Review for American Gods: Does it Live Up to the Hype?

Happy Tuesday and welcome back to Stephanie Writes! How are you? Have you gotten your Christmas shopping done yet? Well, if you haven’t, this is a reminder to be kind to retail workers and be as low waste as you can! Today, I’ll be writing about a book with lots of hype, lots of characters, and even a show on Starz, American Gods by Neil Gaiman.

As a Christmas present to you all (being all eight of you who regularly read these), I’ll finally be giving a review that doesn’t sing in glorious praise of the novel I’m writing about. It may come as a shock to those of you who know me, considering how much I love the Fantasy genre, but this book was just okay for me! And what’s more, I even found some of the book uncomfortable.

The novel tells the tale of Shadow, a convict recently released from a three-year jail sentence. After a series of events turns his life upside down, Shadow finds himself as the companion and bodyguard to an elderly man who calls himself Mr. Wednesday. As the book is about Gods, I’ll give you some clues as to who this elderly man could be. He has a glass eye and has good comradery with ravens. Got it? Well, if you didn’t, think about Gods in the Marvel Cinematic Universe and it’ll come to you.

Moving right along, the two of them find themselves in the position of fighting a war between the Old Gods and the New. One of the more innovative aspects of the novel is how Gaiman reflects how humans have worshipped material objects throughout the past few centuries, turning them into Gods of Steel, Town, Media, and Technology among others. The way these characters are crafted into reflecting both the dangers of revering material things and addressing the irony of boomers telling young people to get off their phones is certainly one of my favourite aspects of this book.

However, throughout my time reading this novel (it was a summer read so it took a little while in between work shifts), I started to find certain elements of it to be uncomfortable for me. Particularly in the representation of women and minorities. Yes, it was written in 2001, however, I’m not going to sit here in silence on how the over-sexualization of most female characters (particularly Shadow’s wife Laura) undermines the story’s efforts to be woke. Further, most young female characters (of whom there are a miniscule amount) are frequently given the tropey character traits of speaking as though they are not smart but then surprising everyone in the end. I just want smart, present female characters to be a normal thing. Please. I also just want Mr. Nancy, one of the only characters of colour in the entire book that has more than just a couple lines, to be more than just support!

And another thing! There are a couple interludes throughout on how these different types of Gods made their way to the United States, but they’re so frustrating since the characters, who are probably the best characters in the entirety of the novel, are only given the space of one chapter to tell their stories. I wanted a whole book on Wututu’s story of enslavement and coping through spirituality but instead only got eighteen pages of it that are never returned to later in the novel. What the heck.

But I shouldn’t be too angry with Gaiman. He does have an exceptional ability to tell a story, and the idea of the novel is quite compelling. The amount of research that went into this, as well, is incredible. Even if you don’t know much about different types of Gods, Gaiman evidently put a ton of work and care into their representation. And if you’re a Kerouac kind of person, then this is certainly the novel for you since Shadow and Wednesday are almost always, literally, On the Road. Also, I’m sure the show does more with the book and delves into the characters in a way that the book does not. I’m just reviewing the novel in front of me, though. And overall, I was left a little dissatisfied.

So, I’m sorry to Neil Gaiman if he ever reads this (which, let’s be real, he probably won’t), but I can’t let myself give this novel a personal rating of more than three stars. It wasn’t enough for me!

Now, I won’t be posting next week since it’ll be Christmas Eve. But I promise to write one more piece before the New Year!

Thanks for reading!