You need to sign in or sign up before continuing.
Take a photo of a barcode or cover
9.33k reviews for:
The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair That Changed America
Erik Larson
3.87 AVERAGE
9.33k reviews for:
The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair That Changed America
Erik Larson
3.87 AVERAGE
challenging
dark
informative
slow-paced
challenging
dark
informative
reflective
medium-paced
dark
informative
slow-paced
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death, Violence, Murder
dark
informative
reflective
medium-paced
informative
medium-paced
Not really sure how to feel about this book. Historical non-fiction my first Historical Non-fiction book. I’m just gonna use the description of the book. Two men, each handsome and unusually adept at his chosen work, embodied an element of the great dynamic that characterized America's rush toward the twentieth century. The architect was Daniel Hudson Burnham, the fair's brilliant director of works and the builder of many of the country's most important structures, including the Flatiron Building in New York and Union Station in Washington, D.C. The murderer was Henry H. Holmes, a young doctor who, in a malign parody of the White City, built his "World's Fair Hotel" just west of the fairgrounds. In this biography-esque book we learn how Chicago was built and transformed into what we see today, and how Henry H Holmes came to be. I was also interested in the history of America being who America is and wanting to be number 1 in everything. Also the introduction of the Ferris wheel.
Very uninteresting book. The connection between the serial killer and the world Fair is forced.
If you can get past the author trying to impress you with all of his big words, this is a great book. But aside from that, Larson does a great job bringing America's first serial killer, H. H. Holmes, and the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition to life. It's obvious Larson did a fair amount of research about both topics and then turned that research into a vivid account of events in Chicago in the 1890s. If you're like me and have never heard of H. H. Holmes, I think you will enjoy this book.
Bits about the rise of the fair were extremely interesting. However, if would be better served as a separate story with much more picture accompaniment. The Holmes side waxes and wanes with interest, leaving me half in disbelief people could be THIS blind to such obvious warnings.
Overall, I started out with good steam and by a third of the way in had lost the desire to read...anything. That's how bored I was with this book. Skip to the end and get the pay off.
Overall, I started out with good steam and by a third of the way in had lost the desire to read...anything. That's how bored I was with this book. Skip to the end and get the pay off.
informative
mysterious
medium-paced