This book is epic, suspenseful, sometimes humorous, and also happens to contain a scene that is quite possibly the most disturbing to attempt to visualize that I have ever read in my life. It also has prose that I want to find a way to crawl inside of, whatever it happens to be describing. A must read for everybody who isn't terminally allergic to the fantastic in their fiction, or possibly overly squeamish. ( )

Not my genre but wow, am I glad I read this. Amazing plotting and character development. I would have loved to take this apart with someone who has a better grounding in mythology than I do. A possible re-read. ( )

Old gods versus new gods, Shadow, ex-con is go- between. Don't remember plot, even after skimming again. ( )

Gaiman som författare har mycket mer att bevisa än Gaiman Sandman scenartist. Jag håller med röster här som säger att koncept är inte originell. Ändå ger jag hög betyg för American Gods. Först därför att jag gillar stämningen i romanen och hur är den åstadkommen genom lek med ord, mytologi, karaktärer och humör. Jag gillar moderna varianter av Slaviska gudar. Jag gillar också korta referenser till Gaimans figurer från hans berömda Sandman.
Gaiman är populär och mycket överskattad författare men den här romanen var glädje och njutning att läsa. ( )

Gaiman's finest work. If only all fantasy were this smart, subtle, and gripping. Some of the images (Bilquis, Czernobog's hammer-blow, the funeral home) are unforgettable. ( )

I have read this book before and enjoyed it, so I knew what to expect from American Gods. Saying that, I don't remember it being quite so difficult to get into. It wasn't until Shadow reached Lakeside that for me the story took hold. I wasn't too sure about the little vignettes, personally I find these a distraction from the main plot even though I realise they’re a deeper part of the backstory.
I did like Shadow as a character. Although he comes across as detached from what is going on around him, I enjoyed that aspect of him. I liked the fact that he accepted what was happening to him. I’ve read far too many books where the fantastic intrudes on real life and a large portion of the story deals with the character accepting all possibilities other than the actual one (Thomas Covenant readily springs to mind.) I thought all of the characterisation was spot on. You could’ve taken any of the characters and given them a book of their own.
One of the Gaiman’s greatest strengths in this book is the subtlety in the storytelling. It would have been easy to overload the story with the older Gods’ history or to list the new Gods created from our world now. Instead Gaiman let the reader’s intelligence and interest do the work. That aspect reminded me of Alan Moore’s League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, letting the reader get more out of the story if they want to. There was also that element of subtlety in Shadow’s characterisation and the overall story too. Shadow’s ability of slight of hand. Showing one thing but something else happening underneath. The fact that the war between the old and the new gods was a smokescreen. All these elements I found added to a richly layered and enjoyable story. ( )

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. ( )

My beef with this book is that it is pretty much exactly the book that you would expect Neil Gaiman to write. That doesn't make it bad (at all), and I have heartily recommended it to people who didn't already know Gaiman's work. ( )

I was a little bit disappointed after reading first couple of chapters. It was obvious Neil Gaiman had an impressive imagination but outcome was a little bit disgusting for me. On top of that character development didn't look promising.

Apparently I was being impatient; it turned out to be a very well written book. Neil Gaiman does a great job at bringing the world of mythological gods and their story to the reader. It doesn't feel like fiction but instead it feels real. Every character in the book feels very well thought of. I felt like I've stopped hanging out with a close friend of mine, Shadow, after I've finished the book and to be honest I miss hanging out with him. ( )

Gaiman again provides a novel in which you have to think, characters have depth and leaves you wanting more. ( )

This was my first encounter with Neil Gaiman. Considering the praise this author typically receives, I must say after completing this novel I am left feeling a bit ambivalent. The introduction of Shadow and Wednesday drew me in to the story immediately, but the middle, and by middle I mean most of the book, dragged on. I did enjoy the philosophical/theological questions that are raised when the reader is challenged to consider old world beliefs being replaced on an almost daily basis as the "american species" evolves. Unfortunately, my knowledge of Norse mythology is a bit weak, and this may have had an impact on my enjoyment of the book. I plan on giving Gaiman a few more chances. I enjoy his writing style, but I think that the subject matter was not quite my cup of tea. ( )

Neil Gaiman has become one of those rare breed of writers for whom many people will buy his books as soon as they see his name on the cover. And this is with good reason. He can write superbly well. His characterisations are interesting, his narrative is entertaining and his dialogue is frequently downright hilarious. This book is as good an example of that as almost any (I preferred the Anansi Boys though, which I read before this. There are shared themes between these two books).

In American Gods, we are introduced to Shadow - a convict who is released early on compassionate grounds following the death of his wife. Almost immediately he is met by a man who calls himself Wednesday - and is clearly much more than just an ordinary man. Wednesday wants Shadow's help, but he is not specific as to what he wants - only mentioning that it is very dangerous. Indeed, early in the book there are all kinds of things that we are not told. Why exactly was Shadow in prison? Who is Wednesday (actually I guessed that one straight away), what does he want? What happened to Shadow's wife? And much more.

The answers to these questions mostly do not come early. But they do come. There is a road trip across America that put me strongly in mind of Stephen King's "The Talisman". The protagonists are quite different, but I was reminded of the other book because of the natural/supernatural duality and the journey across America, experiencing different places - some more special than others. The whole story, it seemed to me, could as easily have been penned by Stephen King.

There are two reasons I do not think, in good consience, that I can give this five stars (even though Neil Gaiman fans will therefore start voting down my review! But please don't without leaving me a comment as to why!) These are:

1) This was a very earthy novel. There is plenty of sex - especially oral sex - mentioned. Many people will like that in a book, but I did not think that for the most part it added anything to the story. The language likewise was earthier than was strictly necessary, and moreso than in the Anansi Boys, which I preferred to this book. (I also thought the Anansi Boys was funnier).

2) This book was almost ponderously long. Ultimately there were two plot themes, but the middle of the book spent so long setting them up that the resolution was very brief. One plot was resolved in a couple of pages and was something of a non event. The other was resolved in a longer epilogue. But did the book need to be 670 pages long? Neil Gaiman admits the book is long but excuses it by saying that America is a big country, which is true. The narrative is wonderfully descriptive of America - but whether that was all necessary for this story is an open question.

So in summary - a very good book. I can recommend it, although I preferred the Anansi Boys, and that would be the book of Gaiman's I handed adult readers first. (The Graveyard Book would be my pick for young adults or those who enjoy young adult books). ( )

This book was amazing in many ways. It started out with a crash, and I loved how Neil just took Shadow's life and tore it to pieces in the first, maybe ten pages. Then, even though not a lot of "action" was happening in the middle of the book, the characters were so endearing that you didn't get bored. I almost put this down when Wednesday died, and again when Shadow died, but thankfully I didn't, because they were both like "just kidding! we're not really dead." But I did miss Wednesday once he was gone. I read this book because my friend told me it was the Gaiman book closest to his Sandman comics. I can see the similarities.

Full review: http://faerytalemalice.blogspot.com/2... ( )

American Gods is an oddly non-philosophical story regarding a paradigm shift. What I mean is that the plot is a plot, not a theoretical monologue about the significance or the importance of the action, but a story that readers can philosophize about or not as they see fit. There is deep meaning and an almost but not quite subtle reflection on contemporary theology, but at its foundation, American Gods is a good story.

Shadow, the protagonist, is a vehicle through which the reader is introduced to the gods of other cultures brought to America by immigrants who, through their progeny, disremembered their original gods and acclimated to a land that is fertile ground for the immediate and temporary, not for the timelessness of gods. In the story, the ancient gods are set to fight the new gods. Norse gods, Albanian gods, Egyptian gods, and many others are gathering for the last battle against modern belief systems, gods of internet and television and media.

This story is myth, not in the Snow White mode, but in Gilgamesh. Gods walk amongst men and share some of their characteristics. They rely on the belief of men; they are born of the belief of men and fade in disbelief. The gods of old behave as the gods of old behaved: not in the absent, all-loving, but removed way of the monotheistic tradition; they feel fear, jealousy, hate; they manipulate, create, and destroy. They are tricksters and deceivers. I believe this familiarity - I teach Ancient and Medieval Literature - is one of the reasons I enjoyed the novel so much.

But also, the story itself is good. The characters are unique, the conflicts are interesting, and the setting is fascinating in its familiarity and its otherness. America is America in the story, but it is infused with a believable nonreality. Roadside attractions are holy places; regular towns prosper from child sacrifices.

American Gods is not an easy read; it is long, weighty, and non-entirely satisfying in its wrap-up, but it is worth the trouble. ( )

Gaiman is such an entertaining author with a wonderful imagination - certainly the kind of character you wouldn't mind inviting to one of those "six people, alive or dead" dinner parties.

I enjoyed American Gods immensely but I'm never entirely comfortable with anything that reaffirms America's sense of being the centre of the world; even though Gaiman does attempt to present a loving critique of his adopted country, perhaps I needed a little more irony in his writing (which might be an overdose for some).

Nevertheless, Gaiman presents an interesting adventure and allegory for the different people and cultures that have shaped America, and who have been shaped by it (for better, for worse, or somewhere in between). ( )

I think I'm the only one in the world who disliked this book. Probably because most people who have my temperament know enough to steer well clear of this type of fantasy.

According the the rest of the reviews, this is a good book - assuming you like gods mythology. I do not. I like my fantasy to at least border on possible - ancient gods, made up gods, new gods ... whatever... too many gods, too much work trying to make a point, too much moralizing.

Give me some blood 'n guts and ship the morals home to their mamas! ( )

The old man nodded slowly. He said, "My people went from here to America a long time ago. They went there, and then they returned to Iceland. They said it was a good place for men, but a bad place for gods. And without their gods they felt too...alone."p. 595I would rather be a man than a god. We don't need anyone to believe in us. We just keep going anyhow. It's what we do. p. 500"This is a bad land for gods." said Shadow. As an opening statement it wasn't Friends, Romans countrymen, but it would do. "You've probably all learned that, in your own way. The old gods are ignored. The new gods are as quickly taken up as they are abandoned, cast aside for the next big thing. Either you've been forgotten or you're scared you're going to be rendered obsolete, or maybe you're just getting tired of existing on the whim of people." p. 498Shadow said, "Are you a god as well?"Whiskey Jack shook his head, "I'm a culture hero," he said. "We do the same shit gods do, we just screw up more and nobody worships us. They tell stories about us, but they tell the ones that make us look bad along with the ones where we came out fairly okay."p. 475It's about being the concentrated, magnified, essence of you. It's about becoming thunder, or the power of a running horse, or wisdom. You take all the belief and become bigger, cooler, and more than human. You crystallize." He paused. "And then one day they forget about you, and they don't believe in you, and they don't sacrifice, and they don't care, and the next thing you know you're running a three-card Monte game on the corner of Broadway and Forty-third." p. 400"Gods are great," said Atsula, slowly, as if she were imparting a great secret. "But the heart is greater. For it is from our hearts they come, and to our hearts they shall return..." p385Fiction 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 wee turn the page or closee the book and we resume our lives. p. 300"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. p. 285"...and then Sweeney was trying, with both hands, to explain the history of the gods in Ireland, wave after wave of them as they came in from Gaul and from Spain and from every damn place, each wave of them transforming the last gods into trolls and fairies and every damn creature until Holy Mother Church herself arrived and every god in Ireland was transformed into a fairy or a saint or a dead King without so much as a by-your-leave..." P. 260"It seemed right to go slow in a hearse, although he could barely remember the last time he had seen a hearse on the streets. Death had vanished from the streets of America, thought Shadow; now it happened in hospital rooms and in ambulances. We must not startle the living, thought Shadow. Mr. Ibis had told them that they move the dead about in some hospitals on the lower level of apparently empty covered gurneys, the deceased traveling their own paths in their own covered ways." p. 212Ideas are more difficult to kill than people, but they can be killed, in the end. p. 50 ( )

Wow, what an unusual story. Winner of both the Hugo and Nebula Awards, this novel fits best in the genre of fantasy. At its core, it is the story of a battle between two groups of Gods. The first group is comprised of all the old, mythological Gods who were previously worshipped in days long past.

According to the story, they (and various other mythical beings) were transported to the New World (North America) by the beliefs of immigrants, whose descendants gradually forgot them and stopped worshipping and sacrificing to them (think leprechauns, Odin, African deities, Queen of Sheba, etc.). These Gods, in the form of normal humans (Loki Lie-Smith, Norse God of Chaos becomes “Low Key” Lyesmith), are greatly weakened, down on their luck and get by through grifting, trickery and minor magic, in addition to holding regular human jobs to make ends meet.

Now, there is a new group of glitzy, aggressive Gods, represented by computers, television, internet, video games; you get the picture. There is a storm brewing between the two sets of Gods and an all out War is on the horizon.

In this mix is tossed Shadow, a small time felon recently sprung from prison. He is picked up by an unusual fellow named Wednesday (Odin) and falls in with the Old Gods. Did I mention that this was a highly unusual story? Regardless, it is very well written, and though a little bit over the top, entertaining. I’m sure there is symbolism and allegory enough to fill a semester length literature class, but strictly from an entertainment perspective, it passes the test.

There are several story threads that come together in an ending which contains several very well presented plot twists and satisfactory resolutions. Some have compared Gaiman’s writing style to that of Stephen King, and I confess that there are some similarities. There is certainly enough originality in this story, however to fill several King novels. ( )

It’s pretty rare that you read a book – a novel – that gels so neatly with what you think and feel about the world, and gives you a lot more new to think about, to boot. For me, this was such a novel. It’s about gods – gods who are brought to life by people’s belief in them, brought to America in the ideas and thoughts of immigrants, and then who grow old and waste away once those beliefs fade. These gods – all of them living, breathing characters in this rich novel – come from all over the world: Norway and Eastern Europe, Africa and India. But they all have one thing in common: they are all dying in America.

America is a spiritual wasteland, and the gods find themselves competing against new objects of worship – the Internet, automobiles, the media – who have themselves been turned into gods by humans’ adoration of them. And so the great war begins.

Caught in the middle of them all is a recently released convict named Shadow, a non-person who lets life and all the amazing things he sees just roll right past him without really affecting him, who is, in the words of his dead wife, “not really alive.” He becomes the stooge of the god Odin (called Wednesday), a lecherous old man in his American incarnation. Then he hangs on Odin’s tree, and dies – and that’s when his life truly begins.

I have only scratched the surface of the plot and characters of this multilevel novel, with layer after layer that the reader must peel away like an onion. Every page is a discovery, and the gods we meet along the way – whether they are vodoun loa or ancient Egyptian gods of the dead or the cultural heroes born in American legend – all seem familiar, like old friends. And why shouldn’t they be? They live in our heads, too, just as vividly as they live in the pages of this book. This is a journey well worth taking with the impassive Shadow. ( )

Excellent! Engaging story, kept me guessing to the very end. ( )

Sweet jesus, this has to be my favorite fantasy (is it fantasy?) book i've read in some time. Shadow's looking to reenter the regular civilian life after imprisonment--the chances of which are slim to none, and none just left town. Released a day early because both his wife (his reason for living while in jail) and his best friend (guess what he was doing with the wife?) were killed in a car accident. With nothing to look forward to, Shadow takes a job offered to him by a shady one-eyed man as his bodyguard--what Shadow doesn't know is that the shady man, who calls himself Wednesday, is the American version of Odin, and he's just bit off a whole lot more than he can chew in what promises to be a war between the old and new gods. A fantastic read which showcases Gaiman's talent at drawing in folk tales and mythology, making them relevant to the modern world and the stuff of fantastic reading. ( )