Reviews tagging 'Medical content'

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

28 reviews

smkelly1997's review against another edition

dark informative slow-paced

3.5

I thought this book would revolve around H. H. Holmes much more than it did. Instead it was mostly about the creation, construction, and running of the fair. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Chronic illness, Death, Infidelity, Mental illness, Torture, Medical content, Murder, Abandonment, Colonisation, and Classism

Moderate: Abortion

Minor: Dementia

librarymouse's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional informative mysterious sad tense medium-paced

3.75

The literary descriptions and firsthand accounts of the fair, and the effort and love put into it's design and creation made me wish I could have attended. The detailed descriptions of Holmes' murders and his disarmingly charming personality made me glad that I was born over a full century after 1893. I like greatly enjoyed The Devil in the White City, the second half was a far easier read than the first. I'm not sure if I've retained as much of the information about the fair's designers and the events that took place while it was open as I wanted to. While interesting, the section about the initial design process and the political lobbying that took place in order to get the fair to occur in Chicago read similarly to a textbook, in stark contrast with the narrative way the rest of the history was told. Overall, an informative and interesting read. I would use enjoyable to describe the writing, but not the content.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Chronic illness, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Infidelity, Mental illness, Misogyny, Suicide, Terminal illness, Torture, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Medical content, Dementia, Grief, Medical trauma, Abortion, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, Colonisation, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Moderate: Racial slurs

Minor: Xenophobia

ascalun's review against another edition

challenging dark informative medium-paced

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Abortion, Murder, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Misogyny, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Forced institutionalization, Grief, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Confinement, Drug use, Forced institutionalization, Medical content, and Cultural appropriation

lyssierose09's review against another edition

dark informative mysterious tense medium-paced

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Violence, Medical content, and Murder

Moderate: Gore, Torture, Kidnapping, Abortion, and Gaslighting

Minor: Gun violence, Misogyny, Pregnancy, and Fire/Fire injury

meganpbennett's review against another edition

dark informative mysterious medium-paced

3.0

I read The Devil in the White City on the advice of a true crime-loving librarian colleague. It's interesting, with H.H. Holmes killing indiscriminately around during the Chicago World's Fair, though I started reading the book without realizing that H.H. Holmes was the Devil in question. 

The book has lots of interesting detail on the World's Fair - after all, how could Chicago hope to beat Eiffel and his Tower from the previous World's Fair? Enter an engineer named... Ferris. 

The book was less graphic than I thought it would be, but there is rather disturbing imagery involving Holmes killing and disposing of the bodies. 

I think the book would have been stronger had the author not switched perspectives between Holmes and the builders of the Fair every chapter. I think it would have made more sense for the author to have chosen a time frame - three months? - and written about the building of the Fair, then Pendergast, then Holmes. That would have strengthened the connect between them

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child death, Confinement, Death, Gore, Misogyny, Torture, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Kidnapping, Medical trauma, Abortion, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Pregnancy and Alcohol

renbot's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny informative mysterious slow-paced

4.5

An incredible journey where you truly care for the victories and failures of all of the characters

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Chronic illness, Confinement, Death, Mental illness, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Medical content, Kidnapping, Stalking, Murder, and Fire/Fire injury

Moderate: Gore, Infidelity, Racism, Suicide, Forced institutionalization, Dementia, Grief, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Fire/Fire injury, and Abandonment

Minor: Cultural appropriation and Alcohol

Multiple women and children are murdered, some depictions are graphic, includes scenes of torture

kendallreadsbooks's review against another edition

dark informative slow-paced

3.5

As much as I'm interested in both history and true crime, I wanted to be more in love with this book than I was. I found myself confused by which people were which, and found some of the chapters to feel quite monotonous. The last third or so of the book was by far the most compelling to me. That being said, I would definitely both recommend this book and would like to read more Erik Larson moving forward.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death and Death

Moderate: Racism, Terminal illness, and Medical content

cassieyorke's review against another edition

challenging dark informative mysterious sad slow-paced

4.0

Erik Larson is one of the most talented popular historians of our age, and he has one tremendous strength and one glaring flaw. His strength is the breathtaking beauty he injects into every line he can, and his settings are often so realistic that he puts you in the past, whether you want to be or not. But his one glaring weakness is his tendency to get lost in the mundane, filling half of his books with things he himself might find interesting - like architecture or naval engineering - while coming up just short of making these things palatable for the average reader.

Still, White City is one book I'll happily give four stars, since it does such a fantastic job of sweeping you away to Gilded Age Chicago. It immerses you, familiarizes you with lovely details of daily life, introduces you to key players and average people alike, then leaving you to marvel at the unspeakable lost beauty of the World's Fair. He does the best that a twenty-first century author possibly can at conjuring a bit of that long-forgotten enchantment and romance, and I found myself putting the book down and dreaming a bit about what it would have been like at night. He gave me a glimpse of one of those spellbound moments long ago, and put me next to long-gone people when they were still drawing breath - or holding it, like I was. The fact that I had to wade through chapters of engineering and architectural details to get there felt a bit like Burnham must have - building this enchanting vision out of plain old steel and glass and finally getting to see it, just for a little while. Maybe that was the point; I'm not sure. If it was, I'd rather have had just a little more adventure getting there.

The sections about H.H. Holmes were more interesting, if horrifically disturbing. Most people enjoying this book have probably been true crime fans, hoping for a glimpse into the depraved mind of an early serial killer. Maybe they weren't quite as disturbed as I was, or didn't feel quite the same sympathy for his unfortunate victims. It speaks to Larson's talent as an author that he made those young women as real as anyone else, forcing you to care for them like any other living person. So those chapters were exceptionally well-written, if difficult to endure.

Larson has improved his craft since White City, like all authors do, and his later work shows more talent at making the mundane more interesting, blending it better with the substance of the overall book. Anyway, I did love this book and I'd happily recommend it to anyone who wanted to journey back in time to the Gilded Age, to see what life was like in the 1890s. Larson is second to none at transporting his readers back in time.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child death, Confinement, Death, Gore, Infidelity, Mental illness, Torture, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Kidnapping, Medical trauma, Stalking, Murder, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

Moderate: Terminal illness and Pregnancy