Reviews tagging 'Addiction'

American Gods by Neil Gaiman

9 reviews

peggy_racham's review against another edition

3.25

Perhaps I wasn't the right audiance for this book. Its was strange and strangely slow at times

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Colonisation, Sexual violence, Addiction, Injury/Injury detail, Misogyny, Alcohol, Car accident, Child death, Drug use, Gun violence, Murder, War, Alcoholism, Blood, Body horror, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Infidelity, Racism, Sexism, Sexual harassment, Slavery, Suicide attempt, and Violence

phvntom's review against another edition

adventurous dark slow-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Colonisation, Sexual content, Sexual violence, War, Death, Murder, Racism, Racial slurs, Addiction, Violence, and Child death

tallylook's review against another edition

adventurous funny mysterious reflective slow-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Minor: Fire/Fire injury, Addiction, Car accident, Cursing, Gore, Gun violence, and Injury/Injury detail

shoshin's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.25

I enjoy Gaiman's stories most of the time, but misogyny slips out here and there when he's trying to be gritty. Ruins my enjoyment. I catch myself wishing a woman had written them instead.

I also find the "troubles" bit in the middle difficult to understand--doesn't seem to further Odin's/Loki's purposes that are central to the story. No real reason to kill some of the gods who were killed. If there had been some established enmity between them and Odin or Loki, sure, but I didn't see anything. 

Encapsulating both these complaints: Balquis' character seems to exist completely for proposes that don't further the narrative: adding a sex(ist) scene and dying during the "troubles" part. I could be convinced there's narrative value there, but I'm not seeing it at the moment.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual violence, Murder, Death of parent, Slavery, Infidelity, Blood, Death, Alcohol, Body horror, Child death, Grief, Sexual content, Sexism, Colonisation, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Alcoholism, Domestic abuse, Cancer, Abandonment, War, Toxic relationship, Drug abuse, Addiction, Drug use, Vomit, Car accident, Animal death, and Animal cruelty

Minor: Fire/Fire injury and Rape

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

szote's review against another edition

adventurous emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Child death, War, Blood, Fire/Fire injury, Violence, Alcoholism, Body horror, Animal death, Addiction, Death, Genocide, Animal cruelty, Sexual content, Vomit, Racism, Gore, Infidelity, Suicide, Torture, Car accident, Gun violence, Murder, Rape, Slavery, and Suicidal thoughts

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

anniefwrites's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• 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

I have a lot of mixed feelings about this. I think that Neil Gaiman is the master of mood--he can create ambience and tension like no other writer I know of. And I really loved the twists and turns that occur in the last few chapters of the book. It felt like finally solving a puzzle, which is such a satisfying feeling, but I wish there were more moments like that throughout because I often felt a bit adrift and confused with all of the different settings and characters and the sort of removed perspective of Shadow guiding the way. I think it's also a product of its time--I really didn't vibe with the valorization of police or the sort of flat female characters, who were often mere bodies of sexual desire for male characters. The masculinity of the book could sometimes be grating for me as a female reader, like how so many men just... pee in random places for no discernable reason. It felt like it was a book designed with a male reader in mind, and I was just looking in at times. I also wonder what this book would have been like if written by an Indigenous author; though Gaiman does go into the Native aspects of the mythology of America, I think it could have gone further.  But I do think that it's a really unique story, that the individual locales within each section of the book were really vivid, and that the ending was strong and exciting.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Fire/Fire injury, Murder, War, Death, Death of parent, Grief, Gore, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual content, Slavery, Torture, and Violence

Moderate: Addiction, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, Sexual assault, Blood, Car accident, Colonisation, and Misogyny

Minor: Suicidal thoughts and Kidnapping

birdnerd's review against another edition

adventurous funny mysterious medium-paced

• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.75

Mythology, adult content,

minor character death, major character death

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death and Medical content

Moderate: Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Child death, Slavery, and Addiction