Reviews tagging 'Death'

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

82 reviews

elg1105's review against another edition

challenging dark tense fast-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

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

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

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: Child death, Death, and Murder

Moderate: Kidnapping

dobermaier's review against another edition

adventurous dark informative reflective medium-paced

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death and Murder

Moderate: Child death, Racism, and Cultural appropriation

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

sophialib's review against another edition

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: Death and Murder

psdarlin's review against another edition

informative reflective medium-paced

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Torture, Violence, and Murder

Moderate: Child death, Confinement, Death, Gun violence, Mental illness, Racial slurs, Kidnapping, and Colonisation

Minor: Alcoholism, Chronic illness, Domestic abuse, Homophobia, Racism, Sexism, Suicide, Violence, Medical content, Stalking, Fire/Fire injury, and Alcohol

alicelalicon's review against another edition

dark mysterious slow-paced

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Racism, Toxic relationship, and Murder

annabunce's review against another edition

dark informative medium-paced

3.0

Meh. I probably should have just read the wikipedia article about H.H. Holmes. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Physical abuse, Sexual violence, Blood, Medical content, Kidnapping, Stalking, Death of parent, and Murder

rachelsheplak's review against another edition

3.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Body horror, Child death, Confinement, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Kidnapping, Abortion, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail

crownoflaurel's review against another edition

dark informative sad medium-paced

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Murder, and Colonisation

Moderate: Cultural appropriation and Classism

Minor: Mental illness, Xenophobia, Medical content, Trafficking, Stalking, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis