Anansi Boys

by Neil Gaiman
Man. I have the biggest literary crush on Neil Gaiman. Seriously. So big. The man is the god of my idolatry in the fantasy/horror novel/short story/graphic novel/comic book realm. I want to have a long, heated, passionate conversation with him and produce books that are his babies.
OK, maybe I’m slipping into hyperbole here, but believe me when I say this: Anansi Boys is an incredibly good book. It’s about what happens when a god dies (Anansi the Spider, that is. Had a heart attack while singing karaoke) and his two sons have to deal with the fallout of not only his death but learning about each other. The more normal son, Fat Charlie, is brilliant – he’s terminally embarassed by his father, and Gaiman writes it beautifully.
Plus, what happens when Fat Charlie gets fed up with his brother (who inherited a lot of their father’s qualities and therefore upsets Charlie to no end) and tries to get rid of him is just… just… awesome. Charlie rocks. Spider, his brother, rocks. Anansi rocks.
This isn’t a sequel to American Gods, but it takes place in the same world and is at least as good.
(Book 26 in 2005)