Reviews tagging 'Kidnapping'

The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson

36 reviews

ottolee's review

dark informative inspiring reflective tense fast-paced

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Confinement, Death, Gore, Mental illness, Torture, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Medical trauma, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Fire/Fire injury, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Misogyny, Racism, Sexism, Xenophobia, and Cultural appropriation

oceanwriter's review

dark informative mysterious tense slow-paced

3.0

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. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, and Murder

Moderate: Confinement, Violence, and Kidnapping

Minor: Racism, Suicide, and Fire/Fire injury

julziez's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad slow-paced

2.75

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Child abuse, Child death, Chronic illness, Confinement, Death, Mental illness, Misogyny, Suicide, Violence, Medical content, Kidnapping, Abortion, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, and Colonisation

ewottrich's review

dark informative mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Kidnapping, and Murder

Minor: Sexual violence

j_the_human's review against another edition

dark informative mysterious slow-paced

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Violence, Kidnapping, and Murder

siu_rose's review against another edition

challenging dark medium-paced

5.0

I thought this was extremely well written and vivid.  The author wove together strands of different stories quite well.  The scale encompasses details and the big picture.  I definitely plan to read more of his books. 

The creepy factor of the serial killer meant that I read this slowly because sometimes I just didn’t want to read it. But it was a good read overall.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Kidnapping, and Murder

bring_me_a_book's review

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

psdarlin's review

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