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rebeccagratson 's review for:
American Gods
by Neil Gaiman
"You keep some of the dream forever, and you know things down deep inside yourself, because it happened to you, but when you go looking for details they kind of just slip out of your head."
This is the best way for me to describe my experience reading American Gods. I was so excited for this novel because the premise is absolutely brilliant. Unfortunately though, Gaiman drops the ball when it comes to the story of Shadow Moon and Mr. Wednesday, muddling the details and leaving a steaming, incoherent mess.
American Gods is about the gods who were brought here by traveling immigrants, leaving their lands but bringing their beliefs and deities with them. Now, those old gods struggle to survive as belief in them as waned, pushing them towards non existence. New gods are on the rise as well, gods of technology and media, machines and Wall Street. A war begins to brew between the two sides as both fight for what little belief remains in America, known to all as a bad place for gods.
Like I said, the premise is amazing and opens the possibility to this alternative world where gods walk among men and work as prostitutes, morticians, or the friendly old guy down the street, all looking for whatever amount of worship they can get. Gaiman does a good job of including a variety of gods too, ranging from Norse and Hindu to Native American symbols. He also depicts lesser known gods, although he doesn't explain much about them so some research is necessary.
While the story wasn't exactly bad, I didn't find it especially good either. It follows Shadow, a recently released convict, who is employed by a mysterious Mr. Wednesday who drags him across the country to meet with various people and convince them to rally together. Instead of being immensely interesting, American Gods just ambles along without a lot of action or exposition or explanation to draw you in. The characters are flat and lack conviction. They're unrelatable and unsympathetic. Towards the end I didn't care what happened to Shadow one way or the other because after 400 pages I still didn't feel like I knew him. The same goes for the gods as well. Some of them were definitely more compelling than the others but they were shrouded in so much mystery and loose ends that every encounter left me more confused.
After spending two weeks on this book, I'm disappointed to say I can't really recall what happened. It was a lot of traveling around, occasionally meeting some celestial beings, flashbacks and stories about how these gods came to America were peppered here and there. There was little explanation as to what was going on or the strangeness of the god's worlds. But I suppose that was intended to add to the mystery of it. And for a book that spends the entire time foreshadowing an impending "storm," Gaiman spends a hot second on the actual battle, the climax of the story, before moving on to a very lengthy afterword. One thing I did appreciate, was some of the mysteries and "coming to America" stories were brought back into play and explained later in the story. It was the whole, don't introduce a shotgun in the first act if you don't intend to use it by the third, type of thing. But I will say the whole Hinzelman thing didn't surprise me in the least.
Another note I really appreciated was Gaiman leaving out the gods of Christianity. American Gods does speak volumes about our young country that lacks a deep rooted heritage and core set of beliefs, minus those of the Native Americans. As the melting pot, America is comprised of all the cultures and convictions the immigrants and slaves brought here. I honestly felt that Jesus had no place in this land of old, fading gods and the new ones who realize they are here today and will just as quickly be gone tomorrow.
After going through some of the reviews on here, I think I will give American Gods another go in the future. Maybe I just missed the mark on the whole thing. Hopefully the novel will live up to it's title better the second time around.
This is the best way for me to describe my experience reading American Gods. I was so excited for this novel because the premise is absolutely brilliant. Unfortunately though, Gaiman drops the ball when it comes to the story of Shadow Moon and Mr. Wednesday, muddling the details and leaving a steaming, incoherent mess.
American Gods is about the gods who were brought here by traveling immigrants, leaving their lands but bringing their beliefs and deities with them. Now, those old gods struggle to survive as belief in them as waned, pushing them towards non existence. New gods are on the rise as well, gods of technology and media, machines and Wall Street. A war begins to brew between the two sides as both fight for what little belief remains in America, known to all as a bad place for gods.
Like I said, the premise is amazing and opens the possibility to this alternative world where gods walk among men and work as prostitutes, morticians, or the friendly old guy down the street, all looking for whatever amount of worship they can get. Gaiman does a good job of including a variety of gods too, ranging from Norse and Hindu to Native American symbols. He also depicts lesser known gods, although he doesn't explain much about them so some research is necessary.
While the story wasn't exactly bad, I didn't find it especially good either. It follows Shadow, a recently released convict, who is employed by a mysterious Mr. Wednesday who drags him across the country to meet with various people and convince them to rally together. Instead of being immensely interesting, American Gods just ambles along without a lot of action or exposition or explanation to draw you in. The characters are flat and lack conviction. They're unrelatable and unsympathetic. Towards the end I didn't care what happened to Shadow one way or the other because after 400 pages I still didn't feel like I knew him. The same goes for the gods as well. Some of them were definitely more compelling than the others but they were shrouded in so much mystery and loose ends that every encounter left me more confused.
After spending two weeks on this book, I'm disappointed to say I can't really recall what happened. It was a lot of traveling around, occasionally meeting some celestial beings, flashbacks and stories about how these gods came to America were peppered here and there. There was little explanation as to what was going on or the strangeness of the god's worlds. But I suppose that was intended to add to the mystery of it. And for a book that spends the entire time foreshadowing an impending "storm," Gaiman spends a hot second on the actual battle, the climax of the story, before moving on to a very lengthy afterword. One thing I did appreciate, was some of the mysteries and "coming to America" stories were brought back into play and explained later in the story. It was the whole, don't introduce a shotgun in the first act if you don't intend to use it by the third, type of thing. But I will say the whole Hinzelman thing didn't surprise me in the least.
Another note I really appreciated was Gaiman leaving out the gods of Christianity. American Gods does speak volumes about our young country that lacks a deep rooted heritage and core set of beliefs, minus those of the Native Americans. As the melting pot, America is comprised of all the cultures and convictions the immigrants and slaves brought here. I honestly felt that Jesus had no place in this land of old, fading gods and the new ones who realize they are here today and will just as quickly be gone tomorrow.
After going through some of the reviews on here, I think I will give American Gods another go in the future. Maybe I just missed the mark on the whole thing. Hopefully the novel will live up to it's title better the second time around.