Review - American Gods by Neil Gaiman

Series: Standalone

Genre: Urban Fantasy 

Age Group - Adult

William Morrow (first published July 2001)

Audiobook - (635pgs)

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Rating: 5/5

Locked behind bars for three years, Shadow did his time, quietly waiting for the magic day when he could return to Eagle Point, Indiana. A man no longer scared of what tomorrow might bring, all he wanted was to be with Laura, the wife he deeply loved, and start a new life. But just days before his release, Laura and Shadow's best friend are killed in an accident. With his life in pieces and nothing to keep him tethered, Shadow accepts a job from a beguiling stranger he meets on the way home, an enigmatic man who calls himself Mr. Wednesday. A trickster and rogue, Wednesday seems to know more about Shadow than Shadow does himself.

Life as Wednesday's bodyguard, driver, and errand boy is far more interesting and dangerous than Shadow ever imagined. It is a job that takes him on a dark and strange road trip and introduces him to a host of eccentric characters whose fates are mysteriously intertwined with his own.

Along the way, Shadow will learn that the past never dies; that everyone, including his beloved Laura, harbors secrets; and that dreams, totems, legends, and myths are more real than we know. Ultimately, he will discover that beneath the placid surface of everyday life, a storm is brewing - an epic war for the very soul of America - and that he is standing squarely in its path.

The full cast edition of this audiobook completely captured me. This book follows a lot of small threads that all come together to make an epic story, much like America is made of many people who make up the whole. It is really hard to pinpoint what this book is about. On one hand we are following Shadow as he works for Wednesday and on the other we are following a larger story about American lore and what America IS. The pace is quite slow especially at the beginning and the end. The audiobook really helped keep me invested and focused on this book. It would've been a lot harder to get through a physical copy of this story.

This book is jammed packed with mythology and history. I really enjoyed how Gaiman broke up Shadow's story with smaller chapters about how different gods arrived in America. It was a nice way to build up the narrative of the gods without someone explaining it exactly how it happened. These chapters were some of the most emotional parts of the book and the one that hit me the hardest was the story of Wututu and her brother Agasu. I listened to this section twice and cried though the whole thing.

Throughout the book I felt like I was reading this book at the right time. Even though the book was originally published in 2001, many of the struggles and storms in this book are still raging within America. There were a few moments I found predictable during, but overall I really enjoyed this book and I was blown away by the audiobook. I was not expecting to enjoy this as much as I did at all.

Hopefully, I'll be watching the TV series at some point in the near future. I'd really like to see how certain sections are interpreted. 

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