American Gods ~ Neil Gaiman

American Gods has been sat on my shelf for a while, the sheer size of the novel a little offputting. For some reason, after struggling to get through even half of the book I was reading, I decided to pick up this brick of a book off my shelf. It was a decision that proved to be a good one. I devoured American Gods.

American Gods is the story of Shadow Moon (which is an amazing name). Shadow has served his time in prison, but a few hours before release he is informed that his wife has died in a car crash. He then meets the mysterious Mr Wednesday, who offers him a job. Together they travel the United States meeting a cast of bizarre and wonderful characters.

I love Neil Gaiman’s writing, there has not been one of his books that I have struggled to read, but there is something better about American Gods. One of the reviews on the back of the book said something about this book being clockwork and I think that is exactly it. The plot is so bizarre and twists and turns but the writing runs like clockwork making it so very easy to get to grips with all the weirdness in the plot. 

The characters are also so very well written. Shadow is the focus of the narrative and he is dependable, and the narrative echoes that. I also liked how he is so expressive and gets his point across with so few words. If Shadow can answer something with one word instead of three he will and at the moment that seems to be something I enjoy in fiction. The supporting characters are all so well rounded as well and Gaiman does such an amazing job at weaving little hints of mythology into them.

American Gods is very much a complete book. I was left with no unanswered questions at the end, at least not any questions that I felt Gaiman had to answer. Whilst I did want more content in this universe, I didn’t need any more content and lots of books don’t tend to manage that. Shadow’s development arc was complete and Gaiman didn’t push it further than it needed to be. 

Instead of continuing to gush and maybe accidentally spoiling the book, I’m going to leave this review here. I’m trying to be a bit harsher with my five-star criteria, but as I couldn’t put this book down, it has to be five stars. I’m now going to delve into the show and see if it is anywhere near as good as the novel.

C🌙