The Devil in the White City

I didn’t like this book as much as I could have but it’s my own fault. I went into this book thinking it was about H.H. Holmes during the 1893 World’s fair. The book was recommended to me because it was about H.H. Holmes and I never really looked into it further than the recommendation. So I was disappointed when I got further and further into the book and Holmes was pretty much an afterthought and the majority of the book revolving around Burnham building the World’s Fair in Chicago.

I can’t fault the book for my own mistake and even though I had little interest in the building of the world’s fair the book was interesting and at times didn’t seem like a non-fiction book. If you are interested in the hectic, stressful behind-the-scenes chaos that went into trying to build something as huge as the world’s fair in an extremely short amount of time this is a great book for you. I did find it a little repetitive at times but that’s not the author’s fault when he is writing about actual events.

If you are more interested in reading about H.H. Holmes then this is not the book for you. The book jumps back and forth between the world’s fair storyline and the Holmes storyline but the Holmes storyline seems very vague, rushed, and much much less time is given to it.

Erik Larson The Devil in the White City

I’m giving this half a mask higher rating than I did stars on goodreads because although it wasn’t what I was expecting that was my fault and the book was very interesting and well written and had I been wanting to learn about the World’s Fair and architecture this would have been perfect. The fact that it wasn’t all about the specific topic I expected was my fault for lack of research.

Follow the link below to buy this book from Amazon.

The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair That Changed America