Oh, man. This book was so frustrating for me. I first learned about H.H. Holmes through an episode of Haunted History, and his story is strangely fascinating. So I picked this up thinking I'd learn a lot more than I could in a one-hour TV show. I didn't, though. I still liked the parts about the architecture of the World's Fair, especially at the beginning when there was more of a balance between the two subjects. However, the book is called "The Devil in the White City," not "The White City That the Devil Passed Through Once and Was Barely Connected With His Murder Spree." Just very weighted to the fair with no revelations about Holmes himself, which I would have been okay with had the book been presented differently. If you wanna write about the World's Fair, just write about the World's Fair. 
 Mostly, what bothered me was Larson's writing style. It's very fictionalized--to the point of sensationalism. It's already a story about a guy who built a murder castle. It doesn't need any further sensationalizing. There were a lot of moments that made me think, "How could Larson possibly know that?," which pulled me out of the story. Perhaps I went in with my hopes too high.