My rating: 3 out of 5
American Gods starts with the main character, Shadow, merely days away from release from prison. Shadow’s wife and best friend die in a car accident and he is released early. From there on, the novel just gets weirder and weirder.
Shadow meets Wednesday, a mysterious figure, who hires Shadow as his bodyguard. Shadow travels across the US with Wednesday where the two meet and visit many eclectic and eccentric characters and places.
At over 500 pages, this is not a short or easy read. It drags in places, but mostly kept me wanting to find out how it ended. Unfortunately, the end was largely a let down. This is the first novel I’ve read by Mr. Gaiman, but I am not giving up just yet. I am going to try reading something else, like Coraline or Neverwhere and see how that goes.
If you are interested in odd places in America, a road trip style novel, or mythology, you might enjoy this.