My rating: 1 of 5 stars
I really wanted to like this book, and, the writing itself I did love. No matter my opinion of the book in general I think I’ll take away from this a passage for my list of favorite quotes:
“Say ‘Nevermore,'” said Shadow.
“Fuck you,” said the raven.
I really did love the way he used his words economically and yet conveyed so much. It’s prose to emulate, that’s for sure.
However, in the final accounting, I was bored. I never got into Shadow as a character. He was interesting, but I never connected with him. To me, that’s the biggest letdown of any book. I can hang in there through a lot of other literary failings if I care about the character enough that I need to know what happens to him.
Besides that, tt felt like little happened over far too many pages. The encounters with various gods began to feel repetitive. After a long section describing two famous grifts, I gave up and started skipping ahead. (It had taken me a couple of weeks to get to that point, about 250 pages in, even though I can read a book of this length in a day if it captivates me.)
I skimmed to the end and maybe because of that I missed whatever it was that makes this book so generally admired. But after 250 pages, it would have to have been bloody brilliant to be worth it.
I’m with you on much of this. Of the Neil Gaiman books I have read, American Gods is maybe my least favorite. I LOVE the concept even now- what happens to gods people have stopped believing in? – but also struggled with getting through the plot.
bookspersonally recently posted..Nom de Plume – A Secret History of Pseudonyms – Carmela Ciuraru
Amen.
That Neil Guy recently posted..Under the Dome
It’s so interesting what different people take away from the same book. I’ve gotten several Twitter messages this morning saying how much they loved the book. And the other reviews on Goodreads were primarily positive.
Takes all kinds, I suppose.
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