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cupofbooksreviews's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
mysterious
sad
tense
slow-paced
I have given The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson two out of five stars ⭐️⭐️
A dark and devious book filled with architecture and killings. A mixture of two I never thought I would read in the same book.
This book started off quite strong for me; learning about an architect called Daniel H. Burnham and a serial killer called H.H. Holmes. I find non-fiction books fascinating especially when based around true crime events, although that meant that there were a lot of brutal attacks that happened to a lot of people.
I found this book started to repeat itself quite a lot, especially during the chapters that surround Daniel Burnham and the architecture of the Chicago World Fair. I appreciated that the information was important and relevant however, due to the repeated information I started to become quite bored of Daniel Burnham’s story.
As I became less intrigued by this book, I ended up reading this book for a fair few weeks which dragged out the experience. I had hoped there was more information regarding H.H. Holmes rather than Daniel Burnham.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Gore, Miscarriage, Physical abuse, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Abortion, Murder, and Alcohol
gabbo's review against another edition
dark
informative
mysterious
slow-paced
3.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death, Death, and Abortion
meganpbennett's review against another edition
dark
informative
mysterious
medium-paced
3.0
I read The Devil in the White City on the advice of a true crime-loving librarian colleague. It's interesting, with H.H. Holmes killing indiscriminately around during the Chicago World's Fair, though I started reading the book without realizing that H.H. Holmes was the Devil in question.
The book has lots of interesting detail on the World's Fair - after all, how could Chicago hope to beat Eiffel and his Tower from the previous World's Fair? Enter an engineer named... Ferris.
The book was less graphic than I thought it would be, but there is rather disturbing imagery involving Holmes killing and disposing of the bodies.
I think the book would have been stronger had the author not switched perspectives between Holmes and the builders of the Fair every chapter. I think it would have made more sense for the author to have chosen a time frame - three months? - and written about the building of the Fair, then Pendergast, then Holmes. That would have strengthened the connect between them
The book has lots of interesting detail on the World's Fair - after all, how could Chicago hope to beat Eiffel and his Tower from the previous World's Fair? Enter an engineer named... Ferris.
The book was less graphic than I thought it would be, but there is rather disturbing imagery involving Holmes killing and disposing of the bodies.
I think the book would have been stronger had the author not switched perspectives between Holmes and the builders of the Fair every chapter. I think it would have made more sense for the author to have chosen a time frame - three months? - and written about the building of the Fair, then Pendergast, then Holmes. That would have strengthened the connect between them
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Child death, Confinement, Death, Gore, Misogyny, Torture, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Kidnapping, Medical trauma, Abortion, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, and Gaslighting
Moderate: Pregnancy and Alcohol
kaitlinlovesbooks's review against another edition
dark
informative
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
3.5
I expected to like this more. The writing is excellent, but I was overwhelmed by the sheer amount of detail included about the construction of the World’s Fair. There were far too many names for me to keep track of, especially when it felt like every single one of them referred to someone who was white with blue eyes. I really liked the audiobook narrator‘s voice, but sadly I think this is one time where my comprehension would have benefited from reading the print version instead. I found Holmes’ story to be far more gripping, despite or perhaps because of its macabre descriptions (a couple of scenes are borderline graphic). Overall, this should be a good fit for history buffs and true crime devotees.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Child death, Death, Gore, Violence, Blood, and Murder
Moderate: Mental illness
Minor: Addiction and Abortion
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