My Review
My Rating: 3/5
American Gods Book Review – Spoiler Free
I have never been a fan of the Terry Pratchett-style, quirky fantasy, so reading anything by Neil Gaiman was never on my to-do list. However, I watched the first season of the American Gods TV show and was impressed, so I decided to read the book.
I was pleasantly surprised
American Gods is written well, and by that I mean it was easy to read. The storytelling was natural, and I burned through this book faster than I do with most, even with so many pages!
Shadow isn’t a fascinating character
He never seems to want anything, and that’s frustrating. I know American Gods isn’t really about him (the story is, but the book isn’t) but readers need the protagonist to have some sort of desires to move the story forwards which will keep us invested. I wasn’t.
I loved the reimagining of the Gods, Goddesses, and heroic figures
This was my favourite part of the book. I can tell that Neil Gaiman has a love of old mythology, especially Norse, so I clung to that when reading American Gods to keep be interested; it worked.
The ending is relatively good
It was a little surprising but I think we could see something like that coming up. The beginning is great, though, so I can see many readers being enticed by the first few chapters and then glued to the page by Neil Gaiman’s natural writing style.
The middle section (a very large section) is dull, but not pointless – the writing style is what kept me reading there.
Overall, it’s a good book, but not brilliant.
I have the strangest relationship with American Gods. Like you I rated it 3 Stars, but whenever I look on it in retrospect I’m quite fond of it.