American Gods

American Gods is a slow burn of a story. I can see why some people have given up on it. Even 3/4 of the way through I didn't understand totally what was going on, but sensed that the pieces would come together in the end. And that's exactly what happened. Sticking it out until the end is SO worth it. The story seems to have all these pieces that don't have any weight to them. Just a series of events, until the last part of the book where it is all revealed and things that seemed to be random, aren't so random and are revealed to be much more significant to the whole story than I originally thought. The twists and turns and mythic scale that it ascends too in the end was really amazing storytelling and thoroughly satisfying in the end.
The book may not be for everyone, it is quite dark and atmospheric and weird at times, but I kind of enjoyed that aspect of it.
As far as urban fantasy goes, this is far superior to the bulk of what's out there. Today the term ‘urban fantasy' has become related to stories of vampires, werewolves and supernatural creatures prowling the streets of modern cities and that ‘special' someone fighting them for us lesser mortals. Some of them are really good and fun, but a huge portion of them are shotty knock offs. American Gods is truly in a category all its own. This is what urban fantasy should be. Truly unique and well told story and characters that I won't soon forget. Well worth reading if your tired of the usual urban fantasy fair, or even if your just looking for something really good and different and mythical on a whole new level.