American Gods

by Neil Gaiman

Paperback, 592 pages

English language

Published Sept. 11, 2009 by HarperPerennial.

ISBN:: 978-0-06-055812-3
OCLC Number:: 52429669
Goodreads:: 983100

(236 reviews)

Released from prison, Shadow finds his world turned upside down. His wife has been killed; a mysterious stranger offers him a job. But Mr. Wednesday, who knows more about Shadow than is possible, warns that a storm is coming -- a battle for the very soul of America . . . and they are in its direct path.

One of the most talked-about books of the new millennium, American Gods is a kaleidoscopic journey deep into myth and across an American landscape at once eerily familiar and utterly alien. It is, quite simply, a contemporary masterpiece. --back cover

89 editions

Caffeinated Book Dragon reviewed American Gods by Neil Gaiman

Took a few weeks to get through, lots of questions and answers

4 stars

I'm still not totally sure what all went on. This book is like a road trip of interesting and perplexing ideas, people, and places, something to be experienced in between when the plot picks up again. I might've missed a lot in the several weeks it took me to read this book (I had days where I didn't read it and it might've messed with retention), and I was interested in what was going on, and where the characters were going. I really was there with Shadow most of the time, because we were both trying to understand what was going on.

As far as the rules regarding gods and humanity was concerned, I couldn't really figure it out. There were many questions, some answers, and other things about the plot I just couldn't get. But I'm still gonna keep it and give it another shot. Maybe after watching the series (or starting it), I might get a better grasp at what eluded me. Some of the questions that were answered were more than satisfying, however, and i just wanted to know more, more, more.

Never read Neil Gaiman before. Definitely a keeper on my shelf.

Ed reviewed American Gods by Neil Gaiman

3 Stars

3 stars

Enjoyed it but not my favourite work by the author.

dozens@bookwyrm.tilde.zone reviewed American Gods by Neil Gaiman

Review of 'American Gods' on 'Goodreads'

5 stars

Why I Picked It Up ##

Bookclub! Last month bookclub read a sad book. So this month the theme was "a book that was turned into an easy-going movie", so we read Stardust, and later we're apparently going to watch the movie together.

## What I Liked About It ##

Simply a varietally correct fairy tale. Quick read. Tristan remained pretty insufferable right up till the end. His change of heart was swift and abrupt, but like I've said elsewhere, love doesn't really have to make sense in fairy tales. It just happens.

I really liked the stormlords as tertiary characters, and the witches too. Pleased with how everybody's stories came to a conclusion at the end.

## What I Didn't Like About It ##

Can't really think of anything. I guess the women in the story don't have much agency. Except for the witches. Witches do whatever the hell …

ahmednabin reviewed American Gods (en español): American Gods (Brainstorming) by Neil Gaiman (Brainstorming Series)

Review of 'American Gods (en español): American Gods (Brainstorming)' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

For the most part, you'd think this is a story of the clash between Gods, new and old to be exact, and a man who got trapped in between. But in truth this a story of desire, hunger for power. And that's where Neil shines I guess. The main story is carefully hidden until the very last, and when you finally reach the end you get swept away with the story underlying. It's a well-crafted story and I would've given it a 5 star if it weren't for some unnecessary chapters, or at least that's how I feel. The parts describing the departure of Gods and how they came to be (in America), which don't get me wrong are very interesting. Still, they felt unnecessary to the main plot and only helped make an already lengthy book, well lengthier (If there is such a thing)! The protagonist Shadow's character development …

Jorge Sanz reviewed American Gods (en español): American Gods (Brainstorming) by Neil Gaiman (Brainstorming Series)

Review of 'American Gods (en español): American Gods (Brainstorming)' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

It's been a looong read (since Dec'18!), enjoyed it without doubt, sometimes confusing, but smart, and entertaining.

Avarla reviewed American Gods by Neil Gaiman (American Gods, #1)

Review of 'American Gods' on 'Goodreads'

5 stars

It's deep and dark and sometimes almost desperate, but never in a depressing way. It's intriguing and dragged me in really deep and sometimes it was even a little comforting. It's far from uplifting, which you'll need to be aware of. I don't think it makes a good beach read, but it was perfect for these dark, slightly off out of the world days between Christmas and the New Year.

Gossamerchild reviewed American Gods by Neil Gaiman

Review of 'American Gods' on 'Storygraph'

3 stars

I probably would have rated this higher...but then I watched the television show. This comic doesn't do justice to either the original novel or the TV show (which is a little surprising). However, I will buy them, I will read them, and I will like them.

The Gnome King reviewed American Gods (American Gods, #1) by Neil Gaiman

Review of 'American Gods (American Gods, #1)' on 'Goodreads'

3 stars

I made a mistake with this book, I saw it was being made into a TV series and thought I'd read the book before the show airs, my mistake was reading this so soon after reading [b:Neverwhere|14497|Neverwhere|Neil Gaiman|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1348747943s/14497.jpg|16534]. Neverwhere was stunning and American Gods comes across as a weak rambling sort of story. This book is Neil Gaiman's "on the road" book, it was an interesting writing style, driving and describing all the places on the route, unfortunately there were some bits that bugged me.

At the end of some of the chapters there were extra stories about some random Gods and how they ended up in America, these bits were so long, almost a book in their own right, they weren't that interesting and by the time I'd made it to the end I had forgotten what had been happening in the main story.

One of the strongest things about Neverwhere was how vivid the descriptions of the places where, within a few sentences you could easily picture the place. In American Gods everything felt bland, I wasn't even sure it was set in America. Maybe it was the fact the settings were right in front of Gaiman and not in his head but something went wrong.

The characters were up to his normal standard and so was the plot including a very well thought out mystery. I have enjoyed the story, just ruined a bit by the issues I had with it. Looking forward to the TV series, I think that will be really good.

Cheri reviewed American Gods by Neil Gaiman

Review of 'American Gods' on 'Storygraph'

5 stars

I listened to this for the first time three years ago. When I started my second listen a few days ago, I couldn't really remember much about it at all, except how much I enjoyed it.

I truly had forgotten so much that, many times, it was like listening for the first time. I loved it. I will read it again, too. So very good.

Noisy Deadlines reviewed American Gods (en español): American Gods (Brainstorming) by Neil Gaiman (Brainstorming Series)

Review of 'American Gods (en español): American Gods (Brainstorming)' on 'Storygraph'

2 stars

This book was a kind of a disappointment to me, meaning, it was not as good as I thought it was. For many years I've heard wonders about this book and how it was amazing. It was on my "to-read" for at least a couple of years and I purchased because of a Kindle deal, and last month I decided to give it a try.

Well, I think the book starts pretty well, telling us about the situation of Shadow, his time in jail and how he is mysteriously released from prison one day earlier than expected. I enjoyed that first part of the book up until how Shadow met Wednesday. Then, many parallel stories start to come up in the middle of the narrative, Shadow's errands becomes uninteresting, and for me the road trip became quite boring from the middle of the book forward.

There are many references of American culture, religion, ancient and modern mythology from around the globe, which is inherently interesting, but the way all these elements were put together in the story didn't work very well, in my opinion.

I read the 2011 version (tenth anniversary edition), that one with additional 12,000 words, and maybe that was one of the reasons I thought there were whole chapters of the book that seemed not be essential to the story. So the rhythm of the story is irregular, there were great chapters and then a couple ones that simply dragged and I couldn't wait for the narrative to get back on track.

All in all, the premise of the book is great, I enjoyed the "weird fantasy" aspect of the story, but for me it was not executed very well.

Rosey of Robbinsdale reviewed American Gods by Neil Gaiman

Review of 'American Gods' on 'Goodreads'

2 stars

Well, I dunno. This was kind of a mixed bag. Maybe good fiction, like life, is a mixed bag?

Was this good fiction?
It won the Hugo, Nebula, Locus and Bram Stoker Awards. Good credentials all so I figure it must be good fiction but in reading it I was more impressed with the accolades then the substance of the book.

I sort of liked a couple characters. The build-up was a little boring and the resolution of the main conflict was a let down.

moving to outside.ofa.dog reviewed American Gods by Neil Gaiman

Review of 'American Gods' on 'LibraryThing'

4 stars

Hugely entertaining book, full of weirdness and references - not only the gods themselves but I could see enough subtle little literary allusions to realise there must be many more there. Also some that I suspect may just be looking too hard, but oh well - they didn't detract anything from the book....

I love the broad ambition of this story, the multiple levels it runs on, and the ease with which Gaiman can switch between those levels. It suffers a little from trying to pack too much in. By the end I was a bit tired of new characters being introduced without development, and wishing a few of the subplots had been explored better. It's both telling and a good move that when Gaiman wrote a ~sequel (Anansi Boys) he picked up one of the second-tier characters from American Gods, fleshed him out beautifully, and told a much more focussed story with him. Anansi Boys ends up being a stronger book as a result.

A few references I'm wondering about:

About halfway through part one, there seemed to be a subtle allusion to Eliot's Journey Of The Magi. I'm not sure if it's either intended or real, but read or listen to the poem: www.poetryarchive.org/poem/journey-magi - it seems to fit, eh?

One thing I was left not understanding at the end was why Wednesday needed Shadow. It seemed that he could have orchestrated the whole con at less risk without Shadow involved, which was the one thing I found unsatisfying about the otherwise very clever ending. I read somewhere that Monarch Of The Glen explains more about who Shadow is, so I'm looking forward to reading that.

The two-man con idea feels like a wonderfully biting allegory about US politics. If so, then Gaiman was pretty prescient - it's a thing that has become much more obvious since.

The two-man con and its motivations also feels like an allegory about the "Clash of Civilizations" nonsense that has potential to be so self-fulfilling. I'm pretty sure this on my mind because I happen to have read the book in a week when anti-Muslim attacks in the US are more prominent in the news than usual, but I wonder if it wasn't also an intended message, given that the book was first published in 2001. But then... that crap didn't get much airtime until 9/11, and this book must have mostly been written before that.

And finally, I really want to learn more about Sammy Black Crow. I was expecting her to be more significant in the end.

moving to outside.ofa.dog reviewed American Gods by Neil Gaiman

Review of 'American Gods' on 'LibraryThing'

4 stars

Victor Hugo Kebbe reviewed American Gods by Neil Gaiman (American Gods, #1)

Review of 'American Gods' on 'Goodreads'

5 stars

Kyrylys reviewed American gods by Neil Gaiman

Review of 'American gods' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

Reseña completa:http://markapaginas.blogspot.com.es/2014/08/american-gods-neil-gaiman.html

He de decir que el libro me gustó mucho, y lo hice sin saber nada de él. Creo que así he podido disfrutarlo muchísimo. Sobre todo de la primera parte en la que a Sombra vuelve al mundo después de haber pasado una temporada en prisión, y tiene que lidiar no sólo con el estigma de haber estado preso, si no que además tiene que afrontar la vida sin su esposa que recientemente acaba de fallecer. Así que no tiene nada que perder cuando accede trabajar para el "loco" del señor Wednesday.

La verdad que leyendo esta novela sentí, creí por momentos que hubiese cosas que pudieron ser. Es una sensación rara, aunque muy parecida a lo que he sentido con pocas obras. Era como si debajo de todo Gaiman te estuviese susurrando un secreto.