Reviews with content warning for Pedophilia - American Gods

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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leapyear_reader's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional mysterious fast-paced

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

3.75

It feels as if i have taken an extraordinary roadtrip through Gaiman’s inner woorkings of his imagination and source of creativity. A book filled with complex, layered characters, each compelling enough to be a protogonist, yet Gaiman slices through tales and trips like butter on pancakes served in a motel diner.

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thestorydoer's review against another edition

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dark mysterious reflective tense slow-paced

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

3.25

American Gods is a book whose meticulously crafted through unique world building and vivid imagery, it's also enjoyable to read the many monotonous moments of the book.
It begins very strongly with a lot of mystery and excitement, and ends even stronger, raising the whole book up another level, but the middle feels quite tedious at times. It favours the inclusion of its world of ancient gods in modern times over traditional forms of drama. This makes the read an incredibly slow one. And at 800 pages, it's definitely not for people who struggle to read slowly paced books.
But the world is so incredibly well thought out, it almost doesn't matter as it doubles down on its worldbuilding storytelling, the author trusting his ability to create a world so good, it surpassed regular dramatic tension. Not to say there aren't tense moments, because there are, just very far and few between pages. Again, this makes the story a pleasurable but monotonous read.

Although, what is it with good authors and uncomfortable sexual references? This book often has mentions of rape and pedophelia in multiple moments. Some work in its context, others feel needlessly included. The book also has a fixation on sex, which is fair? But I was personally not a fan of just how fixated it was. It never goes into explicit detail but it is implied multiple times throughout the book.

Overall, it was worth the read because of its world and it's faults can be very easily overlooked.

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marthadude's review against another edition

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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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skudiklier's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective slow-paced

3.0

This book was really weird, and though I liked it, I'm not sure I would recommend it. I also don't think I would have liked it as much if I hadn't been listening to the audiobook; I may have given up if I were reading a physical copy.

For most of this book, I couldn't really tell you what it was about, or what the main plot was. Not that that's always a bad thing, but still.

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7bayeb's review against another edition

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adventurous 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? No

2.25

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