Read for the Once Upon a Time II Reading Challenge.
I’ve had Anansi Boys and American Gods on my to read list for quite some time (because someone had them buried in the basement and could never remember to grab them whenever he was in the area…). I’d always intended to read American Gods first, but the BF recommended Anansi Boys as the better of the two to start with, and I’ve actually had several other people tell me they liked it better.
I really enjoyed the story: Fat Charlie has read a fairly normal existence, until his father dies, and Charlie finds out that his father was actually the trickster god Anansi, and that Charlie has a brother he never knew about who has the powers of their father. Pretty much inevitably, things go downhill from there.
The characters in this book are great. Poor Fat Charlie makes a great journey from downtrodden regular guy to a man pretty comfortable with what turns out to be pretty interesting heritage. Charlie’s brother Spider is also a hoot. I even liked Grahame Coats, the story’s bad guy. He was definitely fun to read.
I think my favorite scene in the book was the last scene. There’s just something about a casual morning stroll with a mermaid, and that fact that it was a family tradition that made it special.