American Gods revolves around Shadow, an ex-con, who just gets released from prison. Hoping to start over his life with his wife, Laura, Shadow learns that she dies in a car accident a few days before his release. In his way to her funeral, he meets a mysterious man named Mr. Wednesday, offering Shadow a job. Despite declining the offer at first, Shadow finally comes to term with his new companion and takes the job. What Shadow doesn't know then is that the world he knows is not what he thought it was. The world is filled with both ancient and new gods, fighting for power and control, and he is at the center of a coming war.
This is my first time reading Neil Gaiman's books. My curiosity got to me when I read news articles about the TV series adaptation of the book. Even though I haven't watched it, the visuals look cool and weird, in a good way. And when I finally finished the last word of the book, I realized that I don't really like it that much.
First off, the idea of gods living in modern society seems too familiar for me and, I think, most readers nowadays. Rick Riordan's Percy Jackson being one of the most popular examples. American Gods, however, brings more cards on the table by introducing new gods born by humans' paradigm shift towards modern technology. Media and Internet and many more emerge as the new gods for humans, inevitably replacing ancient gods such as Odin, Thor, etc. The nearly-forgotten gods, led by Mr. Wednesday, tries to fight back and preserve their existences. And our main character, Shadow, is stuck within the conflict between gods and, in time, learns his fate in this crazy new world.
The plot is interesting enough and delivers many twists, but I personally find it really boring for most of the part due to the slow pacing of the story. The slow pace does make it easy to know and empathize with the characters and their history, but it takes away some of the dramatic moments in the story. The coin trick doesn't work if it moves at the speed of a snail, so to speak.
The book is filled with a lot of fun references to actual locations in America and actual Gods native to many civilizations, such as Norse and Egyptian. Although this book is not for everyone, American Gods is indeed a well-written and passionate story that does an excellent job of telling a story about Gods that felt humane.
