Reviews tagging 'Blood'

American Gods by Neil Gaiman

57 reviews

melodykmtx'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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Murder, Death, Sexual content, Torture, and Violence

Moderate: Alcohol, Blood, Car accident, Child death, and Infidelity

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

4.5

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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Gore, and Violence

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

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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

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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

madradstarchild's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional 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? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Child death, War, Alcohol, Animal death, Death, and Violence

Minor: Blood, Cancer, Car accident, Classism, Colonisation, Confinement, Death of parent, Drug use, Excrement, Gaslighting, Genocide, Gore, Gun violence, Murder, Sexual assault, Sexual content, and Vomit

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

spellygirl's review against another edition

adventurous dark slow-paced

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

2.5

It was ok. Almost DNF'ed it, and won't read again Would consider not reading it if you're sensitive to animal death etc, as I am. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Cannibalism, Blood, Body horror, Car accident, Cancer, and Child death

hobbesmom's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional inspiring mysterious reflective tense fast-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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Cursing, Gore, Murder, and Sexual content

tarynlannister's review against another edition

adventurous challenging mysterious reflective fast-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: Car accident, Death, and Slavery

Moderate: Violence, Gore, Sexual content, Racial slurs, Murder, Infidelity, Grief, and Blood

Minor: Cancer, Death, Sexual violence, Homophobia, Death of parent, War, Terminal illness, Drug use, Colonisation, Alcohol, and Animal death

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. 

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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