Reviews tagging 'Confinement'

The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair That Changed America by Erik Larson

23 reviews

camilleion's review against another edition

informative inspiring slow-paced

4.0

90% architectural history, 10% true crime.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Violence, and Death

Moderate: Confinement, Emotional abuse, Torture, Violence, Injury/Injury detail, Gore, Infidelity, and Classism

Minor: Body horror, Gore, Gun violence, Suicide, Abandonment, and Mental illness

suzquinn97's review against another edition

dark informative mysterious medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Kidnapping, Gun violence, Medical content, Child death, Death, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Confinement, and Mental illness

Minor: Abortion

headachesince03's review against another edition

adventurous dark informative inspiring mysterious tense slow-paced

4.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Infidelity, Physical abuse, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Abortion, Alcohol, Misogyny, Police brutality, Pregnancy, Religious bigotry, Sexism, Torture, Violence, Xenophobia, Bullying, Death of parent, Miscarriage, Blood, Body horror, Child abuse, Colonisation, Racism, Terminal illness, Confinement, Death, Mental illness, Toxic relationship, Addiction, Alcoholism, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Child death, Classism, Cultural appropriation, Dementia, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Forced institutionalization, Gaslighting, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Medical content, and Murder

reddeddy's review against another edition

dark informative mysterious sad tense slow-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide, Torture, Violence, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Stalking, Child abuse, Gore, Child death, Death, Drug use, Body horror, Confinement, Gaslighting, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Medical content, Fire/Fire injury, Murder, and Infidelity

Moderate: Abandonment, Abortion, Animal death, Blood, Terminal illness, Cultural appropriation, Death of parent, Forced institutionalization, Grief, Pregnancy, Sexual content, Sexual harassment, Toxic relationship, Toxic friendship, Chronic illness, Classism, Animal cruelty, Drug abuse, and Gun violence

librarymouse's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional informative mysterious sad tense medium-paced

3.75

The literary descriptions and firsthand accounts of the fair, and the effort and love put into it's design and creation made me wish I could have attended. The detailed descriptions of Holmes' murders and his disarmingly charming personality made me glad that I was born over a full century after 1893. I like greatly enjoyed The Devil in the White City, the second half was a far easier read than the first. I'm not sure if I've retained as much of the information about the fair's designers and the events that took place while it was open as I wanted to. While interesting, the section about the initial design process and the political lobbying that took place in order to get the fair to occur in Chicago read similarly to a textbook, in stark contrast with the narrative way the rest of the history was told. Overall, an informative and interesting read. I would use enjoyable to describe the writing, but not the content.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child abuse, Chronic illness, Gore, Blood, Grief, Gun violence, Infidelity, Suicide attempt, Abortion, Classism, Colonisation, Confinement, Death, Death of parent, Dementia, Alcohol, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Murder, Suicide, Child death, Forced institutionalization, Medical trauma, Terminal illness, Torture, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Mental illness, and Misogyny

Moderate: Racial slurs

Minor: Xenophobia

ascalun's review

challenging dark informative medium-paced

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Murder, Abortion, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Fire/Fire injury, Forced institutionalization, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Misogyny, Suicidal thoughts, and Toxic relationship

Minor: Confinement, Cultural appropriation, Drug use, Forced institutionalization, and Medical content

emmacjmeyer's review

dark informative slow-paced

3.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Abortion, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Death, Kidnapping, Murder, Torture, and Violence

aargot1's review against another edition

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death of parent, Death, Torture, Murder, Confinement, and Fire/Fire injury

bdingz's review

challenging dark informative slow-paced

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Violence, Confinement, and Murder

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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Child death, Death, Violence, Body horror, Confinement, Gore, Torture, Blood, Medical content, Kidnapping, Medical trauma, Fire/Fire injury, Misogyny, Abortion, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Alcohol and Pregnancy