Bout a quarter of the way in, and my eyebrow is just raised wondering what the fuck is going on and why do I care? 6/10

There's certainly a weird contrast between Gaiman's beautiful and self-aware prose in the foreword to the novel compared to the actual content of the book so far which is a bit clunky, meandering (which Gaiman cops to in the foreword), and lacking motivation.

I held off on these criticisms until the exposition was well under way, but it's unbelievable if not downright annoying that the protagonist doesn't seem to ask any questions. While he still maintains the cool "nothing left to lose" air about him, he still has some principles about "not wanting to go back to prison." He's not so numb that he's lost agency, he just seems like a moron for not questioning any of the paranormal oddities, muggings, and immediately folds on the only thing that he seems to care about. His motivations are unclear/nonexistent, his name is corny, everyone speaks in too-cool-for-school oneliners and we as the audience are still bottlenecked by Shadow's apparent disinterest in his own life. So far, all the character interactions have read like unnatural amalgamations of cool sayings spoken from the mouths of soulless ghouls. That's not necessarily a bad thing given the nature of the characters so far, but rather that the protagonist doesn't seem to think anything of this, is effortless. Like how he doesn't recognize what the Zorya sisters are after the midnight child explains herself to him. Penalty points for a characters who don't seem to exercise any agency – same points taken off for e.g. Warbreaker.

Also it seems like he affected this brooding mysteriousness after all of a 3 year minimum sentence in the clink.

Saving grace so far is that Ik Gaiman is a good author and I can suspend my annoyance w/Shadow for the sake of enjoying the world he's building. The interludes have been really enjoyable so far as well like the indentured servant in the 1700s

Percy Jackson with Gay Sex:tm:

TIL: "tumescent"

"A world where opiates have become the religion of the masses" is just the kind of fiery one-liner that falls flat in a world which really so far bears little resemblance to anything American about America other than that it's big enough to wander through for days without doing much of anything. I think this novel is trying to be like a cool pastoral (bc again the protagonist seems like a moron we're stuck perceiving the world through), but nothing happens of consequence. Like, Between Two Fires was a dank pastoral of set pieces, but this book isn't as dreamscap-y.

Also, none of the titular American gods are of American origin. Not as a critical point of "America is the land of immigrants" either, but rather just a copy/paste of norse/bolshevik/egyptaon mythology onto the midwest.

half way through – much of this book reads like Shadow's recollections of the man in the charcoal suit from Las Vegas – in one ear and out the other and I forgot what you just said.

It's not entirely forgettable, but it's all still lacking motivation. Shadow doesn't ask any questions, just keeps getting hoodwinked and kidnapped or captured and bounced around all these places but doesn't seem to care very much about anything, and as a result I as the reader struggle to care too, despite how cool it may be :/

5/10

3/4 of the way through, still no explanation of the plot that Shadow finds himself in. Call this mf "thursday" the way he the shadow of Wednesday.

The possibly cool intelrinking of Bilquis, Laura, and Samantha feels wasted as heavy handed "interludes."

Not bad, but the prose are dry and the plot is nonexistent. Still fails to be a pastoral where plot could take the backside because we're stuck in fucking wisconsin and all Gaiman has to say aboot that is that it's cold...

5/10

The character vignettes which just interlude rather than announcing themselves as such are the best parts of the book I think. Reminds me of the memory sequences from Carrion Comfort (I think CC does it better :/ since they're both exposition + plot mechanics + reverent, whereas AG's ring empty in the grand scheme of the plot by comparison)
The epilogue is simultaneously the best and worst part of the book. Good bc it aims to give some closure to an otherwise incoherent story, bad because it’s so terribly contrived.

Why is Shadow investigating the clunker in the first place? Why are his morals so skewed that he feels like he can’t kill a child murderer who simply pulled him from the lake (probably to torture/feed on him). Why does Chad call the obvious self -defense 'murder' and then act like a pussy saying he’s gotta kill himself for 'killing the cobold in cold blood' ? Why does he not bat an eye at the mention of the cobold/magic/sustenance on the blood sacrifice of children but instead go “wah wah i’m gonna kms in the woods” – annoying and full of seeming plot holes about the rest of the world's perception of the gods. It's handwaved away with there being some dark cloud immpairing his perception, but if that's the case, the entire plot of the "war of the gods, chaose" etc. is even more pointless if, as it seems, mundane people wouldn't be able to tell in the first place.

Kinda snotty to have an Epilogue, a Post Script, and an appndix for Jesus to make an appearance despite Gaiman admitting that it doesn't make sense/fit with the rest of the story...

sowwwwyyy, I didn't really like this book.

Everyone in the story were supposed to care about is dumb or bad:

• Laura is a cheater

• Shadow is a mark or a flat who continues to stumble aimlessly through America as an apathetic pawn in the games of the gods

• the gods are all either evil or forgettable

• Chad blows cock

The Native American spirits are cool, but unimportant...

Nothing in the book has consequence (which is fine, if it were a story about betrayal, or the human condition vs. the godly condition; wherein humans have no agency over higher order outcomes, but it's not really about that either).

It's not poorly written like other books I've scored similarly, but it's also not good: 4.5

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