Reviews tagging 'Death'

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

68 reviews

star_burstt's review against another edition

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Blood, Body horror, and Death

margolovie89's review against another edition

dark informative slow-paced

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Torture, Violence, Death, and Medical content

a_meanderer's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gore, Grief, Trafficking, Violence, Torture, Medical content, Murder, Blood, and Child death

misssleepy's review against another edition

dark informative reflective slow-paced

3.75

This book has been on my TBR for a loooooong time. This is the first Erik Larson book that I have read. I would like to eventually also read The Splendid and the Vile.

Overall, I found the audio of this book very relaxing, even though the subject matter was often times pretty dark.

Most of the book focuses on the white city. The devil is more of a thread woven through the story of the world’s fair in Chicago. Sometimes the books would get very detailed and it would get just a bit boring. The last 25% of the book quickened in paste and really got to the meat of this story.

Larson did an incredible job of researching the story and creating this  cohesive narrative. I certainly appreciated this about the book. However it can at the same time be true that some of the details might not have been necessary to flush out the story. 

Overall I would recommend this to anybody interested in US history and the macabre. It’s a good reminder that true crime has always been a part of history and so has the public fascination that goes with it. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death and Murder

marie33's review against another edition

dark informative mysterious fast-paced

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Child death, and Death

elg1105's review against another edition

challenging dark tense fast-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Murder, Death, Blood, Violence, and Child death

bring_me_a_book's review against another edition

dark emotional informative mysterious sad medium-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Body horror, Death, Child death, Deadnaming, Grief, Kidnapping, Murder, Suicide, and Torture

pagesfromhome's review against another edition

dark informative slow-paced

2.75

This was my first dive into Erik Larson's writing, and while I loved his style (lots of details that really put you in a moment), I think this fell a little bit flat for me. It felt like he just wanted to write a book about the World's Fair, but decided to throw in the story of H.H. Holmes to make it a bit more interesting. From what the book tells, there's essentially no connection between Holmes and the Fair, so pushing them into a book together doesn't make sense.

That said, I loved the sections about the fair and genuinely wish that had been the entirety of the book rather than being pulled between the two different stories. Even though there are times when Larson dives into characters with no real conclusion on them until the last part of the book, he does such a vivid job of building them that you kind of forgive it. All in all, not a waste of a read, but I doubt I'll be reading it again or thinking too much about it.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Child death, and Death

Moderate: Kidnapping

dobermaier's review

adventurous dark informative reflective medium-paced

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death and Murder

Moderate: Cultural appropriation, Racism, and Child death

Minor: Gun violence, Fire/Fire injury, Death of parent, and Kidnapping

sophialib's review

dark informative tense slow-paced

4.5

love the way this book was written but a little bit hard to get through bc there is so much information

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder and Death