This book is fantastic. I'm still trying to wrap my brain around how wonderful it is and everything that happened, so pardon me if this review is a bit jumbled. There's a lot going on in my head.
First of all, Gaiman's imaginings of what American gods are like is brilliant and somewhat terrifying. I appreciated that, in addition to old world gods like Anasasi and Odin, Gaiman included Media and Technology. Each god is incredibly unique and multi-faceted and each god has complex relationships with other gods - and with their own image and existence. I could never have imagined up so many interesting characters (and fit them into American society so well), which is probably why I didn't write this book (I was also a wee lass when it came out, so there's that).
Next, Shadow is incredible. He seems so simple on the surface, and yet is so complicated when it comes down to it. And Shadow and Laura's relationship is one of the best I've read in years. I love how complex it is and how they struggle to continue loving and watching out for each other. Their marriage obviously isn't perfect (and becomes more complicated with Laura being dead and all), but their relationship is, in some ways, far more realistic than most relationship I've read recently.
And in the end, Gaiman wrapped everything up so succinctly and beautifully. I had honestly forgotten about some aspects of the story until Gaiman wrapped them up in the end. And it was perfect.
Best of all, this book lent itself to some hilarious conversations when I tried to talk to people about it. For example, look at this bit with the husband:
"Ohmygosh. This part is never going to end."
"Hm?"
"So this girl thinks this guy might be a serial killer and he told her he's not, but that she might not believe him, so she's listing everything silly she believes in and it goes on for pages."
"So is he a serial killer?"
"No. His wife killed them for him."
"So she's a serial killer?"
"No. She's dead."
"So she killed them before she died?"
"No, she was dead when she killed them."
".....I'm not sure how that works. And she's still not a serial killer?"
"No. She was already dead, so it matters less that she killed them. *pause* It's complicated."
I love having these sorts of conversations about books, so this absolutely delighted me (and helped convince the husband to perhaps read it...)
This book is fantastic and I definitely understand all the hype. Recommended for everyone, but especially for fantasy readers.