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

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

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



This was a fascinating read. Surprisingly enough, it had little to do with H.H. Holme's aspect of the book.

I knew of the World's Fair prior to reading this, but it was just the basics of it. Delving further into the makings of it was beyond interesting, and seemed doomed from the start, really. The amount of work that went into it was amazing. As was the pride in it. It's sad that it was marred with such struggle and death. The sheer amount of genius that went into it and eventually came out of it though, awesome. I got to the point with the Fair's story, that Holme's part in it was kind of on the back burner for me. I think that was primarily because I had already read quite a bit on him, so it wasn't something new for me to focus on.

I was really impressed with Larson's ability to weave these two stories together so fluidly. One would never think that a book about a serial killer and an architect, two men had such huge impact on the country in such vastly different ways, work so well together, but it did. More so with the fact that I'm sure that many people, me included, were drawn to this book because of Holme's story in it only to get drawn into another aspect of history.

I highly recommend.




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Review: Deliver Us from Evil: A New York City Cop Investigates the Supernatural

Deliver Us from Evil: A New York City Cop Investigates the Supernatural by Ralph Sarchie

My rating: 1 of 5 stars



This book most definitely was not for me. At all. I'll preface by saying that I am Catholic and do believe in demon possessions. However, I still I found this entire book to be absolutely ridiculous. I did find myself frustrated with the constant religious diatribes after every story, though I understand Sarchie's reasoning behind adding it. Good for him for being strong in his faith, but I think the book would have been fine, if not better, without it. My biggest issue with this is that he seemed so flipping quick to jump to his determination that the person was possessed. One meeting and he just knows? And in some cases he knows the exact demon during that one meeting too. I found that baffling. I'm unsure if this was the actual case for his investigations or if everything was condensed so that he could fit in as many experiences as possible. If the latter was the case, it would have been much more impactful to cut that down and just discuss one or two in much, much more detail. In the case of this book, everything seemed too rushed and in the end just flat out unimpressive and questionable. Even as someone who DOES believe in the possibility of demonic possessions, I found myself to be incredibly skeptical of what I was reading.
 
I'll go ahead and add this into my the movie was better category, and the movie still wasn't anything to write home to mom about. It did have an entire soundtrack of music by the Doors so at least if you hate the movie, you have some amazing listening opportunities.



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Review: What's Left of Us

What's Left of Us by Amanda Maxlyn

My rating: 5 of 5 stars



This has been one of my most anticipated reads this year. I loved What's Left of Me and was really excited to see the completion of their story. So excited that I pulled myself up from the brink of death (not really, just an ear/sinus infection but I turn into a man when I'm sick) to get this read as soon as I could. And Amanda did not disappoint at all.

The thing that makes both WLoM and WLoU is that they are both a realistically poignant look into the struggles that surround the cancer survivor and their families. In these books, it isn't the struggle to survive the cancer, but the struggle to be able to live despite the lingering fear of cancer. What's Left of Us continues the Aundrea and Parker's story as they settle down further into their life, taking place 3 years into their relationship as they run into new heartaches and joys. Their struggle in this book is the decision on whether or not to add to their family despite Aundrea's fear of her heart or cancer taking her away. Every part of these books feel real. So many books within this genre can seem a little ridiculous or overdramatic, but not these. You really feel like this could be your friends or family, so it is amazingly easy to form a connection and really feel every joy and pain right along with the characters. I don't want to give anything away, because it is just something that need to be experienced in your own way. For me though, these books are ones that will stay with me as something special. Even if they are rip your heart out and stomp on it, in a good way though.







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Review: Dom Wars: Round One

Dom Wars: Round One by Lucian Bane

My rating: 2 of 5 stars



So, I was one of the many who got the email from this author when he joined Booklikes. I happened to find the fact that he went out of his way to message people who followed him/he followed to be highly amusing (not to mention the apology message too) so I decided to read his book that I got as a freebie a while ago.

Too bad that my reading it didn't really work out for either of us.

I found Dom Wars to have a serious case of the Serials. It just progressed far, far too fast for me with not enough go on. Sometimes I can look past that with serials, sometimes I can't. This time, I couldn't. I found the whole Dom Wars storyline to be interesting, but I do not think that it is something that can be properly done in a serial format. It is something that needs to be properly fleshed (ha) out, along with the characters that are involved in it. Especially when there are declarations of love in Volume 1, with characters that were not previously involved prior to being it starting.

I have Volume 2 already, so I may eventually read that and decide if I want to continue on with the rest of the books. But given the current state of my TBR list, it's not high on the priority list. I will probably check out other books of his though. I have a soft spot for a (mild) lack of proper etiquette.



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