American Gods

Paperback, 592 pages

English language

4 stars (1 review)

Days before his release from prison, Shadow's wife, Laura, dies in a mysterious car crash. Numbly, he makes his way back home. On the plane, he encounters the enigmatic Mr Wednesday, who claims to be a refugee from a distant war, a former god and the king of America.

Together they embark on a profoundly strange journey across the heart of the USA, whilst all around them a storm of preternatural and epic proportions threatens to break.

Scary, gripping and deeply unsettling, American Gods takes a long, hard look into the soul of America. You'll be surprised by what - and who - it finds there...

2 editions

almost exactly what I wanted

4 stars

A very very compelling read.

I loved the story, the characters, the setting. This truly does capture the strangely mystic nature of the flyover states in America.

I listened to a full cast audiobook version during my work commute, and I had moments of straight up yelling in anger or shouting in joy at the audio at the events. It's just a wonderful book.

My only gripe is some of the language used. In the first half of the book in particular, the author had a weird obsession with writing about women's nipples. Every single female character had their breasts and nipples described in a weird amount of detail.

Like, I know some of the characters are literally sex gods, and I understood them being described in Full Detail. But like, moon goddess in a nightgown? Didn't need to know about her nips.

Thankfully, after all the major players are …