Reviews tagging 'Alcohol'

American Gods by Neil Gaiman

46 reviews

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

catriona176's review against another edition

challenging emotional funny mysterious reflective sad 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? It's complicated

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Blood, and Death

Moderate: Alcohol, Child death, Fire/Fire injury, Suicidal thoughts, Animal death, War, Gun violence, and Murder

sunflower7skull's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense slow-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Animal death, Blood, Body horror, War, Violence, Torture, Sexual content, Murder, Mental illness, Kidnapping, Injury/Injury detail, Gun violence, Gore, Cursing, and Colonisation

Moderate: Car accident, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, and Suicide

It was very engaging and interesting. I really enjoyed learning about all of the different mythologies and gods mentioned (I read the annotated version so it gave me more information) and I really liked this book!

maybephasing's review against another edition

adventurous challenging mysterious slow-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? No

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death and Grief

Moderate: Suicidal thoughts, Alcohol, and Child death

Minor: Death of parent, Rape, and Slavery

punionrings's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious sad 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: Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, Car accident, Grief, Death, and Child death

Minor: Abandonment

jessthanthree's review

adventurous dark mysterious 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? No

4.0

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Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Gore, Torture, Animal death, War, Slavery, Medical content, Mental illness, Infidelity, Suicidal thoughts, Sexual violence, Sexism, Alcohol, Body horror, and Gun violence

Minor: Excrement, Vomit, Fire/Fire injury, Child death, Colonisation, Adult/minor relationship, Cancer, Death of parent, Infertility, and Confinement

megb64's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Car accident, Murder, Death of parent, Sexual content, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, Death, and War

martin27's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny hopeful mysterious tense slow-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

4.0

I read the 10th anniversary edition with the extended, author-preferred text.

At times the book felt like it dragged on. I think part of it might just be that I usually read books with shorter chapters while this book had fairly long chapters. It’s a really hard story to describe, but it has a long of really interesting moments.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: War, Infidelity, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Sexual content, Gun violence, Gore, and Animal death

Moderate: Car accident and Alcohol

Minor: Suicidal thoughts

mjadeh's review against another edition

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, Racial slurs, Sexual content, Death, Infidelity, Kidnapping, and Murder

Moderate: Car accident and War

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