There's no other way to slice it - this book was not for me. As much as I can appreciate the amount of work that went into such a detailed text, it just fell flat for me. As other reviewers have pointed out, it's closer to "here's a book about the world fair... also btw HH Holmes happened". I learned a few cool things that I probably wouldn't have otherwise, but not necessarily on topics that I was particularly curious about.

That said, the book was extremely readable and easy to get through. The writing was fantastic, and I'd highly recommend this to anyone who wants to know more about the Chicago World Fair. Unfortunately, that person isn't me.