Reviews with content warning for Fire/Fire injury - The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic and Madness at the Fair that Changed America

Reviews tagging 'Fire/Fire injury'

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

32 reviews

eliya's review against another edition

dark funny informative reflective sad tense slow-paced

3.5

this took me f o r e v e r to read
i started on sept 7th and MAN did it slow me down. took me 11h 46m to read and i was not very motivated to read it, but once you get in the groove it reads like gossip.

some people don’t recommend doing the audiobook and reading at the same time but i honestly do recommend it. there are some differences in the wording, some paragraphs added or taken out here and there, but it felt like i got the full recounting.

the author is very clever in the way he kind of leaves little foreshadowing clues - toward the end i think i was a little over the “that was… until” type of wording from him though. omnipresent in the most educated way lol. felt very much like i was living it // a work of fiction rather than an amalgamation of random facts here and there.

really enjoyed learning about the chicago fair, crazy how many things were just accepted because of the time. i would not have like to be apart of that time lol.

i made so many notes reading this lol there were so many fun facts that felt so important i’m glad - really glad - i read this but MAN i’m also glad it’s over

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rachelsheplak's review against another edition

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3.0

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sometimes_samantha_reads's review against another edition

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dark emotional informative mysterious sad tense fast-paced

4.5

I recently got a new job and I have an hour commute one way. I'm not usually able to do audiobooks because I get distracted and I was wary of trying to follow a story while also driving, but it turns out listening to an audiobook in the car is great.

My sister in law recommended this to me. I'm not usually into true crime, but if its paced like this and narrated by Tony Goldwyn, I'm all for it! The parallel stories of Burnahm and Holmes was fascinating and I learned so much. The story was chilling but I kept listening to satisfy the morbid curiosity. I learned that Holmes is supposedly buried less than 30 minutes from where I live, which is wild.

I think I'll try to seek out more audiobooks. I quite liked Tony Goldwyn's narration so I think I'll start there.

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lulugirl297's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark informative mysterious tense medium-paced

3.5

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samarakroeger's review against another edition

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challenging dark informative reflective slow-paced

4.0

My SIXTH Erik Larson book in the span of one month. Dear god.

Anyways, this is probably his most well-known book (and was the hardest to get ahold of on libby). The two narrative threads were both interesting (something that was lacking in his most similar book to this, Thunderstruck). I sometimes got lost in the sea of names (looking at you, architects), but it didn’t detract from the story. I honestly didn’t know much about the Chicago World’s Fair (or the murders). I would have liked to have known more about how the event changed America (it’s part of the title) and whether it inspired something similar in the future.

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kellyofcali's review against another edition

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dark informative slow-paced

3.75

This is a well written book that crosses two related subjects - one, the world's fair, and two, a serial killer. I found both interesting, which means he did a good job, though I did find it dragged on a little long towards the denouement of both storylines. It's also a little confusing what is real vs. not, though I know that bothers some people more than others.

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