American Gods by Neil Gaiman
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
This was a very fun book. The layering and interweaving of the stories felt a tad contrived, but that didn’t take away from my enjoyment following Shadow through his various adventures.
There were some interesting ideas about America and Americans, about faith and what we as a culture hold sacred, and what the sacred becomes when we forget its origins and follow only the ritual (or when we forget even the ritual). There was also a lot about the nature of sacrifice. And, of course, some walking corpses and giant spiders.
Incidentally, I was thinking that Mr Nancy ought to join Toastmasters. I think he would enjoy getting up and telling his stories and getting applause from the group.
Imperfect Happiness 
Coraline is his most disturbing book, in my opinion. If you like Mr. Nancy you should definitely read Anansi Boys or listen to the audiobook performed by Lenny Henry. He does an amazing job with all of the voices.
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I LOVED The Graveyard Game. Have you read it? Too scary for Ian, but a fabulous book, no wonder it won the Newberry.
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I’ve only read Coraline and this one of Gaiman’s, although I’ve got a bunch more on my list. He’s a little too scary for me sometimes, but his books are so much more than straight-up horror. For example, Coraline was pretty disturbing, but the themes of “good mother” and “evil mother” really reflected what I was reading at the time in Marion Woodman’s Addiction to Perfection. That overlap was very satisfying. There was overlap with something I was reading around the time of American Gods, too…I can’t remember now what that was. The point, though, is that his scary stories are more than just scary stories, and I like that.
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