Eight Million Gods

By: Wen Spencer

Narrated by: Hollie Jackson

On Saturday afternoon, Nikki Delany thought, "George Wilson, in the kitchen, with a blender." By dinner, she had killed George and posted his gory murder to her blog. The next day, she put on her mourning clothes and went out to meet her best friend for lunch to discuss finding a replacement for her love interest.

Nikki is a horror novelist. Her choice of career is dictated by an obsessive compulsive disorder that forces her to write stories of death and destruction. She can't control it, doesn't understand it, but can use it to make money anywhere in the world. Currently "anywhere" is in Japan, hiding from her mother who sees Nikki's OCD as proof she's mentally unstable. Nikki's fragile peace starts to fall apart when the police arrest her for the murder of an American expatriate. Someone killed him with a blender.

Reality starts to unravel around Nikki. She's attacked by a raccoon in a business suit. After a series of blackouts, she's accompanied by a boy that no one else can see, a boy who claims to be a god. Is she really being pursued by Japanese myths - or is she simply going insane?

Contains mature themes.

©2013 Wen Spencer (P)2020 Tantor

new favorite author

Another excellent read by Wen Spencer. A well realized version of modern Japan I'm excited to revisit.

primarily set in modern day Japan

Review of audiobook borrowed through Audible Plus.
Possible Spoilers:
Spencer has a clean writing style that I enjoyed but I have to admit it took this free Audible Plus book borrow for me to find out. Spencer was not previously on my radar to check out.
The level of detail of day-to-day life in Japan can only come from experience. Spencer must have lived in Japan to be so knowledgeable about the country and many levels of the culture.
My only experience of modern Japanese entertainment culture is some Manga and Forthright’s books on the Amaranthine Saga. This jumps levels beyond that with fanfic, online writing culture, gods & fantasy, with a touch of Lit RPG.
Nikki has been fighting most of her life against her mother’s constant push to have her committed and keep her there, citing her obsessive compulsion to write - her hypergraphia. It turns out that’s Nikki’s super power, and her mother has reasons to keep her “quiet”. She barely escapes to Japan upon her mother’s most recent attempt.
Hollie Jackson does an exemplary job of narration. I don’t know enough Japanese to judge her pronunciations, but she sure sounds spot-on and doesn’t hesitate in her reading.

I've loved the book for a while,

Glad the narrator carried it off. The Japanese was pretty decently pronounced as far as I could tell and none of the voices were annoying. Recommend this for any anime fan or fans of urban fantasy who want something a bit different. As usual, Wen Spencer's characters are the real gems of the story. You'll care about Nikki from the beginning and care about Leo and Miriam and her kami friend.

Unique and interesting story

This was a surprisingly enjoyable book that's delves into the world of the Japanese Kami. Definitely give it a listen.

I started this because of Hollie Jackson

Great story I especially enjoyed it because I was recently in Japan and was able to very clearly imagine the scenes