Reviews with content warning for Murder - The Devil in the White City (Abridged): Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair That Changed America

Reviews tagging 'Murder'

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

133 reviews

chupacobbruh's review against another edition

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dark informative slow-paced

3.5

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sometimes_samantha_reads's review

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dark emotional informative mysterious sad tense fast-paced

4.5

I recently got a new job and I have an hour commute one way. I'm not usually able to do audiobooks because I get distracted and I was wary of trying to follow a story while also driving, but it turns out listening to an audiobook in the car is great.

My sister in law recommended this to me. I'm not usually into true crime, but if its paced like this and narrated by Tony Goldwyn, I'm all for it! The parallel stories of Burnahm and Holmes was fascinating and I learned so much. The story was chilling but I kept listening to satisfy the morbid curiosity. I learned that Holmes is supposedly buried less than 30 minutes from where I live, which is wild.

I think I'll try to seek out more audiobooks. I quite liked Tony Goldwyn's narration so I think I'll start there.

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crownoflaurel's review against another edition

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dark informative sad medium-paced

3.75

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quasinaut's review against another edition

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challenging dark informative inspiring slow-paced

4.25

Wow, it's mind-boggling how much research went into recreating a historical narrative like this. Piece by piece, year by year, building by building, we see how the Chicago World's Fair came together and H. H. Holmes racked up debts and misdeeds.

The pacing was slow, sometimes slower than I'd like, but the level of detail showed how many pieces and people had to come together to lead to the resulting events. On the one hand, I can really appreciate how much of an accomplishment the World's Fair was, considering just how many mishaps it encountered along the way. And on the other, I can be truly horrified by how much Holmes got away with before being caught.

Plus, it was just cool to learn about the innovations and societal influences that came from the fair.

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abbimmorgan's review against another edition

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dark mysterious reflective slow-paced

2.5

This is such an interesting concept and it’s hard to believe the story is true. But, I thought I’d like this book a lot more. The premise should make for a 5/5 book and this just didn’t do it for me. At times I felt rather bored, surprisingly.

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kingsteph's review against another edition

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dark informative mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

4.25

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afisher121's review against another edition

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adventurous dark informative inspiring mysterious medium-paced

4.0

This book is broken up into two separate story lines, that of Holmes (the serial killer) and Burnham (the architect/business man). I vastly preferred reading Holmes' story line over Burnhams' but the book was incredibly well written and researched. It truly puts you in the setting of Chicago during the Gilded Age, and at many points, allows the reader to forget the book is non-fiction.

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