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megmoo's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror and Torture
audragio's review
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
mysterious
sad
tense
slow-paced
3.75
emrodav's review against another edition
2.0
My second try getting through this book and I actually finished it!
Honestly, the minutiae of the architecture was be super boring and made this book drag on forever for about 2/3 of it. I think I only got through it all because I was listening to the audiobook. The stuff about Holmes was more interesting, but he's maybe 1/3 of the story.
I was pretty excited because I'd heard great things about this book, but I honestly don't get the hype now that I've finished it.
Honestly, the minutiae of the architecture was be super boring and made this book drag on forever for about 2/3 of it. I think I only got through it all because I was listening to the audiobook. The stuff about Holmes was more interesting, but he's maybe 1/3 of the story.
I was pretty excited because I'd heard great things about this book, but I honestly don't get the hype now that I've finished it.
issianne's review against another edition
3.0
I expected this to rock my world, and it didn't. The World's Fair part was agonizingly boring at times--specifically the building of it. Once it was built, I was more interested in what happened during its run. And even the H.H. Holmes sections weren't always that intriguing either! The man committed insurance fraud for the first fourth of the book. I'm in to true crime, but maybe that's a little too *true*. Again, though, once he got into his reign of terror, it became much more intriguing and I kept wanting to go back to the chapters about him. Overall, it was well-written and had so much detail, but it didn't read as "fictionalized non-fiction" as I heard others describe it as.
jenhurst's review against another edition
4.0
For a narrative perspective, I think this is fantastic. I was fully invested in the story and it read like fiction. Unfortunately, Eric Larson took most of his information from newspapers at the time. Newspapers at the time are like the sun or us weekly, in the sense they were regularly publishing things that were sensationalist or not true. Think of all the old articles about the giants being found in America and a cave full of Egyptian artifacts in the closed off part of the Grand Canyon. Thus, I really question most of the information given since a lot seemed fairly sensationalist.
afailedlibrarian's review against another edition
informative
4.0
Really compelling and vivid description of Chicago's grit in the Gilded Age. Some connections were interesting, but trivial, e.g. the bookends about the Titanic.
devonforest's review against another edition
4.0
There were some sections that I enjoyed more than others. Some of the architecture parts were slightly less interesting, although I did still enjoy it. I did have slight trouble keeping the architects straight. The murder part was more fascinating to me. It definitely held my interest. The best part about this is that it's a non-fiction book, but it reads like fiction making it a lot easier to get though. And a lot more interesting.