American Gods - Neil Gaiman

 Spoilers. Quotes are just quotes I liked while reading .. I didn't feel like putting pictures in this review so slap in my favorite quotes where the pictures would go.

Score: 4/5

First sentence: Shadow had done three years in prison.

This is the first Neil Gaiman book I've dived into. It was one of those books that I heard of but never took effort into reading.

I started this through checking it out at my library. It was a process because it has a waiting list. So, I would have it for the max two weeks and then have to return it. Eventually, I finally bought the book when it was on sale as an ebook. As an ebook I am able to enlarge the font so it is easy to read.

The books font is severely too small to comfortably read if you have eye problems. I never found a large print of this book so I don't think it even exists.

"Fuck you"," said the raven."

I started this April, 2016 and finished it August, 2017.

Good:

 It's interesting enough once you get through the first few chapters. The idea of new and old gods is what kept me going. 

I didn't catch on that his cell mate was Loki and that it was a long con until after I passed the middle of the book. It isn't always bad to solve the 'twist' before you're introduced to it but it's also nice to be surprised not to have caught on quickly.

I enjoyed reading the side-stories that would pop up and interrupt the main story. I believe there was only one that wasn't enjoyable and I wanted to skip it completely. But it's been a few months since I've read this so I can't tell you which one.

“You have a pasty at Mabel’s for me, you hear?”

Shadow decided not to ask for clarification."

 Even though there's not a real connection with the main character I was wanting a happy ending for this guy. Weird shit keeps happening to him and he's just there... like, let him be happy, jeez.

"Wednesday looked at him with amusement and something else—irritation perhaps. Or pride. “Why don’t you argue?” asked Wednesday. “Why don’t you exclaim that it’s all impossible? Why the hell do you just do what I say and take it all so fucking calmly?”

But I did enjoy how this end. There was no urge to toss the book because the ending was subpar to what you just read.

The fun part about this is the use of America's love of road trips and the side attractions that come with this.

Bad:

Shadow is just a vessel to navigate us through the things that are going down. He steers us around so we can meet and interact with the gods and the weird shit that is going on but doesn't feel real or even there most of the time.

"Las Vegas has become a child’s picture book dream of a city—here a storybook castle, there a sphinx-flanked black pyramid beaming white light into the darkness as a landing beam for UFOs, and everywhere neon oracles and twisting screens predict happiness and good fortune,"

I took the way he acts and reacts to things as a sort of depressive episode. He was free from prison and his wife has died. What is there to go on when that happens? But when we meet his zombie wife, she says that she cheated because the guy was more alive than Shadow.

So, he has been living in a depressive state just there the entire time. It's not a new version of himself due to what happened to his wife. It's just apart of his personality in some way. 

"From the heart, the liver, and from one of the kidneys, he cut an additional slice. These pieces he chewed, slowly, making them last, and ate while he worked."

 I didn't like that there was no real connection with the main character as you're reading it. He's just there, flat and traveling around without questions.

Recommend?:

Yes, I would still recommend even though my "bad" section is longer than the "good". It was something worthwhile to read even if your reaction may be negative toward it. It is worth trying and seeing if it's enjoyable or not.

"They will win,” said Whiskey Jack flatly. “They won already. You lost already. Like the white man and my people. They won. And when they lost, they made treaties. Then they broke the treaties. And they won again. I’m not fighting for another lost cause.” “And it’s no"

This book is not a Young Adult book. I do not know how it'd be mistaken as a YA but it has and just...no it's not. Teenagers may enjoy this but it's not a YA.