I can't say too much about the plot without giving it all away; much of my enjoyment of the book was from slowly figuring out exactly what's going on. The story starts with Shadow, a man whose wife is killed two days before he was due to be released from prison. On the plane home, a man who calls himself Mr. Wednesday offers him a job which, upon learning that his best friend - who owned the Muscle Farm where Shadow was going to work - is also dead, Shadow accepts. From there he goes on a crazy journey all over middle America, meeting gods old, new, and otherwise. It was a long book - over 600 pages - but it didn't drag or jump around in time too much, and things were described well enough that I really felt like I was there. Sometimes I was a little confused as to where it all was going, but the end was satisfying. Now I want to visit some of those old run-down roadside attractions mentioned in the text, especially the House on the Rock. ( )

I just finished American Gods last night. I agree with someone else on this site who said that the author didn't build any sympathy for the characters. I didn't care about any of them. I also felt the writing style and plot devices tended towards cliché. Some of it was interesting and/or entertaining, which is what got it the second star. Wouldn't recommend it. ( )

Yet another book recommended by a close friend, but certainly one of the best books I have read all year. I thought the story line was engaging and the ending a surprise, but without any nonsensical shock value. From the book's premise the its message at the end, this book promises to be one that I will read again. ( )

So far, I'm loving it. Hence the five stars. I especially like the story of Essie Tregowan. Gaiman is a fantastic story teller and I have come to the conclusion over the past few books I've read that it is the great storytellers, not the most verbose authors, who are best remembered. That is why The Alchemist has sold millions of copies and is one of the world's most beloved stories. And mine! I believe American Gods will be one of those.

Several days later.....
Well, I have finished reading American Gods, finally!! It felt like the story would just never end and if one is anxious for the story to be over so he can get on to the next one, then the book can't have been all that good.

Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed this novel of gods and men, it was just too tedious at times and a tad bit boring. And I thoroughly enjoy the subject of religion, so this should have been a dead ringer for me, but it wasn't.

As I said earlier, I loved the story of Essie Tregowan but after her story, I kept waiting for more like it and it just never came.

I love it when a novel is able to incorporate a lesson or when you are able to learn something from reading it. I believe that is one of the best ways to learn, when you don't even realize that is what you are doing because you are having such a good time. Entertainment can be educational as well.

The entire premise of this book though was that America, being a land of immigrants, in point of fact even for the Native Americans, that America's peoples brought their old Gods from the old lands with them and that over time when the old gods are forgotten, they die. Ok, that is not anything really groundbreaking, it's common sense really. The attempt to turn this premise into a story of the old gods wanting to fight a war with the new Gods for their very survival and incorporating the twist in the end whereby it was not really a war after all, but a bloodbath, just seemed kind of silly to me. The entire idea of the old Gods living human lives just seemed trite and boring. I like at least a semblance of reality in my fiction.

I didn't hate this novel, I was just greatly disappointed because I feel it had such great potential.

In a literary sense it also began to grate on my nerves how Gaiman just could not seem to describe a scene or a character without using the word gray. "The sky was gray." "His eyes were charcoal gray." "The rocks were gray!" I have heard such great things about Neil Gaiman and really enjoyed his short story collection, "Smoke and Mirrors" so I KNOW he has more creativity than this. ( )

DIe Grundidee fand ich super, gegen Ende war ich dann nicht mehr so gepackt wie am Anfang - hab lange gebraucht um das Buch zu Ende zu bringen. ( )