A review by ayay_ron25
American Gods by Neil Gaiman

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny informative lighthearted mysterious reflective 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

2.25

I love the idea of the story of following along different gods and figures throughout history and Gaimon does a good job at blending all the characters together. At times though, the writing becomes uncomfortable especially with how almost all the characters talk to women, especially younger girls. It is brought up many times throughout the book about sexualizing young girls with wednesday constantly flirting with girls who are described along the lines as “barely legal.” Theres a magic system on how wednesdays advances on these high schoolers or young girls make him stronger and it’s talked about many times throughout the book and it’s just very uncomfortable to read. 

The book also seemed to drone on or just over explain mundane things happening. Things that were not important to the story just kept happening and being explained in extreme detail when it could have been skipped over entirely. 

Overall, the premise of the book is really good and I really enjoyed Gaimon’s other writing but this book wasn’t it for me. Ive read other books like this such as Michael Scott’s series The Alchemyst, where they have famous figures throughout history living as immortals and it mixes real life history and magic in an interesting way. So if you enjoy the premise of American Gods I would recommend reading that series instead.