American Gods (review)

*I received an ARC in exchange for an honest review, but all thoughts are my own. This post also contains affiliate links that I may make commissions from.*

A bit spoiled today with two book reviews, but tomorrow you're going to get a non-book review post from me so that's a bit of a teaser for you. 

American Gods - Neil Gaiman

Locked behind bars for three years, Shadow did his time, quietly waiting for the magic day when he could return to Eagle Point, Indiana. A man no longer scared of what tomorrow might bring, all he wanted was to be with Laura, the wife he deeply loved, and start a new life.

But just days before his release, Laura and Shadow’s best friend are killed in an accident. With his life in pieces and nothing to keep him tethered, Shadow accepts a job from a beguiling stranger he meets on the way home, an enigmatic man who calls himself Mr. Wednesday. A trickster and rogue, Wednesday seems to know more about Shadow than Shadow does himself.

Life as Wednesday’s bodyguard, driver, and errand boy is far more interesting and dangerous than Shadow ever imagined—it is a job that takes him on a dark and strange road trip and introduces him to a host of eccentric characters whose fates are mysteriously intertwined with his own. Along the way Shadow will learn that the past never dies; that everyone, including his beloved Laura, harbors secrets; and that dreams, totems, legends, and myths are more real than we know. Ultimately, he will discover that beneath the placid surface of everyday life a storm is brewing—an epic war for the very soul of America—and that he is standing squarely in its path.

I didn't even know about this book until I heard it was going to be a show, and then of course I don't have cable because I'm poor so I wanted to read the book! Then I saw it was on the list for possible review and I got super excited and thought for sure I wouldn't get picked, surely by the time I responded everyone else would have jumped on it but no- I got picked. What is wrong with all of you people?! 

The thing about Neil Gaiman books that I love so much, and this is going to sound bizarre, is that I have no idea why I love them. I know, I know. I usually finish the book and I wonder to myself why I even finished it, and why I even liked it because there usually isn't anything about the book that really stands out about them but oddly enough it all comes together and it all just... it just fits? This book was kind of the same way, it's full of traditionally bizarre characters and a story line where it constantly feels like something big is going to come but it never really does but yet... you don't end the book unsatisfied. It also has really weird dream sequences, which I didn't know where dream sequences at first and I was SO confused and I found myself re-reading passages a few times. 

Needless to say, this is a really difficult book to read if you are a recovering stroke and brain injury patient. FYI. 

I also really struggled with some of the story lines and keeping track of them, to the point where I actually considered starting a little stack of notes next to me but then I figured if I have to do that, I am done with the book because no book is worth that kind of time. I have an entire shelf of books to read and very little time and my brain is slow. It's hard to write a review for a Gaiman book because I can tell you what this book has in it: it has the weird cast of characters, it has coin tricks, it has a road trip of sorts, it has a man with a dead wife, but the dead wife kind of visits him as a ghosts, there's a guy kind of swallowed by a vagina, there's a buffalo man, the book is creepy and totally weird, but even with all of that, it doesn't tell you what any of it was really about? If that makes any sense? It's Gaiman's strange little love letter to America. It's easily the strangest book I have ever read in my life. Hands down. 

Of course, you're going to have to pick this up for yourself and you can do so on the HarperCollins website, or on Amazon. Don't forget the show is airing on STARZ, and of course I can't watch it so I'm hoping eventually it'll make it's way onto Netflix or something. Crossing my fingers!!