American Gods: A Novel

by Neil Gaiman

After three years in prison, Shadow has done his time. But as the days, then the hours, then the seconds until his release tick away, he can feel a storm building. Two days before he gets out, his wife Laura dies in a mysterious car crash, in apparently adulterous circumstances. Dazed, Shadow travels home, only to encounter the bizarre Mr Wednesday claiming to be a refugee from a distant war, a former god and the king of America. Together they embark on a very strange journey across the States, along the way solving the murders which have occurred every winter in one small American town. But they are being pursued by someone with whom Shadow must make his peace...Disturbing, gripping and profoundly strange, Neil Gaiman's epic new novel sees him on the road to finding the soul of America.

• ISBN10: 0060558121
• ISBN13: 9780060558123
• Publish Date: 2 September 2003 (first published 19 June 2001)
• Publish Status: Unknown
• Publish Country: AU
• Imprint: Harper Perennial
• Format: Paperback
• Pages: 592
• Language: English

Reviews

[inlibrisveritas]

I think I enjoyed the ideas and themes in this more than I enjoyed the actual execution. The creativeity is definitely top tier and I found the idea of people literally creating the gods to be really intriguing, especially the look on American ideals. I just found much of the way it's written to be somewhat of a drag.

[bookswithjelena]

3.75

[thorngil45]

i don't have any deep insights about american gods, it was a weird and thought provoking ride; one i'm not sure i'll go on again

[thepunktheory]

Full Review on: my Blog ThePunkTheory

I know, I'm a bit late with reading this novel as it was originally published in 2001. But once I started reading, I just couldn't put it down.
What Neil Gaiman created here is first of all a cleverly drafted storyline. The plot is mysterious and you won't be able to see through any of the twist that lie ahead. Gaiman surprised me numerous times throughout this book and I couldn't tell which way things would go in the end.
Another major plus point of American Gods are the awesome characters. Of course, our protagonist Shadow Moon is a relatable guy who gains depth with every page, but let's be honest, he's not what we came for. The book is titled American Gods for a reason. Gaiman included not only Gods but all kinds of people and creatures from legends and myths. You can tell, we're talking about a broad range of topics, let me just give you a few examples: Odin, the old Norse God, Czernobog, the Slavic God of darkness, the Queen of Sheba, and countless more. Combining so many different things is tricky and can easily get confusing. I was impressed how well Gaiman had handled this and instead of feeling overwhelmed I was constantly longing for more. All the believes he mentions are fascinating and not only did I devour Neil Gaiman explanations, I spent a lot of time reading up on many of the myths he included.
Furthermore, it all comes together really well. We are talking about stories from various points in history, coming from vastly different cultures and believes. Gaiman set a tough task for himself when he tried to bring all this in one story - and he succeeded. I couldn't believe that it all coming together would actually make sense, until the last page I was waiting for something that ruins the whole thing. However, Neil Gaiman proofed me wrong!

[mitabird]

3.5 stars

[clementine]

3.5 stars

You know, I didn't love this as much the second time round. I do really enjoy Gaiman's prose and storytelling in general, and it's no doubt that his ability to synthesize various plotlines, mythologies, and ideas into one coherent novel is admirable. But I guess I find the traditional gods vs. new gods thing sort of heavy-handed at this point? And the Lakeside murder plot was super interesting and one of the things that really stuck with me from the first time I read this book, 4 years ago, but it does seem like an entirely different story. I seemed to like that about it 4 years ago, and I don't mind that the scope of the novel is generally large, but the Lakeside bit really sticks out like a sore thumb to me. If it were its own novel I'd totally read it. Anyway, I think this novel is hugely ambitious and executed pretty well, but it's not without its flaws. I'll still hold onto it, and I might even revisit it. I think it's possible to enjoy a book that you think has pretty obvious, large flaws.

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Original review from January 20, 2013:

You know when you're aware of a book for a really, really long time and you have some preconceived notion about what it's going to be like and then you read it and it's not that thing at all and then you don't even know what the hell you thought it was going to be?

Yeah. This was that book. I don't even know how long I've known that it existed. A long time, really. For some reason, there was always a part of me that was like, "You won't like Neil Gaiman," and I literally have no idea why, but this was a thing that I thought, despite the fact that, like, all of humanity likes him. And then my friend Ashley recommended him to me, and I was like, "Okay, noted." But my mental "to-read" list is jumbled and even though it's miles long whenever I'm in the vicinity of a bookstore I forget everything on it and I just never got around to buying it. Then Christmas happened, and Ashley sent me this book, which was a very polite but firm way of saying, "Okay, READ THIS FUCKING BOOK."

So I did. And it was totally not at all what I expected. In a good way.

Honestly, by the time I actually started it, I was pretty sure I was going to like it, despite all my years of thinking otherwise. It has been determined that Ashley and I have very similar taste in books, so I was like, "Yes, okay, I will like this." But, I don't know, it was just different from what I envisioned.

It was sprawling, and atmospheric, and realistic (which is hilarious considering the subject matter). It had depth and warmth and character. Like, it wasn't just a really great execution of an interesting idea - it had zest. A lot of it, in fact. That's what took this from an ambitious, well-executed project to, like, WOW.

I think what was most impressive was how much it covered. There was the mystery of the annual disappearances (which, by the way, I figured out like half a page before the reveal, and gasped), there was everything with Laura, there was everything surrounding Shadow's work for Wednesday. Like... it felt like a bunch of books all in one: a portrait of a small town, a disturbing mystery, a modern war tale. So much happened. Things were constantly happening. But it never felt like there was too much going on, at all, even though THERE WAS SO MUCH GOING ON. Even at the end, when you're like, "Well, okay, things are going to wind down now," NO, THERE IS MORE. So much more. And I loved that!

I also loved the characterization. There were a lot of characters, and I just liked them all. Even the minor characters were developed sufficiently enough for me to have a soft spot for them (Chad Mulligan, y'all. He was awesome), and there were, of course, characters who were kind of assholes but I liked anyway.

I understand that this is not everyone's cup of tea. I can see why. But I thought it was utterly fantastic, and it has certainly earned a place on my favourites shelf - both virtually and physically.

This review was a ramble and I didn't really say much. But, whatever. I liked it. There you go.

[Mercy]

La puntuación está entre 2.5 y 3 estrellas :).

[leahrosereads]

rtc

[adamfortuna]

The idea behind this book is grand. The fight for America's soul... as told by a foreigner (Neil Gaiman). Good characters all around, although I wasn't as tied to the lead as I could have been.

I read this book in two parts, up to Chapter 12 and then after 12. It was really good and I burned straight through it in two separate chunks. I'm still trying to sort out all the little nuances and I had to go and search for whom some of the gods were but it turned out to be pretty good in the end. I still think I liked the Graveyard book better but this is definitely worth a read.