Anansi Boys (Prosecutor Helen West & Detective Geoffrey Balley Mysteries)

by Neil Gaiman

Fat Charlie Nancy is not having a good week. It all hit the proverbial fan when his rotter of an estranged father dropped dead at a karaoke night and Charlie discovered that his dad was in fact Anansi the spider god. Then he found out that he has a brother (called Spider) who is also a god. And that said brother is hell bent on taking over his life, flat and fiancee, and, just to add insult to injury, doing a much better job of being him. Desperate to reclaim his life, Charlie enlists the help of four loco old ladies and their unique brand of voodoo - and unleashes a bitter and twisted force to get rid of Spider. But as darkness descends and badness begins is Fat Charlie Nancy going to get his life back in one piece or is he about to enter a whole netherworld of pain?

• ISBN10: 0061342394
• ISBN13: 9780061342394
• Publish Date: 22 January 2008 (first published 20 September 2005)
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: US
• Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
• Imprint: Collins
• Format: Paperback (US Trade)
• Pages: 368
• Language: English

Reviews

[leahrosereads]

This story was pretty good, and of course it would be, because Neil Gaiman knows how to weave a tale spectacularly. But it wasn't a five starrer for me.

Charlie was just too...and then so was Spider. And don't even get me started on Rosie and Daisy. These characters are easily my least favorite ensemble of any Gaiman novel. The only saving grace was Mr. Nancy, but lets face it, even he can't hold a story all on his own (no matter what he says).

But the story was epic and filled with family bonds and deception and heroism and monsters and so it gets four stars.

I'll definitely continue to read anything Neil publishes - obviously. But this one was a bit of a miss for my tastes.