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noxum 's review for:
challenging
emotional
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
I didn't like how this book was presented and structured and I think that's what tanked the rating and enjoyment for me. First, it's titled "The Devil in the White City." Even though the summary gives equal attention and weight to both Burnham and Holmes, the title itself implies that Holmes will be given the most focus, or at the very least EQUAL focus.
If I had to break it down into numbers, I would say this book is 70% about the World's Fair and 30% about Holmes. There's nothing wrong with a book focusing on a huge historical event and it was definitely interesting, but the summary and title were misleading about how much time was to be spent on Holmes, which was the part I was most interested in. Holmes was treated almost like another side character until the very end when we got a few chapters focused on him, which seems odd when the title of the book literally refers to him.
On the subject of the fair, all the details about architecture were overall bloated and somewhat unapproachable. There were plenty of minute details that could've been cut out for a smoother reading experience, especially the parts where I felt like I had to be a practicing architect myself just to understand the terminology being used and picture what was happening. A history book shouldn't require specialized knowledge.
Overall this book just wasn't what it advertised itself as.
If I had to break it down into numbers, I would say this book is 70% about the World's Fair and 30% about Holmes. There's nothing wrong with a book focusing on a huge historical event and it was definitely interesting, but the summary and title were misleading about how much time was to be spent on Holmes, which was the part I was most interested in. Holmes was treated almost like another side character until the very end when we got a few chapters focused on him, which seems odd when the title of the book literally refers to him.
On the subject of the fair, all the details about architecture were overall bloated and somewhat unapproachable. There were plenty of minute details that could've been cut out for a smoother reading experience, especially the parts where I felt like I had to be a practicing architect myself just to understand the terminology being used and picture what was happening. A history book shouldn't require specialized knowledge.
Overall this book just wasn't what it advertised itself as.