Grizzly

by Will Collins

The summer has started peacefully, with campers invading the lush forests of the National Park. Then, quite suddenly, two teenage girls are hideously attacked and devoured by a raging 18-foot, 2,000 pound grizzly bear!

The hunt is on! Overnight the forest comes alive with police helicopters, rangers' walkie-talkies, the rifle shots of local hunters gone mad with blood lust. Panicked back-packers scurry to safety sites...

But the man-eating grizzly, swift, furious, and hungry, has an uncanny instinct for survival. He has tasted human flesh and will attack again...and again...and again...

Genres: Horror, Fiction, Animals

189 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1976

Reviews

[Dion Smith · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book!

I remember seeing this movie when I was a kid and it scared the crap out of me.
And I watched it again last night after finishing this and it still holds up very well, maybe because they used real bears.

In saying that the movie was good but the book was a lot better, there was more tension, and detail, and adding the sections in the story that are from the bears prospective added a new level to the story.

If you like a good killer animal story I highly recommend this book if you can find it.

[Quentin Wallace · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is a novelization of the movie script of the same name. Think JAWS with a grizzly bear instead of a shark, almost verbatim. You have the almost prehistoric bear (shark) loose in a national campground (public beach.) On it's trail you have the determined forest ranger (Brody), the naturalist/scientist (Hooper), the authority figure who wants to cover it up (Vaughn) and several hunters on the beasts trail. (I didn't really see an obvious Quint character, but there were tons of hunters.)

The bear makes several horrific kills, and then a bounty is placed on his head which leads to many hunters flooding the woods (ocean) and killing black bears even though the killer is a grizzly (killing sharks that aren't Great Whites.)

Now, the thing is, putting Jaws on land as a man-eating bear isn't really a bad idea. The book really works overall, even if it is derivative. I had fun just putting the similarities together, and as I've mentioned there were several.

So, bottom line, even though the book lacks originality, it's still not bad. If you enjoy Jaws and the whole "animal attack" horror genre, this is worth checking out.

[Fishface · Rating 4 out of 5]

Awesomely terrible rip-off of "Jaws," this one featuring a Grizzly who's scalping unlucky campers in a national park. Meets all the necessary pre-requisites of '70s animal pulp horror, including a lovely blonde park ranger with her bosoms straining at the buttons of her undersized uniform. Far from the worst of the genre; very enjoyable unless you are one of these highbrow types.

[Exanimis · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this as a kid, shared it with my mother and then we saw the movie together. That is one of the good memories I have of my mom. I remember us talking and agreeing that the book was much better than the movie. I would love to read this again sometime.

[Nesie · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book scared the [RADIO EDIT] out of me when I was nine years old. And gotta admit it chilled me when I re-read it in high school. Wish it were available on Kindle. The movie is typical 70s animal horror, but this novelization is really good.

[Menion · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ahh, another entry in the 'nature strikes back' series of books. As you all probably know, this is based off the movie 'Grizzly,' which is a complete rip-off of Jaws, right down to the character types. I'm sure Oscar voters and 'cultured' people would turn up their noses at such a blatant re-hash of Jaws, the rest of us don't care and just want to be entertained. If you liked the film, you will really like, or maybe even GASP! love the book. Selling points?
1. there is a bit of extra background to the bear, explaining his ridiculous size, and why he came down out of the mountains. Hell, to me it actually made the bear a sympathetic figure, I was rooting for him to get away, even though I knew the ending already. One can dream. At least the bear won, according the the final score of humans killed vs. bears killed. The extra material for this, although limited, really made a difference.
2. At least you get an explanation for why that idiot Gail stripped and went into the waterfall, where the bear killed her. It's not a great explanation, but it's better than the excuse of 'gratuitous boob and butt shot,' which it seemed like in the film
3. Ranger Kelley gets fleshed out also. He's actually better in the book, he doesn't seem like as much of a Plasti-smile, one dimensional kind of guy like he was in the film.
4. Scientist Scotty is also filled out more, his methods make sense in this, and don't seem nuts.
There you have it. Worth finding this in the used book section, it's slam-bang good fun. GO GRIZZLY, GO!

[Ronnie, · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this as a kid, good book, underrated

[Tim · Rating 5 out of 5]

I always liked this movie and this book took me back to when I saw it.A great action and natural horror story.

[Jordan Anderson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Spooktober 2019 Book 8

As the great Brick Tamlan once said in the seminal comedy classic, Anchorman, “The bears can smell the menstruation”.

And that’s exactly how the entire mess of Grizzly starts.

Written as a novelization of the movie of the same title, Grizzly is an obvious attempt to cash in on the creature features of the 70’s. Even worse it’s a blatant rip off of Benchley’s far superior and far more popular Jaws. The only difference is switching the titular animal killer from a massive, man eating shark to a massive, man eating grizzly bear.

That being said, Grizzly actually ain’t half bad, especially considering that the 70’s and 80’s is a freaking treasure trove of horrible movies and novels like this. Written on the cheap and produced even cheaper, made for a quick buck.

All things considered there’s some fairly decent writing, and, despite its short page length, Grizzly is exactly as long as it needs to be. Plus, that minimalist pulp/grind house cover art is freaking gorgeous.


Then again with passages like this: “With a single stroke, her chest was tipped open to and through the bones. What had been desirable breasts, cradled in lace only moneys before, now became raw, bleeding meat” maybe it’s a good thing this one topped out at only 189 pages.

[David · Rating 2 out of 5]

A novelisation of the 1976 Jaws knock-off, this is a very by the numbers animal attack story. Doesn't add anything to the already mediocre film like some novelisations do, but is written in a competent (which is more than you can say for some of the stuff in this genre) albeit bland way.

There's a big bear, it eats some people, and dudes go into the woods to try and shoot it. You know what you're getting going in, and at a brief c150 pages it was an okay way to pass an afternoon. Absolutely not something to seek out, and honestly you'd be better off just sticking the film on, at least you get to laugh at the dodgy effects then too.

[Nathan · Rating 3 out of 5]

I’d like to read the shooting script for this. I last watched the movie back in 2017, and I do remember not really connecting with the lead protagonist, but he’s certainly not giving me much to cling on to here. No male victims until the 5th death (pg 135 out of 190), and half of of those ladies were naked, anticipating sweet lovin’, when they were eaten. Yeah, fine, it’s a slasher with a bear, but, like many slashers, I’m siding with the bear—but because it’s a better and more interesting character than the humans.

Movie > novelization, but no crack on Collins here. A giant bear movie just works better with the visual component.

[Robert Anderson · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is a piece of fine American literature. While being an exact knock off of Jaws it adds the element of, well, nothing really. Nevertheless, I read it at 12 and anything I did at 12 or 13 seems like a a lot of fun now. So I am reading it again. What makes this book so great is that it was written when I was a boy having so much fun believing stuff like Jaws, Orca, The Deep, Grizzly, Swashbuckler was stuff that really happens. Nothing is better than the imagination of a 12 year old boy. Nothing was more fun than being 12 years old in the 1970s.

[Andrew · Rating 4 out of 5]

Grizzly is one of the best of the Jaws ripoffs, so it delights me to say that the novelization is better than any Jaws book. (Although I haven't read Jaws: The Revenge Novelization so maybe it'll be beat out by that next month)

[Kristi · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5

[Eric]

Full review: https://monsterbookclub.com/2021/11/0...

[Jaime · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was a passable novelization of the movie about a giant killer grizzly on the loose in a national park. Of course, a group of mismatched men hunt him down. There are some decent attack and action sections but it pales to novels like Jaws..

[Samuel Mardirosian · Rating 1 out of 5]

for the most part this is an incredibly, unimaginatively bad book, with some impressively shitty sexism, gender roles, and racism thrown in there

occasionally, it is a weirdly environmental conscious bad book

would not recommend

spoiler: no guts are crunched

[Little Timmy · Rating 3 out of 5]

I saw this movie as a young kid and it scared me out of the woods for months. I finally got a copy of the book to read and well that was several more months I was staying out of those trees. Very good horror book. Recommended

[Mikepottz · Rating 4 out of 5]

18 foot grizzly attacking humans with claws ripping lungs and chunks from the chest. Yes it's a rip off from jaws but this is so much more gory and fun. Really good insight into the grizzly and its easy to feel for him. The movie is dated but the book holds up well.

[Aaron · Rating 2 out of 5]

Another book I read as a kid from a box of books in my grandparent's basement.
Yes, I have read the novelization of the movie "Grizzly". That is all.