Beginning and end are good, but the second part is a draaaaaag. Nearly considered dropping the book during the Lakeside quagmire. I don't mind less action packed or "slow" parts in books if it builds character (either of the actual characters or setting), but it had none of that and Gaiman's prose isn't good enough to just enjoy what he's spinning. 
 The climax was also a bit anticlimactic. The big players just sort of let things happen without doing anything to stop plans being foiled, which was a bit of a let down for me. 
 Some things Gaiman got pretty spot on about rural America, such as atmosphere, which was pretty nice to soak into. But the way rural people speak across the United States is quite different in different pockets of the landscape and he never really catches any of those local flavors here. The people of Lakeside speak like folk from any generic urban center, which I rather doubt would be the case. So the rural people Shadow is meeting ring false to me when they were talking. Which is a shame, because I think all the different colloquialisms and accents (to me) are some of the joys of rural America. 
 Overall, I think most times the ideas in this book are better than Gaiman's execution of them. Some really good ideas, and Gaiman really excels at the supernatural and dream sequences, but they are too few and far between.