Reviews tagging 'Sexual violence'

American Gods by Neil Gaiman

24 reviews

bel017's review against another edition

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death and Child death

Moderate: Alcohol, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic friendship, Animal death, Body horror, Confinement, Grief, Toxic relationship, Addiction, Death of parent, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual violence, Animal cruelty, Car accident, Blood, War, and Adult/minor relationship

justmys's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body shaming, Death, Blood, Sexual content, Body horror, Vomit, Gore, Excrement, and Child death

Moderate: Child abuse, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Confinement, Death of parent, Fatphobia, Kidnapping, Murder, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Toxic friendship, Physical abuse, Self harm, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Car accident, Cancer, Grief, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Suicide attempt, Terminal illness, and Toxic relationship

raelinton's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny mysterious sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

I really enjoyed the book though it was meandering and not a lot happens until the last quarter. The world is interesting enough that you don't really mind. (Worth noting that NG did say in the introduction that he wanted to write a novel that was meandering and weird, which he did.)

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Colonisation, Violence, Body horror, Slavery, Racism, Gore, Blood, Sexual content, and Death

Moderate: Animal death, War, Alcohol, Animal cruelty, Murder, Death of parent, Grief, Infidelity, Child abuse, Child death, Car accident, Confinement, Cursing, and Violence

Minor: Sexual assault, Sexual violence, and Rape

sreddous's review against another edition

adventurous challenging funny mysterious tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

This is a tricky one. I actually remember saying out loud to friends as I was reading this, “I don’t think there’s a whole ton of description, and usually I get annoyed if books expect me to ‘do too much of the work’ – yet I can totally imagine everything that’s happening here.” Neil Gaiman’s writing and dialogue are so good that even though this book is LONG and the pacing is often slow and hard to follow, it was so easy to “see the crazy stuff that was happening through Shadow’s eyes” that I felt totally immersed pretty much the whole time. 

I think it’s a unique balance – Shadow doesn’t have a “super strong personality” as a POV character, which could be annoying...but, no, instead, the way I interpreted it, it just made it easy to see him as someone who’s, like, “yup, the gods sure are up to some wacky things, aren’t they?” and… yeah, I’m along for the ride too, what will these wacky gods cook up next??

So that’s why I call this book a five-star experience for me. It felt…strangely realistic and calming!

I think if there are any things I wished could have more space instead of maybe some of the slower plot points, it’s that I wish we had more locations visited in the USA – we spend a whole lot of time in the Midwest, and that’s fine, but it’s such a big country with different pockets of immigrants bringing different gods to different areas, it would have been fun to discover tiny little towns in other places too.

I also found myself asking questions like, “well, the USA isn’t the only capitalist/hyper-modern/greedy country with a large immigrant population – did Greek immigrants bring versions of their gods to Australia, so there are Greek gods in Greece, the USA, and Australia?” And we get a glimpse of that formula being possible when Shadow is in Iceland, so I’m glad to have that touched on, even though the book does indeed focus on, well, the American Gods and how they behave in the USA specifically. So it’s fine.

This is a tricky, complicated topic with tricky, complicated metaphors. But, it sure did leave me thinking and re-imagining scenes.

Content warnings: graphic descriptions of animal abuse and death, sex-related violence, gore

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Sexual violence, Gore, and Animal death

cstein's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring lighthearted mysterious relaxing medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

A couple too many driving scenes and stays in decrepit hotels/houses bogged down the narrative in the middle. However, overall I found it to be a provocative and authentic-feeling exploration of American culture, rounded out by a slow burn small-town mystery and anchored by a fantastical romance.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Abandonment, Blood, Body horror, Car accident, Child abuse, Death, Genocide, Grief, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Child death, Confinement, and Death of parent

Moderate: Physical abuse, Xenophobia, Alcohol, Infidelity, Mental illness, Slavery, Torture, Racism, Racial slurs, and Colonisation

Minor: Cannibalism, Pedophilia, Adult/minor relationship, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Rape, and Incest

readingwithcoffee's review against another edition

adventurous hopeful mysterious sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

1.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Kidnapping, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexual violence, Body shaming, Hate crime, Child death, Murder, Sexism, and Xenophobia

fayeferre's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual violence, Injury/Injury detail, Child death, Cannibalism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Violence, Torture, Body horror, Death, and Murder

corriejn's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced

4.5

I thought most of this book was great, but certain sections (no spoilers) dragged out far too long. I did listen to the ~12k words longer, original author's cut edition, so maybe those were some of the sections that were cut down a good bit for the original publishing.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Animal death, Sexual content, Violence, Death, Drug abuse, Murder, Child death, Gun violence, Alcohol, Gore, Grief, Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, Slavery, Sexual assault, Torture, Drug use, Sexual violence, and Racism

Moderate: Religious bigotry, Kidnapping, Excrement, Confinement, Fire/Fire injury, Body horror, Xenophobia, Suicidal thoughts, Sexual harassment, Racial slurs, Car accident, Cannibalism, War, Colonisation, and Animal cruelty

marthadude's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Gaslighting, Grief, Alcohol, Body horror, Car accident, Child death, Fatphobia, Gore, Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Slavery, Vomit, War, Blood, Death, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic friendship, and Violence

Moderate: Animal death, Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Colonisation, Slavery, and Racism

Minor: Incest, Pedophilia, and Adult/minor relationship

talithabellaa's review against another edition

adventurous dark reflective slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Violence, War, Physical abuse, Murder, Kidnapping, Injury/Injury detail, Grief, Gore, Emotional abuse, Death, and Alcohol