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leapyear_reader's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.75
It feels as if i have taken an extraordinary roadtrip through Gaiman’s inner woorkings of his imagination and source of creativity. A book filled with complex, layered characters, each compelling enough to be a protogonist, yet Gaiman slices through tales and trips like butter on pancakes served in a motel diner.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death, Child death, Death, Gun violence, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual content, Slavery, Violence, Murder, and War
Moderate: Genocide, Gore, Suicidal thoughts, Vomit, Kidnapping, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Miscarriage and Car accident
madradstarchild's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Animal death, Child death, Death, Violence, Alcohol, and War
Minor: Cancer, Confinement, Drug use, Genocide, Gore, Gun violence, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Blood, Excrement, Vomit, Car accident, Death of parent, Murder, Gaslighting, Colonisation, and Classism
vulturetime's review against another edition
3.0
I don’t know if it’s the weird phase I’m in right now with reading or this book, but I was less interested in the story and more in the implications. But with the implications come a lot of questions that remain largely unanswered and frankly, I cared more about those questions than the plot.
For example, the gods in America include versions of the gods of immigrants (Norse, Egyptian, Indian are the most common ones). There are also a few entities from various Native American tribes mentioned, the biggest one being the thunderbirds. Considering this set up, I was interested in how it worked at all, because there are definitely people who believe in the aforementioned pantheons outside of the US. An answer got hinted at at the end but it really doesn’t cover the question.
Additionally, the fact that God was not present was a bit... interesting. With the implications of the book, the God of Christianity versus the God of Judaism versus the God of Islam would all be different entities, in a sense. How does that account for different branches of these religions, is what I wonder. Is the reason no monotheistic God was mentioned was because there were enough believers so that didn’t include them in the “war”? Then that implies that Hinduism doesn’t have enough followers, since iirc Kali was one of the “American” gods in the book that was facing decline. Like there are a lot of logistics that I wish had been fleshed out a bit more instead of a so called war that... didn’t really happen?
Oh and also there are many trickster gods across many cultures and the fact that it was Loki (and technically Odin) who tricked them all is a bit weird to me? There are a lot of gods that feed on chaos so why was it just these two? And I think a missed opportunity was examining how media changed the perception of gods. We saw it with Easter but with not much else.
For example, the gods in America include versions of the gods of immigrants (Norse, Egyptian, Indian are the most common ones). There are also a few entities from various Native American tribes mentioned, the biggest one being the thunderbirds. Considering this set up, I was interested in how it worked at all, because there are definitely people who believe in the aforementioned pantheons outside of the US. An answer got hinted at at the end but it really doesn’t cover the question.
Additionally, the fact that God was not present was a bit... interesting. With the implications of the book, the God of Christianity versus the God of Judaism versus the God of Islam would all be different entities, in a sense. How does that account for different branches of these religions, is what I wonder. Is the reason no monotheistic God was mentioned was because there were enough believers so that didn’t include them in the “war”? Then that implies that Hinduism doesn’t have enough followers, since iirc Kali was one of the “American” gods in the book that was facing decline. Like there are a lot of logistics that I wish had been fleshed out a bit more instead of a so called war that... didn’t really happen?
Oh and also
Content Warnings
Moderate: Sexual content
Minor: Genocide, Racial slurs, Racism, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, and Antisemitism
There are a few scenes in which there’s sexual content (esp in the beginning) though they are longer scenes; The n-word is used twice by one person in the beginning; the racism and anti Semitism comes with a character who only appears once, and it’s just by the description that that character is “scared” of black people and Jews; anti Semitism is also brought up because there’s a paragraph about the Holocaust and concentration camps; suicidal thoughts and language only appears twice iirc, and there’s one part where someone gives himself up to supposedly die; there’s also a part in one paragraph where a character is flirting with a waitress and is told “C’mon. She looks barely legal” and that character replies with “I’ve never been overly concerned about legality”; genocide is for the mention of the Holocaust and the Trail of Tears; there’s an interlude chapter that follows a pair of siblings sold into slavery. It also includes mention of rape and underage sex.