Review: American Gods

American Gods by Neil Gaiman
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

I wanted to like this book - I really did. Gaiman can be a magical writer, and I have enjoyed some of his other short works of fantasy. But this book was a slog for me! It is about a man who is released from prison, aimless as his wife has been killed in a car accident just a few days before his release, who encounters a mysterious guy who claims to be a "god." The book follows these characters, along with a rich cast of other gods and mortals, as they criss-cross the United States, seemingly living normal lives, but engaged in parallel in a war across new gods and old, as magnificent as what you'd see in classic Greek mythology.

Sounds compelling, right? But it wasn't - it was hard to follow, with twists that didn't all pay off. The social commentary was good, but not enough to carry as wide a set of characters as this had, and not good enough to make up for the convoluted plot. I know I'm in the minority here: this was optioned as a tv series, and has pretty universal great ratings. Didn't do it for me, though.

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