The Devil in the White City

It started really slow and I didn't think I could make it ... after all, who cares about a fair that happened over 100 years ago? Well, it picked up steam and I got on board, though I still think there were far too many extraneous characters that didn't add to the story, and also I didn't need a full menu every time any fancy person went to a fancy dinner.

Things I learned: the Eiffel Tower is named after the guy who built it. The Ferris Wheel was dreamed up by an engineer named Ferris.

Also, the Women's Building (wtf) was the only one that was completed anywhere near on time because Lady Managers (wtf2) Get Shit Done. Everything else was kind of a shitshow, because committees are terrible and there were committees for ev.ery.thing.

I got the impression that Larson wanted to the reader to be impressed by the irony of all these famous people overlapping at the same time (Susan B. Anthony! Helen Keller! Frank Lloyd Wright!) but it irked me how he'd tell these stories and then be like ... and that was how such and such met a nobody professor named Woodrow Wilson.

Also it's kind of a miracle that detectives actually found any of Holmes' victims, because dude knew how to cover his tracks, and also he could not have gotten away with any of that in the modern age. And also ... I don't get what Holmes' whole deal was (other than he was a psychopath), since his main priority was murdering young single women after getting them to fall in love with him and/or marry him. Murdering one of his business partners for the life insurance money (sure, that tracks), but then also murdering three of the partner's young children? That didn't track for me.

My big takeaway is it seems pointless to build a whole bunch of beautiful things at GREAT expense only to tear them down or let them fall into disrepair six months later when they have stopped being useful. It's so wasteful! I am not good at capitalism.

Sorry this review is disjointed, but I think it reflects the book. It was fine, engaging enough, I skimmed a little bit when stuff got dull, and I hope it will make for a good discussion.