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sofipitch's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
I REALLY loved this. I've read 3 other books by Gaiman and never really got why he was so popular, I thought they were good but not great. But to me this was great. It felt like reading an adult Percy Jackson (just no greek/roman pantheon which I admire) and Gaiman captures America better than any other book or movie or anything. If anyone wants to know what America is like, I'd hand them this. The plot is so expertly crafted and I have to give a BIG shout out to the way Gaiman wrote Laura. The summary mentions she dies early on and I kind of assumed that the fridged wife would be Shadow's "tragic man pain story" but Laura is so much more important and relevant to the plot and conplicated than a martyred wife. This book really defied a lot of my expectations of what it would be like and it was excellent
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence, Gore, Body horror, and Blood
Moderate: Alcoholism
chillreads2's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
informative
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
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual content
Moderate: Murder, Slavery, and Violence
Minor: Death, Death of parent, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Sexual harassment, Suicidal thoughts, War, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Blood, Child death, Colonisation, and Miscarriage
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
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
veganecurrywurst's review against another edition
adventurous
funny
mysterious
reflective
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
I did enjoy this book. It had so many interesting concepts and I learned something. However I think that this book could be shorter some parts of the story just seemed dragged out.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Alcoholism, Blood, Cursing, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Gore, Mental illness, Murder, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, and War
Moderate: Animal death, Car accident, Child death, Colonisation, Cultural appropriation, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, and Slavery
Minor: Car accident, Child death, Domestic abuse, Gun violence, Infidelity, and Police brutality
nytephoenyx's review against another edition
dark
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.75
Back in 2006, American Gods was my first Neil Gaiman book. A friend at the time insisted it was the most incredible thing, so much so that she bought me a copy and I read it. When she asked what I thought, like any good friend, I lied and told her I loved it. I hadn’t read it since, until now.
I still don’t particularly enjoy American Gods. The book is far too long and meandering for my taste. A great deal of me appreciates the way Gaiman writes, because his language is something of poetry in itself, not too flowery but it nonetheless evokes powerful imagery. I do genuinely like that, and his writing style is probably the only thing that kept me reading this book.
Conceptually, American Gods should be particularly interesting. It’s the story of scattered gods from multiple worldwide pantheon that have been erected in the United States as people came to settle the country from all over the world. What vexes me about that aspect of the story is how very little time and love has been given to the various tribal gods and beliefs that were already established in the United States before it was the United States. For the most part, we focused on the Norse and Egyptian pantheons, with no reference to Roman or Greek gods, and a little of Eastern European. So well the book is interesting in that it resurrects a lot of world mythology, it still is very limited in what it shares. On top of that we have the development of modern American gods, which are physical manifestations of things like the Internet and media, which I feel is a bit less exciting than the other mythologies of the world. Rather than worshipping TV, I feel as though the seven deadly sins could’ve been personified into gods, sloth instead of TV, while greed is certainly an American God of its own in modernity. If you don’t think too much about it, it seems brilliant, but as soon as you start dissecting the story it’s far less impressive.
For a 600 page book, I would come to expect a decent plot. Unfortunately, American Gods has less of a plot and more of a journey. The chapters are extremely long, and they are broken up with asides about various gods and how they arrived in America, none of which actually pushes Shadow’s story forward. There is this big twist at the end which even though it is supposed to be twisty, just feels like a final nod to the fact like “oh look there is a plot, I was just kidding about the taking forever and going nowhere thing”. By the time I reach the last fifty pages in the whole situation was revealed, I had far past ceased to care.
Some of the characters are more interesting than others, but I feel like most of the gods got caricatured. In particular, almost all of the women were highly sexualised. The only exception to this rule is the story are the Zorya’s. The language in the book is also necessarily crude, again, particularly coming from the female characters. I’m not quite sure why Gaiman decided to portray them all in this way, but it was a bit unsettling for me. Not that I couldn’t handle it, more like I didn’t understand why it was deemed necessary to personify all of the women in such a way that they use the most foul language and care mostly about sex and feel the need to sexualise everything. I didn’t much love the characterisation of Whiskey Jack, the native American folk hero or so he calls himself who will give up everything in the world that man has made but please leave the Budweiser. Again, this plays on another caricature.
As I said, I do like the way Gaiman writes, and that’s one of the reasons I keep picking up his books. My track record with his novels has been very hit or miss, and if I’m being honest, it’s more miss than hit. His lyrical control of the English language is impressive and intriguing, but I don’t think it did enough to forgive the many flaws I felt in American Gods. I understand that this is a favourite of many of his fans, and that the Starz adaptation of the show has done extremely well. It’s just not for me.
I want you to know that for the right reader, American Gods is an easy recommendation. The characters are interesting as a whole, and it’s just gritty enough with such a small sprinkling of fantasy that it won’t turn off many readers who find things like science fiction and fantasy and relatable and uninteresting. I really wish that more attention had been paid to some of the stereotypes and portrayals of particular gods and their people, and I like to think that maybe today if this book had been published there would have been a sensitivity reader. I understand why a lot of people like this book and it’s entirely possible that you, dear reader, would enjoy it as well. American Gods is not my cup of tea, and that’s that.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Car accident, Child death, Death, Gun violence, Kidnapping, Medical content, Murder, Racial slurs, Suicide, Violence, Infidelity, and Sexual content
Moderate: Grief and Alcoholism
margretarson's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
reflective
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Rape, Slavery, Blood, Animal death, Animal cruelty, Child death, and Death
Moderate: Alcoholism, Toxic friendship, and Racial slurs
jmarinaro's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual content, Death, and Alcoholism
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