I’m a small-time creator; I’m 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 wouldn’t 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 Devil’s Dreamland, Poetry inspired by H. H. Holmes, written beautifully by author Sara Tantlinger, an author who’s one-time reader is now a lifelong fan.
The Devil’s 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 World’s Fair in the “White City” of Chicago, Illinois. For those of you not familiar with Holmes, he was a conartist who constructed the infamous “Murder Castle” 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 World’s Fair, making unsuspecting lone travelers plentiful, easily filling the rooms of his castle.
Personally I’m a fan of rhyming poems, but I’ve gained a liking towards Tantlinger’s prose. They roll off the tongue easily and are understandable on a first read-through, so much so that The Devil’s Dreamland only took me about a day to leisurely read. It was also hugely entertaining! Somehow, reading about viscera and decomposition “hit’s different” than seeing it on a screen; it’s almost alluring. The way Tantlinger describes these scenes puts your mind into a sort of trance, just as it’s said Holmes’ astonishingly blue eyes did. You don’t feel gross or dirty, just extremely interested… again, like the many poems about Holmes’ fascination with death creeping over a body.
These poems aren’t necessarily true accounts of Holmes’ 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. “The First Wife: Clara” is one of my favorites, and a mix of both. I’ve found little about Clara’s 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 wasn’t 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 Devil’s 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 Holmes’ 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 I’d gladly use this as an entry point for someone looking to get into the genre without being scared away.
