gainespost 's review for:

American Gods by Neil Gaiman

5.0

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I finished [b:American Gods|18161930|American Gods (American Gods, #1)|Neil Gaiman|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1372964356s/18161930.jpg|1970226] last night, and highly recommend it for anyone looking for a deep, dark, soulful, well-written novel. And I mean novel, not book. Not many books I've read lately can, in good conscience, be called novels in the strictest sense of the word -- especially not novels that are so well-sculpted. American Gods is easily among the best three novels I've read in the past decade, or more. It's no wonder it won so many awards (including the Stoker, for those of you who read a lot of horror etc). My only (very minor) complaint is

Spoiler

that the conflict resolution, from the climax to shortly before the end (but not including the end, which was superb), seemed a little bit rushed. Not terribly so, however. It was still very, very well-crafted. So it's only a minor complaint. I hid this criticism in spoiler brackets because I don't want it to negatively impact or prejudice any potential readers. There is also a good chance that my mood while reading that part, totally separate from what was happening in the book at the time, was the cause of my feeling that it was slightly rushed. Because honestly, I didn't want the story to end

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By the way, I'm glad I read the 2013 edition; after much contemplation, the author went back and rewrote large sections of it, added bits in and took bits out, and says this is the edition of which he is most proud. He seems to be quite a deep thinker, and I trust his judgement. Oh, there's also an "American Gods novella" tacked on to the end of this particular edition of the book, in the appendix -- and honestly, it's more like an epilogue than a completely separate tale. The novella is a continuation of the story that is more than worth a read.

I cannot praise American Gods highly enough. Truly. What a refreshing gem.