American Gods by Neil Gaiman

American Gods by Neil Gaiman

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Jacket Blurb: Shadow is a man with a past. But now he wants nothing more than to live a quiet life with his wife and stay out of trouble. Until he learns that she's been killed in a terrible accident.

Flying home for the funeral, as a violent storm rocks the plane, a strange man in the seat next to him introduces himself. The man calls himself Mr. Wednesday, and he knows more about Shadow than is possible.

He warns Shadow that a far bigger storm is coming. And from that moment on, nothing will ever be the same…

Read for book group August 2019.

This was a re-read for me and one of those books where I remember enjoying it greatly...but nothing more than that. Which makes re-reading easier. There is a familiarity, but a newness at the same time.

I should note: I read the original version, not the 10th anniversary edition with added material. I have also not seen the TV series based off the same.

As with many of Gaiman's stories, there isn't much of a point to the story. His books tend to be character based, contain wonderful "world" building, the background is rich and simple at the same time, and his plots just pull a person along as the pages fly by.

Premise of American Gods is Shadow, upon release from a three year stint in prison finds out his wife has been killed and on his way to a funeral, he's offered a position as an errand boy by the mysterious Mr. Wednesday. Shadow is pulled into a conflict where the New Gods of Media, TV, and more want to wage war against the Old Gods that came to America with the immigrants. As Odin, Loki, Easter, Bast, Ibis, Jackle, Czernobog and others gird their loins for battle or forever be forgotten, Shadow realizes his role is more than errands.

Premise in a nutshell. A walnut shell. So hard to summarize without dropping spoilers. Shadow is a fascinating character, but one you don't realize until the end. The variety of Gods was just...brilliant. The interludes or as one person in book group called them "coming to America stories", were both interesting and annoying. Kinda like some commercials. What made this book was the resolution and how the seemingly disparate threads all came together, but, yet, not. So good!

Recommended.



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