Book No. 28 of 2025
This is one of those books that’s really two books in one; it simultaneously tells the story of how the Chicago World’s Fair came to be, and brings a prolific serial killer’s bloody history to life. It shouldn’t work but it does—Erik Larson is a gifted storyteller (this was a hard book to put down) who draws compelling connections between seemingly disparate threads.
The city of Chicago is really the main character here; Larson really dives into the city’s history with love and fascination, and as someone who had little knowledge of or interest in the World’s Fair, I was somewhat flabbergasted at how deeply that single event shaped America (and the world). (It’s also wild how directly you can draw the line from the World’s Fair to the Disney parks, in both concept and execution.)
The serial killer parts are gruesome, horrifying, and told in such a way that I as the reader was filled with dread. I also found myself marveling at how easy it was to Do Crimes in the age before DNA testing and modern record-keeping.
Similar Reads
The “nonfiction that feels like fiction you can’t put down” vibe can also be found in another Erik Larson book, The Splendid and the Vile, as well as Patrick Radden Keefe’s Say Nothing.