In The Devil in the White City, the events of the World’s Fair in Chicago are recounted in stunning clarity, hearing about the architects involved and their own personal journeys. From the beginning as well, the readers are informed about H. H. Holmes, the serial killer who resided at the Fair’s doorstep. Since the killer’s identity is already spoiled for the audience, Erik Larson is forced to resort to other means of captivating his readers and holding them in suspense. Throughout Larson’s novel, he uses simple literary tactics to achieve his goals. While detailing the architects’ journeys to building the Fair, Larson uses less suspense in the beginning, as nothing is in need of it, but as he keeps writing and the architects’ lives begin
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H. Holmes, which also forces the reader to read further, no matter if they are interested in the architects or the murderer. After Holmes’s sections, Larson employs usually disturbing situations or feelings Holmes had to leave the reader tense, somewhat confused, and generally disgusted. However, this helps intrigue them, as he does effectively by leaving a section with the line, “Which terrified her” (pg 73), after describing Holmes calmly telling a woman not to be afraid of him. Presenting this with gruesome and vague details about Holmes’s preoccupation, anyone would be willing to go on. In Larson’s position, there was surely the temptation to make his novel like any other nonfiction book: one-sided, with only the dreary, long-awaited ending. However, Larson had the ability to create suspense by covering a topic not many people have knowledge about, which was an obsolete serial killer whose name is rarely mentioned. Larson’s choice of subject and his literary tactics when dealing with the audience’s attention is what sets this book apart from the rest. With his carefully plotted choice of how to present the material and the way he ends his sections and chapters, Larson fully captivates the reader and keeps them on the edge of their seat until the very last page. It is finally a suspenseful nonfiction novel, written beautifully and with the audience in
H. Holmes, which also forces the reader to read further, no matter if they are interested in the architects or the murderer. After Holmes’s sections, Larson employs usually disturbing situations or feelings Holmes had to leave the reader tense, somewhat confused, and generally disgusted. However, this helps intrigue them, as he does effectively by leaving a section with the line, “Which terrified her” (pg 73), after describing Holmes calmly telling a woman not to be afraid of him. Presenting this with gruesome and vague details about Holmes’s preoccupation, anyone would be willing to go on. In Larson’s position, there was surely the temptation to make his novel like any other nonfiction book: one-sided, with only the dreary, long-awaited ending. However, Larson had the ability to create suspense by covering a topic not many people have knowledge about, which was an obsolete serial killer whose name is rarely mentioned. Larson’s choice of subject and his literary tactics when dealing with the audience’s attention is what sets this book apart from the rest. With his carefully plotted choice of how to present the material and the way he ends his sections and chapters, Larson fully captivates the reader and keeps them on the edge of their seat until the very last page. It is finally a suspenseful nonfiction novel, written beautifully and with the audience in