scott plummer

i recently finished neil gaiman's novel american gods. i'm not going to go into a long winded review but i just wanted to share my thoughts on it. i am not typically a fiction reader but i wanted to expand the types of books that i was reading. there will be spoilers, so if you haven't read it and you plan on reading it please stop reading this post now

you have been warned.

being new to gaiman's work i wasn't sure what to expect. he had come highly recommended. i loved it. it has it's moments of being quite unsettling. at first i found the "flash backs" to be somewhat jarring but due to the length of the book i eventually welcomed them as a break for my brain. i loved the use of american landmarks. there were moments when i was thinking what the hell is going on but he kept my interest and all i could think at the end was, "what, there's no more?" it is very, very good.

now for the spoilers.

1. for some reason i didn't make the connection that wednesday was shadow's father

2. i didn't see it coming, although i should have, that hinzelmann was also a god and had been sacrificing a child every year in the town of lakeside.

3. it kind of bugged me that shadow's wife had cheated on him while he was in jail, but in the end her charachter was one of my favorites.

4. i was also pretty disturbed at how bilquis was killed and repeatedly run over by a limo. but it was effective story telling.

*end of spoilers*

overall i loved this book and would reccommend it to anyone. it is one of those rare books that i will read again. even rarer still is that it is a fiction book that i will read again.

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ok, so now what is this "my year of gaiman" thing you might ask yourself?

i have set the task this year of reading as many of neil's works as i possibly can. i know i kind of cheated and started american gods in mid december of '09 but it's a big book. are you really going to begrudge me an extra two weeks?

i am going to provide similar type review of each book as i finish and move onto the next. it should be an interesting year, and i look forward to it and i look forward to your comments.