Neil Gaiman's hidden gem in American Gods

That‘s what turned me off of the book, actually. I already didn‘t like Gaimans writing style after quitting Neverwhere halfway through (and attempting to read Norse Mythology, which reads genuinely like a childrens book IMO. Dialogue and everything just so weirdly modernized.)

I tried American Gods, and pretty much immediately we‘re introduced to Mr. Wednesday. Maybe it‘s just because i coincidentally knew that beforehand, but it‘s a book about gods and this guy is literally named after the one day of the week that is also named after Odin. Let‘s see, who could it possibly be? I get that it probably wasn‘t supposed to be hard to figure out (especially Loki, like - Low-Key „Lie“smith, really?) but i quit that book then and there.

I just felt that, if he wanted to hide the first big „twist“ behind such a flimsy excuse for a disguise, things weren‘t gonna get much more elaborate later on. They‘re literally gods, surely they would pick a better name than the one that would literally point a neon sign at them that says in bright letters „look, this is odin/loki“ to anyone who did 5 minutes of looking it up on wikipedia. And please don‘t say „oh, but they were just being cheeky“. So many of Gaimans characters are cheeky. It would even fit for Loki, but please let wise old Odin be wise old Odin, not some wiseguy who thinks he‘s got everyone fooled. And yes, i did quickly read up on the rest of the plot just to see if it sounds interesting - it does (and yes i realize what my previous sentence implied.)! But i just couldn‘t bring myself to get any further.

I really want to like Gaiman, and i would love if one of his fans could give me some counterarguments to consider. I‘m itching to try his books again, but i‘m sure i‘ll just fall into the same old criticisms again if i try.

/r/books Thread