gossamer_lens's Reviews (1.48k)

I had a hard time with this book because I found the world and politics intriguing. But there was so much to wade through that nothing about the book ever really grabbed me and made me focus. The characters overall were all sorta uninteresting to me. Especially the main character. The main character experiences a death of a person very close to her in the beginning and it felt like the only humanizing thing about her. The rest of the book however things are happening and they are crazy and she just sorta goes along with it with little to no reaction. It's just sort of... Boring. Calling it quits more then halfway into the books feels really difficult for me. But when the other half is still 400 pages with this main character... I just can't. I have to call it quits. 

I will never get enough of mythology. I especially love Norse Mythology. I like how it leans into the Gods being both right and wrong, wise and foolish. Unlike Greek Myths which paint the Gods as never wrong because they are the Gods, Norse mythology accepts that the Gods are often wrong. In the end, they will get their comeuppance and everything will begin anew. 

Gaiman adds a stunning narrative voice to these tales and in several places introduces interesting details from various sources. The audiobook is especially enjoyable as he reads it himself. I will never get enough of his writing and his reading us his writing. 

I read this in the fall of 2018 for a Russian literature class. I truly enjoyed the book and our class analysis of it back then. 

I re-read this book in 2022 with my parents. It is such an odd book full of mystery, confusion, and metaphor. Reading this book is unlike reading anything else I've ever read. But the ending... the ending is killer. The book holds space for exploration of very real, deep, and even traumatic subjects... but wrapped up in absurdist art. I love it. It's solid and it is a book that I thought about frequently after reading it. It was a pleasure to share it with people I love and who hold similar life moments that this book reminded me of.

I was reading this while babysitting and just ended up never finishing it.