The Urban Fantasy of Neil Gaiman's American Gods

I was excited about the genre of urban fantasy, probably because several television shows that I’ve watched falls into that category. Reading Neil Gaiman’s American Gods and watching his talk about genre during class, I learned about what defines a genre, and realized the elements of a story and genre that I prefer that is the characteristic of urban fantasy.

When I first read American Gods, the vibe that I felt from the storyline was like Shadowhunters, a television show that I’ve watched on Netflix. Taking place in modern day America, dealing with another realm that is separated from the human world, and a main character who has no knowledge of this realm until they are pulled into it; American Gods and Shadowhunters have many things in common, which I felt were the major elements that drew my attention into it.

The novel starts with Shadow Moon, a prisoner who has just been released. His identity as an ex-convict puts him in a situation of going through a new start, which apparently is his transition into the world of gods. The author uses Shadow’s current stage in life as an opening to the world of American gods, which is the world he has established overtly in the title of the book. While mostly the story of gods that I’ve read in the past are ancient Greek or European gods in the form of folk tales and legends, the fresh setting of an urban country nowadays gave wit to the novel. It is fun to see gods sitting in a first class seat on a plane, sleeping in motels, and roaming around America inside a van. Them dissolving into a modern city also makes it easier for us to connect to many things that are going on in the novel, and therefore gives a more human feeling to the character of gods. Something that is easier for us to relate gives a more familiar connection to the readers. This is what I believe Neil Gaiman is suggesting as the main characteristic of urban fantasy. In fact, watching his talk really told me that he put a lot of his own voice - not only his writing style but his own characteristic as a person - into his novels which I bet enhanced the elements that define the genre.