Reviews with content warning for Child death - 白城恶魔 The Devil in the White City

What It’s About: This is a dual narrative detailing the execution of the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair and the dealings of famous serial killer H. H. Holmes during the same time period. At first blush, the two topics don’t seem to go together, but it becomes clear throughout the story that Holmes likely wouldn’t have been able to accomplish everything he did in the city without the excitement and opportunities provided by the grand event.

Plot: Holmes is quite a well-known figure, but there is a lot of misinformation floating around about his exploits. This book is a very realistic accounting of his activities, leaving room for doubt where it’s necessary, but also speculating about moments no one possibly could have witnessed. While I thought I wouldn’t be as interested in the part about building the fair, I actually found it very compelling. Knowing all the facts, it’s shocking that there was ever a fair at all. It’s also apparent that Holmes’ portion by itself doesn’t actually take up much space. He was a consummate liar, so not a lot can be said about him that is verifiable. Adding the fair gives the history more weight and heft, and at the same time provides a necessary context for how Holmes escaped detection for so long. The advantage of combining both is also that they are complete, so there is resolution at the end of everything on all sides.

Research and Organization: The organization here is essentially chronological, and flips back and forth between the fair and Holmes when necessary to frame what he was doing while Chicago was focused elsewhere. Many primary sources are used and quoted, and when they are not available, copious research was used to recreate circumstances that were not observed.

Trigger Warnings: Because of the time that the book covers, you’ll encounter period-typical racism and sexism. There is a lot of poverty and general death, as well as the obvious murder because of one of the book’s subjects.

Final Thoughts: This was a more somber and less sensational true crime novel than others I’ve read, but ultimately, I feel like it worked. It was very informative, and sheds light on a crime spree that it’s likely just wouldn’t be possible today because of the way everything is connected.

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viaanne's review against another edition

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dark informative mysterious tense slow-paced

4.0

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emk2008's review against another edition

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4.25

Fascinating history, but there are definitely some slow parts that were hard to stay motivated through. Love the thorough research Larson does for his books and this one did not disappoint.

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ottolee's review against another edition

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dark informative inspiring reflective tense fast-paced

4.75

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oceanwriter's review against another edition

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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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julziez's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad slow-paced

2.75

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