Iβm a small-time creator; Iβm no Stephen King, or Bloody Disgusting, or Jamie Lee Curtis. So I find it comforting to go to smaller events and find goodies that normally wouldnβt see a worldwide release. Enter a book booth at the annual Scares That Care Charity Weekend in Williamsburg, VA, where I came across a red and yellow book with an old-timey man sporting a bowler cap on the cover. There, I was told about a lady-author with an absurd curiosity for turn-of-the-century murders, enough to write an entire collection of poems about them. The bright red book was The Devilβs Dreamland, Poetry inspired by H. H. Holmes, written beautifully by author Sara Tantlinger, an author whoβs one-time reader is now a lifelong fan.
The Devilβs Dreamland is a collection of poems meant to fill our minds with images of blood and uncanny evil, all surrounded by the majesty of the 1893 Worldβs Fair in the βWhite Cityβ of Chicago, Illinois. For those of you not familiar with Holmes, he was a conartist who constructed the infamous βMurder Castleβ where he would kill his victims and sell their remains to medical facilities. Others he would kill after convincing them to sign over deeds to their houses and fortunes, only to collect large sums of money from their life insurance plans. All of this was done during the historic 1893 Worldβs Fair, making unsuspecting lone travelers plentiful, easily filling the rooms of his castle.
Personally Iβm a fan of rhyming poems, but Iβve gained a liking towards Tantlingerβs prose. They roll off the tongue easily and are understandable on a first read-through, so much so that The Devilβs Dreamland only took me about a day to leisurely read. It was also hugely entertaining! Somehow, reading about viscera and decomposition βhitβs differentβ than seeing it on a screen; itβs almost alluring. The way Tantlinger describes these scenes puts your mind into a sort of trance, just as itβs said Holmesβ astonishingly blue eyes did. You donβt feel gross or dirty, just extremely interestedβ¦ again, like the many poems about Holmesβ fascination with death creeping over a body.
These poems arenβt necessarily true accounts of Holmesβ crimes, they’re inspired by them. So while some poems do give details that really happened, like the various entries about his wives, others are just imaginings of what could have happened, what others could have thought, or what he thought himself. βThe First Wife: Claraβ is one of my favorites, and a mix of both. Iβve found little about Claraβs thoughts during her marriage to Holmes and after his arrest, so we can only speculate what truly happened all that time. But what we do know, as mentioned in this poem, that her life with him wasnβt good, and that she could have easily become one of his victims.
… when you redefine love on your own terms
you can redefine your life
because at least, and you will learn
years from now,
at least he leaves you alive
at least he leaves you alive
Sara Tantlinger, “The First Wife: Clara,” The Devil’s Dreamland: Poetry Inspired by H.H. Holmes
The Devilβs Dreamland is a fun, quick read. Easily digestible but vile enough to let you peer into the depths of one of the most prolific serial killers in American history. Sara Tantlinger fully captured the essence of crime in the dawn of a new century with enthralling language that keeps pages turning quicker than Holmesβ cauldrons of lye stripping flesh from a corpse. With this book alone, Tantlinger proves herself a master of horror writing without it seeming horrible to begin with, and Iβd gladly use this as an entry point for someone looking to get into the genre without being scared away.
