American Gods by Neil Gaiman

Title: American Gods

Author: Neil Gaiman

Narrator: Ron McLarty, Daniel Oreskes, full cast

Genre: Adult Fantasy, Urban Fantasy

I purchased this audiobook and chose to do an honest and unbiased review.  The author and HarperAudio neither requested nor are associated with this review.

Goodreads Description:

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...

 

 
Here's What I Thought: 

This was my first encounter with a Neil Gaiman book.  He is often revered and I was excited to read this book.  Especially since it strongly reminded me of The Library at Mount Char, which I loved. I purchased the 10th Anniversary full cast production version on Audible, thinking that having a full cast would give me the best experience, and that wasn't quite what I got.

This book was excruciating to say the least.  I have never been so bored in my life.  Seriously. People talk about how slow the Wheel of Time books are, but at least stuff happens to break up the slow parts. In American Gods, NOTHING HAPPENS! For like three fourths of the book, nothing happens.  Shadow and Mr. Wednesday drive somewhere talk with a god. Drive somewhere else, talk with another god.  Wednesday tells Shadow to lie low somewhere, then they take off again and talk to another God.  That's it.  That's all that happens. Driving and talking and sitting and waiting for 17 hours of this 19 hour audio book. Honestly, the parts I enjoyed most were when Shadow was lying low in Lakeside. I liked that little town, but maybe it's because I'm from the Midwest myself. 

I know the people that love this book really love this book and say it's about so much more than a road trip and the gods and Shadow. It's much deeper than that.  And yeah, that may be, but I was too bored to notice much beyond them driving back and forth across the country talking to people.  I am pretty sure I zoned out for most of this book, and yet so little happened, I was still able to know exactly what was going on. 

The one and only redeeming part of this book for me was the ending. Up until the end, I was set on a whopping one star.  The end, however, caught me by surprise (and no its not because I wasn't paying attention) with a big twist that did actually make me glad that I finished it as I was on the verge of DNF'ing, but felt like I already wasted 12 hours of my life, I have to finish it.  I truly did enjoy the ending and if the first chunk of the book could have been condensed into two hours worth of the audio book (you really could fit most of the book into two hours and still hit everything that happened) instead of 17, I probably would be giving this book 3 or 4 stars.  I enjoyed the ending that much.

Be that as it may, the book remains excruciatingly long and is tedious to get through.  Therefore, I give this book two stars.  I did go into this book knowing that it was one of Gaiman's more divisive books and you either loved it or hated it.  I was in the later.  I will not, however, let it deter me from reading other books by him as many who hate this book do, in fact, love his other books.  I feel the need to put a disclaimer here to take my review with a grain of salt.  As so many love this book and it is so divisive, you should try it for yourself before passing judgement for taking it off your TBR.

 

Any Thoughts?

Did you love it or hate it? Why? Drop a comment below and we can discuss.

About The Author:

 

I make things up and write them down. Which takes us from comics (like SANDMAN) to novels (like ANANSI BOYS and AMERICAN GODS) to short stories (some are collected in SMOKE AND MIRRORS) and to occasionally movies (like Dave McKean's MIRRORMASK or the NEVERWHERE TV series, or my own short film A SHORT FILM ABOUT JOHN BOLTON).

In my spare time I read and sleep and eat and try to keep the blog at www.neilgaiman.com more or less up to date.

Links: 

 https://www.neilgaiman.com/