American Gods, a review

This tome of a book, American Gods by Neil Gaiman, had sat on my physical tbr for quite a few years. My partner read it a couple years back and really liked it, and some other friends have enjoyed it. Olivia and Hannah read it more recently and despised it. So I thought it was about time I picked it up and determined which side I fell on!

Annoyingly? I ended up being pretty damn neutral about this book. I didn’t hate it. But I also didn’t love it. Yeah I know, frustrating.

I did think that the various gods we met throughout the book were fascinating. I adored learning more about them and seeing how Gaiman interwove traditional worship into the narrative. I also enjoyed a little mystery section we get resolved right at the end of the book (no spoilers of course).

On the negative side of things, however, there was absolutely no character progression. None. Zero. Zilch. Our protagonist goes through some weird fucking shit, and yet he barely changes at all. He doesn’t become a better person, nor worse, not even just different. He’s exactly the same. And there are quite a few points where big reveals are made to him about people/events that he cares about, and he doesn’t seem to react? He seems numb to absolutely everything.

In terms of representation, there was some LGBT+ rep through the book, gods from various different cultures and not just white/western gods, as well as some feminist messages. Conversely, there were also some sexist moments through the book, some of the representations of the gods felt a little too stereotypical, and there is some controversial language use in here (the N word is used, I personally don’t agree with a non-Black author using this, even if it “fits with the character(s)).

Another balancing scale of thoughts. The writing style. It personally didn’t engage me, I think think the writing was particularly good. But. The content was so interesting that I continuously picked up the book to read more than I planned because I wanted to know what happened next.

On CAWPILE I rated this: Characters: 6, Atmosphere: 5, Writing: 6, Plot: 6, Intrigue: 6, Logic: 7, and Enjoyment: 6 which gives a score of 6.00 and a 3.5* rating.

Apparently I just wanted to agree with everyone? Both the people who loved it and those who didn’t?! This was just such a weird experience for me, I’ve never been so in the middle ground in this way. Have you read American Gods? What did you think of it? Add to my ever-weirdening thoughts on this tome!

Highlight here for trigger warnings: adultery, death, incarceration, murder, prostitution, racism.

March Reading Wrap Up 2022

Somehow I had an absolutely amazing reading month in March! I have no clue how I managed it but I’m not about to complain! I also managed to get through three of the magazines that I’ve had for a while now. One from the Geological Society, one is Scientific America, and the last is Nature’s Home. I’m not counting them for Balancing the Books, but I’m still glad that I’ve been making it a priority to slowly get through them.

Now onto the actual books!

The first book I finished was American Gods by Neil Gaiman, which took me absolutely forever to get through! Okay I’m exaggerating but it took me a fair few days, 15 in total. And in the end? The book was just fine. Just… fine. I didn’t hate it like some of my friends, I didn’t love it like others. It was just quite bland.

Then I finished Super Volcanoes by Robin George Andrews which is 100% a five star read! It’s a beautiful non-fiction and I’m so glad that I read it! It’s hilarious (and I’ve had confirmed from a US friend that the humour is very very British) as well as really informative and interesting. If you’ve ever been intrigued about volcanoes? This is the book to pick up.

The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater is a book I’ve been meaning to read for so long, and Olivia-Savannah has been waiting with baited breath for me to try. I really enjoyed it! I adore the relationships through the whole book and I’m definitely continuing with the series because I need to know more!

Next up is a book that I got a lot of jip for enjoying, The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V.E. Schwab. Don’t get me wrong this is really not a work of remarkable literature. I can see so many issues with it. But at the same time I really enjoyed reading it and didn’t want to put it down each day. It just worked for me!

Then I ended up DNFing Three Sisters, Three Queens by Philippa Gregory which was such a pity. I read just under 200 pages of this and the topic itself was absolutely fascinating. But I just really didn’t enjoy how Gregory was creating Margaret, and disappointed that there was only one POV for this book instead of three. I’m just going to research the events myself.

I actually finished my next book, which was I Am A Cat by Sōseki Natsume, a translated Japanese classic. I went into this with the wrong expectations, I didn’t realise that this was going to be very much focused on society in early-1900s Japan and less so on the Cat. Once I’d realised and accepted this, I enjoyed it a lot more. I can’t wait to hear what my partner thinks of this one!

Smiler’s Fair by Rebecca Levene is a book that’s been on my tbr since about 2016, and I’ve never heard anyone talk about it. I have no clue why because it’s a fantastic fantasy! Death, gore, LGBT+ rep, and I’m 100% continuing with this trilogy!

And then for a trilogy that I’ve finally finished, Cathy’s Ring by Stewart, Weisman, and Brigg which is a supernatural/contemporary filled with mixed media. I really enjoyed this series and I’m sad that it’s over! I would’ve loved to see more from these characters. But at the same time I really enjoyed where we finished.

Gifted to me from Olivia-Savannah’s unhaul is Mrs Death Misses Death by Salena Godden which I think I need to reread. This had some great messages within it, but some of it seemed really uncohesive and like it could’ve done with another few rounds of editing. I think a reread could allow me to solidify my thoughts on this one.

The Illumicrate Discord buddy read was A River Enchanted by Rebecca Ross this month and I really enjoyed it! I’d been so worried about an American writing about Scottish people, but she seems to have done her research and this was a fun read. There were a couple of issues that brought it down to a 4 star but I definitely want to continue with the duology!

The Guest Cat by Takashi Hiraide was exactly what I expected I Am A Cat to be and I adored it. It was beautiful, I loved reading about Chibi and his humans. It was a gorgeous look into humanity and love for nature and the wild.

Second to last I read Champion by Marie Lu, the last book in the Legend trilogy. This isn’t fantastic, it’s nothing special, but all the same it was enjoyable and I’m glad I’ve finished up the series and that it ended how it did.

And last, but never least of course, is Dead or Alive by Derek Landy, the second to last ever Skulduggery Pleasant book. This was such a fun reread for me because I only read it for the first time last year. It’s also a wild book (yes even by Skulduggery standards) and a lot of fun to read.

And that’s it! Those are all the books I read in March 2022! I managed 5373 pages, which is my highest page count so far this year, and it’s higher than any of my months reading in 2021! Absolutely ridiculous, no wonder I felt like I was reading so much!

What did you manage to read this month? Tell me about any stand outs, whether good or bad!

My March Hopefuls!

I struggled to narrow down my TBR this month, I wanted to put so so many books on the list! But eventually I managed to narrow it down so let’s dive into the list.

First up I of course will be carrying on reading my chapter a day of The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas along with Olivia from Olivia’s Catastrophe. We’re both really enjoying our read of this (although a little less so in recent days) and we’re excited to see where the story goes next.

Then I am finally going to finish Fall of Giants by Ken Follett. I started this damn book in 2018? 2019? I can’t remember, but it’s taken me an age to get through. I really struggled with big books back then and it shows. But now I don’t have much issue with them so I want to get this finished off! I’ve got about 150 pages of this to read (at a guess) and hopefully that’ll be it finally done and dusted!

Of course I’m wanting to do my Skulduggery Pleasant reread of Dead or Alive by Derek Landy. This is the most recent Skulduggery novel and due to Until the End having its release date pushed back the Dead Famous Readalong has matched up nicely.

I always read the Illumicrate book of the month before too. I won’t say what it is here cause spoilers, and truth be told I’ve not gotten the box yet as I write this. But I think I know what the book is and I’m excited to read it along with the Discord group at the end of the month.

Next up I want to read Super Volcanoes by Robin George Andrews which is a non-fiction book. As you might know I adore volcanology (and focused on an aspect of that for my MSc thesis) so I’m super excited to delve into this book that was gifted to me by my MIL.

The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V.E. Schwab has been on my physical tbr for a few months and my overall tbr since I heard about it. So it’s high time I finally read it! I’ve heard very mixed things about this one and I’m still undecided about Schwab from the other writing I’ve read so it’ll be interesting to see with this one.

Another long time tbr-er is The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater. This YA fantasy with ghosts and friendship is one that’s been raved about for years online and it’s time for me to delve in and see what I think.

American Gods by Neil Gaiman is one that I’d been putting off for a few years because of how big it is (600+ pages) but I’m vastly better with longer books now. Also I’ve heard mixed things, with some in my “real” life stating that this is a brilliant book, and some of my online bookish friends saying it’s one of the worst things they’ve ever read. Might as well dive in while the intrigue is hot!

Then I’m wanting to finally finish up a series with Cathy’s Ring by Stewart, Weisman and Brigg. This is a series I bought way back when (no seriously, in like 2013 or earlier) and I want to be able to tick off! It’s a fun series too with immortal beings and doodles on every page. This should be a nice quick read.

Second last and we’ve got I Am A Cat by Natsume Soseki which was one of the books my boyfriend got me this past Christmas. It’s the first “Japanese cat book” and he bought me three of the other books that were inspired by this one so I’m wanting to read the original first! It’s reasonably long which is a little intimidating for a translated book but I’m hoping that I’ll love it.

And finally. I own this book in paperback but I think I’m going to read it via audiobook, and that’s Champion by Marie Lu. Another finishing book in a trilogy, it would be nice to cross this one off the list and seeing as I have it on audiobook I can listen while I work.

And that’s the stupidly big tbr I’ve made for myself for March! Do you think I’ll manage it? Have you read any of these? What books do you want to read in March? Let me know in the comments!!