Nocturne Salem Book Club with Aaron Mahnke: Exhumed

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Nocturne Book Club: Exhumed by Aaron Mahnke

Saturday, October 3rd | 7–9 PM
Nocturne | Salem, Massachusetts

What better way to begin October in Salem than with vampires, exhumed bodies, New England folklore, questionable 19th-century medicine, and the very thin line between superstition and science?

Join us at Nocturne for a special spooky season edition of our Book Club featuring Aaron Mahnke’s new book, Exhumed: Unearthing the History of the American Vampire.

At the center of Exhumed is one of New England’s most infamous pieces of vampire folklore: the 1892 exhumation of Mercy Brown in Exeter, Rhode Island.

After tuberculosis devastated the Brown family, members of their community became convinced that one of the dead might be responsible for draining the life from the living. Mercy’s body was exhumed, her heart was removed and burned, and the ashes were used as part of a desperate attempt to save her surviving brother.

Macabre? Absolutely.

But as Aaron Mahnke reveals in Exhumed, the story becomes even stranger, and more fascinating, when placed within the world that created it.

Through vampire folklore, early medicine, pseudoscience, corpse remedies, mummification, executioners, changing ideas about disease and death, and cultural touchstones stretching from George Washington to Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, Exhumed explores the complicated relationship between science and superstition, the living and the dead, and what human beings will believe when faced with something they cannot explain.

And if Aaron’s name sounds familiar, there’s a good reason.

He is the creator of the wildly popular Lore podcast, which has accumulated more than 800 million downloads and was adapted into a television series for Amazon. He is also the founder of Grim & Mild Entertainment and has created or executive produced shows including Cabinet of Curiosities, Noble Blood, Unobscured, 13 Days of Halloween, and Bridgewater.

In other words: he knows a thing or two about strange history.

For our October Book Club, we’ll gather inside Nocturne after hours for an evening of conversation about Exhumed, New England vampire panic, death and burial customs, folklore, historical medicine, and all the wonderfully morbid rabbit holes the book inspires.

Expect thoughtful discussion, spooky conversation, refreshments, and the particular pleasure of discussing vampire history in Salem during October.

Event Details

📚 Nocturne Book Club: Exhumed by Aaron Mahnke
🦇 Saturday, October 3rd
🕯️ 7:00–9:00 PM
📍 Nocturne Salem, MA

Come having read the book, come halfway through, or come simply because you have an unhealthy fascination with vampires, graveyards, folklore, strange history, and what our ancestors were doing with corpses in the 1800s.

We understand.

It’s Nocturne.

Space is limited, so reserve your spot and join us for one very macabre October book club.

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