I’ll be honest. After reading The Ocean at the End of the Lane I was not super excited to read another Neil Gaiman novel. That book was just very strange, and not really my cup of tea. So when my book club moderator chose this one, after reading 3 other Sci-Fi books…I was less than enthusiastic.
I was wrong.
American Gods is such a different book from Ocean. Ok, so I can see the author’s influence in both, but the perspectives are just in such a completely opposite spectrum. Ocean is written in a child’s dreamlike wonder, and AG is about a massive ex-con. Kudos to Gaiman to be able to do that.
Speaking of the perspective–the writing here is marvelous. You really get into Shadow’s head. There is a lot of confusion and frustration and pain, and you feel every bit of it. I will say, that unfortunately, for me, the ending was a little bit meh. Gaiman does a really great job of building up to what is going to happen, and then it just kind of drops off into blahness. That said, I was really tired when I finished this last night…so maybe I need to reread it again. I don’t want to believe it was that mundane.
What I liked best about this book were the gods. If you are into mythology at all, you are going to recognize a LOT of characters in this. And they are going to pop-up in random places. Think Men in Black, only with Greek, Roman, Norse mythological characters.
Oh, and because I feel like I should warn my fellow Marvel Fangirls. Beware. Loki looks more like Morgan Freeman than Tom Hiddleston. Just be prepared. I’m sorry. I had to let you know.
This book is going on my To Buy list for sure, even with the so-so ending. I want to reread it, because the rest of it was just that great. The storyline was so intricate, and I know there are details that I missed on the first read-through. Pick this up–you won’t be sorry.
As I Lay Reading 