I feel conflicted about this book. On the one hand- it was so simple and yet so brilliant. Of course gods only live because someone somewhere worshipped them. Of course they die as people stop worshipping them. I love that Wednesday and Low-Key were kind of the focus here. They were a topic I was familiar enough with that reading it was so much fun. 
 I enjoyed all the other gods of course. Mr. Nancy and Czernobog, Mr. Ibis and Jacqual, and mad Horus and Mad Sweeney. I thought the "new" gods were also clever. I guess my main problem was that it all started so promising and kind of led up to some anti-climactic conclusion. Shadow was also fun to read. He was called "big and dumb" throughout, the reader knows he's anything but dumb, yet that image of big dumb Shadow somehow persisted. 
 I loved the storytelling, the effort that went into the research, the characters, I just think the plot felt like it was supposed to be so much more than it was. At the beginning it feels like the story is going to be epic, and at the end it felt like all the epic was wasted, like it was all for nothing. You never really knew what the story was building to, but you kind of just felt like it was supposed to be big, and then when you reach the climax you are left with an empty hollow feeling that perhaps you missed something. Perhaps the story was above you. Perhaps you gave it too much credit. I don't know- maybe someday I'll read it again and change my mind. I'll read it slower and savor the details and try to see all the things I would have paid attention to the first time had I known where the story was going.