Kentucky Book of the Dead

by Keven McQueen, Kyle McQueen (Illustrations)

Author Keven McQueen dissects some of Kentucky's more bizarre aspects of death, pulled directly from the history pages. Discover the reaper's creative side, meet the disgusting ghosts of Louisville and find out more than you wanted to know about old-fashioned embalming techniques. You will find it quite engrossing and just plain gross.

Genres: Nonfiction, Paranormal, History

146 pages, Hardcover

First published July 1, 2008

About the author

More information about Keven McQueen is available at his official website, http://www.kevenmcqueenstories.com/

Reviews

[Tams · Rating 4 out of 5]

I learned a ton of neat and some really gross stuff about Kentucky and it's past in this book. I LOVE reading about all the weird little pieces of history that they never bother to print in your textbooks. My favorite part I think was a tossup between; the fact that J.A.J. Mickel cut God out of his will (probally not the best idea) or about the man who was asked to be burried with the air hole and flag because he was afraid of being burried alive. Which leads me to the grossest parts. For me a tossup between any of the burried or almost burried alive stories and the one about the children who got sick from eating the ice they found which an embalmer had tossed away. Overall though very interesting.

[Linsey · Rating 2 out of 5]

Entertaining, but if I had seen the blurb in the front that none of it was fact checked I don't know that I would have bought it.

[Caroline McGlone · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting stories but the organization of this is kind of all over the place. There’s very little rhyme or reason and it’s repetitive too. Very much giving me when I would try to put all of my quotes into one research paper in college. I think this would have been better if it was a collection of spooky historical newspaper publications not paraphrased paragraph after paraphrased paragraph.

Also the author seems to think suicide by itself is enough to make an event spooky and entertaining. Instead it just came across as disturbing.

[Monica · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was another fun little volume from McQueen, with various miscellany from the dead in Kentucky: ghosts, odd deaths, predicted deaths, etc. I loved the addition of the epitaphs at the end. More than once I felt like a horrible person for laughing at some tragic but frankly ridiculous occurrence recorded here. Quite fun for spooky season.

[Holly Chiantaretto Robinson · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an excellent collection of interesting tidbits! I found it to be extremely entertaining.

[Adam Foster · Rating 2 out of 5]

I got it for a buck and was barely worth the money. Quick read, semi interesting stories. . . .

[Theresahpir · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an awesome little book filled with interesting ghost stories, creepy burial customs, absurd tombstone epitaphs, and all manner of weird and unusual circumstances of death in Kentucky. Thrown together in a fairly haphazard way (which the author fully takes credit for) this book is 141 pages of everything I love to read about! Pulled straight from the pages of historic newspapers and other similar sources, many of the creepy tales and kooky tidbits aren't unnecessarily loaded down with a lot of boring detail---just enough information to whet your appetite and leave you guessing about the authenticity of the original publications.

It was a VERY quick read for me, and I loved the illustrations---they are that perfect combination of cute and creepy. And, speaking of cute and creepy, this book does contain some rather tough subject matter such as embalming techniques and people dying in all sorts of strange and ironic ways. However, I personally found nothing too gory or gross...just very, very interesting.

I'm slowly working on beefing up my paranormal library's Kentucky section and this little gem makes the perfect addition. I've already planned several future blogs (Theresa's Haunted History of the Tri-State) based on items mentioned in the book that I'll be researching a tad further! If you're wanting a quick, spooky, and yes...even EDUCATIONAL read about the Bluegrass State, I suggest adding this one to YOUR library as well.

[Rhonda · Rating 5 out of 5]

Interesting

Interesting tidbits about ghosts, hauntings and really all things pertaining to dead people in Kentucky. Even a chapter on the history of embalming and incidents of people being buried alive.

This is not your typical ghost hunter book. :)

[Sandee Clemons · Rating 5 out of 5]

Okay.....I admit to being interested in books that other people keep private about. Yes..............the odd, zany and sometimes gross fascinates me. Keven McQueen rocks with this book!

[Ladyacct · Rating 3 out of 5]

Just goes to show you have ignorant, stupid, and otherwise unknowing people can be or was. Depending on your point of view.

[Richard · Rating 2 out of 5]

A fair-to-middlin' collection of ghosty bits - principally of the 19th century - in the comically-spooked state of Kentucky.