The Devil in the White City in Book Riot's Read Harder Challenge

May 04, 2010 Ashley rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: history

The first 3/4 of this book were excellent. Juxtaposing the construction of the Chicago World's Fair-- with all its hope and pride-- with the depravity of a killer like HH Holmes was a great choice. However, I have to admit that I thought the stories might overlap a bit more, it seemed a bit like they were simply parallel. The explanation of how Holmes was caught felt a bit shallow given that he ended up killing his partner and partner's children.

Larson's prose is easy to read and his description ...more

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Jul 11, 2012 Rick rated it really liked it

I think this my second time reading this. I picked it up last year but it didn't stick with me. Then on the recommendation of a friend I picked it up again. It was better this time but I wasn't really interested in the "Devil" part of the story. What fascinated me was the descriptions of the Fair itself. It reminded me of the book The Night Circus. Both books made me want to see what was being described and I started to think about the idea of awe. The White City itself, the Ferris Wheel (Hey, s ...more

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Nov 05, 2012 Caroline Donahue rated it really liked it

Fascinating, informative, and also very disturbing at points. Well researched and still very enjoyable as a narrative. Listened to this on audio on the commute. At first it was a lot of info to take in while listening, but the story translated well, partly due to the excellent narration. Highly recommended.

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Jan 19, 2010 Erin rated it really liked it

The story of this book is what earned it four stars - the writing is probably three star level. It was fascinating to learn about all the products, ideas, and people that got their start or were in some way connected to the fair in Chicago.

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Feb 17, 2012 Alvin rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: dnf

Against all of my friends' advice, I'm not going to stick this one out. I got a quarter of the way through it, and just couldn't do it anymore. The Chicago Expo just didn't hold enough of my interest. One person told me that the Expo storyline is interwoven throughout the entire book. I didn't want to waste my time on a subject that I didn't care for.

The writing was good, but just not my thing. ...more

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