2698452's blog: "There's A Palace In Your Head Boy..."

I just finished this novel a little while ago.  I wish it had been longer.  I think that's the best compliment I can give to a novel.  I wanted more, because the characters and the world they inhabit became something special to me.

I've liked Neil Gaiman's work for a while now, having read his Sandman comics as well as other work he's done in the comic medium.  This was the first full novel of his that I've read (not counting Good Omens with Terry Pratchett) and he is even more amazing than I already thought he was.

Hi writing, for lack of a more eloquent word, is beautiful.  He's an artist with words.  In the past with his work I've had other artists doing the seeing of his work for me.  When left up to me, it felt like a privilege to turn his words into my own images in my head.  I can't wait to read more of his novels.

American Gods is the story of a man named Shadow whose world falls apart and as a result gets pulled into an arrangement with a man named Wednesday who needs a bodyguard and errand boy.  Soon Shadow is exposed to a world just hidden beneath our own, and discovers what happened to the gods of old when they were brought to America by their believers.

I really enjoyed this tale, and what really set it apart were the characters.  I really identified with the main character.  He's a shadow of my own personality if you'll pardon the pun.  Holding things in is a talent of mine.

There are a ton of brilliant characters in this book, and an America that you didn't even know was there.  I have this urge to go on a road trip and see some of these places that I never even knew existed...and see if reality is just a little thinner there.

Read this.