History Brought to Radiant Life

I've never really been one to lean towards non-fiction works in comparison to fictional novels. When this work was recommended to me by my U.S. History teacher my junior year of high school, I thought about trying it. And not until a little over a year later have I actually tried it -- and I am very glad that I did. This work written by Erik Larson centers around the World Columbian Exposition of 1893, America's (and the world's) first and most magnificent fair. But within the spectacle of lights, exhibits, and overall wonder, a prowling serial killer was claiming victims unbeknownst to the general public. This novel works to shed light on the information found on this notorious killer as well as the detailings of the process of the fair's inception and duration. Overall, this non-fiction work is written in a manner of great and grand storytelling, when in fact it is an incredibly well-researched account of true history set in Chicago's Jackson Park. For anyone craving for history to come to life in vivid description and validity, this Larson creation is for you.

Some of my favorite quotes within the various quotes of research for this literary work:

"It was so easy to disappear, so easy to deny knowledge, so very easy in the smoke and din to mask that something dark had taken root. This was Chicago, on the eve of the greatest fair in history."

"His weakness was his belief that evil had boundaries."

"Chicago has disappointed her enemies and astonished the world."

"Leaves hung in the stillness like hands of the newly dead."

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