What a letdown. Man was this ending disappointing. If the lackluster final battle wasn't enough, the story ends with a whimper rather than a bang. I was afraid of this the most. Usually if a book is this long it has some lame ass ending. And what do you know? This had the same problem too. This is just from personal experience though. Maybe I need to read better books?
The way this ended at least for me just did not make the long journey it took to read this book worth it in the end. All of this build up, all of this fanfare, all of this originality and twisting of genre conventions for an open ended and lame conclusion. The only way it could have ended worse for me was if it ended with a sequel bait denouement.
So why do I think the ending sucks so much? Here is why.
The whole subplot about bringing Laura back to life at any cost? Not mentioned again throughout the book and really could have ended the story with a nice bow and would have been a lot more appealing. Plus the whole reason and truth behind the kid stealing plotline I thought was lame. So this guy or god Hinzemann protects the town by taking its children and killing them? What the hell? Who the hell would make that deal? What are these townspople deaf and dumb? I don't care if it is a god. I am not sacrificng my kid so my town can be safe. This whole plot point was just really ridiculous to me, even for a novel about living gods in the USA. I frankly felt it was ludicrious and a really lame conclusion to that part of the story. Shadow's anti climatic defeat of the God didn't help matters much either.
Then came even more unnecessary plot points that seemed to have been drawn out of thin air much like Sweeney's coins in his coin trick. Multiple incarnations of Odin? Gaiman just got lazy there. What? No new god? Just another version of Odin? Really, really lame dude. And then the whole novel ends with Shadow doing a coin trick for this second Odin? Really? That's it?
Over 500 pages and that is what you are rewarded with for your troubles? A lame ass final battle that left absolutely zero impact on me, a lame reveal of the missing children storyline's true motivations, and a coin trick for an ending for the audience of another Odin who showed up out of freaking nowhere?
Shame on you Neil Gaiman. Shame on you.
This was a boring limp ending to a rather boring and dull book. It wasn't completely pointless, at the end of the day I was glad I read it once for some really clever interpretations and uses of gods and goddesses but the story failed in its execution. Especially the ending. Which really just kinda stops. That's it. Shadow does a coin trick and heads down a hill. No resolution, no lessons learned, no nothing. At least this is how I interpereted it anyway. Overall would I recommend this book? Not really. Only for die hard Neil Gaiman fans and people who are deeply interested into Mythology. But for the everyday reader? Nope. Too long, too dull, and it has a shitty ending that really doesn't make all the 500 pages or so worth reading in the first place.
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