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9.34k reviews for:
The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair That Changed America
Erik Larson
3.87 AVERAGE
9.34k reviews for:
The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair That Changed America
Erik Larson
3.87 AVERAGE
informative
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
A 3/5 because it shouldn't have been marketed as a True Crime book. 4/5 for a history book.
dark
informative
mysterious
slow-paced
dark
informative
medium-paced
challenging
dark
informative
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
It's been 84 years...
FINALLY finished this, about TIME.
FINALLY finished this, about TIME.
dark
informative
mysterious
sad
tense
adventurous
challenging
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
dark
informative
medium-paced
3.7 — I wanted to like it more. To be fair, I went into this book expecting more H.H.Holmes than what we got. The Authors Note mentioned choosing this particular time in history and these two men — Burnham and Holmes — for their ambition translating in different ways, but I thought the men were a little too different in their approaches to accomplishing their work. Burnham was essentially a project manager and a lot of his duties were in the direction of others, appeasing and compromising with team members and not losing his mind when committees and director-generals threw shit at the fan. Holmes was more hands on and his actions lacked any real motive. It felt less cohesive than what I think the author was trying to accomplish and both could have been their own books. Ultimately it appeared that the book was 70% world faire, 20% Holmes and 10% Pendergast & Miscellaneous city/country events happening at the same time. I did enjoy it ultimately and I’m glad I read it but would probably not pick it up again.