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Jul 03, 2008

Debbie rated it:

Here's how I imagine it went.

Larson: I wanna write a book about the architects who designed the World's Fair in Chicago. Also, pork.

Publisher: Nobody wants to read about architects. They're boring.

Larson: But the World's Fair--

Publisher: Boring.

Larson: The mayor gets murdered.

Publisher: When?

Larson: At the end.

Publisher: (yawns) Too late.

Larson: If I could find some juicy murders to spi More...

33 comments like (122 people liked it)

Apr 07, 2008

James rated it:

Heard the one about the architect and the serial killer? It's not a bad joke, but it is a great book. The architect was Daniel Burnham, the driving force behind the Chicago World's Fair of 1893; the killer was H.H. Holmes, a Svengali-type figure who lured young women to his hotel and did the most gruesome things, the least shocking of which was murder. The two men never met, but The Devil in the White City brings their stories together, and although it reads like a novel, everything is thoroughl More...

3 comments like (39 people liked it)

Dec 17, 2009

Kristy rated it:

Ohhhh, this book is creeeeeepy and all-true!!! Being from Chicago I was in an awful thrall the entire time. The only thing that was missing for me would have been some kind of map to show where exactly the Fair was located, and all the other buildings he talks about... I think the fair was probably located roughly on what the Museum Campus is now, but I still would like to see a map.

And the people! Burnham and Root and Atwood... and Carter Henry Harrison! It says his mansion was on More...

6 comments like (31 people liked it)

Sep 11, 2008

Seth rated it:

Humour me and please allow the channeling an eighth grader for just a moment. OMG Squeee!!1 Teh best!! (Would an eighth grader say "teh best"?) And now we return you to our regularly scheduled review.

I'm not a huge fan of non-fiction. Scratch that. I'm a huge fan of non-fiction, but not so huge a fan of reading non-fiction. While I appreciate learning and broadening my understanding of the world around and as it once was, I find myself pretty quickly distracted from whateve More...

2 comments like (29 people liked it)

Sep 27, 2008

Danielle rated it:

So, no offense to those that liked this book, but I'm throwing in the towel after 75 pages. It's just not holding my interest. Part of the reason for this is that Larson's writing style is way too speculative for my taste in non-fiction. I just finished reading the Path Between Seas by David McCullough, and he does such an amazing job of making complicated, historical events interesting, without fabricating scenes that "could have" happened. Even that wouldn't have bothered me that mu More...

20 comments like (26 people liked it)

Aug 02, 2008

David rated it:

I read this book in 2005 as a library book after I saw it won the Edgar Award for best Best Fact Crime the year before. I own a copy, I re-read it last year.

My fascination with the World's Columbian Exhibition (1893 Chicago World's Fair) began when I went to work for the President Benjamin Harrison Home. Harrison, as President, commissioned the Fair. A formality really. The Fair began as a 400th Anniversary Celebration of Columbus landing in the Americas. It soon grew beyond that. Ha More...

1 comment like (6 people liked it)

Dec 16, 2009

Jude rated it:

My daily life is filled with non-fiction: facts that are collected to give information quickly and easily to a reader. When I read for enjoyment, I usually gravitate toward fiction.

I didn't realize this book was non-fiction when I bought it. I bought it because it came recommended from Katie, who has good book taste and hasn't steered me down the wrong path yet. When I read the back cover before beginning, I thought: what the hell did I get myself into?

Surprisingly, I fo More...

2 comments like (11 people liked it)

Jul 09, 2009

Richard rated it:

The Devil in the White City is a book about the White City — the 1893 Chicago World's Fair, and a book about a devil — a psychopathic serial killer.

I enjoyed both books here, but wasn't pleased with the author's decision to try to integrate them into one book.

If they had been separate, they each would have probably earned four stars — perhaps five. The White City half certainly dealt with a fascinating cast of characters, architecture was skyrocketing in importance, and C More...

4 comments like (12 people liked it)

Jun 16, 2008

Joan added it

I feel as though I ought to write two (or three) reviews of this book, because it consists of two (or three) stories: the creation of the Columbian Exposition of 1893, the murders committed by H.H. Holmes, and (peripherally) the assassination of Mayor Carter Harrison.

Larson's narrative jumps back and forth between these stories, without ever connecting them, and so the book leaves one with a very disjointed feeling, a feeling that something was left out, something that would show a rel More...

0 comments like (7 people liked it)

Dec 20, 2011

Jennifer rated it:

Reviewed by K. Osborn Sullivan for TeensReadToo.com

In 1893, Chicago was gearing up for its shining moment on the international stage. The city had been selected to host the World's Fair, beating out New York and a number of other American contenders. A prominent local architect, Daniel Burnham, had taken the reins to organize and construct the massive project. He assembled a dream team of architects, landscapers, engineers, and other professionals to help pull the fair together. Cert More...

0 comments like (4 people liked it)

Dec 17, 2009

Maureen rated it:

I enjoyed Devil in the White City, particularly for the wealth of information (tons of great trivia!) in this novel-style nonfiction book. I probably would have appreciated it more, though, if I were from Chicago, a city planner or architect, or had a fascination with serial killers.

What was by far the most irksome for me was Larson's insistence on foreshadowing absolutely every character introduction and happening in the book. Some are clever, but this "one day, he would make h More...

2 comments like (10 people liked it)

Apr 30, 2008

Amy rated it:

Fascinating! I grew up in Chicago and each year we had a brief unit in school on the city's history: Carl Sandburg, The Jungle, railroads, Native Americans. But we never once touched on the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition (aka the World Fair) and I knew nothing at all about this amazing feat or the people involved until I read Larson's book.

I can't believe such an important time -- both for the city and the nation -- which introduced so much to American society has been so forgotte More...

0 comments like (6 people liked it)

Dec 16, 2009

Brooke rated it:

The entire three years I lived in Chicago, I wanted to read this book, but never got around to it until the week that I moved. The Devil in the White City is nonfiction, but Erik Larson uses a style flows like a fictional narrative. It follows two men, Daniel Burnham and H. H. Holmes, during the World's Fair in the late 1800s. Burnham was the fair's chief architect, and Holmes was America's first serial killer, who used the fair to lure his victims to him.

Although I imagine I appreci More...

0 comments like (6 people liked it)

Feb 09, 2012

Kathy rated it:

I enjoyed reading this book about the Chicago World's Fair of 1893 and the parallel story (every other chapter) of the mass murderer H.H. Holmes who was doing horrific things just a short distance from the fair site.

As I was reading this book I realized that nothing much changes in society, 1893 and 2012 are very similar. Big advances in science and technology were happening in the late 1800s as are the big advances we see today; the economy was struggling in 1893 with high unemploy More...

2 comments like (2 people liked it)

Feb 10, 2012

Xavier rated it:

What a marvelous book! I bought this book because I was very interested in reading about serial killers, and I have family in Chicago, whom I've visited on many occasions, so it just seemed to fit. On the back of the book Esquire gives a very fitting blurb: "So good, you find yourself asking how you could not know this already." This is absolutely true. In every chapter of the book, I was astounded and amazed over the events that occurred.

Much to the annoyance of my boyfriend More...

2 comments like (2 people liked it)

Dec 14, 2010

Stacey rated it:

The White City portion of this book was, by far, the more interesting part of the story. Chicago, just before the turn of the century, was still a filthy, sometimes primitive city, just beginning to claw its way to modernity. The story of the 1893 Worlds Fair was an incredible story of overcoming insurmountable odds to create a dream. The economy of the entire country was in freefall, yet architects and city planners created this incredible exposition out of virtually nothing. Many firsts occurr More...

3 comments like (3 people liked it)

Apr 12, 2009

Annalisa rated it:

I read a few reviews about this book criticizing the book for being more about the white city and less about the devil and I almost didn't finish the book thinking the book wouldn't be that much about Holmes. I'm so glad I didn't listen.

I've always had a some vague fascination with the World Fair and was pleasantly delighted to find out how much of our world gets its roots from the Chicago World Fair: our neoclassic bank building styles, city planning, labor union reformations, and More...

1 comment like (3 people liked it)

Oct 02, 2008

Trena rated it:

I debated over whether to give this four or five stars. I usually give four stars to books I love but that might not be to everyone's taste, and five stars to books I think everyone would like. When I went on a (fruitless) search for this on the library's shelves, I was a little embarrassed to find myself in the True Crime section. I don't go in for the gruesome and garrulous "I know who killed me" genre; it strikes me as tasteless and sensationalist, and plus I feel that I have the More...

2 comments like (2 people liked it)

Aug 25, 2008

Linda rated it:

A friend suggested this book and I thought perhaps it would be similar to Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil which I thoroughly enjoyed---historical with a story woven into it. However, I was unfortunately unable to finish it. I think Goodreads needs a new category...."got bored, so I gave up". This book weaves together the true story of 2 men, an architect and a serial killer---with the Chicago World's Fair as the background. I think it was the voluminous details given about More...

2 comments like (8 people liked it)

Sep 13, 2008

Monica rated it:

Growing up in NY I took architecture for granted.

I didn't *really* see a cornice or balustrade until I'd fufilled a requirement at the University of Michigan in Professor Thomas A. Cole's American Studies class: a study of American city plans for Boston, New York, New Haven, Philadelphia, Washington, Detroit, St. Louis, Cincinnatti and Chicago. It included buildings, monuments, sculpture, fountains, parks, and murals.

The 1893 World's Columbian Exhibition encompassed a un More...

1 comment like (4 people liked it)

Nov 17, 2007

Tracey rated it:

Bought Oct 2007

I heard an interview with the author on the Diane Rhem show back in March 2003 & checked to see if the library had the book.

This book follows the development of the 1893 World's Fair and the murderous spree of one of America's first serial killers, Herman Webster Mudgett (aka H.H. Holmes) both occurring in the burgeoning city of Chicago. Larson alternates between the two narratives more or less a chapter at a time. The writing is superb, bringing to life th More...

2 comments like (1 person liked it)

May 23, 2007

Aubrey rated it:

I know everyone else loves this book, but I was disappointed by it. Erik Larson toggles among various narratives that never really come together in a compelling way, as I expected they would. Because the author employs a style of fiction writing to convey his nonfictional account, the book turns out to be ultimately a big tease. It would have been better for Larson to call this book "Assorted Stuff Happening in Illinois in the late 19th century."

On the other hand, I ca More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Jul 05, 2008

Steff rated it:

I loved this book I would even say that it one of my favorite books of all time. It had a very intriguing plot and none of it was even fiction. Although at first you may wonder why the author chose to write a story of two totally unrelated people, the man responsible for the worlds fair in Chicago 1893 and a serial killer stocking women in Chicago the during the same period of time. But the author draws the parallel between them, they both had such passion for the things they were doing one for More...

1 comment like (3 people liked it)

Mar 02, 2008

Anita rated it:

I really enjoyed this book. It is 2 parts history and 1 part psychological thriller.

The author does a great job of laying out the gravity and impact of the World's Fair in Chicago. The stature and "key players" were fascinating-- intertwining history and lore. I felt like I had attended a very interesting class on Chicago cerca turn of the nineteenth century.

The "Devil" was a side show really, but incredibly frightening and interesting all the same.

2 comments like (2 people liked it)

May 12, 2008

Teri rated it:

Don't let the mass murderer turn you off of this book. His actions are reported very factually (as in not gory) and the info on the 1892 Columbian Exposition is fascinating. After you read it google the expo and there's a website with tons of pictures of the buildings described in the book. (Wish he would have put them in it)

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Jan 28, 2009

Annie rated it:

I usually enjoy reading books rooted in history but this one was great because it read so smoothly - like a novel. I had no idea about the Chicago World's Fair in the 1890's and how influential it was for the country. I also enjoyed how Larson took the time to find the human depth and psychology of the real people who experienced this event. I can see why this book is so popular: it takes a little known historical event (that would normally be a little dry), an excellent amount of research, and More...

1 comment like (1 person liked it)

Nov 11, 2008

Paula rated it:

This was a fascinating historical account of Chicago at the end of the 19th century. The book was meticulously researched and very well written. There are two distinct stories: one of the preparation for the 1892 Chicago World Fair (Columbia Exposition)and the architects responsible, and another of a serial murderer who methodically and gruesomely killed an unknown number of people, many of them women. The two tales are well woven together. The author gives us a real sense of life in Chicago in More...

1 comment like (1 person liked it)

Apr 22, 2009

Rebecca rated it:

Overall I found this book very sterile - it was written like a text book and lacked the feeling of a story. But you had to constantly remind yourself that the book was facts, that all the different pieces of history really did occur at that time period. Some include:
*Annie Oakly
*The ferris wheel
*The sinking of the titanic
*Helen Keller and the inventor of the braille typewritter
*Frank Loyd Wright
*Susan B Anthony
*The pledge of allegiance
*Walt Disney More...

1 comment like (2 people liked it)

Oct 23, 2011

Rscarff rated it:

I read this in preparation for a trip to Chicago and am glad I did, as I definitely gained appreciation for the city. But, I mentioned things I learned from the book to people I would talk to, thinking that every Chicagoan would automatically know these things, and was surprised at their responses. It's a shame how little is remembered about the 1893 World's Fair, and it is a shame that only one of the magnificent buildings built for the exposition remains standing. However, as the book detai More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Nov 25, 2011

Joe rated it:

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here

0 comments like (1 person liked it)