My only reaction to this is, "good grief." It's all a bit too much and extreme and like "I don't apologize for my honesty, man" - imagine if an old Mountain Dew commercial wrote a horror-ish novel. Not for me but the Crunch Wrap Supreme exists so maybe it's for somebody.

Give me anything by Mr. Wendig and I will happily lose a weekend reading his work. This is just another in a long line of books by him that I have read in almost a single sitting. The main protagonist, Cason Cole is a man with a broken past who has walked away from his family and become a bodyguard for a god. Yes, a god. It seems that gods have been kicked from the heavens and are now living on Earth. Now Cason's employer has been killed, does he set out to avenge the death of his employer? Nope, he jumps into a taxi to reunite with his family.

This. Does. Not. Go. Well.

In fact, they try to kill him on sight. The only thing that that he can do to get his family back is track down the killer responsible for the death of his employer.

It is a down and dirty ride on a collapsing rollercoaster. Cason becomes more than just a pawn in the games of gods exiled from the heavens to Earth.

2019 was the year I became a Chuck Wendig fan. I've read two of the Miriam Black books and I'm looking forward to more in this series. Then came this summer's Wanderers, his epic attempt at a 21st Century take on The Stand and Swan Song, two of my favorite novels of all time. The guy's ambitious, I'll give him that. His books are for readers who love a good story that takes unexpected turns when you least expect them. He's brash and vulgar and sarcastic -- all good things, in this reader's opinion.

So why not take on a tale of the gods? Which gods? You name 'em! Wendig mines all cultures and tells a story of revenge about an unhappy mortal, freed from servitude to his earthbound god after the god dies (violently, of course). It's a fun read that takes about 60 pages to hit its stride and then it's nonstop action from there on. If you're thinking American Gods, you're on the right track. But it's American Gods Wendig-style, which means it's familiar terrain yet entirely different.

Unclean Spirits is really two books - Unclean Spirits, by Chuck Wendig, and Drag Hunt, by Pat Kelleher. It's the start of a collaborative series, judging by the next two. The Gods have been cast out of their heavens, and now they're all here - and these are absolutely the cruel gods of ancient stories, those who meddle with mortals simply because they're bored.

Unclean Spirits, to start at the start, is the story of Cason Cole, one such mortal who attracted the attention of the gods, and is paying for it as the story begins. In grand Chuck Wendig style we begin in the middle; thrown into the action and left to sink or swim, much as he does to his characters. It's not long before we join Cason on his mission to reunite himself with his own life - a narrative that's going to invite comparisons with American Gods, though if you care to hear the wife's side of the story, I suspect you'll like this book better. It's a hard hitting, gritty take on an old story, and I absolutely loved it.

Drag Hunt, meanwhile, takes up the last third or so of the book, and follows Coyote as he searches for his missing... younger brother. I felt bad for not liking this as much as Unclean Spirits - I think Chuck Wendig managed Coyote's voice better - but it's still absolutely worth the read.

Personally, I really enjoy Chuck Wendigs writing style and this novel was no exception - brilliantly written and fast paced - will definitely check out what Chuck writes next,

I like Wendig's newer stuff. This one had a lot of interesting parts and some of the flavour of his current work, but it kind of feels like the start of a series that didn't get continued. Still glad I read it.

Cason Cole was a successful MMA fighter, but grew soft and complacent as a bodyguard for E. Rose, a magnetic, hedonistic man. One fateful day, a bomb kills his boss, releasing him from E. Rose's influence and making him aware of his past for the first time in years. Cason is then drawn into a world of mythology, gods, and magic and those who oppose all of it. He has to decide how hard he will fight to get his family back.

Unclean Spirits is story that satisfies my mythology obsession, takes me on an insane adventure, and adds a healthy dash of horror. In this world, all mythological gods are real, ranging from the well known gods of Greece and Egypt to the more obscure ones of Sumeria to even local legends and fables. I was particularly happy to see Erishkagal. They have been kicked out of their realm and forced to live in the human one, most attempting to avoid general human attention. Because of their disparate natures, the gods aren't a monolithic whole, but all very opinionated and arrogant about their past accomplishments and state. E. Rose turns out to be Eros and of course Cason is blamed for his death with Aphrodite, Eros' mother, wanting vengeance. These supernatural creatures are just as they are portrayed in myth: petty, jealous, coompletely consumed with their own drama, practically immortal, and extremely powerful.

Poor Cason just wants his family back. He has been kept for them for years in what he finds out is a manufactured plot to do so. When he tries to return to his family, his wife and young son try to kill him with knives. He's lost in the real world since he's been lost in a fog, let alone in this newfound world of gods and monsters. Cason is the grounding force of the book because he's as bewildered as we are. His goal isn't to kill all the gods or anything crazy; he simply wants his family back. He meets the bomber that killed E. Rose and helps him kill other gods because he has no idea how else to fight back. Through this allyship, he sees how gods have survived all these years, either in a commune out in the country or inflitrated within the abandoned nooks and crannies of human societies.

Unclean Spirits is an amazing ride with twists and turns I didn't see coming. The ending did seem a bit abrupt pacing wise, but everything that needed to be resolved was. I would love to see this world as a series even though Cason's story is over because there are endless possibilities to stories in these gods experiences and the people they affect.

It took me a while to get into this. I found the beginning confusing and hard to follow. But once it took off, I was hooked!

It's a nice twist on the "gods are real and walk the earth" genre , as Cason tries to figure out why his wife wants to kill him and how he can stop her. Throw in a detachable coyote penis and rabid unicorns and you have one gloriously surreal romp!

Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC.

What would happen if the Gods were real? Earthbound and vicious, God’s from all the ages walk among us, and they’re not really very nice. Offered a deal to save his families souls, Cason Cole has been a servant for one such God for five years. Until, one day, the God dies. Finally free, and with the knowledge that the Gods can be killed, Cason sets out to find his family and get some revenge.

This was weird, and has a definite love or hate feel about it. It certainly pushes the boundaries of fantasy, but I couldn’t get past the feeling that this has already been done before but in a more likeable way. The plot itself is also really slow, and takes a long time to get going. I almost DNA’d it a few times because I just didn’t enjoy the pacing. The ending as a result is also very rushed, with a short, sharp and violent built up that didn’t entirely play out as I thought it should.

However, I did like that this is dark and gritty and complicated. The Gods are many and varied (VERY varied), and they’re not explicitly good or bad. Their nature is a result of how their worshipped, how they were ‘made’, meaning it’s our own fault that they act the way they do. I loved that concept.

Cason Cole is an interesting main character. He’s complex enough to be likeable, and has a solid mission and backstory that carries the story well. He’s also a good counterbalance against the backdrop of the Gods. He’s the straight man to their weirdness, and compliments them well.

A mixed bag, but an interesting story if urban fantasy and violence are your thing.

To be honest, I DNF'd at about 40%. While there is nothing really inherently bad about the book, it IS incredibly similar to Neil Gaiman’s American Gods (the "but weirder" claims, I'm sorry to say, don't really do anything for me). While that also wouldn’t be terrible if you loved AG, the writing is not as thoroughly outstanding as Neil Gaiman’s and it feels too much like AG was put through a wash cycle and watered down. There are too many complete one-to-one similarities that it almost felt like a really cheap knock off. I mean, read that excerpt and tell me you can't apply those things to Shadow Moon and Mr. Wednesday at least to some degree.

Reading this called to mind a time shortly after I discovered Stephen King (when I was around 12 years old) and thought Gee, I might like this super gory horror thriller stuff and picked up a book by an author I won't name (primarily because I can't remember who it was) because the front cover had a little tagline that said something along the lines of "Even weirder than King!" My young stupid brain responded with "NEAT!" and it turned out that it was just... awful. In some ways, it was weirder than King. But that doesn't make it better. Aimless "weirdness" does not a good story make.

When it comes to a specific kind of genre, especially one that has been done really well before, making it "weirder" doesn't necessarily make it better. At all. Especially if you're recycling super similar patterns and tropes - i.e. save the lover, fight the gods or fight with the gods, run around town looking for stuff and things, and modernization of mythology. Some of those patterns and tropes are totally cool and excellent, but using them in the exact same ways with really similar characters that are supposed to be original? Not so excellent.

I like Wendig’s writing in general, he's certainly clever and has a distinct style that I enjoyed, and I will seek out his other work in the future, but this just didn’t do anything for me that I hadn’t already gotten, and gotten better, from American Gods.

I received a copy of this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

It sounded like a book that would be right up my alley, but unfortunately I just couldn’t get into it. I did not finish.

Fun, wild ride of a book that I definitely enjoyed reading. Then again, Chuck Wendig rarely disappoints.

Unclean Spirits - Chuck Wendig

3/5 stars

Dark, gritty American Gods(ish)

For five years, ex MMA fighter Cason Cole has been the bodyguard for the God Eros. Forced into his service after Eros saved his family from death, Cason now serves not just without question but also without contact with his family. For this is the price he paid. With the murder of Eros, Cason finds that by escaping one god he has stumbled into the murky world and schemes of the many gods that also inhabit the earth. Can Cason Cole regain the life he had before? Will the gods let this happen? Or does Cason have a higher calling?
This horror/fantasy which many call ‘urban fantasy’ comes from author Chuck Wendig, best known for his 2015 Star Wars novel ‘Aftermath.’ This novel is part of the 2013 Gods and Monsters series and this review is for the February 18 reissue.
A Wendig book can easily be identified, in part, by the dark and gritty subject matter combined with his choppy writing style and short, snappy dialogue. Unclean Spirits has this in spades.
It’s violent and sweary, pulpy like a B movie. It could be cool but doesn’t quite hit the mark.
There are some memorable characters and so there should be as Wendig takes from every pantheon of the gods. Some major, well known gods are here but also some minor ones which gives it an interesting slant.
The best character is the mass of walking scar tissue that is Frank Polcyn, besotted, vengeful and unfortunately under used.
Whereas the characters were interesting there were far too many. Too many gods taken from too many pantheons which created some confusion and created some lack of interest and some drifting off.
It’s a decent read, fairly engaging and punchy, it doesn’t drag which is a bonus and does keep you turning those pages. The author does action well and the violence is graphic, if you like action packed this book is worth a read, although it does seem to burn itself out as it gets to the end which is apparent with a very disappointing ending.
The highlight for me was Wendig’s take on the unicorn. Not some hum drum run of the mill garden variety but a dirty, raw, grim and violent beast. A bit like the author’s writing and very much like this book.
A moodier, more violent but half as good American Gods.
Thanks to NetGalley for an ARC, in return for an honest review.

This is a fast-paced action-packed story of gods living and controlling humans. It's a violent, bare-bones romp through a smart plot by lightly drawn characters because we already have a good idea of the natures of the gods. It did end a little too abruptly for me, hence the loss of a star, but there is obviously much scope in this universe.

A man finds himself the scapegoat in the assassination of a god, one which he had been bound to in servitude to repay a debt. Set free from his chains, he flees to his family, only to find they don't greet him with happy tears as he expected. And that's when the story *really* begins.

This book grabbed my attention from the get-go. It felt a bit like Marcus Sakey's Brilliance meets Neil Gaiman's American Gods. The writing is skilled. Descriptions paint fantastic mental pictures. Characters are multi-faceted, and despite being familiar in some cases, very creatively reimagined. The story has plenty of action to propel the plot forward, lots of twists to keep you on your toes. There were plenty of points at which I audibly gasped with surprise because I just didn't see something coming.

My one complaint would have to be that the ending of the book felt a little abrupt. I expected there to be more to the story, and wanted there to be, but was left holding onto that want. Other than that, fantastic!

This story involves one of my favourite tropes – the gods have been dragged down to ground level and are now acting out their dramas on earth.

This book is more action than character driven (character driven plots are my jam so it did lose my attention a bit) and feels very much like the beginning of a series rather than a strong book in its own right. I suspect that the next book is going to be where the story comes into its own.

That said, the dialogue in this book is very witty and the humour as twisted as you could possibly ask for. Gods are blown up by hand-crafted incendiary devices and there’s a really pissed off unicorn being held captive somewhere – if it’s first rate divine action and violence you're after, you’ve hit the jackpot!

Cason, the main character, finds himself trapped between the real world and the manipulations of the gods. He’s a bit lacking in the personality front, but he keeps busy with his revenge plans against the gods who have stolen everything from him.

All in all, this book wasn’t a great fit for me but I can appreciate the witty and to-the-point writing style and the direction this series is heading in.

I think this book is "ok", not one of the best urban fantasy books, but certainly not the worst either.. In other words, it is worth a read if it is at a sensible price. The story itself is interesting and engaging enough and kept the pages turning, but I felt it was missing something to make it one of the better books. It is hard to nail exactly what, and it is perhaps as simple as the flow of the story.

The characters in the book are decent enough and in some instances quirky and a bit fun e.g. Coyote., but perhaps some of them could have been fleshed out a bit more. I also quite like the setting, which is simply that the gods have all been exiled to earth and by and large reluctantly share the planet with humans(. There is certainly plenty of mileage for future stories. .

The book, also included a novella which centred on Coyote, and whilst is was bizarre in many aspects, the story did seem to flow better and I came away preferring it to the main story, despite the strangeness of it,

All in all, it is probably worth a read, but I wouldn't say it is a must read

I give this 3.75 stars. As always Chick Wendig doesn't disappoint.

We have a lot of different Gods and Pantheon in this book, and the author present to us a good selection fo them. I liked to see some greek deities interact with eastern ones, for example, but we really have a lot to choose from: Irish deities, Egyptian ones, African, Native American and so on, so on… I liked this thing a lot! Also, we have unicorns!
Ok… we can see just one of them, and it’s a murderous one, to be precise, but hey! We have unicorns!!!!
It’s a grim tale, not a happy one, and we have violence and some crude scenes in there, too. And that’s quite foreseeable, and I am not saying this in a bad way, it’s just that we have our MC, Cason, who is involved in a… war, if we can say so, between different Gods. And it’s not that there is a war, as a conspiracy against him, and he really doesn’t know why! So… here we are, with Cason, who fight to discover the truth while he’s fighting to take back his family (some Gods cursed his wife and son, so if they see him they didn’t remind who he is and just try to kill him on sight, or better yet, to butcher him! Hmm.. not a happy reunion that would be, right?) and he’s fighting to kill some random gods because, well, why not?! So yeah, a lot of fighting, and we’re talking about a man against Gods, you can see that this would be a violent and not so happy reading, right?

Anyway… the starting was really slow, and I thought about DNF it at some points because slow beginning and so many similarities with American Gods aren’t a good mix for me, but I enjoyed the reading, and once we get the backstory all goes more smoothly and I found myself enjoying the reading.

My favorite character was Psyche, even if I wasn’t so enamored from the start. Usually when I dislike a character I go on disliking it, but with her, it wasn’t so and I am really happy about it.
All in all, it was an interesting reading, and I enjoyed it, even if it starts slow and I wasn’t so convinced in the beginning. Also, my ARC has an additional novella: Drag Hunt by Pat Kelleher, about Coyote and another poor human being who found himself among the Gods, and this is not a good thing as always. This story was more fun, even if it’s not a happy one, and I enjoyed this one, too.

So, if you liked American Gods and you are in for something similar but… weirder, well, that’s the right book for you!