Line #150 Literature/AmericanGods


1	[[quoteright:200:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/200px-American_gods_587.jpg]]
2
3	->''"I know it's crooked, but it's the only game in town."''
4	-->-- '''Canada Bill Jones'''
5
6	A 2001 novel by Creator/NeilGaiman, interesting for its examination of the intersection between myth and Americana.
7
8	After a three-year prison term following an assault conviction, a man known only as Shadow is ready to be released back into society. He isn't a bad man and wants little more than to go back to his beloved wife Laura, get a job at his friend's gym and live a quiet, simple life. Unfortunately, things are not that simple: Shortly before being released, Shadow discovers that Laura was killed in a car accident alongside the aforementioned friend and gets out early. At loose ends in the world, Shadow finds himself sharing a flight with a seedy old con man who asks to be called Mr. Wednesday. Wednesday is strangely interested in Shadow, and offers to hire him on as a bodyguard and accomplice; Shadow, with nothing left of his old life and nothing better to do, agrees.
9
10	Shadow runs errands for Wednesday and travels into the very heart of America, visiting its small towns and meeting its people and its [[TheOldGods old, forgotten gods]], struggling to stay relevant in the modern era. But unbeknownst to him, he has a much larger role in the oncoming conflict than he thinks...
11
12	The book is interspersed at various points with stories of immigrants who brought their gods and their beliefs to America with them, and the gods themselves have integrated just as well as their former worshipers. The novel elevates the ordinary and the everyday to mythic status, finding significance in the smallest of things. This quality is exemplified by its protagonist, Shadow, who is both the eternal everyman and something more, something special.
13
14	There is a spinoff sequel, ''Literature/AnansiBoys'', focusing on Anansi's son(s) in the wake of Anansi's "death".
15
16	Shadow's own story is continued in two novellas: "The Monarch of the Glen" (collected in ''Fragile Things'') and "Black Dog" (published in ''Trigger Warning''). A short story that predates ''American Gods'', "Keepsakes and Treasures" (also collected in ''Fragile Things'') has a place in the novel's universe by virtue of its two main characters, Smith and Mr. Alice, playing a major role in "Monarch of the Glen". Gaiman has said there is at least one more novella in Shadow's future and that if he "survives that" he'll make a [[SequelHook return to America]]…
17
18	The novel directly inspired White Wolf's tabletop roleplaying game ''TabletopGame/{{Scion}}''.
19
20	Various television adaptations have been announced. A TV miniseries written by Gaiman was announced and abandoned by [[http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/tom-hanks-playtone-productions-announces-197012 HBO]]. A [[Series/AmericanGods2017 fantasy drama series]] produced by Creator/FremantleMedia, with Creator/BryanFuller and Michael Green as showrunners and Gaiman as Executive Producer, began airing on Starz starting April 30, 2017. Gaiman also serves as one of the show's writers.
21
22	Shortly before the TV series aired, Creator/DarkHorseComics began a comic adaptation of the book, written by P. Craig Russell.
23
24	----
25	!!Tropes featured include:
26
27	* AlcoholInducedIdiocy: Having one last tryst with your husband's best friend before he's out of jail is one thing, doing so while he's ''driving'' is another.
28	%%This is CrossoverCosmology* AllMythsAreTrue: No, seriously, ''all'' of them (except Myth/PaulBunyan and similar manufactured legends). This includes cultural heroes based on real people; Johnny Appleseed is hanging around in one scene, but he isn't the same person as John Chapman. According to Wednesday, all of those legends about different groups visiting or settling in America before Erikson's voyage are also true.
29	* AllMythsAreTrue: All of them.
30	--> "Believe what?" asked Shadow. "What should I believe?"
31	--> "Everything," roared the buffalo man.
32	* AllThereInTheScript: Shadow's full name ("[[AwesomeMcCoolName Shadow Moon]]") is never actually stated in the book proper. It's just implied by the fact that his wife's (married) name is "Laura Moon".
33	* TheAlmightyDollar: One of the "modern deities" could be considered a wealth deity. "Consumer Culture" was a god whose worshipers loved money.
34	* AloneWithThePsycho: [[spoiler:The ending, when Shadow figures out that Hinzelmann is a serial killer.]]
35	* AlternateSelf: Each country is mentioned to have their own personification of a particular god and the books shows how many of them have changed from their original depictions. [[spoiler: This is emphasized when Shadow meets another Odin in Iceland who's closer to the myths compared to Mr. Wednesday.]]
36	* AmbiguouslyBrown:
37	** Shadow is asked on several occasions what his ethnicity is, with other characters guessing him to be Hispanic, Native American, or part African American. Shadow himself has very little knowledge of his heritage, but his mother suffered from sickle-cell anemia and is described as dark, so she is almost certainly African-American; his father is [[spoiler:a Norse god]]. His skin colour is finally described as [[StarbucksSkinScale 'coffee and cream']] some 450 pages into the novel. Neil Gaiman [[ComicBookFantasyCasting sees him as]] Wrestling/TheRock.
38	** Zig-zagged by Jacquel and Ibis, two ancient Egyptians who used to be able to pass for either white or black...until the Civil War, whereafter they were always seen as black. They themselves don't see themselves as black, being far older than American race relations.
39	* AmericanTitle: ''American'' Gods. Of the sort that only describes a nationality.
40	* AnthropomorphicPersonification: Lots of 'em. For example, all the new gods, and the buffalo man (who seems to be the Anthropomorphic Personification of America itself).
41	* ArcWords: "Storm's on the way" and "I know it's crooked, but it's the only game in town."
42	* ArtisticLicenseEconomics: The narration is dismissive of the term "Information Age" and insists that all of history could be accurately described as an Information Age since information has always been one of the most important resources. But most of what that term actually refers to is a rise in the ''availability'' of information, not its value (and where the rising value of the latter is merely symptomatic of the rise of the former).
43	* ArtisticLicenseLinguistics: "Praying for a bishop" isn't a euphemism for the "woman on top" sex position because of a superstition that a child conceived that way would grow up to be a bishop. It's called that because "bishop" is a crude slang term for "penis", and because it involves a woman resting on her knees as if in prayer.
44	* AssholeVictim: [[spoiler:Bilquis]] is one of the first victims of the war between the Old Gods and the New, overlapping with [[DisposableSexWorker a certain other death trope.]] But the reader is unlikely to have much sympathy considering she murdered a man in cold blood in her very first scene, and was looking for a fresh victim when she was killed.
45	* AttackingThroughYourself: When [[spoiler:Mr World comes up behind Laura, trying to talk her out of throwing his stick/spear down the hill, Laura]] stabs the stick through herself and into him. [[spoiler: Although she dies, her magical coin turns her back into a zombie.]]
46	-->''The boundary between sensation and pain had diffused since she had died. She felt the spear head penetrate her chest, felt it push out through her back. A moment's resistance - she pushed harder - and the spear pushed into [[spoiler:Mr World]].''
47	* AttractiveZombie: Laura, until she rots severely by the end.
48	* BasementDweller: Technical Boy, the personification of the internet, is a fat, sweaty, smelly, rich kid with no social skills.
49	%%* BatmanGambit
50	* BattleInterruptingShout: Although he doesn't shout, [[spoiler:this is how Shadow defuses the impending war between the gods]].
51	* BavarianFireDrill:
52	** Mr. Wednesday robs a bank (or, rather the people who are trying to make deposits at the bank). His con was based on a RealLife con that [[Film/CatchMeIfYouCan Frank Abagnale Jr.]] claimed to have once pulled off.
53	** Wednesday's favorite con (which is no longer practical), called the Bishop Game, has one grifter pretend to be a cop and "arrest" his partner, who's playing a crook pretending to a bishop who has just bought a jewelry necklace for $1200. The "cop" says the bills are counterfeit and takes the necklace as evidence, allowing the partners to take off with both the necklace and $1200.
54	** [[TheMenInBlack The Spookshow agents]] are apparently originally mortals who spent so long wandering through the alphabet soup agencies that they don't have any connection to the government anymore beyond official ID. The other side pulls it by pretending to be ''them''.
55	* BeingGoodSucks: Shadow sometimes hates that doing the right thing has its price. [[spoiler:Trying to serve Mr. Wednesday and then realizing Wednesday had used him leads to him having to break up the battle. He then reveals a mass murderer god in the town of Lakeside, which will in turn destroy its idyllic nature, and talks the god's murderer out of committing suicide.]] Then in "Black Dog" [[spoiler:he finds himself no longer welcome in town after he exposes Oliver as the one who killed Cassie]].
56	* BewareTheNiceOnes:
57	** Shadow is normally gentle and friendly, but he is a [[RunningGag very big man]]. It is not a good idea to piss him off. The aftermath of his rage is one of the reasons he was sent to prison. [[spoiler:In "Monarch of the Glen" he nearly beats Grendel to a pulp under Mr. Alice's orders and exposes Oliver as a murderer in "Black Dog".]]
58	** To a much more sinister extent, [[spoiler:Hinzelmann. He seems like nothing more than a kindly, friendly old man, but he's been murdering children for a very long time.]]
59	* BigBad: [[spoiler:Mr. Wednesday, with Mr. World/Loki as his [[TheDragon Dragon]].]]
60	* BigBadFriend:
61	** [[spoiler:Low-Key Lyesmith, Shadow's former cellmate who introduced him to Herodotus, is Mr. World/Loki.]]
62	** [[spoiler:Hinzelmann]] to a lesser extent. [[spoiler:He's always very genial to Shadow. He even pulls Shadow from the freezing lake, saving his life, knowing full well that Shadow knows he's the one responsible for all the disappearances in Lakeside.]]
63	* BigBeautifulWoman: Easter is described as a very curvy - and very ''attractive'' - lady. Fitting, since she's a FertilityGoddess.
64	* BitchInSheepsClothing: [[spoiler:Ollie]] seems like a nice enough guy in "The Black Dog", if a bit overly talkative. [[spoiler:Shadow figures out that he murdered Cassie, Moira's girlfriend, so that he could be with Moira.]]
65	* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler: Shadow manages to avert the war between the Old and New Gods, foiling Wednesday and Loki's con, but Laura is dead for real and little has changed for the Old Gods; it's implied many of them will continue to waste and die in the coming years as their worship dribbles away. Shadow himself is left with his last ties to his old life severed and decides to go WalkingTheEarth, using his divine powers to solve problems as he comes upon them. Despite the isolation, it's suggested that this is the first time he's been truly happy for a long while.]]
66	* {{Black Helicopter}}s: The Valkyries manifest themselves as black helicopters.
67	* BookEnds: The plot truly begins when Shadow meets Mr Wednesday, the declining incarnation of Odin in the New World. [[spoiler:The last scene has him meet Iceland's Odin, an example of a god in an old country who has moved well with the times.]]
68	%%* BrokenBird: Marguerite Olsen.
69	* BubblyWaitress: Mr. Wednesday (a manifestation of Odin), encounters a cheerful, bubbly waitress while he and Shadow are traveling. He immediately uses his magical charms to seduce her, despite Shadow's protests that she's just a kid. [[spoiler: It's one of the earliest clues that Wednesday is neither a good person nor someone to be trusted]].
70	* BuryYourGays: Salim is unceremoniously killed off a few chapters after his introduction, due to having switched lives with a New York ifrit (and killed in his stead by the New Gods).
71	* ButchLesbian: In one of the ''Coming to America'' flashbacks, Kalanu the scout who walks and dresses like a man, and took a girl to be her wife.
72	* CallForward: At the World's Largest Carousel, Mr. Nancy displays amusement at the prospect of riding a lion statue. This is later visited briefly upon in ''Literature/AnansiBoys'', where Lion is one of many gods that Anansi has antagonized in the past.
73	* CameBackWrong: Laura's a revenant. She can speak normally and still has her human memories and intelligence, and she never tries eating anyone, but she is a revenant nevertheless. She had already been embalmed by the time she is raised, so she rots slowly over several weeks.
74	* TheCameo: A blink-and-you'll-miss-it appearance by [[MythologyGag Delirium]] from ComicBook/TheSandman. [[spoiler:The girl with the talking dog.]]
75	* CanonName: Shadow is very clearly stated to be a nickname, and although the book drops hints, it never reveals the character's real name. It is eventually revealed [[spoiler:to be Baldur]] in the follow-up novella ''The Monarch of the Glen'', which is itself hinted at when Loki says he'll kill Shadow by [[spoiler:[[Myth/NorseMythology stabbing him with sharpened mistletoe]]]].
76	* TheCasanova: Mr. Wednesday, in addition to conning men, loves the art of seducing females (especially virgins) via something as simple as ''asking for Christmas gifts.'' He uses spells to seal the deal once his natural charms have the subject warmed up to him.
77	* CatchPhrase: "Is good" from Czernobog and the three Zorya.
78	* CatGirl: Bast. Does not have cat ears, sure, but a rough tongue and feline eyes.
79	* ChekhovsGun: [[spoiler:The apparently throwaway line about a few hitchhikers and kids going missing and never coming back in regards to the small town Shadow stays in. As well as the ''Minutes of the Lakeside City Council'' book that Shadow buys at a Library sale. And the klunker, mentioned many times before it becomes apparent what its function to the story is.]]
80	* ChekhovsGunman:
81	** [[spoiler:Low-Key Lyesmith]], who is both the God Loki and [[spoiler:Mr. World]].
82	** Easter, goddess of fertility and rebirth. [[spoiler:She resurrects Shadow after he dies on the World Tree.]]
83	** The mad-eyed hawk Shadow sees briefly in Cairo. [[spoiler:It is, of course, the Egyptian deity Horus, and it's the one who finds him on the tree and brings Easter to him.]]
84	* ChekhovsSkill: Shadow's coin tricks.
85	* ChessWithDeath: Shadow plays Checkers with Czernobog, wagering his own life in the process.
86	%%Gies under GodsNeedPrayerBadly* ClapYourHandsIfYouBelieve: It is the fact that people believed in the gods that gave them purchase in America, and now that the belief is lessening they are fading away.
87	* ClusterFBomb: Czernobog.
88	--> "Fuck you. Fuck you and fuck your mother and fuck the fucking horse you fucking rode in on. [[{{Curse}} You will not even die in battle. No warrior will taste your blood. No one alive will take your life. You will die a soft, poor death. You will die with a kiss in your lips and a lie in your heart]]."
89	* CoinsForTheDead: Shadow is given a coin by a leprechaun who teaches him to take things out of thin air. He later tosses the coin into his wife's grave. Unfortunately, the coin was extremely special and causes her to rise from her grave as a rational but still decaying corpse.
90	* ContrivedCoincidence:
91	** Sam, a random hitchhiker, and Audrey, one of the few people who knows Shadow's real identity, somehow ''both'' have connections to the sleepy little town Shadow moves to, and somehow ''both'' come to town on the ''same night?'' [[spoiler:It was all the will of Hinzelmann]].
92	** A true example: Shadow keeps hold of a coin he got from Sweeney, and tosses it into Laura's grave for no discernible reason. It turns out that's the key to her partial resurrection, but Shadow had absolutely no way of knowing that. And without Laura, of course, [[spoiler: Mr. Town could have acquired the tree branch unhampered.]]
93	* CoolOldGuy: Hinzelmann. [[spoiler:Subverted, in that he's a SerialKiller.]]
94	* CountryMatters: The "C word" is dropped a number of times, most notably by Sam to Audrey. Bilquis' power is described as cunt-magic.
95	* CrossoverCosmology: Most Gods and Goddesses are there, with figures hailing from most continents and the majority of known religions. Jesus is mentioned, but is not a character encountered in the story. In the Author's Preferred Text, there's a scene cut from wide release (prior to the 10th Anniversary Edition) that has Shadow talking with a man in a villa mentioned to have something like Moorish or Moroccan influences; he wears a baseball cap, a suit, jokes about turning water into wine, and is indubitably American Jesus.
96	* {{Curse}}:
97	** Though it isn't explicit, when Czernobog tears into Mr Town at the Hotel at the Center of America he's probably cursing literally [[ClusterFBomb in addition to figuratively]]. Not dying in battle and being killed by no man alive at first seem a product of his [[GodOfEvil warped perspective]]. But look how it turns out for Mr Town...
98	** Similarly, Bilquis, who is noted by narration to be half-demon on her father's side, mind, [[spoiler:curses the Technical Boy as she lays dying after he hit her with his limo. It's ambiguous whether the curse stuck or he's [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone just really traumatized]] or both.]]
99	* DayOfTheWeekName: Inverted: The fourth day of the week is named after Mr. Wednesday, not the other way around. (The day name is derived from "Wotan's Day," which was the original name for Wednesday, Wotan being another name for "Odin" in early Germanic Paganism.) He goes so far as to point out during his introduction that "seeing as today certainly is ''my day''..." and comments on the stormy weather with "Although it may as well be Thursday" (Thursday being Thor's Day).
100	* DeadAllAlong: In "Black Dog" [[spoiler:Cassie is revealed to be a ghost who started a relationship with Shadow so that he could find her body and bring her murderer to justice. She apologizes for using him, but he's not that regretful about it.]]
101	* DealWithTheDevil: One of them, anyway. [[spoiler:The truth about the town of Lakeside.]]
102	* DeathOfTheOldGods: [[spoiler:All of the ancient deities who were forgotten completely by mankind.]]
103	* DeityOfMortalCreation:
104	** The series uses this as a central plot point. The American forms of the old gods are fading away from lack of belief and are planning a war with the new gods of television, the internet, and other things of the modern age.
105	** An ancient Germanic tribe created their patron god, the [[OurKoboldsAreDifferent kobold]] [[spoiler:Hinzelmann]], through a [[HumanSacrifice ritual child sacrifice]]. Whether the child [[DeityOfHumanOrigin became the god]] or the newborn god merely [[GhostMemory absorbed the child's memories]] is unclear.
106	* DeliberateValuesDissonance: Shadow notes that while the Lakeside town council of the 1800s voted to send condolences to the parents of a missing white child, they failed to do the same for the black child who went missing the year after.
107	* DeusSexMachina: Shadow's wet dream with Bast is another turning point for the protagonist. Though it might not have been a dream... (See OrWasItADream below)
108	* DidNotGetTheGirl: Twice over. [[spoiler: Laura dies for the second and final time before she and Shadow ever get the chance to truly reconcile, and while he's definitely developed romantic feelings for Sam by the end of the book, he chooses not to act on them, instead allowing her to [[GiveHimANormalLife live a normal life]] by using his newfound divine powers to erase her memories of their time together.]]
109	* DividedStatesOfAmerica: Wednesday thinks that it's more useful to think of America as several countries that happen to share a government than as one entity, since different regions have vastly different cultures.
110	* DivineParentage: [[spoiler:Shadow, being the son of Odin/Wednesday.]]
111	* DoubleStandardRapeDivineOnMortal: Wednesday uses magic to charm girls into having sex with him. This ''does'' make Shadow uncomfortable (especially when he finds out [[spoiler:that he is the ChildByRape of one such girl]]), and Wednesday ''is'' eventually [[spoiler:regarded as an out-and-out villain]], but it's not treated as seriously as more mundane forms of sexual assault would be. Also, see below about Bast.
112	* DoubleStandardRapeFemaleOnMale / DoubleStandardRapeDivineOnMortal: It's very strongly implied that the goddess Bast had sex with Shadow while he was ''asleep'' (and clawed him up a bunch in the process, because she's part cat). The fact that performing sex acts on a sleeping person is illegal is never brought up, Bast is not treated as a villain, and even when he works out what happened Shadow doesn't seem to particularly mind having been molested by a cat while unconscious. The whole thing is treated as far less of a problem than Wednesday's male-on-female equivalent crimes. It isn't completely cut and dried however; they simultaneously had fully consensual sex in his dreamscape, which is a very real mystical dimension the gods can access and that he is fully conscious inside of (he was not aware of this at the time). Shadow himself notes the scratches as little more than proof that their one night stand really happened. (It's also possible that the physical Bast was just sleeping on the bed next to him, especially as at no other point is it indicated she can assume human form in the "real" world, and the scratches are magically psychosomatic, but it's ambiguous.)
113	* DyingCurse: [[spoiler:Bilquis lays one on Technical Boy when he kills her. [[TakeOurWordForIt We never get the specifics, but it's apparently pretty awful.]] In the Hotel at the Center of America, he can be seen suffering from it, although this could just be withdrawal due to it being a dead zone with no wifi or cell signal.]]
114	* EncyclopediaExposita: From the book being written by Mr. Ibis.
115	* TheEndingChangesEverything: [[spoiler:The "war" between the old gods and the new that drives most of the plot turns out to have been arranged by Wednesday and Loki, ostensibly on opposite sides, to draw power from the battle.]]
116	* EurekaMoment:
117	** The greater your knowledge of Myth/NorseMythology prior to reading the book, the sooner you'll get it.
118	-->'''Shadow:''' Jesus, [[spoiler:Low-Key Lyesmith... Oh, Jesus. Loki. Loki Lie-Smith.]]
119	** [[spoiler:The Lakeside killings.]]
120	** [[spoiler:It's a two-man con.]]
121	* EvilTwin: Mocked by Czernobog.
122	--> My brother... when we are young, everyone says he is fair-haired, he must be good, and I am dark-haired, so I must be the rogue. Now, the years have passed, we are both old and grey. Now, who can tell which brother is which?
123	* EyeballPluckingBirds: A group of vikings landing in America sacrifice a native to Odin, determining that the sacrifice is accepted when a pair of ravens pluck out the corpse's eyes.
124	* FantasyKitchenSink: Pretty much [[CrossoverCosmology every god]] exists, several other mythical creatures that are treated like god's for intents and purposes and folk heroes like Paul Bunyan and Johnny Appleseed.
125	* FlyoverCountry: For the most part, the main plot takes place on the Great Plains and Midwest.
126	* {{Foreshadowing}}:
127	** Wednesday displays and is referred to by a variety of unusual and specific traits that anyone versed in Norse Mythology will connect to Odin, like the tree pin on his tie.
128	** The Christmas conversation: [[spoiler:Shadow notices that all of Wednesday's favorite cons require two people and asks if Wednesday had a partner, to which he gives a cryptic response.]]
129	** In one of Shadow's dreams, the people who had been hung in sacrifice to Odin smelled of the alcohol they had drunk beforehand. [[spoiler:Mr. Wednesday's corpse smelled of Jack Daniels, hinting that he was a sacrifice to himself - which is actually accurate to Myth/NorseMythology.]]
130	** Wednesday tells Shadow that he reminds him of [[spoiler:Thor, who is a son of Odin. [[LukeIAmYOurFather Guess who Shadow's father is]]? Additionally there are many associations of Shadow with thunder and lightning and Wednesday outright calls Shadow "my boy", though the readers and Shadow himself simply take it as a simple term of endearment]].
131	*** Towards the end of the book, [[spoiler:Loki]] makes a comment about sticking a spear of mistletoe into Shadow's eye. [[spoiler:In the Norse myths, Loki killed Baldur, another son of Odin, with mistletoe; the follow-up novella reveals that Shadow's birth name is Baldur.]]
132	** Misdirection is a running theme (Shadow's coin tricks, Wednesday's cons, all the talk about crooked games, etc). Of course it turns out that Wednesday (and the book itself) have been misdirecting everyone the whole time.
133	** When Shadow has been captured by the Spookshow, the goons tell each other a joke about the CIA. ("How do you know the CIA wasn't involved in the Kennedy assassination? Well, he's dead, isn't he?") Later, Easter is about to tell the same joke, but Wednesday says he's heard it. [[spoiler:This is because Wednesday is working with Loki, who runs the Spookshow.]]
134	** The poem Technical Boy can't remember is "The Second Coming" by William Butler Yeats, [[spoiler:which is basically Wednesday's entire plan.]]
135	* GenreBusting: ''American God'' received the Nebula and Hugo Awards for Best Sci-fi book of the year, the Locus Award for best fantasy book of the year, and the Bram Stoker Award for best horror book of the year. It's also a meditation on the "meaning" of America, and reflection on the different immigrant stories.
136	* GodsNeedPrayerBadly: The reason why the Old Gods are dying, and the New Gods have arisen. Wednesday is very disdainful of Neo-Pagans in general considering them pretenders, strongly implying their worship is inadequate. It hit Easter hard when Wednesday showed her a self-proclaimed Pagan that did not even know Easter was originally a Pagan holiday, labeling it as "Christian" instead. In their world, Pagans without traditional rituals and well-defined gods and goddesses might as well be Atheist or Agnostic. On the other hand, what constitutes adequate prayer isn't straightforward. Easter still derives power from the celebration of the holiday, if perhaps less than she might otherwise. The New Gods aren't worshipped in the traditional sense - for example, watching TV counts as a worship ritual to Media, with the sacrifice being time. Conversely, Wednesday says that regular churches don't produce much worship of the god-sustaining kind, nor does Disneyland.
137	* GodWasMyCopilot: Wednesday was a god all along. [[spoiler:So was Shadow.]]
138	* GoodCopBadCop: The Spookshow do this automatically, whether or not it makes any sense.
139	* GoodOldWays: Subverted. The New Gods represent different facets of America's modern, technologically advanced culture, and for most of the novel Shadow sympathizes more with the primitive -- and seemingly more benevolent -- Old Gods. But, over the course of the story, the point is hammered in over and over that quite a few of the old gods were [[AssholeVictim violent, bloodthirsty monsters in their day]], and many of the new gods are just terrified of becoming as obsolete as the current crop of old ones. At the end of the day, Shadow eventually realizes, old or new, gods are just like the people that spawn them, and that, just as for better or worse people aren't going to change, so too the gods are going to be the same mixture of okay people and assholes.
140	* GovernmentConspiracy: Played With. The Spookshow Agents were apparently originally mortal, but have spent so much time wandering between various increasingly classified alphabet soup agencies that they've become something supernatural. They have no actual accountability or connection to the government anymore, but for people in their line of work that might well have stopped ''before'' they fell off the map.
141	* GranolaGirl:
142	** Discussed when Wednesday and Shadow travel to San Francisco, and they do meet a neo-pagan waitress there.
143	** Samantha Black Crow delivers a beautiful speech of all the (sometimes contradictory) things she believes in, which could well be a summary of the beliefs of many of these characters. In a subversion, this is a universe where all this [[AllMythsAreTrue might well be true, at the same time.]]
144	* TheHeartless: Many of the gods. Loki feeds on chaos, Bilquis feeds on worshipful lust, and so on.
145	* HellHotel: The hotel at the center of the United States. Literally, for the Technical Boy, as it sits in a deadzone. In the night, Shadow hears him throwing himself against the walls as the unaccustomed isolation causes him to have a breakdown.
146	* HiddenDepths: Czernobog is mentioned to like classical music (presumably [[{{WesternAnimation/Fantasia}} Night on the Bald Mountain.]])
147	* HiddenInPlainSight: After a young girl disappears from Lakeside, Shadow and the other townspeople spend days looking for her in the woods, to no avail. It turns out she's [[spoiler: in the trunk of a beat up old car on the frozen lake that the town's named for. The lake is not only in the center of town, but the car is positioned so it's impossible not to see, and the town raises money by betting on when the car will fall through the ice.]]
148	* HigherUnderstandingThroughDrugs: Atsula, the priestess of Nunyunnini, picks up some magical mushrooms, then eats them and, after a pretty abstract sort of a high, pees in a cup. After freezing part of the water out, she and the tribe elders drink the concentrated urine to talk with their god.
149	* HumanSacrifice: Old and new, there's always a god or two that's a fan. Czernobog in particular charges up during the trip by visiting a field where people were brained to death with rocks in his name, and the car gods are mentioned as receiving it "on a scale unheard of since the Aztecs."
150	* IAmWho: [[spoiler: Shadow is Wednesday's son.]]
151	* IAmNotHim: The gods in America were incarnated there when various immigrants and diaspora wound up on its shores, and they have all the memories and experiences of those gods, but they are also separate beings from the original forms who still live in the old countries (usually, much better off). [[spoiler:When Shadow meets Odin in Iceland and wants him to account for Wednesday's actions, Odin replies that Wednesday was Odin, but Odin is not Wednesday.]]
152	%%* IDontPayYouToThink: Mr. Wednesday's answer to Shadow's questions about what's going on.
153	* IHaveBoobsYouMustObey: Attempted by Media to convince Shadow to switch sides. It's an offer Shadow finds easy to ignore, since the boobs in question belong to Creator/LucilleBall (actually, [[Series/ILoveLucy Lucy Ricardo]]).
154	* IHaveManyNames: Mr. Wednesday explicitly says this; given the subject matter, it also applies to most of the major characters.
155	* InformedConversation: Played for drama. When Shadow asks for the name of a certain god on their side, the narration simply says, "Wednesday told him." Shadow finds himself unable to remember the name, so he asks again and gets the same result. Later, as the gods are having a serious discussion, the narrative simply tells us that they made their point eloquently and well and other characters continue as if it was dialogue.
156	* InconspicuousImmortal: Most of the old gods have reverted to a much simpler kind of life in America [[GodsNeedPrayerBadly without believers to empower them]]; while they still retain their immortality and a few powers here and there, they seem fairly content to get by peacefully without bucking the status quo - at least until Mr Wednesday begins inspiring them to war against the New Gods. Among other things, Czernabog is working at a meatpacking plant, Anubis and Thoth run a small-town funeral parlour, and a Djinn can be found working as a taxi driver.
157	%%* IronicEcho:
158	%%** "This must look so undignified."
159	%%** "Rigged games are the easiest ones to beat."
160	* {{Irony}}: After a prim lecture ([[DramaticIrony to Odin]]) about being a pagan, the coffeeshop waitress exclaims "Jesus..." when Shadow hands her a bill she dropped.
161	* ItsPersonal: Wednesday recruits a good number of Old Gods, but many others mistrust him or don't believe things are as dire as he says and refuse to join. [[spoiler:Until Wednesday is gunned down at a parley with the New Gods--who broadcast the assassination live. After that, ''everyone'' is roaring for blood. Which is just as Wednesday planned it.]]
162	* JediMindTrick: Wednesday claims to know a couple charms that work like this, though he mostly uses them to [[ThePornomancer get laid]]. While helping with one of Wednesday's cons, Shadow actually wills a police officer into believing his story. [[spoiler:And in the epilogue Shadow not only talks down a suicidal man, but alters his memories as well.]]
163	%%* JekyllAndHyde: [[spoiler:Czernobog and Bielebog.]]
164	* JerkassGods: Considering the gods' resemblances to humans in this book, it can be expected. [[spoiler: Hinzelmann is a SerialKiller, Wednesday uses his charms to have sex with teenage virgins and make them never love another person again all so he can have a son, and that's practically mundane.]]
165	* LaserGuidedAmnesia: [[spoiler:When the cop who kills Hinzelmann feels guilty and talks of committing suicide, possibly due to Hinzelmann's psychic influence before he died, Shadow removes his memory of the event.]]
166	* LateToTheTragedy: Shadow arrives at Rock City only after [[spoiler:the war between the gods had already begun. Thankfully, he manages to end it just in time to keep Loki and Wednesday from achieving the power levels they craved.]]
167	* {{Leprechaun}}: Mad Sweeney. [[note]]Though, it should be noted, Mad Sweeny is nearly seven feet tall, and built like a construction worker. He's still a drunk (Irish stereotypes ahoy) a trickster, and has an obsession with gold coins.[[/note]]
168	* LetsYouAndHimFight: [[spoiler:Wednesday and Loki pitting the new American gods against the immigrant gods so they themselves can gain power.]] Shadow even refers to the trope by name.
169	* LivingForeverIsAwesome: Maybe not as awesome when your followers are dwindling, but the gods we see are all determined to survive even though their lives have gotten far less glamorous over the centuries or millennia. Except for Thor, who is mentioned to have committed suicide.
170	%%* TheLostLenore: Laura. But it's complicated.
171	* LouisCypher: A few gods use pseudonyms like this when blending in amongst humans;
172	** Odin uses the name "Mr Wednesday". The day Wednesday was named after Wodan, an old name for Odin.
173	** Anansi is called Mr. Nancy.
174	** Anubis and Thoth go by Mr. Jacquel and Mr. Ibis, having the heads of a jackal and ibis (a long-legged wading bird) respectively in Egyptian mythology.
175	** Low-Key Lyesmith = [[spoiler:Loki Lie-Smith]]. The man even mocks Shadow for taking so long to figure it out.
176	* LukeIAmYourFather: [[spoiler:Shadow discovers he is Wednesday's son.]]
177	* ObsoleteOccupation: Shadow goes to work for Mr. Wednesday, an American aspect of the Norse god Odin, and discovers an entire subculture of ancient gods living in America. Brought over by various immigrants who eventually stopped believing in them, the gods now scrape by with mostly regular jobs.
178	* OrWasItADream: Shadow has a wet dream involving Bast, while staying with Jaquel and Ibis. At least, he's pretty sure it was a dream, but he wakes to see Jacquel and Ibis's (female) cat slip out his door, which puzzles him, as he's sure he closed the door firmly before he went to bed. Also, most of the cuts and and bruises he had are gone or at least much better than they were, except for the deep scratches on his back, which he hadn't had yesterday.
179	* OurMinotaursAreDifferent: As well as several briefly-mentioned minotaurs, there's "the buffalo man", who seems to be an AnthropomorphicPersonification of "the land" -- meaning he's the spirit of Earth, and probably the closest thing the setting has to a TopGod.
180	* TheManBehindTheMan: [[spoiler:Mr. World (aka Loki) to the New Gods, and Mr. Wednesday to Loki himself.]]
181	* MeaningfulName:
182	** Shadow, as his role is to ''shadow'' Mr. Wednesday. Laura also states that he never really seemed alive or present. [[spoiler:His real name is Baldur Moon, named for Odin's son Baldur who was his parent's favorite child and also their sacrifice to Hel.]]
183	** Mr. Wednesday has named himself after the day that is named after him.
184	** Mr. Jacquel and Mr. Ibis? [[spoiler:Anubis and Thoth, a jackal-headed Egyptian god and an ibis-headed Egyptian god.]]
185	** Hinzelmann. [[spoiler:If you're familiar, his name right out tells you he's a kobold from an actual legend.]]
186	* TheMenInBlack: The Spookshow, minions of the leader of the New Gods, Mr. World. They exist, like all the gods, [[ClapYourHandsIfYouBelieve because so many people assume that there must be a secret spy organization out there.]]
187	* MessianicArchetype: Shadow. He is TheChosenOne, even if for all the wrong reasons. Then there is the crucifixion-analogue scene, complete with resurrection. [[spoiler:Then it is revealed that he is actually the son of Odin, and his real name is Baldur Moon.]]
188	* MinnesotaNice: The community of Lakeside deconstructs this, taking inspiration from famous portrayals of Minnesota Nice such as ''Film/{{Fargo}}'' (extremely friendly police) and ''Radio/APrairieHomeCompanion'' (everyone being above average), before revealing itself [[spoiler:to be a TownWithADarkSecret. Hinzelmann is a small god who sacrifices children in order to maintain the town's prosperity]].
189	* MisterStrangenoun: The names of the Spookshow agents tend to be like this: Mr. Wood, Mr. Stone, Mr. Town, Mr. Road. Sam mocks this when the latter pair turn up at her door.
190	* TheModernGods: While the Old Gods were gods of old religions brought to America through their worshippers, they had long since been kicked off of the proverbial seat of power by the New Gods, gods who came into being to fill the "faith gap" with an increasingly secularized world. Such gods include Technical Boy (God of the Internet), Media (Goddess of Pop Culture), the Spookshow (TheMenInBlack who embody conspiracy theories and act as enforcers of the New Gods), and various unnamed gods associated with railways, the film industry, currency, weaponry, ufology, medical science and so on. The crux of the book is Mr. Wednesday -- originally known as Odin Allfather from Myth/NorseMythology -- urging his fellow Old Gods to wage a war on the New Gods to establish control over America's collective faith.
191	* ModernizedGod: Many old gods have been forced to adapt to the times to keep up a sliver of their old relevance.
192	** Mad Sweeney is said to have started out as a local guardian deity, then developed into a pagan king, and now he's survived as a leprechaun.
193	** Czernobog managed to substitute his old human sacrifices by getting a job at a slaughterhouse and killing cattle with a sledgehammer, but after getting forcibly retired he's a shadow of his former self.
194	** Eostre is possibly the most powerful old god because her name was co-opted for a Christian holiday, so her name is regularly invoked even if they aren't actually worshipping her.
195	** [[spoiler: Hinzelmann]] is an ancient Germanic kobold produced by a child sacrifice who's attached himself to a small town in northern Wisconsin that he keeps prosperous [[spoiler:except for the kids who go missing once a year.]]
196	** Loki [[spoiler:has taken on the guise of Mr. World, head of TheMenInBlack.]]
197	** {{Black Helicopter}}s keep showing up after Shadow and Wednesday flee a crime scene. They're actually the Valkyries.
198	* MyGodWhatHaveIDone: Though it's buried under her anger at Shadow for [[spoiler:uncovering the truth about what happened to Cassie, with leads to Ollie's arrest]], Moira is horrified and guilty that she never realized [[spoiler:Cassie was murdered, and by her new boyfriend no less. This was after she thought Cassie had left in a huff]].
199	* MyDeathIsJustTheBeginning: [[spoiler:Mr. Wednesday. His death sparks the war that he had been planning for all along, the war that he hopes will restore him to greater power.]]
200	* NearVillainVictory: The villains manage to [[spoiler:begin their war and dedicate the battle to Odin/Mr. Wednesday]], but Shadow manages to thwart them soon after by [[spoiler:telling all of the assorted old and new gods what the plan actually was and convinces them to just go home. While Mr. Wednesday manages to return as a ghost, Loki appears to die due to the injuries inflicted upon him, and neither of them manage to achieve the obscene amounts of power that they were aiming for with their KansasCityShuffle as a result]].
201	%%* NeedleInAStackOfNeedles
202	* NerdInEvilsHelmet: The Technical Boy acts tough, but other characters see it as rehearsed and kind of pitiful. The book narration describes him as somebody trying too hard and performing actions that ''should'' be threatening, but fall short because of his execution.
203	* NeverARunaway: The town of Lakeside is a quaint little town time seems to have forgotten. Occasionally a teen, bored with the town, runs off to the big city never to be seen again. It's sad but is treated as a fact of life by the townsfolk. Shadow discovers the actual truth though, that the children are being sacrificed by Hinzelmann in a ritual to keep outside influences from changing the town. He uses the town's yearly ritual of putting a clunker out on the frozen lake and waiting to see when the spring thaw causes it to sink, drowning the children and hiding the bodies at the same time. When the ruse is discovered, the lake is dredged and dozens of bodies are discovered in the trunks of every car sent down.
204	* NeverHeardThatOneBefore:
205	-->'''Shadow:''' Hey, Huginn or Munin, or whoever you are. Say 'Nevermore'.\
206	'''Raven:''' Fuck you.
207	* NewWeird: Every god from every pantheon that humans have ever dreamed up is real, and they inhabit our material world, all trying to advance their own agendas. New gods are born from changes in society, representing concepts like TheMenInBlack or the forward march of technology. Also, Vikings and Egyptians (among others) made it to America long before Columbus, bringing their gods with them.
208	* NobodyPoops: Averted pretty hard. Practically everyone takes a leak at some point. [[spoiler: Even Horus.]]
209	* NoNameGiven: Shadow is known only by his various nicknames (Laura calls him 'puppy' most of the time) at least until the quasi-sequel "The Monarch of the Glen", where we learn his birth name is [[spoiler:Baldur]].
210	* TheNondescript: The god whose name and appearance Shadow cannot remember.
211	* NoPeekingRequest: When Shadow pulls the car over so he can [[NatureTinkling pee outside]], he [[ShyBladder tells Sam to turn her back on him for a moment.]]
212	* NotActuallyTheUltimateQuestion: Early in the novel, after Shadow is released from prison and about to fly home, he remembers an interaction with a previous cell-mate, which the cellmate asserted had the moral of not pissing off people who work in airports. During a previous parole, the cellmate had planned to fly home to see his sister, but after losing his temper when being informed that his driver's license had expired, ended up (in that order) going on a drunken bender, robbing a gas station to get booze money, being arrested for public urination, and ultimately winding up back in prison with extra time for armed robbery. Shadow, who [[ObfuscatingStupidity is very intelligent despite pretending to be dumb muscle,]] questioned whether the moral of the story was that "The kind of behavior that works in a specialized environment, such as prison, can fail to work and in fact become harmful when used outside such an environment", but his cellmate insisted the moral was to not piss off people who work in airports.
213	* NotDistractedByTheSexy:
214	** Media tries to sway Shadow, as [[Series/ILoveLucy Lucy]], with the offer of nudity. [[FanDisservice It doesn't work]], to the point that it colors the rest of his encounters with her, and he goes so far as to avoid watching television whenever possible.
215	** Subverted with Easter, who casually mentions her thighs rubbing together after she gains weight, causing Shadow to blush and try very hard not to picture it.
216	* TheNothingAfterDeath: People who pass judgment are permitted to choose their destination. Some, [[spoiler:including Shadow,]] choose this. [[spoiler: More accurately, Shadow chooses CessationOfExistence, but gets this for a brief time before being brought BackFromTheDead.]]
217	* NotSoDifferentRemark: Walking the L.A. streets in filthy weather, Bilquis realizes that her need for worship isn't that different from other prostitutes' addictions to drugs.
218	* NoSuchThingAsWizardJesus: PlayedWith, Jesus is apparently subject to the same rules as all the other {{Anthropomorphic Personification}}s, but he has enough believers that he doesn't need to get involved in the events of the plot, although Gaiman toyed with the idea of introducing him as a NoCelebritiesWereHarmed version of Creator/StevenSpielberg living in a gigantic mansion in Hollywood. But since [[spoiler: each country has its own ''instance'' of every god ever worshiped there]], this isn't always the case. There is one anecdote of another character encountering Jesus [[spoiler: as a poor hitch-hiker in Afghanistan, where he has virtually no worshipers and is thus left in roughly the same boat as most of the more obscure American gods]].
219	* NowWhat: After [[spoiler:stopping the war between the gods and exposing Hinzelmann as a murderer]], Shadow doesn't know what to do with himself. [[spoiler:He decides to travel, starting with a trip to Iceland.]]
220	* ObfuscatingStupidity: Because Shadow is big and doesn't talk much, people assume he's stupid, and he's just fine with letting them.
221	* OfferingsToTheGods: Material offerings, like a saucer of cream, a freshly-killed chicken, or a human heart, provide more "juice" than simple prayers. What is actually offered doesn't matter so much as the cost to the worshipper. Even just "sacrificing their time on the altar of television" is enough for Media.
222	* TheOldConvict: Low Key, whose advice (appropriate to his nickname) was always "do your own time," meaning don't get involved in other people's troubles or vendettas in prison.
223	* OminousTelevision: Shadow grows to distrust televisions after his first encounter with Media, having become ProperlyParanoid that he is being watched by them.
224	* OnlyKnownByTheirNickname: Shadow, Low Key.
225	* OurGodsAreDifferent: They are born and granted power out of the belief and worship rituals they are surrounded with. Mention is made of societies which deliberately made their ''own'' gods. Nunyunnini (a mammoth skull who "speaks" when the priestess wears it after taking hallucinogens) is implied to be one of these, and [[spoiler:Hinzelmann]] is explicitly one. The Old Gods in America are also separate incarnations dragged there by the belief of the immigrants and diaspora who landed on those shores.
226	* OurZombiesAreDifferent: Laura is a little bit more like a lich or revenant (an undead spirit bound to its own former rotting corpse) than a zombie, in that she retains her free will, but has little sensation and deadened emotions. She's also gradually decomposing as the embalming chemicals she's preserved with are only partially effective.
227	* OutOfJobIntoThePlot: Shadow is released from prison and is travelling to his home to a job waiting for him. Unfortunately, his job is gone as the guy who was giving it to him is dead, leaving him free to work as Mr. Wednesday's bag man.
228	* OutWithABang: The first scene of FertilityGoddess Bilquis has her ''[[VaginaDentata swallowing a man whole via her vagina]]''. And apparently, the sex with her is [[SexGoddess so amazing]] that the man doesn't even seem to mind, being in a state of euphoria the whole time.
229	* PhysicalGod: All of them, at least part-time (who knows what was up with Media).
230	* PlaceOfPower: In the Old World people built temples on top of them, in America they built roadside attractions. Prominently featured examples include the House on the Rock and Rock City. Inverted with the Center of America. It's a place so devoid of power normal people are driven away from it, and gods apparently are at their lowest power here. Which is exactly the reason it's used as neutral ground.
231	* PlayingBothSides: [[spoiler:Wednesday and Loki are manipulating both the Old and New Gods so they can draw power from the resulting battle.]]
232	* PoweredByAForsakenChild: [[spoiler:The real reason why Lakeside is prospering compared to the economically depressed surrounding towns is because Hinzelmann is an old god who keeps the town thriving through murdered children without the townspeople's knowledge.]] This is also [[spoiler:Hinzelmann's own backstory as a kobold.]]
233	* PredatoryProstitute: Bilquis, an ancient love goddess working as a prostitute in Los Angeles. While she doesn't have any enmity towards her customers, it doesn't make her way of sustaining herself any more palatable: she feeds on their worship before devouring them with her vagina.
234	* PreMortemOneLiner: Laura to [[spoiler:Mr. Town.]]
235	-->'''Laura:''' You must really want to know what happened to those friends of yours? Woody and Stone. Do you?
236	* PretenderDiss: Wednesday speaks with particular disgust of a waitress who serves him and Shadow; he quizzes her about her religion, and she claims to be pagan, but when further quizzed about the particular flavor of paganism, she spits out some pseudo-mystical bullshit and acts offended when Wednesday brings up some of the more hedonistic aspects. Wednesday says she "doesn't have the faith and won't have the fun," with the implication that he could at least respect her if she enjoyed herself. He goes on to name her sins, which, from the petty to the actively criminal, show a similar propensity for half-measures and lack of commitment, with further implication that for this she is worse than the actively evil. The line about "does not have the faith and will not have the fun" is taken from a poem by G. K. Chesterton, about how dreary modern unbelievers are compared to ancient pagans. Wednesday has another reason to criticize her as well; since her version of Paganism doesn't have any specific gods, from his perspective she's an Atheist trying to appropriate the trappings of 'real' religion.
237	* PrisonsAreGymnasiums: Shadow was pretty buff ''before'' going to prison, and came out even fitter. His BestFriend owned an actual gymnasium and planned to hire Shadow to work there when he got out, figuring it would be good for the gym's image.
238	* ProportionalArticleImportance: Shadow attempts to show Wednesday how much time they've spent "backstage" by showing him a newspaper. Wednesday only sarcastically comments on the first headline he sees.
239	* PunctuatedForEmphasis: Sam, to Audrey: "You. Are such. A cunt."
240	* PunkInTheTrunk: [[spoiler:The bodies of the children that disappear in Lakeside are hidden in the trunk of the klunker, a ruined car put on the ice of the frozen lake each year. When the ice breaks, the dead child becomes a sacrifice to help the town stay prosperous.]]
241	%%* QuirkyMinibossSquad: The Spookshow.
242	* PokemonSpeak: Ratatosk, the squirrel that lives on the World Tree.
243	* RapeAsDrama:
244	** Wututu's chapter is largely about the experiences of African slaves in the Americas, and rape is a large part of that story.
245	** It's revealed that Mr. Wednesday [[spoiler:doesn't just "charm" young women. He ''casts'' a charm on them, specifically on teenaged virgins, making them magically attracted to him and destroying their ability to ever love anyone else for the rest of their lives.]]
246	* ResurrectedRomance: Laura is resurrected [[spoiler: thanks to Sweeney's gold coin]] and follows in Shadow's path over the course of the novel.
247	* RegularlyScheduledEvil: In Lakeside, Shadow discovers that the disappearance of teenagers over the course of several years are actually [[spoiler:sacrifices to Hinzelmann, one of the old gods.]] Not even the people in the town know about [[TownWithADarkSecret the dark secret]].
248	* ResurrectionGambit: (ending spoilers): [[spoiler: This is Mr. Wednesday/Odin's plan. He arranges his own assassination by the New Gods, thus setting up a conflict between them and the Old Gods. The intention is to have Loki dedicate their battle to Odin, thus feeding him the energy of the resulting mayhem and reviving him with greater power than ever before. Shadow discovers this just in time to explain the situation, allowing the two sides to make a truce and leave peacefully.]]
249	* ResurrectiveImmortality: A god is actually not that much harder to kill than a human. Under normal circumstances (as in, somewhere where people believe in them strongly) they simply come back to life or are replaced by something identical quite quickly. In a place that lacks belief like America, they don't have that fallback plan.
250	* TheReveal: [[spoiler:''"It's a two man con. It's not a war at all."'']]
251	* RiddleForTheAges: The name and identity of the wealthy god whose name and appearance no one can remember. Gaiman claimed once that he was almost ready to reveal it, but got a letter from a fan begging him not to because she felt she'd almost figured it out, and complied.
252	* RobeAndWizardHat: The ''original'': When Backstage, Wednesday tends to show up wearing a long cloak and a wide-brimmed hat (in the original myths, to hide his missing eye).
253	* RunicMagic: In one chapter, Wednesday draws some runes in salt on a restaurant table in order to seduce a waitress who proved resistant to his normal [[DirtyOldMan charms]]. Later, he shunts himself, Shadow, and the Winnebago they're driving into an alternate plane to avoid a roadblock by sketching runes in chalk on the dashboard.
254	* SchmuckBait: Loki does this to Technical Boy, mostly to amuse himself. Paraphrased: "I could tell you, but I'd have to kill you." "Ha, okay, I get the point." "Hey, do you really want to know?"
255	* ScienceIsWrong: One character comments on the pity he feels for confused scientists when they find a skull or skeleton which doesn't quite fit the established patterns in the area. This is because the scientists are completely ignorant of the real reasons these objects are there: Egyptians landed in America thousands of years ago. He insinuates that they will always be incorrect because their scientific reasoning will not allow them to reach this conclusion.
256	* ScrewThisImOuttaHere: An Ifrit working as a cab driver swaps his cover identity with a down-on-his-luck Arab salesman for tickets home. He (unknowingly) gets out at the last minute too, as the new cab driver is assassinated in his place shortly after.
257	* ShoutOut:
258	** In one of Shadow's dreams, a brief mention is given to an "[[Literature/TheCallOfCthulhu octopus-faced]]" god.
259	** When Shadow needs to fall asleep, he reads the most boring thing he can find: a pile of old Reader's Digests. He reads an article called "[[Literature/FightClub I Am John's Pancreas.]]"
260	** Two of the towns Shadow passes through on the way to Cairo are Normal, Ohio[[note]]the eponymous setting of a short-lived sitcom starring John Goodman[[/note]] and [[WesternAnimation/{{Daria}} Lawndale]][[note]]this last may or may not count, though. There really is a place called Lawndale in Ohio, but it's just a suburb of Akron. Also, WordOfGod says the one in ''Daria'' is supposed to be in Maryland, but this was in an interview that came out after the book was written.[[/note]]
261	** Neil Gaiman revealed Shadow's name was inspired by the Was (Not Was) song "Shadow and Jimmy".
262	** The Spookshow is named after the military intelligence project that created all the superheroes in ''ComicBook/{{Miracleman}}''.
263	** During the build-up to the meeting in Georgia, the girl that Baron Samedi is possessing is said to be a goth girl with a black silk top hat. Hm, sound [[Comicbook/TheSandman familiar?]]
264	** From the scraps of description we get of Mr Town (the second-highest ranking member of the Spookshow and a walking incarnation of conspiracy theory lore), he sounds an awful lot like the [[Series/TheXFiles Cigarette-Smoking Man]].
265	** When the word kobold is mentioned, Shadow wonders what a kobold is. Many people will be familiar with the term through its use in ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'', an [=RPG=] originally created by Creator/{{TSR}} who were based in Lake Geneva in Wisconsin. [[spoiler:Hinzelmann is a kobold who lives near a lake in Wisconsin.]]
266	** The name "Technical Boy" alludes to the first paragraph in William Gibson's cyberpunk classic short story Johnny Mnemonic. [[note]]"If they think you're crude, go technical; if they think you're technical, go crude. I'm a very technical boy. So I decided to get as crude as possible. These days, though, you have to be pretty technical before you can even aspire to crudeness."[[/note]] The short story also had a film adaptation starring Keanu Reeves, suggesting that the Matrix-emulating Technical Boy may resemble that actor.
267	** Sitting by his mother's bed in the hospital, Shadow is reading ''Literature/GravitysRainbow''.
268	** After crossing the DespairEventHorizon, Mad Sweeney states that in America "[[CrapsackWorld opiates are the religion of the masses]]", an inversion of the famous quote by Creator/KarlMarx.
269	* SerialKiller: [[spoiler:Hinzelmann is behind the disappearing teenagers--he kills them and stuffs them in the current Klunker's trunk, and when the ice thaws the Klunker takes the body to the bottom of the lake. Being one of the old gods, Hinzelmann is technically taking human sacrifices that he needs, but he's still methodically killing one type of person.]]
270	* SoProudOfYou: Wednesday to Shadow after he stands his vigil on the tree.
271	* SpannerInTheWorks: Shadow, naturally and to a lesser extent Horus, [[spoiler:who fetches Easter in order to bring Shadow back to life.]] Also Laura, although she is also partly Shadow's fault for accidentally reanimating her; [[spoiler:she derails Wednesday and Mr World's plans more than once.]]
272	* SpitefulSpit: At [[LastDisrespects Laura's funeral]], one of her friends spits on her face in full view of Laura's husband, then flatly tells him that Laura was [[AbsenceMakesTheHeartGoYonder having an affair]] with her own husband and was giving him oral sex before her deadly car accident.
273	* StandingBetweenTheEnemies: [[spoiler:Shadow manages to stop the battle between the Old and New Gods by telling them both how they were [[PlayingBothSides manipulated into fighting by Mr. Wednesday and Loki]] so that they could gain power from the deaths of the other gods.]]
274	* StealthPun: Shadow is the book's protagonist, and one of the most morally 'good' characters present. He's TheHero, in other words. Mythologically speaking, what does 'Hero' usually imply? [[spoiler:He's the half-mortal son of a god]].
275	* AStormIsComing: Repeated by Mister Wednesday and Mad Sweeney.
276	* SuicideByCop: Shadow seems pretty sure [[spoiler: that's what Hinzelmann is set to accomplish by monologuing about his killings where Chad Mulligan can hear him. It works.]]
277	* SurveillanceAsThePlotDemands: Media can inhabit the body of any TV character and use them as an avatar to spy on or communicate with anyone watching a TV.
278	* SurvivalMantra: "It's easy, there's a trick to it, you do it or you die."
279	* TakeThatKiss: [[spoiler:Sam]] to [[spoiler:Shadow]], as a TakeThat against [[spoiler:everybody else in the bar at that point, but [[CountryMatters especially Audrey]].]]
280	* TheTelevisionTalksBack: Shadow gets into conversations with the goddess Media via several TV sets.
281	* ThanatosGambit: [[spoiler:Wednesday arranges his own assassination in order to convince a lot of reluctant Old Gods to join the war.]]
282	* ThisIsAWorkOfFiction: [[BaitAndSwitchComment "Only the gods are real."]]
283	* TimmyInAWell: {{Lampshaded}} when Shadow is lost in the woods and a talking bird gives him a message and then caws at him to follow -- "You want me to follow you? Or has Timmy fallen down another well?" Only this isn't a cute woodland creature: it's an oversized and frankly scary raven which has just been "brunching on Bambi".
284	* TooDumbToLive: On the night of her death, Laura decided to give Robbie a blowjob ''while he was driving'', causing her to knock the gearshift with her shoulder, which caused the accident. Not helped by the fact she was drunk: both she and Shadow know it was stupid of her to do.
285	* TownWithADarkSecret: [[spoiler:Lakeside--the only reason why it has continued to prosper in tough economic times was because Shadow's neighbor turns out to be a kobold that has sacrificed a child every year since the town was founded in a ritual to ensure the town stayed healthy and prosperous. Only the kobold actually ''knew'' the secret--all of the other townspeople seemed to have had no idea, many assuming the missing children were simply runaways or, in at least one case, kidnapped by their noncustodial parent from out of town.]]
286	* TreacherousAdvisor: [[spoiler:Wednesday, who has been manipulating everyone behind the scenes into a pointless bloodbath to feed off the sacrificial death]].
287	%%* TricksterMentor: [[spoiler:Mr. Wednesday and Low-Key.]]
288	* TrojanPrisoner: Czernobog and Mr. Nancy dress as police officers to get Shadow out of prison.
289	* TwinsAreSpecial: Fraternal twins Wututu and Agasu are split up and sold into slavery because the tribe they're born into believes twins to be magical beings, capable of cursing others. They also exhibit TwinTelepathy and {{Synchronization}}: [[spoiler: when Agasu's arm is cut off, Wututu's arm withers and when Agasu later dies in the Haitian Revolution, Wututu can sense it.]] The narration notes how together they were strong, but apart they are just two scared children, though as Wututu grows to become a woudoo priestess, it's not quite WonderTwinPowers.
290	%%* TwoAliasesOneCharacter: [[spoiler:Low-Key and Mr. World for Loki.]]
291	* TwoTimingWithTheBestie: Shadow is released from prison early, due to his wife Laura's sudden death. At her funeral, he learns that she had been having an affair with his best friend [[AbsenceMakesTheHeartGoYonder during his incarceration]]. The car crash was from her [[AutoErotica pleasuring him in the passenger seat.]]
292	* UndeathAlwaysEnds: Laura is brought back from the dead by a magic coin, but she's still gradually decaying and it's a minor plot point that she will continue to fall apart until restored to either full life or full death. [[spoiler:In the end, she accepts the latter]].
293	* UnfazedEveryman: Shadow. A sad example, as the reason he's unfazed is because Laura's unfaithfulness and death hurt him so badly that his emotions basically shut down in self-defense.
294	-->Wednesday looked at him with amusement and something else--irritation perhaps. Or pride. "Why don't you argue?" asked Wednesday. "Why don't you exclaim that it's all impossible? Why the hell do you just do what I say and take it all so fucking calmly?"
295	* UnholyGround: Holy ground to the (nominally) god of evil, Czernobog, consecrated with blood sacrifices to him by his followers. The influence and power of those sacrifices is still strong enough centuries later it allows him to turn his greyed mustache and some of his hair back to black.
296	* TheUnreveal:
297	** There's a recurring god (apparently a god of wealth) about whom Shadow can [[LaserGuidedAmnesia never remember anything]] beyond a vague impression. Shadow is told his name more than once, but he always forgets it immediately and the reader never gets to hear it. In the end, despite various hints, his identity never does actually get made clear (including, thus far, by WordOfGod). Naturally, there are [[WildMassGuessing popular guesses]] including [[Myth/ClassicalMythology Pluto]], [[Myth/HinduMythology Budha Mercury]], [[Myth/CelticMythology the Horned God]] and {{Satan}}.
298	** Shadow robbed that bank "for Laura" but we never find out exactly why.
299	* UnwittingPawn: [[spoiler:Virtually all the old and new Gods, and Shadow himself, are pawns in Wednesday and Loki's KansasCityShuffle.]]
300	* UrbanFantasy: The world is pretty much exactly like we know it, except that gods are real and live alongside us.
301	* VaginaDentata:
302	** Wututu claims to have them to deter a rapist on board the slave ship.
303	** Bilquis the [[FertilityGod Fertility-goddess]], who ''swallows'' people via her vagina.
304	* VaguenessIsComing: Several characters warn about a coming storm or similar, without elaborating. The first of these, oddly, is an in-mate in prison with Shadow with the unlikely name of Sam Fetisher, who never gets mentioned again.
305	* TheVerse: Shared with ''Literature/{{Stardust}}'', although you would only know it by reading ''Wall: A Prologue'', and with "Literature/AnansiBoys" since Mr. Nancy not only appears in both, but even dresses the same. There is also a minor crossover with ''ComicBook/TheSandman'', since Delirium makes a brief appearance in San Francisco.
306	* VikingsInAmerica: One of the "coming to America" interludes shows a ship full of Vikings landing in America and sacrificing a native to Odin. [[spoiler:Implied to be how Mr. Wednesday was created.]]
307	* ViolentlyProtectiveGirlfriend:
308	** Laura as a zombie serves as this for Shadow. [[spoiler:She kills at least four men who have it in for her husband.]]
309	** Bastet isn't Shadow's girlfriend, but sometimes she acts like this. [[spoiler:When Oliver tries to murder Shadow in "Black Dog," she summons an army of cats to save him.]]
310	* ViolinScam: Commented upon by Wednesday. [[spoiler:It's his fond description of this and other ''two-person cons'' that foreshadows Loki and Odin's partnership.]]
311	* VirtualDangerDenial: Shadow expresses lack of faith in his electronic plane ticket - where he doesn't have a physical ticket, just a number to give at check-in - because it just doesn't seem real to him. It's nice foreshadowing of his siding with the old gods against the new, technology-based ones. It turns out, though, that he's easily able to not only get his ticket, but get bumped to an earlier flight [[spoiler:which foreshadows that the new gods aren't so evil after all.]]
312	%%* WaifProphet: Horus.
313	* WalkingTheEarth: In "Monarch of the Glen" and "Black Dog," [[spoiler:Shadow travels through various European countries, solving problems along the way.]]
314	* WeAreAsMayflies: The reasons the new gods of America are so violently on-edge is because although they have no shortage of belief, they are ''very'' short-lived as society advances rapidly to the next big thing. There used to be a train god in the 1800s, for example, when the nascent railroads represented all that was modern and new and interconnected.
315	* WhamLine: Several:
316	** One for Shadow at the very start of the book: [[spoiler:"Your wife died with my husband's cock in her mouth, Shadow."]]
317	** [[spoiler:"Jesus, [[ChekhovsGunman Low-Key Lyesmith]]...Oh, Jesus. Loki. [[LouisCypher Loki Lie-Smith.]]"]]
318	** [[spoiler:"It's a [[CallBack two-man]] [[TheCon con.]]"]]
319	** [[spoiler:"And then, as the spear arcs over the battle, I'm going to shout 'I dedicate this battle to Odin.'"]]
320	** Not made a big deal of at the time (because the person thinking it doesn't realize the significance), but [[spoiler:"It had amused [Mr World] to play chauffeur, in Kansas, after all"]] confirms the Foreshadowed identity of a major player in the game.
321	** "Shadow found that he was completely unsurprised when he recognized the man who dances with her. He had not changed that much in thirty-three years." [[spoiler:"Her" is Shadow's mother. "He" is Wednesday.]]
322	* WhatHaveWeEar: Shadow does coin tricks, including this one, throughout the story, as a way of keeping his hands busy. It becomes important to the plot when he ends up with a pair of very special coins: [[spoiler:the sun and moon]].
323	* WhatTheHellHero: Shadow tries to call Odin (the original) out for Wednesday's actions. Odin demurs, claiming that while Wednesday was him, that doesn't mean that he was Wednesday.
324	--> '''Shadow''': You tried to destroy so much for power. You would have sacrificed so much for yourself. You did that.\
325	'''Odin''': I did not do that.\
326	'''Shadow''': Wednesday did. He was you.\
327	'''Odin''': He was me, yes. But I am not him.
328	* WorldOfPun:
329	** "I was just rotting away where I was." --[[TheUndead Laura]]
330	** "Look in the trunk."
331	** Wednesday gets the girls because of his ''charm''. One of the eighteen charms he learned while hanging from the World Tree.
332	** And then, of course, there's Loki's [[IncrediblyLamePun alias]].
333	* TheWorldTree: The Norse version, more or less. [[spoiler: Shadow hangs from it in vigil for Wednesday just as Odin himself once did.]]
334	* YankTheDogsChain: Salim has an utterly miserable life, and the Ifrit's favor to him is to give him his identity as a taxi driver to start over fresh. Later in the book, it's mentioned he was assassinated by the New Gods, who assumed he was the Ifrit.
335	* YouAllMeetInACell: Well, somewhat. [[spoiler:Loki and Shadow meet in prison.]]
336	* YouRemindMeOfX: While insulting Shadow's intelligence, Mr. Nancy says Shadow reminds him of his son, who "slept late on the mornin' they handed out brains". Shadow politely takes it as a compliment that Mr. Nancy likens him to a member of his own family, [[SecretTestOfCharacter winning Mr. Nancy's approval]].

Context Literature / AmericanGods