The Devil in the White City
Ratings496
Average rating4
the Holmes stuff was interesting but the architecture stuff couldn't keep my attention. this book did make me realize i'm likely related to HH Holmes though.
i don't enjoy non-fiction very often, but when i do, it involves some pretty twisted stuff.
while it's easy to read about things like the 1893 world's fair on wikipedia to get the general idea of what all went down, it's much more interesting and a better way to spend your time reading something like this work, which delves into one of the darker aspects of the huge event. many people know about h.h. holmes, but the book also gives the perspective of one of the people who planned the world's fair, which puts holmes' deviousness and cruelty into context. like a true crime doc, it was almost impossible to tear myself away from this once i had picked it up, and i truly recommend it to anyone remotely interested in a very dark moment of america's history.
Book Cover: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
DNF: Page 64
The title and marketing of this book should definitely be different. It is very misleading.
I wanted more H.H Holmes...
....and less Chicago World's Fair architectural development.
So, sue me, I'm morbid.
It's clear this is incredibly well researched, and a lot of this was interesting, but it was SO detailed (about the fair and its construction) it became dry and tedious by the end.
There was far less about Holmes, which was the more interesting side of the book, but I imagine there is less known factually about him and his deeds.
I was a bit confused about why these 2 threads were even in the same book, there's no link between Holmes' killings and the World Fair apart from being in the same city at the same time.
From the amount of good things I've heard about this I expected more, but it was overly long and a bit dry for my liking.
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.
Erik Larson is a detective and researcher who went through his own grandiose journey to story tell the lengths men will go to, to achieve greatness, power, and riches in the gilded age. Holy cow is this a compelling read. 10/10 recommend
Though this book has caught my eye in bookstores, I went into it somewhat blindly. I knew it involved H.H. Holmes, but I didn't anticipate everything else it included. Rich with Chicago history, this book discusses the lives of H.H. Holmes and Daniel H. Burnham with a large focus on the World's Fair. Honestly... this was a weird mix with only a slight element connecting the two along with the overall setting of Chicago. While, yes, I did find the book interesting, I was also overwhelmed with the amount of information coming at me. This was very much two separate books with one being more built on fact and the other built on a lot of speculation.
Velmi zajímavě uchopený životopis prvního amerického sériového vraha, který je kombinován s mapováním městského vývoje města Chicago, resp. Světové výstavy, která se uskutečnila v roce 1893. A jejíž cílem bylo zejména překonat světovou výstavu v Paříži v roce 1889, v rámci které byla postavena Eiffelova věž.
I would have preferred if it were two books: one about the world fair and second about the serial killer.
This book was like a slap to the face every time new lore was dropped — like STFU NO WAYYY
The Helen Keller part took me out lol
Read this for class. It's interesting but not something I would choose personally.
I'm so confused by this book. When I picked this one up I thought I was getting a story about H.H Holms and his murderous rampage... I also expected it to have information about the world's fair but only as it pertained to Holms' story. What I got instead was a book 70% about the conception, making, and opening of the Chicago World's Fair and 30% about a psychopath's twisted day to day life. And they intersected in the most minimal way. Honestly, I felt like I got way more action and suspense from the World's Fair than by any of the horror Holms committed. The only real connection between the two parts of the book is that it created an atmosphere where missing people were not looked into too carefully and gave Holms an influx in victim choices. But like... that's it.
The reason I'm torn is because I reeeeally like the parts about the fair! They were fascinating, intriguing, and suspenseful. But it's not what I thought I was signing up for. The parts about Holms were not very in-depth. In fact, I didn't find them all that interesting. And I guess it's because we don't know a whole lot of what really happened during that time.
I wish the two aspects had been turned into their own books. The World's fair portion gets a 5/5 from me. The H.H. Holms parts gets a 2/5.
A captivating look into the United States' late nineteenth century, the Chicago Fair and its influence on the future of architecture, spiced with the history of America's first mass-murderer. I couldn't stop listening, and let a lot of other books languish to get to the end of this one.
This was good and a bit long? It seemed to pull in different directions at times where I wish it would just stay at pace.
Here's what I loved about it all the crazy history learning!
I didn't know that this was at Chicago Worlds Fair! This was exciting to learn more about because I have a necklace my great-great (maybe another great? I'm unsure) grandmother attended as a child! She was gifted this beautiful gold locket with a moon on it and a shimmery diamond star - it even has a dent in it because she chewed on it as a child.
It always blows my mind that historical figures can meet? Like Buffalo Bill and Susan b Anthony? We have a Buffalo Bill museum locally i'm keen on visting now. Additionally, I've been to Cody so that was cool to learn about after too.
Learning about h.h. holmes was definitely chilling, when I always thought of the worlds fair was always something grand - like the Olympics- so having him in the mix of it was tragic.
Interesting times, great book!
I loved this book!
I knew of H. H. Holmes already from documentaries and podcasts, but this couches that horror in a broader context of the Chicago World's Fair and the cultural climate at the time. Be warned that Holmes is not the main focus if that's the hook for you, but rather the Fair is the foundation of this book. Larson unfolds these events with fastidious detail, wry humor and subtle yet affecting expressiveness. I was left at the end with a sense of wonder and sadness which I think is quite the feat.
*4.5 stars. Bursting with vivid imagery, fascinating character sketches, and bizarre and unique details. I enjoyed this very much. I wish I could have gone to the Colombian Exposition!
I was excited to read this after always hearing good things and seeing recommendations for it everywhere, but I didn't really like it at all...
It should have been called The White City (Featuring a Devil) because like 90% of this book is just about the logistics of setting up the World's Fair in Chicago and how the buildings were built. I found most of it pretty tedious, though there are a few interesting segments, such as the one about the first Ferris Wheel, and the actual writing is quite good.
The “devil” sections were pretty interesting, but besides the last hour or so of the book (which I actually really enjoyed) they seemed few and far between. I found myself losing the plot on these parts thigh, partially because of the infrequency and partially because of waning interest in the Fair story that it was interspersed in.
I listened to this on Audible (via their “Send this Book” feature, thanks Katie!) and Scott Brick is an excellent narrator. I've listened to him do Moneyball and In Cold Blood as well, and he just had a great voice for this.
Another well written, intriguing, addictive book from Erik Larson. I don't know what it is about his writing style, but something about it seems to pull me in and never wants to let me go. It's almost like being hypnotized.
I mostly wanted to read this because of the recounting of the crimes by H.H. Holmes, since I enjoy reading and learning about serial killers, but I even found the descriptions of all the struggle and hard work of those creating the Chicago World's Fair to be fascinating. While I knew of the fair, and that the Ferris Wheel had been created to out do the Eiffel Tower, I had no idea so many products we know today first debuted at the fair. Learn something new every day!
At first I did think the two subjects of this books seemed very conflicting and I wasn't to sure how well it would work out, but I have to say, it allowed for some serious swings on the emotion spectrum. One second you are cheering on those working on the fair (or are saddened over their losses during the process) and the next you are cringing when a new woman is introduced into H.H. Holmes' life, because you know things just aren't going to turn out well.
My one complaint is that Holmes' story seemed to be overshadowed at times by the fair, but there are other books on Holmes so I suppose that if you really want an in depth look at his life, there are other sources out there.
At first I thought it wouldn't be fair (ha) to rate this based on how good of a true crime book I thought it was, being that it is more heavily weighted toward a historical fictiony non-fiction account of the World's Fair. But then I remembered the title, The Devil in the White City, which suggests more time would be spent following H. H. Holmes than the architects of the World's Fair. The writing jumps back and forth between these two things, with a little extra here and there, and never brings them together. Larson is a fairly (ha again) skilled writer and would have done better to separate these into two books. Apart from that, I could've done without the heavy foreshading at the end of every chapter. I found the architect talk incredibly boring, but that was simply due to finding architecture boring and not Larson's writing about it.
I read this right before my trip to Chicago because, the last time I visited people referred to this book all of the time! It's a great read. Personally, I loved the parts about the creation of the fair more than the story of Holmes. I found myself thrilled to read about the origin of so many things that are a common part of life now- the Ferris Wheel, the Pledge of Allegiance, etc. Very cool read for history buffs.