Customer Reviews

The White City

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

This book is so hard to follow--you never really know what is happening. You have no feeling for or insight into any of the characters. The book is poorly written and full of inaccuracies about Chicago and the 1893 Columbian Exposition. I couldn't believe it when I read a passage describing the sun setting over Lake Michigan!!!!! The lake is east of the city. The sun always sets in the west!! This is a simple fact that anyone with a map could figure out. This man is from Chicago?

If you want to read a good, non-fiction book on the Columbian Exposition read Erik Larson's "The Devil in the White City." If you want to read a well-written mystery read Sue Grafton.

Don't believe the rave reviews of this book. They must be written by the author's family and friends.

I'm mad I wasted my time and money on this book. Don't waste yours.

I found several historical miscues in the first few pages. The Ferris Wheel running since May? Women wearing hoops? Did Michon do any research at all? Even aside from the obvious screw-ups (for no reason -- I'm willing to accept changing history if it needs to be changed for the story, like the ways he changed Holmes, but things like a throwaway line about the Ferris Wheel or the clothing? The only reason that's mucked up is sloppiness), the writing style is practically impenetrable. I found it impossible to tell what was going on, what was happening to whom, or who any of the characters were supposed to be. They had no identifying characteristics. None. And the murders seemed to be created to be as gross and shocking as possible, without really adding up to anything in terms of creating a profile for the killer.

I was really disappointed in this book. Oh, and I don't know who the Husker was because I didn't bother to finish, which is practically unheard of for me and mysteries.

This is a strange fever dream of a novel. It's the author's first book, set in Chicago during the Columbian Exposition.

A serial killer nicknamed Clemantis, the Husker, is on the loose in Chicago, torturing and murdering small boys and leaving their brutalized bodies in the fair grounds. When the young son of a prominent citizen goes missing, the police are forced to take notice.

Dr Elizabeth Hadley, a forensic psychologist, is called in to assist in finding the killer. She is one of the first people working in this field.

Chicago is the main character in this book and Michod does a wonderful job of creating a Chicago that is brutal, atmospheric, and frightening. Hieronymus Bosch would have felt right at home in this Chicago.

Winds howl, blood runs in the street, and desperate men threaten strikes against the meat packing industry, whose injustices are vividly portrayed. Meanwhile, the monied elite are blind to the suffering of the less fortunate.

However, the human characters in this book are sketchily drawn, and I found their speech and their reaction to events inappropriate and unbelievable. I could not find a single character to like or identify with.

I also found the author's writing style to be unecessarily odd and awkward.

I am puzzled at the author's need to invent a semi-fictional serial killer when there was a real one working the Columbian Exposition. H.H. Holmes, the mad doctor and killer of young women who registered at his hotel of horrors is a more interesting character than Michod's Husker.

I imagine Michod reasoned that there had been enough written about Holmes's activities--notably the earlier non-fiction book 'Devil in the White City.'

I did not like this book. Yet, several days after finishing it, I find it still much on my mind. So what does that mean? No idea. You'll have to try it and judge for yourself, I guess...

I give it an 'A' for atmosphere, a 'C' for character development and plot, and a 'C-' for writing style.

The great 1893 World's Fair in Chicago is marred by the kidnappings, murder, and vivisection of several boys and psychologist Elizabeth Handley is sent to Chicago to see whether her profiling can help solve the case. She arrives just as another boy vanishes--this one the son of a wealthy capitalist. But Billy's kidnapping seems different--especially when a underworld leader approaches Billy's father with a deal--give him the contract for a skyscraper if he ever wants to see his son again.

THE WHITE CITY switches between Handley's investigation, impressionistic views of Chicago at the turn of an earlier century, and Billy's plight in the hands of his kidnapper. Author Alec Michod is at his best as he describes the early Chicago but far weaker when he deals with characters.

I found THE WHITE CITY to be a bit of a mishmash. None of the characters, not even the annoying Billy, is especially sympathetic. Handley's investigation seems to consist of unmotivated wandering around and discovering of bodies. But Michod doesn't make the criminals any more sympathetic. Their terroristic plan to blow up the electrical building, and Skurlock's desire for Billy seem unmotivated and poorly thought out.

THE WHITE CITY is Michod's first novel and he's obviously trying hard. But mystery fans will want to hold off until Michod moves beyond mood and city and discovers characters, motivation, and engaging the reader's sympathy.

I found this book to be very "choppy". The author had the opportunity to use an excellent storyline, but his writing was very hard to follow. He jumped from one subject to another and you had to stop reading and think about what character he was talking about. It was very confusing. I finished the book, but I didn't find it as good as I'd hoped. I doubt that I would ever purchase another of Alec Michod books.

The idea of a mystery set in a worlds fair, with the excitement, the noise, the fabulous attractions really appealed to me but the author does very little to show anything positive about the fair, concentrating on the wind, the cold, the dust.

I almost abandoned reading in the first pages when I realized it centered on gruesome mass murders but I found the relationship between Billy and Scurlock intriguing. With another reviewer, I found the writing style, with its unorthodox punctuation, make the story almost incomprehensible at times. The author has a strange habit of closing and opening quote marks within in a sentence when what were needed were parentheses.

The needlessly gruesome, manipulative and unsatisfying ending contribute to making this book one of my least favorites of all time.

"The White City" is the first book I ever threw away. The characters were lifeless and boring. The plot never came together. There were too many historical inaccuracies. It was pure agony just to get through it.

If you liked "The Alienist" you'll love "White City." Author Alec Michod delivers a dark and twisted tale that I found myself unable to escape from. The sensory details that Michod paints with such immediacy lingered in my thoughts even after I put the book down. Other reviewers decry the lack of historical accuracy, but a gripping tale such as this is far harder to come by than a historically correct one. So check your note pad at the door and be prepared to enter the seedy underbelly of the beast with this riviting mystery that leaves you hungry for more.

This book was so bad that I won't pass it along to friends or family. I can't think of anyone I know who'd enjoy it. It's going to charity, but only because I'll never bring myself to actually throw a book away (not even for recycling).

I had high hopes for it because of the laudatory blurbs on the cover. I'll no longer trust those quoted.

Gratuitous gore, pointless unresolved plot elements, and choppy writing left me glad it was so short. I should have cut my losses by page two, when you learn that the ferocious October wind comes with sunshine like July.

No kidding.

I got this book out of the library on the basis of the plot alone. It's not that's it's bad, exactly...I want to like it much more than I do. I can just about get around the odd writing style--I've read far choppier and more confusing pieces--it's that the book seems to contradict itself in a number of places. When Dr. Handley is first introduced, for example, the book tells us that she is gaunt and weary because since she came to Chicago she has been doing nothing but read case files and work. Later on, however, we're told that she "wanders the streets" of Chicago in her free time. Huh? There is another part where something happens at sunrise, but later two characters walk off "into the night." Again, huh?

I think it could be better than it is--I like the characters but like others wish there were fleshed out and the setting is wonderful and sweeping.