Book Review: American Gods by Neil Gaiman

Every hour wounds. The last one kills

I picked up American Gods for the book club I am part of on Discord. I had tried reading it before but never got very far. This time I finished, but it was a struggle.

Book Review: American Gods by Neil Gaiman

Rating:


Title & Author: American Gods by Neil Gaiman
Genre: Fantasy, Mystery
Release date: June 19 2001
Series: Standalone
Publisher: William Morrow

Synopsis

Days before his release from prison, Shadow’s wife, Laura, dies in a mysterious car crash. Numbly, he makes his way back home. On the plane, he encounters the enigmatic Mr. Wednesday, who claims to be a refugee from a distant war, a former god and the king of America.

Together they embark on a profoundly strange journey across the heart of the USA, whilst all around them, a storm of preternatural and epic proportions threatens to break.

I give American Gods by Neil Gaiman three out of five hearts because it was a struggle. In my eyes, this isn’t the greatest book Gaiman has ever written and it could have been much better.

For such an esteemed book, American Gods does a lot of things wrong. Shadow is the most inactive main character I have ever seen. Mr. Wednesday comes to him, the other gods come to him and he himself doesn’t do anything by himself. He only responds. And then his coin tricks! It’s described so often that I wanted to scream. It got annoying very fast. I could have done without it.

I do like the idea of the gods just being people and so I do think the main thing is interesting, but I really didn’t like the characters. I am not sure if that is just me or there are more people that have the same thing.

Overall I think American Gods is an okay book, but don’t expect anything more than that. Also be aware that Shadow doesn’t do anything, things just happen to him.

TV-Series

Starz has aired the first season of a tv-series of American Gods. I have watched a couple of episodes and do think they stayed true to the book. I stopped watching because I wanted to read the book first and I haven’t gotten to finishing the series since.

Let me know what you thought of this book and/or tv-series!
If you have any requests for which book I should talk about next, please let me know in the comments down below.

For now, let books enrich your life!

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