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American Gods by Neil Gaiman | review

Stars: ★★★

Summary: Shadow is let out of prison early after his wife dies in a car accident. With no one left for him in the aftermath of her death, he accepts work for a mysterious man called Wednesday. Work that has him travel across the U.S and meet many interesting people.  

also posted on storygraph

This is my third time trying to read American Gods, and this time I succeeded. I will say it’s because it’s an audiobook and I just casually listened whenever I walked my dog. Nevertheless, this really didn’t hit the mark for me.

First off, I didn’t really like the audiobook. It was fine, despite hearing it with a full cast it didn’t stand out to me (I did love Neil Gaiman coming in and narrating parts of it tho, and will say that any Neil Gaiman book is better told in his voice because you can tell he wrote it when he reads it). Second off, the first time I tried reading this book I got maybe 50 pages in. The second time I got a little bit further, but not very far.

And I should’ve realized that this book wasn’t for me. I absolutely love Neil Gaiman and have read some of his books and loved most of them. I like his writing style and the way his stories are fantastically absurd. He has this knack for storytelling that I, quite frankly, envy. However, this book lacked a lot of that.

Whilst I loved the thought behind it and found the concept very intriguing, it lacked something for me. The gods themselves are interesting enough and there’s many reasons to listen to their stories, but it fell short of what I expected. I was also told that the ending would make the whole book worth it, and yet the ending was annoyingly anticlimactic.

This was, unfortunately, one of those books I read and only come out of thinking ‘well, I read a book’. To me, there’s nothing special about it, and that kind of sucks considering the stories I know Gaiman can tell.

I do have the second book in this series (I did buy it not knowing it was a series, but my understanding is that they’re kind of standalones within a series, please correct me if I’m wrong), and I will read that. Maybe it’s not for me either, but because the author is Neil Gaiman I will give it a shot.

But this is also a PSA that if a book doesn’t work for you the first time around, chances are even if you end up finishing it in the future, your intuition that it wasn't for you was probably right.

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The Final Empire by Branon Sanderson | review

Stars: ★★★★★

Summary:  In a land ruled by evil, the people have been suppressed to the point of losing hope. However, a rebellion stirs underneath the surface. With the plan of a criminal, will what seems like a longshot really be enough to overthrow the current regime?

also posted on storygraph

It took me a while to decide to start reading Brandon Sanderson, and if I remember correctly, I only bought the boxed set with the Mistborn trilogy last year. For this, I am ashamed.

Despite a few annoyances with the writing in some instances, I was floored by how much I liked this book. I wasn’t grasped as I read the prologue, but from the first few pages of the first chapter, I was hooked.

This is a story full of intrigue, with great characters that I couldn’t help but fall in love with. The worldbuilding is immaculate and drew me in from the first few mentions. Sanderson’s way of explaining things in little tidbits of information disguised as a conversation was perfect. I kept wanting them to show up because every little bit of information, whether about a carefully and well-crafted magic system, or the ways the world within works was fantastically interesting. 

I have seen a review saying that the book seems like someones’ D&D fantasy in novel form, and that is one of the things I loved about it. The fact that there’s rhyme and reason to everything that happens, like some kind of a very full-scale heist, made me more excited than I can possibly explain. Not only that, but when you’ve reached the end and you think back to all those little pieces you saw, everything makes sense and you realize how great the foreshadowing is. Fantastically done.

This is what I want from a story. To be fully immersed enough that I sit up until 5 am to finish it because I have only 150 pages left and I cannot put it down because I need to know what happens. I realized, reading this book, it’s something I’ve missed.

 I should have picked up Sanderson long ago, because if the rest of his books are as good as this one, I have so many good stories to read in the future and I can’t wait to read them all. 

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The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman | review

Stars: ★★★★★

Summary: A middle-aged man drives to the pond at the end of the lane where he used to live and recalls forty-year old memories of his childhood. A dark fairytale about childhood, friendship, and the bittersweetness of it all being over.

also posted on storygraph

Neil Gaiman has a way with words that I envy. Not only does his writing flow, but his descriptions are just enough for my imagination to run wild. This book is a twisted fantasy that cover up a horror story underneath. I have never underlined as many things as I have in this book.The descriptions were constantly inflicting something in me. I will also say that reading this with Elise Hurst's illustrations created an even darker and eerie atmosphere that made the book come to life. They were vague and dark, but somehow exactly what I had imagined myself. It's like a nostalgic fairytale I don't actually want to re-experience, but I know it's what made me who I am. I don't think I've ever read anything that has the same grasp of what childhood entails as this book does. 

It's one of those books that I will never be able to describe to someone, but it will stay with me for a long time. It's definitely my favorite Gaiman book so far.

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[ladybugsbookishcorner]

ladybug’s bookish corner

‘00 | they/them comparative lit student 

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the ocean at the end of the lane by neil gaiman the final empire by brandon sanderson

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Stories edited by Neil Gaiman and Al Sarrantonio The Well of Ascension by Brandon Sanderson

some extra info

🕮 for the most part my reviews are spoiler free, and if it happens that I write something that does spoil, I will put a warning 🕮 every review is also up on storygraph 🕮 i dont have a set way i write reviews so they’re gonna mostly sound like ramblings, bc i mostly write reviews for myself 🕮 i made this to be able to talk about books with people who read the same as me, because there’s not a lot of common ground outside of the cirriculum and there’s a severe lack of discussions, so please hit me up with a recommendation, ask me a question, i am very interested in hearing other peoples thoughts

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