story, The Jaws of Jakku was perfectly acceptable. While the story was interesting, engaging, and packed with action, it didn't feel as exciting as some of the other Audible Originals. This might be due to the focus on the sequel trilogy era characters versus the originals or prequels, as they have yet to reach the level of acceptance and popularity the older characters have.

At the end of the day, it's Star Wars, it's fun, and I enjoyed listening to it.

[Steven De Clerck · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thoroughly enjoyed this Audible Original.
It's a Young Adult audio-book Star Wars adventure in which Ray, BB-8 and Finn return to Jakku.
The adventure is told from the perspective of a young Jakku local.

It features the occasional caves, First Order adversaries, monsters, evil droids and leftover dreadnoughts and Star Destroyers from the Battle Of Jakku.

[Jamie Fairchild · Rating 3 out of 5]

I downloaded it on Audible because it was free and I’m a Star Wars fan. It was mildly entertaining, but really more like a middle school book. If I were in eighth grade, I probably would’ve given it five stars.

[Steven Shinder · Rating 4 out of 5]

It might not be a major event, but this POV was fun, and it was a fun adventure. And in tough times, that's kind of all one might need.

[Eric · Rating 4 out of 5]

fill kinda like missing parts of the new episodes

[Kai Charles(Fiction State Of Mind) · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a fun adventure but I struggled a bit with the main narrator of the story. It was very lovely to have Rey and Finn back in a story.

[wdw_bee · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great audio but deff for younger readers. Cute story

[♡ · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 🌟

[Cameron Fry · Rating 3 out of 5]

6/10 OK

[Jay DeMoir · Rating 1 out of 5]

Rather disappointing

[Jodey Hughes · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very cute story from Star Wars. Really easy to follow and listen to. Great for younger audiences.

[Maggie · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a cute little adventure of Rey, Finn and BB-8 going back to Jakku to prevent the First Order from gaining access to a weapon that was lost during the Battle of Jakku against the Empire.