Hi friends! So today I'm going to be a review on "American Gods" by Neil Gaiman. This review is going to be short and sweet (like the title suggests) and spoiler free (however there will be the Goodreads synopsis in this and sometimes it can contain spoilers so please keep that in mind!)
"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.
Scary, gripping and deeply unsettling, American Gods takes a long, hard look into the soul of America. You'll be surprised by what - and who - it finds there..."
How I read this book: Physical copy
So the reason I wanted to read this book is because I was really enjoying the Amazon originals series they did based on the book which was cancelled. I genuinely just wanted to know how this all ended and I really thought I was going to enjoy the book, boy was I wrong. I'm going to get the first thing that bothered me about the book out of the way and that is the amount of slurs that was in this book (and before anyone comes for me and was like "this book was wrote in 2001, it was a different time back then" I read the tv series tie in which was wrote in 2017 because Neil Gaiman wanted to add things in and even back in 2001 we knew it's not okay for a white person to use the N word at the very least). I would've genuinely thought that being an author who is known for being diverse with his characters we would not have had that many slurs in a book, but I guess I was wrong. Secondly, Neil Gaiman very much over- described every single last detail within the book, for me as a personal preference this is something I don't enjoy, I understand why it has to be that way in high fantasy but we're literally talking about America throughout the book. Also after reading a bunch of books where the chapters have been 3-10 pages going to one where they're 20-40 pages was very daunting, but once again, that's a personal preference. Overall it's really disappointing because I did actually enjoy the story as a whole, especially the twist at the end, I just can't bring myself to get over the language that was used that didn't need to be used.
My favourite Characters
- Shadow: I know Shadow is the main character but I truly did love him. He was just a big himbo at times but really sweet and sincere at others.
- Sam: Sam was my favourite character throughout the entire book, she's such a strong female character and I loved the sarcasm and sass about her.
- Chad: Chad helps Shadow out a lot whilst in the book and is genuinely just a caring person. I loved the chapters that he was in and I wish we got more of him.
My Least Favourite Characters:
- Laura: Laura's just a really selfish character and I can't say too much else without spoiling the book, so we shall leave it at that.
- Mr Wednesday: Mr Wednesday is just a manipulative character throughout the book and as much as Neil Gaiman tried to make us feel sorry for him it never really happened for me.
I gave this book a 2/5 star rating on Goodreads.
What did you think of this book? Who were your favourite or least favourite characters? Do you have any books you'd recommend for me to read and do a review on? Please let me know down in the comments below!
Have a wonderful day!
Love, Doe!
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