Reviews with content warning for Car accident - American Gods

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American Gods by Neil Gaiman

67 reviews

dovesarchives's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark funny mysterious tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.5

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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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bluejayreads's review against another edition

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adventurous tense

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes

5.0

The story is a solid adventure through magic and a bunch of different mythologies, with Shadow following Mr. Wednesday through a lot of crazy stuff and meeting a host of interesting people. Then at the end it hits you with a bunch of twists one after the other and bumps a very good book up to a fantastic one. I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Shadow is not, in a sense, a character. He's there, sure, and he says things and does things, but he doesn't feel like a fully realized person and I don't think he's supposed to. He has a lot going on all of the sudden that he doesn't really know how to deal with, and even another character points out that he doesn't seem very alive. That's a part of his character's journey, but he also functions as his namesake - a few stereotypes stacked together into the shape of a likeable but not remarkable shadow we the reader can follow to experience this world and these events.

And said world and events are worth experiencing. The gods came with immigrants from the Old World, but America has forgotten the old gods and worship the new ones of technology and innovation that they create. There is a storm coming. Gods live among humans and survive on the worship and sacrifice they are given, and as you might imagine, the "new gods" of TV and phones and the internet are getting a bit more worship from Americans than Odin and Anansi and Ishtar. Mr. Wednesday wants to do something about that.

His full plan isn't clear until the end of the book. But in the meantime, Mr. Wednesday takes Shadow all across America and to places beyond reality, meeting old gods and new ones and legends and monsters. Shadow rides a carousel into Odin's hall, plays checkers with the Slavic god of bad fortune in a dusty Chicago apartment, sporadically lives an ordinary life in a small town under an assumed name, and journeys to the halls of the dead. He meets a host of fascinating characters, some human but many not so much, and it's great to just follow him around and experience all the wonder and magic under the skin of the world we're familiar with.

And then the book comes up on the end and hits you with several twists, one after the other, but it doesn't feel startling as much as the puzzle pieces finally fall into place all at once and the picture revealed is shockingly different from what you thought it would be. (To be fair, I probably would have called one of the twists early on if I'd been reading it instead of listening to an audiobook, but the other ones I don't think I would have seen coming either way.) Up to this point the book was absolutely good, but those twists bumped the needle of my opinion from "solidly good, I recommend it" to "stunning and magnificient." Whatever your opinion of the idea or the storyline or the characters, this book is worth studying just for technique, because this is how you write a twist ending. The whole story is great, but with the ending, it's a masterpiece.

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jessspeake's review against another edition

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I'm going to DNF this audiobook. It was time to return it to the library or renew it, and to be honest I didn't want to spend any more time listening to the audiobook.

I felt uncomfortable with the graphic sexual content in the book.

I often had to rewind to find out what was going on, because I would zone out and miss things because the book didn't hold my attention. Maybe this would have been different if I was reading the physical book?

To be honest, I think the only reason I kept reading this long was because it had a full cast audio narration. The audio itself was good, and I tried to push through, but this book isn't for me.

There are a few things I liked about it, but there were more things I didn't. I really wanted to like this book (and I rarely DNF books), but in the end, I decided I didn't want to finish it.

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babayaga1989's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad 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? Yes

5.0

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bravokidroxy's review against another edition

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challenging funny mysterious 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? No

3.0

It was a book. It is asking to be made into a TV show so I’m really glad they’re doing that on HBO because I feel like that’s the only way that a story as dense as this one can be told without feeling like the slog it did here. The first 9 chapters, 230 pages or so, are thrilling and interesting with Gaiman’s style of throwing you into the hot pan with the MC on full display. Then for some unexplained reason we are removed from the main story line and set upon another much smaller feeling mystery. This sort of detour feels like it’s waiting to be filler episodes.

When we finally get back into the action I told my friend “I feel like this is all building to something but by the time it gets here the books going to be over” and I was not incorrect. The final boss took 100 pages and then we were in an epilogue with very little transition.

Overall I think I was just too hyped up for this book, for it to work on me. I read it mostly on kindle and there were A Lot of typos which didn’t do much to the sorry for me but could be a problem for some of y’all.

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caidyn's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

American Gods is my favorite book, so I, of course, had to get the annotated version. I finally decided to sit down and read it and it added so much. It helped explain little details and show the evolution of the book as Gaiman wrote then rewrote it. Just a fantastic addition to my shelf. Anyone who enjoys this story should definitely read the annotated edition!

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