count no man happy until he is dead
Jun. 20th, 2010 10:28 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
metonomiaJust finished reading American Gods. I....am not sure what I think? It will require a rereading. Gorgeous, freaky stuff. I love it, of course - all the tripping across lines of pantheon and culture and dreams and life is fabulous. But somehow I'm left just feeling blank at the end of it. I figured out about 100 or so pages ago that Wednesday and Loki were pulling a double cross, so while the conclusion was still wonderful, I wonder if I was supposed to be more surprised by it than I was? Only, the violin trick was so obviously going to come back into the story that I started looking for it, and then once Low Key became Loki...
So I don't really know. I loved reading it, and I'll love rereading it, and I'll love discussing it, but I'm somehow not as blown away by it as I expected. I didn't even find myself as shocked by it as I expected to be. I guess I already knew about the whole Bilquis thing, so that wasn't a shock, and, hmm...the Laura thing was rather disturbing and thought provoking, but it was such a continuous, developed thing that I wasn't really bothered by it. Honestly, I think I was most shaken by the yearly sacrifice of children than any of the rest of it - and I think that's because that was the most realistic part. Of course it was ultimately revealed to be connected to the old divinity, but it was kids. Being taken. Which I've been thinking about anyway because of the recent conclusion to the highly publicized trial in my area for the woman who kidnapped, sexually assaulted, killed, and stuffed a little girl into a suitcase. This shit actually happens, and so the salesman could be having sex with the jinn and Bast could be pulling Shadow's heart out etc, but that stuff just didn't bother me half as much as the little girl who would have grown up to be beautiful but who instead got frozen in a car trunk all winter.
All in all, an amazing book. I kind of can't wait to read it again, even though I have a whole pile of other stuff to read. And, Herodotus. <333
In other news, my parents spent a good portion of this evening talking at me about how I'm lazy and need to exercise, else I'll get diabetes. So, I guess I need to figure that out. Bleh.
So I don't really know. I loved reading it, and I'll love rereading it, and I'll love discussing it, but I'm somehow not as blown away by it as I expected. I didn't even find myself as shocked by it as I expected to be. I guess I already knew about the whole Bilquis thing, so that wasn't a shock, and, hmm...the Laura thing was rather disturbing and thought provoking, but it was such a continuous, developed thing that I wasn't really bothered by it. Honestly, I think I was most shaken by the yearly sacrifice of children than any of the rest of it - and I think that's because that was the most realistic part. Of course it was ultimately revealed to be connected to the old divinity, but it was kids. Being taken. Which I've been thinking about anyway because of the recent conclusion to the highly publicized trial in my area for the woman who kidnapped, sexually assaulted, killed, and stuffed a little girl into a suitcase. This shit actually happens, and so the salesman could be having sex with the jinn and Bast could be pulling Shadow's heart out etc, but that stuff just didn't bother me half as much as the little girl who would have grown up to be beautiful but who instead got frozen in a car trunk all winter.
All in all, an amazing book. I kind of can't wait to read it again, even though I have a whole pile of other stuff to read. And, Herodotus. <333
In other news, my parents spent a good portion of this evening talking at me about how I'm lazy and need to exercise, else I'll get diabetes. So, I guess I need to figure that out. Bleh.
