Rate this book

Clear rating

1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

American Gods

by Neil Gaiman (Goodreads Author)

4.1 of 5 stars 4.10 · rating details · 189,114 ratings · 10,576 reviews

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 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 stor...more

Paperback, 504 pages

Published 2001 by Headline

more details... edit details

Get a copy:

More…

Friend Reviews

To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up.

Lists with This Book

This book is not yet featured on Listopia. Add this book to your favorite list »

Community Reviews

(showing 1-30 of 3,000)

filter | sort: default (?) | rating details

Oct 28, 2008 David Monroe rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: urban-fantasy, faves, book-to-re-read, classics

Anybody who tells you that the book is about old and new gods, or about a man named Shadow, or about coin tricks, or about having one's head smashed in for losing a game of checkers, is selling you a line, because those are just details, not the story itself.

Much like any Neil Gaiman story, the devil is in the details, and you just have to resolve yourself to coming along for the ride or you'll miss it. It's not one story, or two, it's many, and it's all complete...and you have to just read it,...more

241 likes · like · see review

May 26, 2012 Nataliya rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: excellent-reads, 2011-reads, hugo-nebula, locus-winner

Neil Gaiman must have British gonads of titanium to write a huge sprawling epic story about the nature of American belief. It's a gamble that worked perfectly - since, as he said, "Nobody's American [...] Not originally. That's my point."

"It's a god-eat-god world." This quote by Sir Terry Pratchett, another amazing British writer, perfectly summarizes the surface plot of the intimidating bulk of American Gods.

"It's what people do. They believe, and then they do not take responsibility for their

...more Neil Gaiman must have British gonads of titanium to write a huge sprawling epic story about the nature of American belief. It's a gamble that worked perfectly - since, as he said, "Nobody's American [...] Not originally. That's my point."

"It's a god-eat-god world." This quote by Sir Terry Pratchett, another amazing British writer, perfectly summarizes the surface plot of the intimidating bulk of American Gods.

"It's what people do. They believe, and then they do not take responsibility for their beliefs; they conjure things, and do not trust the conjuration. People populate the darkness; with ghosts, with gods, with electrons, with tales. People imagine, and people believe; and it is that rock solid belief, that makes things happen. "

American Gods is Gaiman's ode to America, the land which has become a melting pot to more than just people. It also took in the beliefs they willingly or not brought with them to the New World, embraced them, changed them, allowed some to flourish and others to nearly wither away. It pitted the old gods not only against each other in the endless battle for survival, but also against the new deities of consumerism and technology for the precious belief that keeps them going. To quote Sir Pratchett again, "You need to believe in things that aren't true. How else can they become?".

"Gods die. And when they truly die they are unmourned and unremembered. Ideas are more difficult to kill than people, but they can be killed, in the end."

But the squabble among the old and new gods is just the surface. The heart of Gaiman's novel lies in portrayal - through seemingly unconnected interludes and sketches - of the people who brought the legends to this land, brought them among blood and loss and sorrow and heartbreak, of the people now who live in the this patchwork country that made a whole out of many little bits, of their origins and pasts, and of the soul of present-day America, the glue that holds it together.

"There was a girl, and her uncle sold her. Put like that it seems so simple."

And to top it all off, we are treated to the portrait of a seemingly idyllic, very Stephen King-esque small American town of Lakeside, hiding its own dark deep secret. Lakeview, the quintessential American small town, the stuff of legends, as one may say. Terrifying legends, indeed.

Don't be fooled into thinking the ex-con Shadow working for a mysterious Mr. Wednesday (whose real identity is not that hard to spot almost immediately) is the protagonist. No, Shadow feels flat and underdeveloped simply because he is just our binoculars into the vast landscape of American mythology, this world of belief and legends.

"What should I believe? thought Shadow, and the voice came back to him from somewhere deep beneath the world, in a bass rumble: Believe everything."

The imagery that Gaiman creates is stunning. He paints a vivid picture with confident brush strokes, creating an unforgettable literary landscape. And he takes a gamble with the storyline and the plotting as well. Do not look for exciting battles and confrontations, for non-stop action or fast-moving plot. This is the book unfolding slowly and finding its depth in the side stories and interludes that are there not to move the plot forward in the traditional sense but to give an extra glimpse, an extra dimension to the unfolding epic picture.

5 stars for the unforgettable fascinating fully-immersing experience. Mr. Gaiman, if you want a title of an honorary American from this awestruck immigrant, well - here it is.

"What I say is, a town isn't a town without a bookstore. It may call itself a town, but unless it's got a bookstore it knows it's not fooling a soul."

(less)

163 likes · like · see review

May 19, 2013 Steve aka Sckenda rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: Lovers of Fantasy

Recommended to Steve aka Sckenda by: 30 Goodread Friends

Shelves: religion, mythology, fantasy, friend-recommendations, hugo, hugo-award, nebula-award, magical-realism

What should I believe? Believe everything.

Belief without blood only takes us so far. The blood must flow.

This is no country for old gods. I drank the mead and surrendered to the power of dream logic of Neil Gaiman’s “American Gods,” which is a highly imaginative and well written novel that tells of how a diaspora of ancient gods organizes itself for battle against the new American gods of commerce and media. The paradigms are shifting, and gods have problems, too. Now I know.

The United States...more

62 likes · like · see review

Jan 24, 2012 Meg ♥ rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: e-books, z-2012-reads, disappointing

This is a tough review for me to write. I'm not exactly sure what it is about this book that I don't like. I'm not sure there even IS something I don't like. Since I don't want to just leave you all with the ever popular "I'm just not that into it", I will try to explain.

This book has all the elements of a book I would enjoy. The creepiness factor is up there, the writing is brilliant, the main character is a big lug I couldn't help but love. Also, I have always been fascinated by mythology, so...more This is a tough review for me to write. I'm not exactly sure what it is about this book that I don't like. I'm not sure there even IS something I don't like. Since I don't want to just leave you all with the ever popular "I'm just not that into it", I will try to explain.

This book has all the elements of a book I would enjoy. The creepiness factor is up there, the writing is brilliant, the main character is a big lug I couldn't help but love. Also, I have always been fascinated by mythology, so that's a plus.

Shadow is our main character and he just got out of jail after doing his time of three years. Right before he is supposed to be released he is let out early, because his wife was killed, in apparently scandalous circumstances. The first 50ish pages were about the extent of where the book was interesting to me. Shadow meets Wednesday, and then the story turns into a bunch of mini stories and flashbacks, and I didn't enjoy most of them. Some were okay, but the majority just felt like annoying disruptions, and I felt myself thinking this is yet another longer book that could benefit from losing about 100 or so pages from the dragging middle. Shadow is paid by Wednesday to be an errand boy while he travels America trying to rally his troops in preparation for a war between The old Gods, and the new Gods (media and money) I guess it's my own fault. I couldn't really bring myself to care about this war between the new and old Gods, because the Gods of Media and Money? Not my Gods...

Books that are hyped up as much as this one leave me in a place where I tend to get disappointed, because it's so hard to live up to those expectations. Of course that's not the books fault, but I was just expecting to like this book much more than I did. I never felt engaged while reading this book, and that's the reason I couldn't rate this above three stars. I could appreciate the great writing and originality, however, so I couldn't give it below three stars.

Three stars it is folks, but as most of you know this book is loved by (almost) all, so of course I encourage everyone who is interested in this book already to read it, and form your own opinions. This book didn't do it for me, but I am definitely going to try some of Gaiman's other books and see if I have a better experience.
(less)

133 likes · like · see review

Mar 05, 2011 Stacey rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fantasy, all-time-favorites, myths-and-legends, owned-hardcovers, gaiman, signed, audio

In 2003, I walked away from my childhood religion – a high control (some would say abusive) group with a tiny little worldview and a severe superiority complex.

This was my reality:

I believed with all my being that the things depicted above were real, and were just over the event horizon.

Leaving meant losing almost every friend I had ever made since childhood, it created a rift with my still devout family, and quite possibly saved my life.

Is it any wonder that fiction – alternate realities, fa...more

193 likes · like · see review

Nov 30, 2007 Natalie rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: urban-fantasy, fantasy, fiction, kindle

First Neil Gaiman book I ever read, and it might be the last. The idea behind this book seemed so cool, but it didn't really play out in a way that engaged me.

In fact, I had three big problems with this book. (I'm vague at times to avoid spoilers.)

First, his characters are so emotionally detached that I can't care about them. I've read stories where emotional detachment is done well, in a way where you feel pain or pity or something for the character, but this was just... hollow. I felt nothing...more First Neil Gaiman book I ever read, and it might be the last. The idea behind this book seemed so cool, but it didn't really play out in a way that engaged me.

In fact, I had three big problems with this book. (I'm vague at times to avoid spoilers.)

First, his characters are so emotionally detached that I can't care about them. I've read stories where emotional detachment is done well, in a way where you feel pain or pity or something for the character, but this was just... hollow. I felt nothing in a bored way, instead of a profound way.

Second, the ending of the book felt like a cop out -- the story already felt aimless, and the one thing you think was going somewhere doesn't at all. I think it could have worked if it had been foreshadowed a little better, maybe? But even then, again, how do you care about what happened, given what happened? Similarly, the whole book has a disjointed, anticlimactic feel to it.

Third, I'm not sure what point the book is trying to make; the only points that jump out at me seem obviously flawed. And this is particularly bothersome, since he seems to definitely have *a* point.

For example, if he's trying to say that Americans care more about emerging technologies than religion, it's irrelevant to drive that point home by saying, "You know, no one worships Horus and Bast and the Norse pantheon anymore." No shit? Americans, and much of the rest of the world today, aren't polytheistic? Wow! That doesn't mean they aren't religious. I mean damn, if you have to skirt around the world's three major religions for your point to make sense, then maybe you don't have a point at all. Furthermore, it's simply not true that Americans are not religious; the United States is (perhaps unfortunately) one of the most religious first world countries.

Then at another junction in the book it seems that he's saying religion AND emerging technologies are all subject to being replaced by something else, which makes sense at least for the technology because it becomes outdated. So it's like he's saying Americans are fickle about what they "worship" and quickly pass it up for the next new thing. But yet again, what of the fact that Judaism and Christianity have been around for over two thousand years, and Islam for over a thousand? Again, it's no wonder why they're barely mentioned in the book; if it's fickle to still believe in a thousand year old religion just because we don't believe in even OLDER polytheistic religions, then shit, call us fickle then. How far back does a religion need to go to please this guy?

At yet another junction it seems like he's saying that both the old gods (polytheistic deities) and the new gods (technology) are things that just deceive people in some vague way, but he never really goes very far with this idea. At the end of the book I thought this must have been the point -- by process of elimination, no less -- but what kind of point is that? Both spirituality and materialism are deceptive, so what's the alternative? Are we supposed to be boring and hollow inside like the main character?

So really, at the end it just feels like a pretentious failure of an allegory where I didn't feel anything for any of the characters and the exciting thing that was supposed to happen didn't. Worse yet, it's a self-important book with no real point. Terribly disappointing.

(less)

260 likes · like · see review

Feb 07, 2012 mark monday rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: mythopoeikon, secret-histories

a protagonist, Shadow. calm, collected, quiet, passive, cagey, a tough guy and a sensitive guy. his life has been about reacting and not impacting. he moves through his story as if through a dream; tragedies and betrayals and mysteries and confidence games, the beginnings and endings of hope and love and life - all viewed as if through water, as if these terrible wonders were happening to someone else. he could be nothing more than a pawn in life - let alone a pawn of the gods - but yet his pass...more a protagonist, Shadow. calm, collected, quiet, passive, cagey, a tough guy and a sensitive guy. his life has been about reacting and not impacting. he moves through his story as if through a dream; tragedies and betrayals and mysteries and confidence games, the beginnings and endings of hope and love and life - all viewed as if through water, as if these terrible wonders were happening to someone else. he could be nothing more than a pawn in life - let alone a pawn of the gods - but yet his passivity is combined with an inner strength, a gentle kindness, an innate decency. his decency is more than a trait - it defines him. and when he does decide to act, his actions become another one of this novel's terrible wonders. he is complex and completely appealing. one of my my favorite heroes in modern fiction.

a wife, Laura. dead before the novel begins. a living ghost, a revenant; aided by a magical coin. a sad and appalling and dreamlike journey. a terrific payoff.

a Road Trip, full of kitchen-sink reality, full of terrible wonder.

an old guard, the Old Gods. Odin, Anansi, Czernobog, Anubis and Thoth and Bast and Horus, Eostre, Kali, the Norns. the Queen of Sheba - strangely, now an Old God. their transformation into prosaic american emigres - confidence men and tenement dwellers and whores and jailhouse cellmates - is both a fun game of mystery-solving (guess the god!) and a rather sad parallel to how the world of the not-aged pushes the aged into their little corners, out of sight and out of mind, into a world of irrelevance. and yet the old gods are not portrayed with cloying sweetness - there is no filter of nostalgia or hints of some long-lost, longed-for Olden Way to make us love them. they are fascinating, powerful, often monstrous, entirely without easy sentiment.

a new guard, the New Gods. Technology, the Media, the Vehicle, the Men in Black. it's easy to put them all automatically in a nice little box labeled The Villains. but that's too simple; too instantly gratifying. the novel's portrait of these potentially repellent figures is one painted in broad strokes, lacking subtlety - but it is also a fair one... they sound and act like villains, and yet they are not. how can they be? we worship them on a daily basis. they are only evil if we consider our modern age an evil one.

a creepy subsidiary villain: a Kobold. he lives in a portrait of classic americana that miraculously manages to be free of condescension.

a Confidence Game, long-game style, played by two gods, with our hero as their catspaw. cleverly done by the gods. beautifully overturned by our hero. brilliantly pulled off by the author.

an author, Neil Gaiman. i'll admit that i have well-stocked reserves of love for the man, ready and willing to be accessed. his Sandman series is my favorite comic book, full of crazy imagination and complex mysteries and creepy villains and complicated heroes and terrible, wonderful journeys. so i was prepared to love this book as i love its author, to draw upon that deep well of affection. there were connecting factors that helped to ease my transition from dealing with my old god of awesome comics to this new literary god of popular fantasy fiction; namely his interest in unearthing and revitalizing the world's myths and legends - an ongoing Gaiman leitmotif. i was less prepared to discover that Gaiman is an actual writer! his prose is fluid, nuanced, supple, at ease with both constant ambiguity and you-are-there, detailed realism. both grounded and hallucinatory. the narrative is anchored by everyday reality as well as a strange lack of affect - a blankness of tone that is a good fit for a phantasmagorical road trip. and then it is capable of sudden, surreal flights of visionary madness, a grey-toned package that becomes a conjurer's box of magic. and then that tricksy legerdemain can just as quickly transform back into a soulful and emotionally honest portrait of one man's journey through various adventures, through his own life, to the end of it and back again. who could ask for more?

(less)

41 likes · like · see review

Jan 21, 2008 Kelly rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fantasy-and-scifi, fiction, 20th-century-postwar-to-late

I am giving this book four stars due to two simple facts: the insightful choice of concept and the brilliant way in which the concept was articulated and executed through Gaiman's writing.

I'll start with the idea: I will not claim that the ultimate idea behind this book is particularly novel: the battle of the old ways and the new for the souls of the future, the mixed blessing that is "progress", what we leave behind, and what we learn. These are staples of the fantasy genre. However, his twis...more I am giving this book four stars due to two simple facts: the insightful choice of concept and the brilliant way in which the concept was articulated and executed through Gaiman's writing.

I'll start with the idea: I will not claim that the ultimate idea behind this book is particularly novel: the battle of the old ways and the new for the souls of the future, the mixed blessing that is "progress", what we leave behind, and what we learn. These are staples of the fantasy genre. However, his twist on the concept made it genius from a storytelling perspective. It is a specifically American story, where the old gods (Odin, Baron Samedi, the Morrigan warrior goddesses... etc, etc.. gods in a traditional sense) battle with the new gods (the internet, computers, the media, Mr. Town, Mr. World) for what little belief is left in a society that, as it is pointed out again and again, "has no time for gods." What happens to gods who have lost their worshippers? Even to gods whose original purpose is not understood anymore (such as the fascinating case of Easter)? What happens to discarded ideas, with just scraps of belief to hang on to? Not only are these fascinating questions to ask, but especially fascinating ones to ask of a 21st century America. Interesting that it took a British guy to really see the big picture here.

Secondly, the execution is quite skillfully done. His characterizations of the old gods exactly fit what you would expect them to be, in societies where gods acted human, made mistakes, got into fights, and were just as questionable in their morals.

He sometimes takes breaks from the story to illustrate his points more fully, and as they are thoughts worth considering, and writing worth reading, I'd like to reproduce a few of them here:

"None of this can actually be happening. If it makes you more comfortable, you could simply think of it as metaphor. Religions are, by definition, metaphors, after all: God is a dream, a hope, a woman, an ironist, a father, a city, a house of many rooms, a watchmaker who left his prize chronometer in the desert, someone who loves you--even, perhaps, against all evidence, a celestial being whose only interest is to make sure your football team, army, business, or marriage thrives, prospers, and triumphs over all opposition.

Religions are a place to stand and look and act, vantage points from which to view the world."

""There was a girl, and her uncle sold her. Put like that it seems so simple.

No man, proclaimed Donne, is an island, and he was wrong. If we were not islands, we would be lost, drowned in each other's tragedies. We are insulated (a word that means, literally, remember, made into an island) from the tragedy of others, by our island nature and by the repetitive shape and form of the stories. The shape does not change: there was a human being who was born, lived and then by some means or other, died. there. You may fill in the details from your own experience. As unoriginal as any other tale, as unique as any other life. Lives are snowflakes- forming patterns we have seen before, as like one another as peas in a pod (and have you ever looked at peas in a pod? I mean, really looked at them? There's not a chance you'll mistake one for another, after a minute's close inspection) but still unique.

Without individuals we see only numbers, a thousand dead, a hundred thousand dead, "casualties may rise to a million." With inidividual stories, the statistics become people- but even that is a lie, for the people continue to suffer in numbers that themsleves are numbing and meaningless. Look, see the child's swollen, swollen belly and the flies that crawl at the corners of his eyes, this skeletal limbs: will it make it easier for you to know his name, his age, his dreams, his fears? To see him from the inside? And if it does, are we not doing a disservice to his sister, who lies in the searing dust beside him, a distorted distended cariacture of a human child?...

We draw our lines around these moments of pain, remain upon our islands, and they cannot hurt us. They are covered with a smooth, safe, nacreous layer to let them slip, pearllike, from our souls without real pain.

Fiction allows us to slide into these other heads, these other places, and look out through other eyes. And then in the tale we stop before we die, or we die vicariously and unharmed, and in the world beyond the tale we turn the page or close the book and resume our lives.

A life that is, like any other, unlike any other.

And the simple truth is this: There was a girl, and her uncle sold her."

... moments like that really got to me. I think especially that last quote takes on the tone of an invocation, which is so highly appropriate to this subject matter and the mood he is trying to evoke. Mood by the way, is one of his very strong points. He had me by about 20 pages in or so. Realistic but mysterious. Exactly as it should be.

I don't want to give away the ending, because I encourage everyone to read this book, but lets just say one of the things I appreciate the most about this book is that he doesn't simplify either. It would be so easy to make this a black and white issue, and there are several shades of grey that wind through the characters, events, and especially the more than slight twist of a conclusion.

I really do recommend this quite highly. A big thank you to everyone who encouraged me to read it.

(less)

48 likes · like · see review

Jul 07, 2011 Stephen rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: audiobook, fantasy, mythstories-and-legends, 2000-2005, favorite-ideas, all-time-favorites, 6-star-books

My literary promiscuity being what it is, I have read and loved a lot of novels in many different genres. However, among the beau coup books that I have loved long time there are a select few that hold a special, hallowed place in my pantheon of favorites…American Gods is one of these elite.

Gaiman’s writing is both subdued and poetic. It is deeply emotional, but without a hint of melodrama. His descriptions are elaborate yet not drawn out. He tells a huge, complex, eternal story, one small tal...more

105 likes · like · see review

Nov 22, 2008 Oceana2602 rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2007, fantasy, male-writers, english

"Read Gaiman!" they say. "I can't believe you've never read Gaiman! You have GOT TO read Gaiman!" "Gaiman is SUCH an important part of popular culture and one of the BEST contemporary writers! You HAVE TO READ GAIMAN!"

Well, I've read Gaiman now.

Hi Gaiman!
Bye Gaiman!

Let me quote:
"American Gods is Neil Gaiman's best and most ambitious novel yet, a scary, strange, and hallucinogenic road-trip story wrapped around a deep examination of the American spirit."

I agree with everything but the beginning a...more

98 likes · like · see review

Nov 28, 2011 Kay rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: all-time-favorites, myths-and-tales, quirky, journey-not-destination, 6-plus-stars, urban-fantasy, life-after-death

This book turned me over completely to Neil Gaiman and made me drooly and ga-ga for his writing like a Twilight fangirl on too much fairy dust. I've read a few of Gaiman's works before (The Sandman Vol. 1: Preludes and Nocturnes, Neverwhere, Anansi Boys, and Stardust), but none have blown me so completely out of the boiling seas like American Gods.

American Gods is one of the quirkiest books on American culture and belief that I've read. Told from the perspective of a particularly insightful non...more

27 likes · like · see review

Nov 15, 2011 Gayla rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This book is great. At times its a little confusing what is going on in this story, but that just adds to the quality of it because the moment you figure out what is going on is like a great slap-in-the-face moment of understanding, like OHHHHHHHHHH, I ... GET IT! This book has some funny parts and it has some interesting concepts that makes you want to take a moment to ponder them, and I just really liked it.

Here is my FAVORITE excerpt from the book, a little long, but SOOO worth reading. This...more This book is great. At times its a little confusing what is going on in this story, but that just adds to the quality of it because the moment you figure out what is going on is like a great slap-in-the-face moment of understanding, like OHHHHHHHHHH, I ... GET IT! This book has some funny parts and it has some interesting concepts that makes you want to take a moment to ponder them, and I just really liked it.

Here is my FAVORITE excerpt from the book, a little long, but SOOO worth reading. This excerpt I had found written somewhere prior to reading the book and was what brought me to seek out this book in the first place.

I can believe that things are true and I can believe things that aren't true and I can believe things where nobody knows if they're true or not. I can believe in Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny and Marilyn Monroe and the Beatles and Elvis and Mister Ed. I believe that people are perfectible, that knowledge is infinite, that the world is run by secret banking cartels and is visited by aliens on a regular basis, nice ones that look like wrinkly lemurs and bad ones who mutilate cattle and want our water and our women. I believe that the future sucks and I believe that the future rocks and I believe that one day White Buffalo Woman is going to come back and kick everyone's ass. I believe that all men are just overgrown boys with deep problems communicating and that the decline in good sex in American is coincident with the decline in drive-in movie theatres from state to state. I believe that all politicians are unprincipled crooks and I still believe that they are better than the alternate. I believe that California is going to sink into the sea when the big one comes, while Florida is going to dissolve into madness and alligators and toxic waste, I believe that antibacterial soap is destroying our resistance to dirt and disease so that one day we'll all be wiped out by the common cold like the Martians in War of the Worlds. I believe that the greatest poets of the last century were Edith Sitwell and Don Marquis, that jade is dried dragon sperm, and that thousands of years ago in a former life I was a one-armed Siberian shaman, I believe that mankind's destiny lies in the stars. I believe that candy really did taste better when I was a kid, that it's aerodynamically impossible for a bumblebee to fly, that light is a wave and a particle, that there's a cat in a box somewhere who's alive and dead at the same time (although if they don't open the box to feed it it'll eventually just be two different kinds of dead), and that there are stars in the universe billions of years older than the universe itself. I believe in a personal god who cares about me and worries and oversees everything I do. I believe in an impersonal god who set the universe in motion and went off to hang with her girlfriends and doesn't even know that I'm alive. I believe in an empty and godless universe of causal chaos, background noise, and sheer blind luck. I believe that anyone who says that sex is overrated just hasn't done it properly. I believe that anyone who claims to know what's going on will lie about the little things too. I believe in absolute honesty and sensible social lies. I believe in a woman's right to choose, a baby's right to live, that while all human life is sacred there's nothing wrong with the death penalty if you can trust the legal system implicitly, and that no-one but a moron would ever trust the legal system. I believe that life is a game, that life is a cruel joke, and that life is what happens when you're alive and that you might as well lie back and enjoy it.(less)

20 likes · like · see review

Jan 06, 2013 Bill Kerwin rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: weird-fiction, fantasy

In this unique love letter to the United States, Gaiman manages to celebrate its underground spiritual traditions, glory in the magnificence of its landmarks, landscapes, and bizarre tourist traps, and--most important--both mourn and venerate its pagan (often immigrant) gods in decline, battered and diminished as they are by the shallowness and speed of a technological world. The gods are indeed the best part of this very good book: they are degenerate and threadbare, and yet still gods, capable...more

18 likes · like · see review

Oct 23, 2007 Dan rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: americans, gods, and everyone inbetween

This book (in a very round about way) taught me what good literature is. My mother was telling me about this book, and commented that it is good literature. Now, I was surprised to hear this because Neil Gaiman is usually a nonstop sex and violence party of disaffected goth teenager fantasy. Furthermore, I didn't really believe in good literature. I had had so much obvious bull-plop literary analysis crammed down my throat in high school (A high school teacher once said to our class "In the Grea...more

64 likes · like · see review

Jun 20, 2012 Jessi rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fairy-tales, six-stars-your-a-superstar, wolves-jessi-s-wolf-shelf, yeah-i-d-hit-that-boycrushes

Ok so I have read a few reviews for this and a lot of people have mentioned the hype about this book, well I was unaware I think American Gods came out my last year of high school and I will be honest my darlings I was not up on hyped books at that point.

So with no great expectations I began the epic journey/road trip of American Gods
HolyFuckingShit
This book knocked me on my ass. I never knew where this story was taking me with a cast of fantastic characters led by a Mr. Wednesday. Mr. Wednesd...more

19 likes · like · see review

Mar 23, 2011 Mariel rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: the world's biggest vagina

Recommended to Mariel by: ughmerica

I've been thinking harder than my little engine that couldn't brain is used to in trying to pin point what it was about Neil Gaiman's American Gods that didn't quite make it for me. Here goes nothing...
I cared more about Shadow surviving in prison than I did about the old gods warring with new gods of money and media. Money and media aren't my gods. Prison? Scares the hell out of me. I can hardly read the word, let alone make it through an entire book or film about it, without having to reassure...more

9 likes · like · see review

Mar 16, 2009 Trevor rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: literature, religion

I did like this, I liked this very much.

This was on my to read list and given I’ve never heard of the guy before it must have been recommended to me by someone. No idea who, though. It is a little surprising that when I looked no one I knew had reviewed this book. What had inspired me to read it is lost now.

A friend of mine wrote to me last week about her son’s interest in magic tricks – now, that must be the first time in years that I’ve thought about magic at all. So, when this one started and...more I did like this, I liked this very much.

This was on my to read list and given I’ve never heard of the guy before it must have been recommended to me by someone. No idea who, though. It is a little surprising that when I looked no one I knew had reviewed this book. What had inspired me to read it is lost now.

A friend of mine wrote to me last week about her son’s interest in magic tricks – now, that must be the first time in years that I’ve thought about magic at all. So, when this one started and the main character turns out to like doing coin tricks I had that strange feeling one sometimes gets when a couple of unexpected lines cross just as your passing and catch your heel so as to make you stumble and skip for a step or two.

There is a Gary Larson cartoon stacked full of all of the gods that no one believes in anymore – I can barely remember it – some sort of retirement home for forgotten gods. If you took that cartoon, stirred in some Tom Waits, added a dash or two of Joseph Campbell, sprinkled a handful of jet black humour, creamed in a murder mystery and plopped a few cubes of Houdini’s more impressive escape acts you might have some idea what this book is like.

More than once I laughed with pure delight, though more often I just smiled at how nicely this was written and how well the story was handled. Okay, it nearly got away from him towards the end and there was probably just a bit too much talking to camera at one point which is always the least impressive way to explain a major plotting point – even after all this had been handled so much competently (ie trusting the reader more) earlier in the book – I still loved this book.

The idea of the Gods being virtually unemployed and eking out a living on road kill or through prostitution was very amusing. Some of the asides were as interesting as the story itself. Who would have thought that Genies would be such queer things?

I’m not really one to read fantasy novels, but this one was quite something. Clever, fast paced and with themes of life, death, love, revenge, obligation, gratitude, desire, loss and the right time for things to happen – how could I not like this book?

I don't believe in God or Gods or so many things - but in fiction, when a mysterious character says, "Believe"... When that happens, I believe. I don't need Gods, but I do need myths and stories and the psychological truths they reveal.
(less)

35 likes · like · see review

Aug 29, 2007 Wade rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

i'm a graduate student in theology, so how can i not love this book?
this book is one of the most creative descriptions of my own understanding of theology. gods do not exist on some eternal plane, but they rise and fall with the cultures and peoples who support and worship them. these gods have avatars in many different places--they are not a single entity but many that are called by the same name. mythologies can be more true than reality. and it's a good warning about how careful we should be...more

42 likes · like · see review

Nov 19, 2012 Ronyell rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: Neil Gaiman fans!!!

Shelves: adult-books, alternative-worlds, american-hero-or-heroine, best-books-of-2012, books-i-want-to-own, bram-stoker-award, cult-classic, drama, fantasy, favorites, horror, monster-books, my-blog-reviews, mystery, native-american, neil-gaiman, read-in-2012, reviewed-books, religion, sexy-good-hero, strong-hero, surreal, world-fantasy-nominee, hugo-award, nebula-award, ronyell-s-epinions-reviews

“There are many Gods in America. It is just that many people either do not believe in them or see them anymore. Are they real or not? Only you could decide on that.”

I have been a huge fan of Neil Gaiman’s works for many years and some of my favorite works done by Neil Gaiman included Coraline and the “Sandman” series. So, when I heard that Neil Gaiman was writing some books for older teens and adults, I just had to check them out and that is where I found “American Gods!” “American Gods” has wo...more

15 likes · like · see review

Jul 22, 2012 Brandon rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fantasy, favorites, personal-library

There are literally thousands of reviews on this book. There are those that love this book to death, and there are those that absolutely hate it. Then comes everyone else: those who thought it was an okay book, and the desperate souls who weep at night because they have not yet read it.

I belong to the huge crowd of people that worship this piece of brilliance. Having said that, most would expect a gushing of my feelings for this book that would make me sound like a love-struck teenage girl. Tru...more

11 likes · like · see review

Jun 29, 2007 Seth Hahne rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

After having come to appreciate Neil Gaiman's voice as expression in the delectable Anansi Boys and other treats (MirrorMask and select episodes from The Absolute Sandman), I thought I'd give American Gods another shot. Years ago, after it had first been released, I purchased it on the strength of rave reviews. I got about two-fifths through and just lost steam. The book is not exciting. Still, maybe it was worth it, so I began anew a couple months ago and read the thing through over the course...more

20 likes · like · see review

Oct 06, 2010 Miss Kim rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: Fans of fantasy, especially those that smoke weed

Shelves: 2010, fantasy, dnf

This one just was not for me. I think if I still got high that I would have enjoyed it more. I'm reminded of the time I watched Pink Floydd's 'The Wall' while stoned and thought it was awesome, and then saw it again sober, and I thought, 'WTF this makes no sense.'

This started out very good, and then stalled out. A man named Shadow is released from prison after 3 years, only to find his wife has been killed in a car accident while having sex with one of his friends. Ok, I can roll with that. What...more

20 likes · like · see review

Jul 25, 2011 Carol rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: nebula, urban-fantasy, fantasy, my-library, awards

I enjoyed American Gods, a huge sprawling endeavor of a book. The concept of "old versus modern" gods is an intriguing one, and I can always get involved in themes of belief, stories and myth. It didn't always work, however, and while I liked it, I'd hesitate to say "I really liked it." Transitions can be rough, and it's not always clear where a particular chunk of narrative is heading. I feel like part of it is that we have indeed lost the old gods, and many people need a little background on G...more I enjoyed American Gods, a huge sprawling endeavor of a book. The concept of "old versus modern" gods is an intriguing one, and I can always get involved in themes of belief, stories and myth. It didn't always work, however, and while I liked it, I'd hesitate to say "I really liked it." Transitions can be rough, and it's not always clear where a particular chunk of narrative is heading. I feel like part of it is that we have indeed lost the old gods, and many people need a little background on Gaiman's creatures in order to appreciate the tale he's telling. Often it's well done, but at times it interrupts the flow of the narrative.

I often enjoy Gaiman's imagery, although occasionally it's self indulgent, seemingly for the sake of being shocking, like the woman that swallows a man through her vagina during sex, and a dead person vomiting maggots.

A few loose ends don't particularly seem pertinent, (view spoiler)

I'm never particularly moved by Gaiman's use of language, but he has a deft hand at characterization. Characters and ideas are clearly his strengths. I loved some of the old gods, and thought Mr. Nancy and the Chicago family particularly well done. The new gods were less well done, though the concept is a fascinating one. Most of the time is spent on the internet/tech and media gods, and they are done well enough to be immediately annoying. However, the pantheon gets a little fuzzy at this point, particularly in Gaiman's decision to largely leave out "modern" organized religion--as Anubis and Bast and such were worshipped by Egyptians, it seems fair to acknowledge Jesus as more than a hitchhiker in Afganistan. I wonder if he avoided it for complexity? Controversy?

The voice and tone is narrator is emotionally removed from the story, but I felt it suited the tone and scope of the novel well. I liked Shadow and felt he was a very believable character for a while. Emphasizing his numbness and distance helped explained how he could be so blase about the return of his dead wife and Mr. Wednesday's abilities. It's interesting that after his initial questioning and challenging of Mr. Wednesday and the leprechaun, he accepts the rest of the magic at face value.

I have mixed feelings about the ending. (view spoiler)(less)

5 likes · like · see review

Oct 29, 2011 Lissa rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I can't bring myself to say that I liked this book.

I've decided to shelve it and maybe wait a few years to see if I actually do care enough to find out what happens next (like China Melveille's Perdido Street Station, which I shelved a mere 20 pages or so from the ending).

Gaiman surely is a talented writer. I'm not criticising him. I admire and respect his imagination and his brain, and his writing is easy to read.

What I don't like about American Gods is the emotional detachment of the main cha...more I can't bring myself to say that I liked this book.

I've decided to shelve it and maybe wait a few years to see if I actually do care enough to find out what happens next (like China Melveille's Perdido Street Station, which I shelved a mere 20 pages or so from the ending).

Gaiman surely is a talented writer. I'm not criticising him. I admire and respect his imagination and his brain, and his writing is easy to read.

What I don't like about American Gods is the emotional detachment of the main characters, and that no matter how hard I try, I simply can't care about any of the characters, or their mission, or the 'impending storm' we're occasionally reminded about.

I also find an alarming lack of detail in some scenes (so many that I can't even pull and example - it's completely scattered), and some overwhelmingly detailed descriptions of things I really don't care about (such as Shadow's coin tricks - a coin trick is a visual medium, and having to read about them I more often than not skipped over them completely. I haven't yet found a reason for them being part of the plot).

It's an interesting premise, but I simply can't connect to a character that I only figured out wasn't white 200 pages in. There is a lot of text (600+ pages) but not enough description to make me care. Shadow doesn't ask questions, and sure I can figure out what's going on, but I've still got a whole bunch of questions such as WHY is this mission so damned important, anyway? And Shadow's not an inspiring character: he drifts around and does exactly as he's told, developing an unnaturally strong loyal attachment to a man that doesn't seem to care about him.

It's taken me two months to finally give up on this book.

However, I did enjoy all the little short stories between the actual chapters of the book. Gaiman clearly loves this book and did a lot of research for it, which I appreciate. But I haven't done the same research, and it's too mysterious exactly who the characters are all the time. I'm reading to be entertained and educated, and I don't want to go off and educate myself on the minor and uninteresting characters we come across.

I also want to mention the language - I didn't have a problem with the expletives, because I feel it fits seamlessly into the novel.

BTW I read Stardust, and absolutely loved it. So it's not Gaiman himself: more the subject.(less)

10 likes · like · see review

Jul 20, 2012 Aubrey rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 5-star, reviewed, 1000-guardian, books-are-the-best-invention

I read this book in one day. Granted, I for a very long time was in a state where I didn't have much else to do besides read. But still. It's difficult to describe the deep sense of relief that I feel that I'm still capable of losing myself so fully in a work of literature. Also the awe at the work being capable of inspiring such a state.

Norse mythology. What a coincidence, that the recent slew of superhero movies chose to focus so heavily on the subject. Focused in a highly skewed, screwed up f...more I read this book in one day. Granted, I for a very long time was in a state where I didn't have much else to do besides read. But still. It's difficult to describe the deep sense of relief that I feel that I'm still capable of losing myself so fully in a work of literature. Also the awe at the work being capable of inspiring such a state.

Norse mythology. What a coincidence, that the recent slew of superhero movies chose to focus so heavily on the subject. Focused in a highly skewed, screwed up fashion, to be sure, but it did provoke my delving into the subject a bit more fully. And I have to say, Gaiman did his research, and wrote the gods to their fullest capabilities. Their frustrating, fruitful, fascinating capabilities. And that's all that I'll permit myself to say about that.

The book first sparks nostalgia for the old ways, a feeling carefully controlled by the vicious atrocities that these ways often propagated. The old gods worked in lively ways, full of hands on rewards that granted the ability to physically live life to the fullest. This liveliness, however, obviously required life. And it is this quality that prevents the old gods from gaining full redemption.

Yes, the new gods are vapid and empty, inspiring lifestyles à la Brave New World and all that jazz. But they do not require, nor inspire bloodshed in overwhelming amounts. They do not beget eternal cycles of killing and physical compensation. Mental degradation and deadening of the soul, perhaps. But no worship is without its consequences, just as living is nothing more than the slow process of dying.

Is this a dystopia? Is there no hope for mankind whatsoever, trapped between the murderous past and the empty future? To this, I say, look to Shadow. Look at his life, look at his choices, look at his nearly selfless balancing of principles in regards to the ordinary and the extraordinary. In my mind, there is no better guide than he when it comes to questions of man and his gods.

If that proves no good, then look to literature, history, tales both real and imaginative. If one cannot have both implicit morality and imaginative vitality at all times, record the fleeting instances that the two manage to balance for posterity's sake. Read records of these times of peace plentiful in both health and creativity, and appreciate them and the fact that they managed to exist. For a short, brief moment, maybe even give thanks to the idols responsible, both falling and rising. Directly, indirectly, whatever your beliefs or theological propensities. At one time or another humanity created these beings, gave them life, and set them on their way. And who knows. In this driven, practical, scientifically proven world of ours, there may yet exist the phenomena that defies all attempts at comprehension. Truth is stranger than fiction, and fiction like this will always spark a sense of wonder at the truth.(less)

7 likes · like · see review

Jan 12, 2013 midnightfaerie rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: classics, favorites

American Gods by Neil Gaiman was wow. Just wow. I haven't read a book that's touched me this deeply in awhile. Let me start off by discussing the two biggest things I enjoyed about this book. First of all, those who know me, know that I'll read anything. I've even been dared to read things. From Satanic ritualistic books, to obscure Foreign history books, to books about math, politics, or even how a fish changed the world, I read it all. So when a novel comes along that stands out as different t...more American Gods by Neil Gaiman was wow. Just wow. I haven't read a book that's touched me this deeply in awhile. Let me start off by discussing the two biggest things I enjoyed about this book. First of all, those who know me, know that I'll read anything. I've even been dared to read things. From Satanic ritualistic books, to obscure Foreign history books, to books about math, politics, or even how a fish changed the world, I read it all. So when a novel comes along that stands out as different than anything I've ever read, I sit up and take notice. The second reason I loved it was because I was constantly surprised. With or without foreshadowing, I usually can guess where a story is going or how it will end. With American Gods, I was confounded at every turn. I laughed out loud often at the plot, at the bewilderment, and at myself for my assumptions with where the book was headed.

Even though many have given summaries on the plot, I don't think that I can really describe accurately what this book is about. Part of me still isn't sure, and I feel I'll need to read it a few more times before I can begin to grasp it. But as far as the book jacket goes, it's about a man named, Shadow, who gets put in jail for three years over something stupid. Upon getting out he's excited to go home to his wife Laura, when he finds out she's been killed in an auto accident. On his way home to the funeral, he meets up with a special elusive character, who offers him a job as a driver/body guard/errand boy. Although it doesn't completely sit well with him, he has nothing better to do, so he takes it. And that is just the first chapter. This book goes all over America. It explores our history, our religions, our ancestry. It covers the things we do that makes us alive, love, mystery, action, murder, revenge and so much more. The book is about all of these things, and then none of these things, and it was beautiful. Gaiman's writing is exquisite. It makes you gulp in awe, reach out and touch the lightning because it's right in front of you, and it makes you repulsed from character acts that are revolting. Any horror or fantastical thing the mind can think of, this book has covered an aspect of it. I adored this book.

I've always wanted to read a Gaiman, ever since I discovered that one of my favorite singers, Tori Amos, was a good friend of his. She mentions "Neil" in at least one song on every album. I had picked up a few copies of Sandman, his graphic novel years ago, because I knew one of his characters was based on Tori, but never really read the whole story. This was my first Gaiman. I've heard mixed reviews on it, long-time Gaimen fans either love it or hate it, and it has gotten lots of acclaim, sometimes more than any of his others. I'm glad it was my first. It gave me insight into this author who has been so controversial in my reading circles.

As for being a classic, this has so much potential. So many unique ideas, and so superb in its style of writing, I think it definitely has potential. It's only been out a little over ten years and doesn't have as many followers yet, so it might just take time. I can't, for the life of me, label this style of writing, or tell you what the original concept is. I know it has underlying themes and substantial influence it the fantasy genre, but I'm not sure it's enough to put it in those categories. It's probably not well known enough to consider it a knowledge base of its field, but I believe it's a good representation of the fantasy genre, or at least what is possible in fantasy when we strive for such creativity and imagination in this field. And even though it's not a collection of authors, I still think this can be classified as an anthology of sorts, since the history of its topic is so diverse. Because of all of these reasons, I am putting it on my classics list. It might take fifty years, but I believe this book read far from now, will have just as much impact on its reader. It's been a long time since I've been so touched by an author. I am in love again.

ClassicsDefined.com (less)

15 likes · like · see review

Apr 03, 2012 Megan rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: THE ENTIRE WORLD

Shelves: favorites

I will give this book about 100 stars out of 10. It is probably one of my new favorite books following very closely behind Lord of the Rings and Sherlock Holmes. It has been a very long time since I have read a book like this where as soon as it was over and wanted to flip back to the beginning and read it again. In this review I will refrain from spoilers but the identity of Mr. Wednesday will be revealed cause its too awesome not to talk about it.

That being said this book was AWESOME!! Neil Ga ...more

17 likes · like · see review

Jul 25, 2010 Jana rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This one is peculiar. The basic idea is: mythological creatures and ancient gods exist and live among us because once upon a time people believed in them and they came to the US within the immigrants’ thoughts/prayers and they just materialised here. But, as people beliefs started to wane, gods were left forgotten and jaded, old and marginal, so now they just dangle between the mortals and their old need to be worshipped. They suffer from constant hunger for the past days and they live the most...more

4 likes · like · see review

Feb 05, 2009 Becky rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fantasy, neil-gaiman, 2009, reviewed, mythology, blog_etb, favorites, highly-recommended, multi-dimensional

This was my first of Gaiman's novels-- not counting Good Omens, which he co-authored with Terry Pratchett-- and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Both books took well-known themes and twisted them into something new and unique, and I really enjoy that. I will definitely be reading more of Gaiman's work.

I really liked the concept of this book. In a very amateur way, I enjoy mythology, mysticism, religions, rituals and belief structures. By "amateur way" I mean that I am interested in these things, but I'...more This was my first of Gaiman's novels-- not counting Good Omens, which he co-authored with Terry Pratchett-- and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Both books took well-known themes and twisted them into something new and unique, and I really enjoy that. I will definitely be reading more of Gaiman's work.

I really liked the concept of this book. In a very amateur way, I enjoy mythology, mysticism, religions, rituals and belief structures. By "amateur way" I mean that I am interested in these things, but I'm too lazy to actually "study" it. I like the entertainment that mythology and the like offer, I like the escapism. One passage that I really liked from the book represents this perfectly:

"Fiction allows us to slide into these other heads, these other places, and look out through other eyes. And then in the tale we stop before we die, or we die vicariously and unharmed, and in the world beyond the tale we turn the page or close the book, and we resume our lives." (pg. 323)

Anyway... This is one of those rare treats of a book that never fully give up their secrets on the first reading. As I was going through, I marked some passages that made me sit back, reread and just absorb them. One, which I found almost heartbreakingly sad and cruel, is:

"A whole life in darkness, surrounded by filth, that was what Shadow dreamed, his first night in Lakeside. A child's life, long ago and far away, in a land across the ocean, in the lands where the sun rose. But this life contained no sun-rises, only dimness by day and blindness by night.

Nobody spoke to him. He heard human voices, from outside, but could understand human speech no better than he understood the howling of the owls or the yelps of dogs.

He remembered, or thought he remembered, one night, half a lifetime ago, when one of the big people had entered, quietly, and had not cuffed him or fed him, but had picked him up to her breast and embraced him. She smelled good. Hot drops of water had fallen from her face to his. He had been scared, and wailed loudly in his fear.

She put him down on the straw, hurriedly, and left the hut, fastening the door behind her.

He remembered that moment, and he treasured it, just as he remembered the sweetness of a cabbage heart, the tart taste of plums, the crunch of apples, the greasy delight of roasted fish.

And now he saw the faces in the firelight, all of them looking at him as he was led out from the hut for the first time, which was the last time. So that was what people looked like. Raised in darkness, he had never seen faces. Everything was so new. So strange. The bonfire light hurt his eyes. They pulled on the rope around his neck, to lead him to the place where the man waited for him.

And when the first blade was raised in the firelight, what a cheer went up from the crowd. The child from the darkness began to laugh with them, in delight and in freedom.

And then the blade came down."

After finishing the book, I came back to this passage and found it even more interesting after learning the implications. I feel like when I revisit this book there will be a TON of missed references sprinkled throughout the book. I look forward to it. (less)

11 likes · like · see review

Jul 07, 2011 Anastasia rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: contemporanei, uk

Lo sapevate che fino a 50-60 pagine prima della fine (e sono 523 in tutto) pensavo già con rassegnazione di dare due stelle? Beh, se adesso sono quattro c'è un motivo. Mi ero presa un colpo, cavolo. Io, IO dare due stelle al caro Gaiman? Se avete sbirciato un po' fra le mie letture, io non do quasi mai un voto inferiore alle tre stelle. Infatti, fortunatamente non mi capita spesso di imbattermi in letture pessime. Quindi pensare che deve ripetersi questa rarità con uno dei miei scrittori preferi...more Lo sapevate che fino a 50-60 pagine prima della fine (e sono 523 in tutto) pensavo già con rassegnazione di dare due stelle? Beh, se adesso sono quattro c'è un motivo. Mi ero presa un colpo, cavolo. Io, IO dare due stelle al caro Gaiman? Se avete sbirciato un po' fra le mie letture, io non do quasi mai un voto inferiore alle tre stelle. Infatti, fortunatamente non mi capita spesso di imbattermi in letture pessime. Quindi pensare che deve ripetersi questa rarità con uno dei miei scrittori preferiti..ecco..perché deve accadere questo? Naturalmente non sapevo come stavano davvero le cose nella storia. Poi viene rivelato tutto e io resto lì come una cretina, insultandomi per aver solo pensato di dare due stelle a Neil. Brutto scherzo che mi hai giocato, vecchio mio! D:

Sono stupita, davvero. Insomma, per me è stata una di quelle storie dove fino a poco prima della fine ti chiedi che cavolo pensa di fare l'autore, magari pure con rabbia e nervosismo. Per la serie "secondo me non sa dove andare a parare".
Oh, sono proprio una piccola ingenua.
Ero già pronta ad elencare i mille motivi per cui la cosa non mi stava piacendo affatto, e poi..e poi cambia tutto. Non posso dilungarmi troppo su questo punto o rovinerei la lettura a chi intende affrontarla.

Questo, malgrado tutto il durante della mia avventura, in realtà è un buon libro. L'idea è geniale, non si può negare. E' un Gaiman diverso, avviso. Non è il Gaiman di Coraline, o di Stardust, Nessun dove..è molto diverso. Non si riconosce quasi per nulla. Credo di preferirlo nei toni che usa per un pubblico più giovane, ma merita anche questa sua versione. Non gli do cinque stelle principalmente perché non le sento (sì, vado un po' a sensazioni), e per altri motivi più concreti. Il protagonista, Shadow, non è una gran personalità. Anzi, a dire il vero mi è sembrato decisamente vacuo. Forse è anche voluto, vedi il nome e vedi la sua storia. Però non mi ha attirato comunque, pasiensa.

Un consiglio a chi vorrà leggere questo libro: non dovete abbandonare per nessun motivo, andate fino alla fine. Potreste sbagliare nel giudicare, come è successo a me. Magari all'inizio non vi invoglierà a questo proposito, penserete "eh ma che palle". Vi avviso, è lento. Ha un ritmo decisamente lento, però vale la pena di continuare.

PS: Ah, se è il primo libro di Gaiman che leggete vi consiglio un approccio diverso, però. Io voterei per Neverwhere, tanta originalità (che anche qui non manca affatto eh, caspita se c'è una cosa che non ho messo mai in dubbio è la fantasia sconfinata di Gaiman) e si assapora un Gaiman equilibrato. American Gods è meglio come esperimento successivo, quando si conosce già l'autore. :)(less)

8 likes · like · see review

« previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 … 99 100 next »

new topic
Discuss This Book

topics	posts	views	last activity
Ermahgerd! Berk C...: Casting!	25	27	6 hours, 2 min ago
Something I didn't understand...	13	394	20 mai 10:57
The Jittery Robot...: May 2013	2	5	18 mai 14:55
RAOA Bibliophiles: * April Book Selection: American Gods by Neil Gaiman	13	26	17 mai 19:50
Neil gaiman (humorous books)	6	83	11 mai 22:48
Fantasy Aficionados: April 2013 UF Read: American Gods--Watch out! Spoilers within!	56	83	30 avr. 05:43

combine
Other Editions (90)

More editions...

Genres

Fantasy

7,030 users

Fantasy > Urban Fantasy

873 users

Fantasy > Mythology

550 users

Science Fiction Fantasy

463 users

Science Fiction

341 users

Contemporary

245 users

Horror

195 users

Novels

181 users

Fantasy > Supernatural

175 users

Book Club

168 users

See top shelves...

Readers also enjoyed similar books

The Scar
by China Miéville
Small Gods
by Terry Pratchett
Paladin of Souls
by Lois McMaster Bujold
Someplace to Be Flying
by Charles de Lint
Last Call
by Tim Powers

Books by Neil Gaiman

More…

Share This Book

Facebook Twitter Your website

Trivia About American Gods

72 trivia questions
2 quizzes

More quizzes & trivia...

Quotes from American Gods

“I can believe things that are true and things that aren't true and I can believe things where nobody knows if they're true or not.

I can believe in Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny and the Beatles and Marilyn Monroe and Elvis and Mister Ed. Listen - I believe that people are perfectable, that knowledge is infinite, that the world is run by secret banking cartels and is visited by aliens on a regular basis, nice ones that look like wrinkled lemurs and bad ones who mutilate cattle and want our water and our women.

I believe that the future sucks and I believe that the future rocks and I believe that one day White Buffalo Woman is going to come back and kick everyone's ass. I believe that all men are just overgrown boys with deep problems communicating and that the decline in good sex in America is coincident with the decline in drive-in movie theaters from state to state.

I believe that all politicians are unprincipled crooks and I still believe that they are better than the alternative. I believe that California is going to sink into the sea when the big one comes, while Florida is going to dissolve into madness and alligators and toxic waste.

I believe that antibacterial soap is destroying our resistance to dirt and disease so that one day we'll all be wiped out by the common cold like martians in War of the Worlds.

I believe that the greatest poets of the last century were Edith Sitwell and Don Marquis, that jade is dried dragon sperm, and that thousands of years ago in a former life I was a one-armed Siberian shaman.

I believe that mankind's destiny lies in the stars. I believe that candy really did taste better when I was a kid, that it's aerodynamically impossible for a bumble bee to fly, that light is a wave and a particle, that there's a cat in a box somewhere who's alive and dead at the same time (although if they don't ever open the box to feed it it'll eventually just be two different kinds of dead), and that there are stars in the universe billions of years older than the universe itself.

I believe in a personal god who cares about me and worries and oversees everything I do. I believe in an impersonal god who set the universe in motion and went off to hang with her girlfriends and doesn't even know that I'm alive. I believe in an empty and godless universe of causal chaos, background noise, and sheer blind luck.

I believe that anyone who says sex is overrated just hasn't done it properly. I believe that anyone who claims to know what's going on will lie about the little things too.

I believe in absolute honesty and sensible social lies. I believe in a woman's right to choose, a baby's right to live, that while all human life is sacred there's nothing wrong with the death penalty if you can trust the legal system implicitly, and that no one but a moron would ever trust the legal system.

I believe that life is a game, that life is a cruel joke, and that life is what happens when you're alive and that you might as well lie back and enjoy it.” — 5,182 people liked it

“What I say is, a town isn't a town without a bookstore. It may call itself a town, but unless it's got a bookstore it knows it's not fooling a soul.” — 2,460 people liked it

More quotes…

title link	preview: American Gods
avg rating	preview: American Gods Goodreads rating: 4.10 (189114 ratings)
small image	preview: click here [close]
med image	preview: click here [close]
BBCode	[url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/983097.American_Gods?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book][img]http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1179992019l/983097.jpg[/img][/url] [url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/983097.American_Gods?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book]American Gods by Neil Gaiman[/url]

American Gods

Friend Reviews

Community Reviews

Share This Book

Share This Book on Your Website