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A review by millennial_dandy
American Gods by Neil Gaiman
3.0
I had no idea what to expect when I picked up this novel, knowing only that Neil Gaiman is an incredibly well-regarded contemporary author and that American Gods had been made into a TV series.
What I got was an incredibly well-crafted, thrilling, road-trip fantasy with more twists and turns than Shadow's coin tricks.
Our protagonist is an ex-con named Shadow who, immediately following his release from prison, finds himself embroiled in a clash between all of the gods who have made their way to America over the centuries and some newer upstarts like Media and the god of the internet.
Dark, witty, and quite often poignant, American Gods was one of those books that kept me up at night huddled under my reading lamp, 'one more chapter' turning into three or four until the words began to blur on the page.
And the finale doesn't disappoint.
In the post-Game of Thrones world, I, like so many others, am wary of stories that seem too complex for their own good, afraid that complex will devolve into convoluted or downright clunky. This is not one of those stories.
For all that new plot elements are introduced all the way up to the final chapter, when you finally get the answers to all the burning questions you've been posed since the first chapter, they click. I wasn't satisfied with every single reveal, but I believed them.
That all being said, if you're looking for a memorable protagonist, you won't find them in Shadow (though I suspect that's by design). He feels like enough of a real person to carry the weight of all the incredible things that happen to him, but his character arc is a passive one, every decision he tries to make manipulated by outside forces.
The cast of side characters in American Gods on the other hand is colorful, each of the gods and people Shadow meets along the way distinct and interesting.
This edition of the book included chapters building up how certain gods came to be, of those who worshipped them, and how some of them died. While I can see how taking these asides out would slim down the novel considerably and streamline the narrative, I was happy to have them since on their own each was singularly interesting, and I never once contemplated skipping over it to return to 'the story.'
What I got was an incredibly well-crafted, thrilling, road-trip fantasy with more twists and turns than Shadow's coin tricks.
Our protagonist is an ex-con named Shadow who, immediately following his release from prison, finds himself embroiled in a clash between all of the gods who have made their way to America over the centuries and some newer upstarts like Media and the god of the internet.
Dark, witty, and quite often poignant, American Gods was one of those books that kept me up at night huddled under my reading lamp, 'one more chapter' turning into three or four until the words began to blur on the page.
And the finale doesn't disappoint.
In the post-Game of Thrones world, I, like so many others, am wary of stories that seem too complex for their own good, afraid that complex will devolve into convoluted or downright clunky. This is not one of those stories.
For all that new plot elements are introduced all the way up to the final chapter, when you finally get the answers to all the burning questions you've been posed since the first chapter, they click. I wasn't satisfied with every single reveal, but I believed them.
That all being said, if you're looking for a memorable protagonist, you won't find them in Shadow (though I suspect that's by design). He feels like enough of a real person to carry the weight of all the incredible things that happen to him, but his character arc is a passive one, every decision he tries to make manipulated by outside forces.
The cast of side characters in American Gods on the other hand is colorful, each of the gods and people Shadow meets along the way distinct and interesting.
This edition of the book included chapters building up how certain gods came to be, of those who worshipped them, and how some of them died. While I can see how taking these asides out would slim down the novel considerably and streamline the narrative, I was happy to have them since on their own each was singularly interesting, and I never once contemplated skipping over it to return to 'the story.'