Rating: 
Summary: i have read every quinn book...
Review: This one was very painful to read. Granted, it is a piece of metaphysical fiction, but it really is a bit hokey.I could not wait to read this. All the reviews seemed positive and the story seemed very interesting. Once I started, I was captured again by the story- but then I got lost. There really is no flow. Things just happen. And in this case, strange things, that make no sense, keep happening. I am halfway through. Hopefully all of this random, forced story will start getting better? I noticed the same thing with Dachau. Forced story telling. Events occur that are disjointed, dialogue is confusing, and the plot gets shadowed by these things. I love Daniel Quinn and the message he is putting out there. But I am learning after each book that his early works were much better.
Rating: 
Summary: First-Time Quinn Reader Bowled Over!
Review: Unlike other reviewers here, I'm a first-time Quinn reader, so I have no idea whether The Holy is his best or not, but I can tell you it's one heck of a book, a true supernatural thriller that I can only compare (favorably) to books like The Shining and Shadowland, with a cast of unforgettable characters that climb off the page right into your head. I opened it the other night after dinner, figuring I'd read till bedtime--wrong! I couldn't quit till I turned the last page at 3 a.m. If I had a couple of books this good to read every week, I'd be in heaven!
Rating: 
Summary: The Deep End
Review: Well, here we go again. Daniel Quinn is not an instant access author. The first time I read Ishmael, I got so impatient with the book that I tried to throw it into an active fireplace. Luckily I missed and decided to put it back on my shelf. That was 7 or 8 years ago. About two years after that I decided to pick it up again, because I was trying to make my then fiance' happy. I didn't like it all that much more, but stayed with it anyway. And that patience made all the difference. The Holy is a different type of book, but the mechanism is the same. I know that almost doesn't make sense. You see, in order to appreciate Quinn, you really have to "listen" while you read, which is a strange necessity for reading a book. His characters can infuriate you because of their godawful myopia, and then all of a sudden, you realize it's you that's the nearsighted one. At least I think that's his point. He is an acquired taste that is worth pursuing. Don't give up on him. Hear him out. You'll be glad you invested the time.
Rating:
Summary: The Deep End
Review: Well, here we go again. Daniel Quinn is not an instant access author. The first time I read Ishmael, I got so impatient with the book that I tried to throw it into an active fireplace. Luckily I missed and decided to put it back on my shelf. That was 7 or 8 years ago. About two years after that I decided to pick it up again, because I was trying to make my then fiance' happy. I didn't like it all that much more, but stayed with it anyway. And that patience made all the difference. The Holy is a different type of book, but the mechanism is the same. I know that almost doesn't make sense. You see, in order to appreciate Quinn, you really have to "listen" while you read, which is a strange necessity for reading a book. His characters can infuriate you because of their godawful myopia, and then all of a sudden, you realize it's you that's the nearsighted one. At least I think that's his point. He is an acquired taste that is worth pursuing. Don't give up on him. Hear him out. You'll be glad you invested the time.
Rating:
Summary: _The Holy_, HOLY COW!
Review: What a great story! So cunningly told. I silenced any possible interruptions & devoured it in three sittings. Quinn builds suspense into astonishing outcomes. At the same time, he shows a deep understanding of how humanity's masters have a deathgrip on this excellent little planet, and how some of us are tasked to break that grip.
Rating:
Summary: A rollercoaster ride for the mind
Review: When you pick up a book by Joyce Carol Oates, you're never quite sure what you're going to get. Maybe a ghost story, maybe a very serious novel, maybe a gothic romance, maybe a compilation of essays on the sport of boxing. This is what makes reading fun, and this is why I'm delighted with The Holy. Daniel Quinn's series of Ishmael-related books have a prominent spot in my bookshelves, and I've given many to others. But I'm glad to see Quinn breaking out of the mold, taking on tricky and intriguing material, and creating a wonderfully quirky cast of characters (some of which I wouldn't want to meet in a dark alley, and some of which I'd be happy to have dinner with). Like Oates, it seems that there's more to Quinn than we've previously been introduced to.
Rating:
Summary: A Mind-Blowing Metaphysical Thriller/Horror Novel
Review: When you read Stephen King or Anne Rice or Clive Barker, you know they're only kidding. They don't really believe in demon-possessed cars, immortal vampires, or faerie worlds hidden in large carpets. When you read The Holy--a novel as fantastic, as gripping, and as terrifying as any produced by King, Rice, or Barker--you'll know that Daniel Quinn isn't kidding. In this regard (and this only), The Holy is similar to The Exorcist, another book by an author who wasn't kidding (it was based on the true story of a child's demonic possession in the 1940s). People reacted powerfully to The Exorcist, both as a book and as a film, because they perceived clearly that William Peter Blatty wasn't just giving them a fright they would later laugh about. (I've always believed The Exorcist probably brought more people to the Roman Catholic Church than The Song of Bernadette did.) Even if you aren't a believer, reading or seeing The Exorcist can make you teeter in your disbelief. Quinn's book will have the same effect on you. It will have the same effect, because you'll recognize that the supernatural realm he's exploring is not one he just made up to give you a scare. It's a realm that humans have acknowledged and taken seriously for as long as there have been humans, a realm familiar to shamans in every land, a realm discussed in the scriptures of every religion (including the Bible), a realm that was alive and thriving before the first humans walked the earth and will be alive and thriving when we're gone. The jacket notes describe the inhabitants of the realm this way: "They knew us before we began to walk upright. Shamans called them guardians, myth-makers called them tricksters, pagans called them gods, churchmen called them demons, folklorists called them shape-shifters. They've obligingly taken any role we've assigned them, and, while needing nothing from us, have accepted whatever we thought was their due--love, hate, fear, worship, condemnation, neglect, oblivion." The publisher describes this as a metaphysical thriller, and it is. But it's also much more. Like any really great book, it's one you'll definitely want to read more than once.
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