Rating: 
Summary: Derivative to the nth degree
Review: I wanted to like this book, but I'm glad I checked it out of the library instead of buying it. Technically, I had no complaints, and if you can look past the blatantly obvious influences, I suppose it could be enjoyable to those who like horror-tinged thrillers like The Relic.But the influences were painfully obvious to me, and they weren't even books - they were movies! The opening scene is straight out of Saving Private Ryan, the jungle scenes have a flavor very similar to Predator - and that's just the opening part of the book! Relic, whether the book or the movie, is an obvious influence towards the overall plot. There are others, but I don't want to spend that much time on it. Yes, it was a nice effort from one so young, and as I said, good enough on a technical level, which was why I gave it two stars. But if you demand any more than pure fluff from your reading, don't waste your time with this.
Rating: 
Summary: An ambitious, but flawed, debut
Review: For a debut novel, Jinn is an amazing ghost story; the book contains some of the creepiest scenes I've run across in a while (stuff that would make the forensics people on CSI nauseous). For that alone, I would recommend reading it. Unfortunately, the book does suffer from serious problems that made it hard to get through. First off, as other reviewers have noted, the editing is significantly worse in this book--and the lapses more obvious--than in most hardcovers I've read recently. Likewise, in an effort to keep the book from running 600 pages or more, the publishers opted for very small print and very narrow margins. Combined with Delaney's choice to eschew chapters, this makes reading the book something of a chore. [For some reason, Delaney inserts 'datelines' at certain points, but doesn't include them in others, where it would make just as much sense to do so.] More importantly, though, the book is almost crushed under its own weight: the book is as long as it is, in a sense, because it has to be; the plot, as it stands, probably couldn't be shoehorned into a shorter book. Nevertheless, in order for the plot to work as it does, Delaney has to "cheat" the reader; there are certain things we expect to find out, but don't--perhaps because Delaney felt giving us those facts would spoil the plot. [I'm being rather vague because I don't want to give away the plot.] So, while this wasn't the best book I've ever read, Delaney certainly shows promise, and I look forward to his next book.
Rating:
Summary: The Last Detail
Review: A fair "resurrected demon" story for the most part. My biggest beef with it was that the writer gives us too many details. (is that possible?) This may be an exaggeration but I don't need to know what happens with each step the person is making or what their right hand is doing each second. My brain can fill in the blanks...thank you very much. Perhaps some editing would have trimmed this book down to a taut thriller. As it is, it's a bit too long-winded for my tastes.
Rating: 
Summary: A weak book in all aspects
Review: I can't tell you how disappointed I was in this book. The writing is amatuerish, the story is predictable and the editing...well what can I say about the editing? It is my firm belief that the only editing done here was a run through spell-check.
Rating:
Summary: Some parts good, some parts not so good
Review: When the action is flying, this book is hard to put down. But in between those sequences, the dialogue and the plot get a bit weighted down. I thought that some of the characters were interesting, but others lacked motivation. The action kept the plot moving, but there were some big holes in the storyline as well. Overall the book reminded me a lot of Dean Koontz, so fans of his might enjoy this book.
Rating:
Summary: Skip this One
Review: With all due respect to the reviewers that have given "Jinn" 4-and-5 star ratings, and at the risk of alienating this fan club, I'm sorry, but I just didn't enjoy this book. The initial premise was interesting, but the execution has an overall 'sloppy" feel to it. From the atrocious editing to lazy character development to factual inaccuracies, it seems that this was hastily and carelessly concieved. But mostly what bothered me was the sense of "been there-done that"...I found the characters two-dimensional and cartoonish, the dialogue flat and uninspiring. The plot, even in spite of the annoying typographic errors, is convoluted and clumsy, and overly long...
Rating:
Summary: Couldn't keep me interested
Review: Started off well. Had an interesting premise. The story moved along pretty well in the beginning. My first problem with the book was I felt the Characters were week. The title character is very 2 dimensional and the rushed and sudden romance is horrible and is actually what made me stop reading the book. It was like the writer felt he had to throw some romance in and it was stupid and unbelievable, and ruined the book for me. I still give the book 2 stars for the premise and a strong beginning.
Rating: 
Summary: Entertaining
Review: This book was great. I was thoroughly entertained from start to finish even with the editting errors. I could not wait to read each page.
Rating: 
Summary: Great Summer Read
Review: I thought this was an excellant and engaging novel in which the author seems to play with several different genres and writing styles. Some sections reminded me of Richard Price or Tom Wolfe,authors who capture urban environs, while other chapters were more Dean Koontz and Steven King. In either case, Delaney certainly has a mastery of the written language, completing a story that is compelling, at times moving and almost always more than a little scary. Much has been made of the editing, I did see a few rather glaring errors, but otherwise the passages were beautifully crafted, especially by such a young author. I'm looking forward to other works by Matthew Delaney. A great summer or anytime read.
Rating:
Summary: Great, for the most part...
Review: The disappointing thing about Jinn is its young author, Matthew Delaney. The bio and the picture hint at his very young age. Well, I'm a few years younger than, and I do not know if I will ever be able to write novels like this one. It really is amazing the skill this young writer shows, deftly crafting a nail biting storyline, using several different genre devices to keep the reader glued to the book. At some points, you will have WWII combat, others will be a high stakes police procedural, and others will be a really outrageous Sci-Fi/Horror plot. Sounds daunting, even impossible to put together, but young Mr. Delaney does a wonderful job putting it all together. The beginning of the story takes us to the jungle battlefields of the Pacific. There, a young group of Marines slowly realize that the Japanese are far from the most dangerous thing on the tropical island. Something unnatural is hunting them. Fast forward from this chaotic scene to modern Boston, where a series of murders horrify the entire metropolis. From high-class playboys to run of the mill burglar, something monstrous is picking its victims, dispatching them with horrific violence. It's up to grizzled police and combat veterans Detectives Brogan and Jefferson to decipher any rhyme or reason behind the grisly deaths. The farther they delve into the madness, the more it becomes clear that something inhuman is involved, something that defies the definitions of natural science as we know it. And man, what a ride it is. Delaney shows an uncanny mastery of all these setting and situations, especially the storyline centering on Jefferson and Brogan. They are really sympathetic and human characters, especially when their own inner demons and secrets are revealed. Their struggle to understand what is happening matches the readers own. You really root for them. Delaney has real bright future in just police novels if he chooses to take that path, his descriptions of street crime and the police response is just great. The storyline is just white-knuckle madness for the first 300 pages, it really is intense. The only problems come along when the sci-fi portion of the story is really looked at. It is such a strange story, and it quickly becomes confusing and predictable. Frankly, by the end, I really didn't care about what happened. It just kind of dramatically falls off, clogged up by a really wild explanations and Delaney's constant enumeration of its mind-boggling meaning. It just gets bogged down in its own self-importance, and I really didn't care about trying to figure out all the implications it poses. Nevertheless, Jinn, or at least the first ¾'s of it, is really five star stuff. The ending though, weighs it down.
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