Exhumed: Unearthing the History of the American Vampire

by Aaron Mahnke

An engrossing and macabre exploration of the folklore and early medical practices that led to the New England Vampire Panic in the 1890s, from critically acclaimed podcaster and bestselling author Aaron Mahnke.

What would drive a man to exhume the body of his daughter and remove her heart? That question has haunted Aaron Mahnke, creator and host of the award-winning podcast Lore. Fueled by a decade of research, Mahnke excavates the past to understand the hysteria that fueled the ghastly exhumation of Mercy Brown in 1892, who like her mother and sister before her, succumbed to “consumption” at the age of 19. 

With Exhumed, Mahnke presents a unique history of the intersection of folklore and science, and how pop culture and both genuine medical advancements and pseudoscience of the time shaped the perspectives of people in 19th century America. From the death of George Washington to Mary Shelley writing Frankenstein, Mahnke leads reads on a fascinating journey through history, touching on methods of mummification, the multifaceted role of executioners, medicine made from corpses, European folklore that traveled across the Atlantic, and so much more. He reveals that as shocking as Brown’s exhumation might seem, it also reflected surprisingly common attitudes and beliefs about the relationship between the dead and the living, the nature of science and magic, and the fate of a human soul. It all builds to a revelatory understanding of human behavior that continues to this very day. 

Possessing an irreverent view of science, history, and the human condition, Exhumed is perfect for fans of Mary Roach’s Stiff, as well as readers of forgotten American histories like Brad Meltzer’s New York Times bestselling The First The Secret Plot to Kill George Washington.  

Genres: Nonfiction, History, Vampires, Horror, Audiobook, Paranormal, Science

368 pages, Hardcover

First published August 4, 2026

About the author

One of the most successful podcast producers in the world, Aaron Mahnke began his career in 2015 with the launch of Lore, which went on to become a breakout hit.

Aside from racking up over 450-million downloads to date, Lore was adapted for two seasons of television on Amazon, and as a three-book set from Penguin Random House. Aaron has also toured extensively, delivering his trademark storytelling experience to thousands of people across the country.

In 2019, Aaron also published his first comic book series, Wellington, through IDW. And in 2021, he launched the first of a new slate of fiction podcasts, beginning with the breakout hit Bridgewater, starring Misha Collins, Melissa Ponzia, Karan Soni, Alan Tudyk, and Tricia Helfer.

Reviews

[Maeghan]

Yeah don't read this book if you want to know about the vampire hysteria in the US. I got over 20-ish % through this and only the introduction and prologue actually spoke about what the book is meant to be. It almost feels like they accidentally inserted another book starting at chapter 1 since the content is nothing to what the description and promotion of the book is.

While I thank Netgalley for this ARC, I'm not a happy camper.

--

My thought process while reading this book, which also acts as a summary of each chapter until I gave up:

Introduction & Prologue: okay cool. I do love me a gothic vampire story, especially one that’s historical hysteria! Let’s get into it!

[Part 1]

Chapter 1: Why are we discussing George Washington, and why a zombie? What does this have to do with our vampire? And in the end Washington wasn’t a zombie? That’s click bait (read bait?)

Chapter 2: Okay so we’re on to Benny Franklin; is he a zombie too now? But no, we’re learning about electricity. How does this affect yon vampires? But now we’re learning about an Italian man born in the 1730s, but then it’s 1790 USA, but then it’s England, but then it’s back to the Italian in 1786. Where are the vampires?? So, the Italian man is Frankenstein, but with frogs? Oh, it’s the 1800s and now we’re archeologists looking for dinosaurs. But now we’re learning about Volta, c1780s; I didn’t realize this book was about time-travel. I’m so confused.

Chapter 3: It’s 2001, and we’re archeologists again. A Scottish bog. These dad jokes that break the narrative are getting out of hand. I’m not enjoying this, the writing is annoying. Greek Gods now, cool. I love the Iliad.

A direct quote from the book, which reaffirms how not vampire-related it all is: “both Pinocchio and the Gingerbread Man are horribly murdered.” Which of course is the perfect segway into now learning about this Brothers Grimm and their life stories. Oh, but then the rest of the chapter is about anti-Semitic writings.

Chapter 4: We’ve moved from “science” to ~magic~ and Darwinism? I didn’t think I’d ever see Robert Smith from the Cure, Lord Bryon and Mary Shelley in one sentence together in my life. If the author needs to write “Okay, stay with me here” you just know how unhinged things have gotten. Mary Shelley’s biography in a few paragraphs was kinda interesting; I won’t lie there.

[Part 2]

Chapter 5: We’re starting Part 2 with Sir Isaac Newton; I think it’s safe to say the history of the modern vampire is a footnote to this novel. I think whoever did the promo for this needs a demotion. The author too probably. I’m done I can’t do this.

[Jenny Lawson]

A fascinating read

[Wendy Darling]

I cannot stress enough how much my “needs a red pen” shelf factors into this rating.

I appreciate context, but man alive, tangential stories and rabbit holes cannot take up 80% of the book. By the time we finally get to poor Mercy Brown, I was ready to take a shovel to her grave myself to hurry things along. It sticks in my craw that she is relegated to not much more than a footnote in her own story.

Podcasts (with their endless drawn-out episodes and their occasionally questionable conclusions) that turn into books are usually pretty flawed and this one is no exception. It’s not the same form of storytelling, ffs.

[Saoirse Wong]

Could have benefited from a change in title/marketing - the framework of Mercy’s story wasn’t strong enough to justify the exploration of what felt like all of mankind’s history with the undead, alchemy, and corpse medicine. I’m also really not surprised at all by a New England family in the 1800s doing something like this. Interesting to hear about the topics covered in this book but not completely sold on the greater theme.

[Rachael | ☾ whimsicalfiction ☾]

I enjoyed the tangential backstories and segues of five thousand other different history/death related incidents/facts but I agree with other readers that the author shouldn’t have waited till the last chapter to mention that the book was basically only going to be about tangential information instead of the actual Mercy Brown case. I still learned a ton though (and appreciated all the puns)

[CatReader]

Aaron Mahnke is an American writer and podcaster best known as the creator and host of Lore, his long-running podcast about folklore, legends, and macabre history. His 2026 book Exhumed: Unearthing the History of the American Vampire begins with the fascinating 1892 case of Mercy Brown, a 19-year-old Rhode Island woman whose family had been devastated by tuberculosis. After several relatives died and her brother became gravely ill, neighbors persuaded the family to exhume the bodies of Mercy, her mother, and her sister in an effort to determine whether one of the dead was somehow responsible. Mercy's relatively well-preserved body was treated as evidence of supernatural activity, and her heart and liver were burned, with the ashes given to her sick brother as a supposed cure.

That story was exactly the kind of strange intersection of medicine, folklore, and history I wanted to learn more about. Unfortunately, I made it only about halfway through the book. Rather than staying closely focused on Mercy Brown, the New England vampire panic, and the beliefs surrounding those events, Mahnke takes long excursions into corpse medicine, premature burial, early transfusion, Gothic literature, George Washington's death, European folklore, and numerous other topics. All of those subjects are potentially interesting, but the connections often felt too loose for me, and I kept waiting for the book to return to the central story that had initially drawn me in.

I suspect this approach will work much better for readers who already enjoy Mahnke's podcasting style. His writing has the conversational, digressive quality of someone following one intriguing historical thread into another and then another. I tend to prefer narrative nonfiction that is more tightly structured around a central question and that builds a deeply researched story from beginning to end, so eventually I realized I was simply not the right audience for this particular approach. The Mercy Brown case remains fascinating; I just wish the book had spent more sustained time with it.

Further reading:
Quackery: A Brief History of the Worst Ways to Cure Everything by Lydia Kang and Nate Pedersen
The Ruin of All Witches: Life and Death in the New World by Malcolm Gaskill
Ghost Hunters: William James and the Search for Scientific Proof of Life After Death by Deborah Blum

My statistics:
Book 185 for 2026
Book 2491 cumulatively

[Joe Caputo]

A fabulous, slow examination of what makes death so strange and the ways people have tried to understand the infinite.

[Kelsi Van Gieson]

I thought this was going to an in depth look into the story of Mercy Brown however this book was simple a compilation of independent stories that highlighted how histories scientific exploration ties into today’s lore. The chapters didn’t tie together, metaphors felt overused, and there were several repeating phrases and puns. Great idea and I see what the author was attempting to accomplish but the finished product felt like podcast episodes trying to disguised themselves as a book.

[Samantha Williams]

If you like Mahnke’s podcast Lore and also the history of medicine you will enjoy this book. While the main focus is Mercy Brown and the vampire story surrounding her, this book spends most of the time looking through concepts like corpse medicine, the humors, the origins of Frankenstein and more to give us a knowledge of medical history and folklore remedies. If you were reading fully for Brown and the vampire hysteria in the North East I can see this being a frustrating read as only the last chunk really talks about it. Listening to it on audio, made the bouncing through topics more palatable for me at least. If you want to learn about interesting and gruesome at times, stories about medicine and folklore combining then I would recommend. If you want more focus on the Mercy Brown story, it might not be worth the read.

[coco's reading]

My thinking on this is that Aaron Mahnke had a good idea, realized there was no way he as a writer could make a book out of it, and so used it as an excuse to do an extended podcast series on the intersection between alchemy, science, health, and folklore. He says from the start that context is important—I agree—but not when you get lost in the minutiae of that context, to the point where the supposed focal point—Mercy Brown and, more broadly, the figure of the vampire in America—is a mere afterthought. Not a successful project.

[Tintaglia]

La Storia come dovrebbe essere raccontata! Ricca di curiosità (spesso macabre e, quindi, ancora più attraenti XD), vivace, con spunti su spunti da approfondire. Un viaggio spumeggiante che, sebbene nei capitoli iniziali possa sembrare troppo frammentario, si rivela per quello che è: uno studio sull'eterna umana fascinazione del confine tra la vita e la morte.
Un vero piacere da leggere.

[Raven]

Fascinating!

[Erin]

For a book about the history of medicine, folklore, and death practices, fine. But you can't advertise a book about the vampire hysteria and then not talk about that at all until the last quarter of the book 200+ pages in. My word, he prepped us for context but the ENTIRE book is context. Which if you are interested in these historical aspects already, much of this book is not new groundbreaking information. Spoiler alert: everything is tuberculosis.

[V.W. W. Strange]

What a fun read. An educational, informative, and fun traipse through time exploring people, places, and events that are all seemingly unrelated but ultimately Aaron finds a way to connect the dots to give us a much bigger lens into the story of Mercy Brown. Is the whole book about her, the American vampire, and her story? No, but everything discussed in this book lends to give additional context into her story and the greater understanding of how people in the 19th century behaved and believed. There’s lots of interesting facts and tidbits of information to learn but Aaron does a fantastic job expanding our worldview to see how beliefs and practices from centuries ago all play a part in understanding Mercy Brown.

[Janine]

The Kirkus Review review conclusion sums up this book so well I have to include in my review: “Come for the morbid tidbits; stay for the sharply honed insights into both history and the human psyche.”

I listened to this book read by the author and thoroughly enjoyed it. It starts with the death of Mercy Brown in 1892, her being exhumed and her heart and liver being incinerated. The reason for this is then delightfully explained through a history of the world’s understanding of the vagaries of the human body from ancient times to Mercy’s death. It’s simply a captivating exploration. The gambit runs from folklore, pseudoscience, to scientific beliefs of the day,

Mercy Brown died of consumption or tuberculosis as we know it today. Her whole family was riddled with the disease. Because of the bleeding associated with consumption, there was always a hit of something bizarre - like vampires. In fact, her exhumation lead to the New England Vampire Panic. To explain this phenomenon the author takes us on a journey exposing common beliefs through time such as mummification, the “multifaceted role of executioners,” medicine made from corpses, drinking blood from executed criminals - all truly weird but true event and fascinating. All these are examples of the common attitudes at various times about the relationship between “the dead and the living, medicine and magic, and the fate of the human soul.” The author is clear: these ideas were the best people could do with the limited information they had (though I ironically note in considering our resident quack HHS Secretary if he were to read this book we might be facing corpse approved medicines -LOL).

Mercy Brown’s exhumation was only five years before Bram Stoker gave us Dracula and her exhumation was part of Stoker’s inspiration. As this book reveals her exhumation though was not the cause of one thread but a multiplicity of threads that brought it about. The author weaves these so facilely that by the end of the book you’ve grown to appreciate that history’s interconnections show us how important each of us is - hence why eliminating parts of history you don’t like means you may be eliminating yourself.

I gave this audiobook five stars for its captivating topic, its extensive research and for a rousing good listen. Highly recommend.

PS: I now need to move Killing the Dead: Vampire Epidemics from Mesopotamia to the New World.

[Sara Planz]

SYNOPSIS
Aaron Mahnke presents a unique history of the intersection of folklore and science, and how pop culture and both genuine medical advancements and pseudoscience of the time shaped the perspectives of people in 19th century America. From the death of George Washington to Mary Shelley writing Frankenstein, Mahnke leads reads on a fascinating journey through history, touching on methods of mummification, the multifaceted role of executioners, medicine made from corpses, European folklore that traveled across the Atlantic, and so much more. He reveals that as shocking as Brown’s exhumation might seem, it also reflected surprisingly common attitudes and beliefs about the relationship between the dead and the living, the nature of science and magic, and the fate of a human soul. It all builds to a revelatory understanding of human behavior that continues to this very day.

I was attracted to the book regarding the Mercy Brown tagline, however this book was much more than what I expected. I have enjoyed Mahnke’s books, podcasts and shows for years and this one was his most straightforward foray into non-fiction. He takes us through the folklore, but does a deep dive into how it affected the science and culture at that time. Those comparisons really drew me in and gave me insight into the past, the strange methods and practices that happened at that time, and how they found their way into everyday life. A really good “did you know” kind of read.

[Taylor]

If you listen to the Lore podcast then you are familiar with Aaron Mahnke and the story of Mercy Brown.

I listened to this on audiobook since I love Aaron’s storytelling and energy with his podcasts. The book starts with cases in history overtime and ends on the case of Mercy Brown. I thoroughly enjoyed the way the book was set up since most people start with a case and then work backwards to uncover and explain how they got there.

I’ve been intrigued by the case of Mercy Brown and this book came out right before I was heading to Rhode Island for a work trip. When I looked it up, my hotel was only 15 mins away from her gravesite but unfortunately it didn’t work out that I was able to visit her. May Mercy rest in peace 🪦

[Patrick Book]

Tough one! There’s certainly a lot of interesting information contained in this book, but the structure and execution is pretty terrible! You know you’re in trouble when the author’s foreword is a desperate plea for you to keep reading. “Context is important,” he insists, laying bare that this book is for his podcast listeners, not people who actually read books (and thus understand why context exists).

It also feels like he was editorially abandoned. The first 230 pages of this are the context to which he refers; the actual story about the “American vampire” amounts to about 30 pages. Integrate them! Weave the story throughout the historical information. They don’t need to be bifurcated! That’s an arbitrary choice, and a poor one!

[Allison Hammat]

I thought this book was going to primarily focus on the story of Mercy Brown and the Great New England Vampire Panic. Sadly, we didn’t get to the topic of Brown until 75% of the way through the book. This book is not an in depth analysis of Brown or of the Great New England Vampire Panic, but a lot of surface level independent stories that bounce all over the place.

I think Mahnke is a great podcast host, but his books haven’t really hit for me. You can tell the stories are thoroughly researched, which I appreciate, but he just doesn’t dive deep enough for me.

[Ami Rebecca]

A true Mahnke, well researched, interesting, but narrated by Mahnke and that's the only downside to this audiobook. He has a cadence that I can't speed up enough, but he's such a talented writer that I will always read anything he writes.

[Jessica Berry]

Fast forwarded all the animal testing that had nothing to do with vampirism, finally got to what I thought was a study of avoiding decomposition at 45% but was instead more animal testing and weighting the soul. I needed more patience than humanly or supernaturally possible to get through this

[Sabrina]

3 1/2

[Jeana Lawrence]

I love Lore and all of his podcasts, especially Unobscured and this read just like that. I could clearly hear his voice and the music from the show and feel the passion of learning all these obscure historical facts surrounding the Mercy Brown case. It’s so cool to see how all the folktales and lore of different medicines and believes conjoined together that eventually lead people to make the decision to exhume Mercy, cut her open, and burn her organs to save her brother. I want more Aaron Mahnke books like this.

[Bell]

This book was an excellent and entertaining read. But let me back up a little bit.
I am someone who likes fiction much better than nonfiction but i have always had a passion for folklore. And i have Lore to thank for that, whether it was listening to it after soccer practice or when i was in the car with my dad. So when I saw that Aaron Mahnke had a book about the history of vampires, i was curious and decided to give it a try.
But i was a little scared that i wouldn’t like it.
But i did, a lot.
I loved that he went into the history of medicine in medieval times but also the ideas behind their crazy concoctions. As an aspiring doctor and someone who loves medicine and folklore this book was the right kind of nonfiction for me.

[layne parker]

the whole book i was thinking: none of this is new information from the podcast. Then, he kinda saved it by saying that he was recognizing patterns in the research and stories. A good reflective ending is always a good move. Maybe it was a cop out for unoriginal work, but to me it’s sounds like ITS A LOOP and i love aaron mehnke so it was great.

[martyn benny]

Exhumed: Unearthing the History of the American Vampire is a fascinating blend of history, folklore, medical science, and cultural anthropology that explores one of America's strangest historical episodes with intelligence, curiosity, and remarkable storytelling. Aaron Mahnke once again demonstrates why he has become one of the most respected voices in narrative history and the supernatural.

Rather than treating the New England Vampire Panic as a collection of bizarre anecdotes, Mahnke carefully reconstructs the social, medical, and psychological landscape that allowed such beliefs to flourish. By examining the tragic story of Mercy Brown alongside the broader history of tuberculosis, early medicine, European folklore, and nineteenth-century anxieties surrounding death, he transforms what could have been a niche curiosity into a compelling study of human behavior.

One of the book's greatest strengths is its refusal to sensationalize its subject. Instead, Mahnke approaches these historical events with empathy and intellectual honesty, helping readers understand why ordinary people facing devastating loss sought explanations that today may seem unimaginable. In doing so, he reminds us that fear, grief, and uncertainty have always shaped the stories societies tell themselves.

I especially appreciated the way the narrative moves effortlessly between historical investigation and cultural commentary. Discussions of medical misconceptions, corpse medicine, religious belief, Gothic literature, and the emergence of scientific thinking all combine to create a richly layered portrait of an era caught between superstition and modernity.

Mahnke's writing remains engaging throughout, balancing meticulous research with the pacing of an excellent mystery. His gift for storytelling ensures that every historical thread contributes to a larger understanding of how folklore evolves and why myths continue to influence contemporary culture.

Ultimately, Exhumed is about far more than vampires. It is an insightful exploration of humanity's enduring search for meaning in the face of disease, death, and the unknown. Readers interested in history, folklore, medicine, or the origins of popular horror will find this an absorbing and thought-provoking read.

[Steve Cran]

Like the Satanic Panic of the 1980’s, New England witnessed almost 100 years before a “Vampire Panic”. In the year 1892, 19-year-old Mercy Brown died. Shortly after her death, her brother began to get ill and slowly waste away. The town immediately thought that Mercy was reaching beyond the grave to slowly drain away his life. Since she died during winter it was nigh impossible to dig up the earth to inter her, so she interred about ground in a crypt. During family illness and the fear of vampires the father had his daughter’s body dug up. She was remarkably well preserved, in fact too well preserved. So, the towns’ people elected to burn their heart and liver to ashes.
This was a case of folklore outweighing science. Even the doctors who examined the corpse said that everything was normal. Still the will of the town persisted. How on Earth could superstition outweigh science? The year was 1892, not that long ago.
Many beliefs about vampires were brought over from the New World. Poignant is the belief about blood. Back in old times when someone was sick, they would practice something called “bloodletting” or have leeches such out the infected blood. This was believed to cause the infection to be drained out. Another thing coming in vogue was transfusions. Back then in George Washington’s time it was something new and just beginning. The belief was that if you injected animal blood into a human it would help revitalize the individual. George Washington’s doctor wanted to try it. They did not end up doing it. In some instances, it appeared to work but later experiments did not yield the desired results.
There were also beliefs about the role of electricity being able to revive a corpse. In 1800 Luigi Galvani, applied Alessandro Volta’s battery to a frog and noticed its muscles twitch. In 1803 Giovanni Aldini applied electricity to executed criminal George Foster in London. The electric current from the battery made the dead criminal’s muscle and jaws twitch. This would be the inspiration behind Mary Shelley’s “Frankenstein”
The body parts of the dead, especially those who died young and violently, were sought after for medical cures. Rubbing a dead person’s hand on a wart or other sickness would cause the illness to deteriorate along with the hand. A dead man’s fat could be rubbed on an ailing part of the body as a supposed cure. Epileptics would drink a dead man’s blood in hopes of remedy.
Revenant in which vampires are a species there are corpses that refuse to totally die and often return to plague surviving family members. They would often bring disease and plague in their wake.
Excellent book that filled with well researched information. The book is easy to ready and very enjoyable.

[Jessica Sandman]

Ok, so here's the deal... this book should totally be for someone like me. It (so I thought) meets at the intersection of thanatology/death studies, history, culture, medical humanities, and American folk stories. I've read books that are similar conceptually in the past, and they really stuck with me.

Unfortunately, that just wasn't the case for me with this book.

I'm not necessarily a "vampire person", but I can appreciate a good story when it is grounded in history and the evolution of how we see medicine, illness, and (un)death. One of my biggest issues with this book is that I felt that it took FOREVER to get anywhere. Yes, I understand that the author mentioned this at the beginning, saying that "context" would be very important, but it's not until 200+ pages in when it says "and now for the vampire stuff." Then it took something like another 20 pages to get to the actual vampire stuff? Anyway, not for me. The "context" went so far that it made the actual topic of the book seem like an afterthought. There were times I was reading and I would go back to look at the title to remind me what this was actually about...or at least what it was promising to get to eventually.

I really hate writing bad reviews. I don't like giving books anything less than 3 stars. That being said, this book was legitimately hard for me to finish. It took me about 2 weeks to read, which is unheard of for a book of this size. It's not that it was dense or particularly complex, because it wasn't...but it was just so all over the place. I guess I also just didn't care for the writing style.

I don't know Aaron Mahnke, or any of his podcasts, but there were times that I felt this would've been better as a podcast. There were times when the author tried to throw in anecdotes and asides that I felt would've worked better in that format.

If you are a fan of his stuff already, you'll love this book. This book is for you, not for me. I can say that based on the sources and endnotes at the end, this book was incredibly well-researched. Maybe too well-researched? For a book that was about 90% "context," it could've used more focus.

Despite all of my issues with this book, I will round it up to a 2-star rating. There were some interesting factoids and anecdotes, and the reference section alone has a lot of good material. Once again, this wasn't for me, but that doesn't mean it won't be for you. Maybe if there's an audiobook version it will seem less meandering.

Thank you to NetGalley, Aaron Mahnke, and Running Press for the ARC. This is my honest review.

[Lauren M]

I have listened to Aaron Mahnke's Lore podcast almost from the beginning, and it is one of the few podcasts that I have consistently kept up with even as my interest in the medium has ebbed and flowed over the years.

The way he draws in elements of history, crime, folklore, and the paranormal across eras and cultures to fit a theme and tell a story is unparalleled, and so naturally when I had the chance to read an ARC of his newest book Exhumed: Unearthing the History of the American Vampire, I was excited. Many thanks to the author, Running Press, and Netgalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Mahnke's voice and writing style are so distinctive that there were times while reading this book that I felt as though I could hear it in my head, as though it was one of his podcast episodes. As a fan, that worked for me, but there are places where his tone might feel overly casual or even jovial to someone not expecting it.

My main criticism of this book is that the subtitle is inapt. I don't feel that Exhumed is really about "unearthing the history of the American vampire". Mahnke starts the book by explaining that he intends to add "context" to the story of Mercy Brown, an alleged vampire in 19th-century Rhode Island.

This context, ranging from corpse medicine to Gothic literature to premature burial prevention to historical superstition, comprises the vast majority of the book. So if you're really looking for a deep dive on American vampires, or on Mercy Brown and the New England vampire panic specifically, you won't exactly find it here.

On the other hand, if you can (and you should) set the subtitle aside and take the journey through this context -- historical, folkloric, scientific, literary, etc. -- you certainly won't be disappointed at the stories that Mahnke reveals. The research is thorough but the writing is never dry, and there's something for everyone no matter where your interest in vampires and the belief in them stems from.

At times, you may wonder how everything is connected, but it never drags, and Mahnke weaves each thread together to create a fascinating look at the myth and history surrounding the belief in the undead.

[Jifu]

(Note: I received an advanced reader copy of this book courtesy of NetGalley)

I already knew a little of Mercy Brown, the “vampire” of Exeter, Rhode Island - or at least, I thought that I did. However, Exhumed has successfully opened my eyes not just on her (in)famous tale, but a wide array of related topics in the surrounding orbit, including revenant lore, blood and its relation to ideas of the soul, reanimation, and that’s just only a sampling of what was explored.

Here, Aareo Mahnke employs a format of going all in on providing as much context as is possible, and only then does he fully address the incident that took place in a New England graveyard in January 1892. It’s a setup that I’ve never encountered before, but ended up enjoying it very, very much with all that I was able to learn. Mahnke does an expert job of making sure he doesn’t overwhelm, and successfully avoid going an overly dry, academic route. Also, despite the morbid nature of much of what was discussed, he still manages to keep the reading experience mostly gripping in its deeply informative way, and even a bit light at times too. His narrative is thickly and unapologetically infused with his own personality and wit, and although he’s not above tossing around jokes, these are largely self-deprecating in nature. He never pokes fun or shames his past subjects - instead he fosters an open-minded attitude and tries his best to make the reader see that what might appear ignorant or barbaric to us in the present day was part of our ancestor’s best and sincere efforts to make sense of the world around them.

Overall, this was a deeply, deeply fascinating read that grabbed my attention from the get-go, and successfully prevented me from putting it down for any sizable period of time. In fact, I started this on a Saturday afternoon, and finished it Sunday morning the next day. I hope that Mahnke decides to pursue this format of meticulously exploring all related context for other subjects in future publications. In the meantime, I declare this to be one of the most memorable nonfiction reads of the year for me so far.