My 13 year old is into morbid, weird, dark, and niche history. Such as plagues, witch trials, asylums, or the dancing plague. Are there either any fiction or nonfiction books about anything like this? (honestly I wouldn't mind reading about it either)
tia!
by AVeryHumanUsername
3 Comments
Im currently reading “The Plague” by Albert Camus, which I would recommend. Honestly, anything by him would probably be good.
2 possible recs, though neither are super morbid, just strange, weird situation, that are more archeological studies of the ruins and trying to figure out why the people left/disappeared.
The closest I have read is mostly an anthropology and archeology book about 4 major cities across the world that disappeared largely without a trace. Its titled **Four Lost Cities by Annalee Newitz**. It covers the relatively well known disaster in the roman vacation city of Pompei, Catalhoyuk in Central Turkey, the medieval megacity of Angkor in Cambodia, and the indigenous metropolis Cahokia, which stood beside the Mississippi River where East St. Louis is today. Cahokia is what hooked me for reading this one. Knowing that there was a mega city with tens of thousands of people living in the US 200-300 years before before Columbus arrived is fascinating to me. Plus it was abandon around 1400 with no logical explanation, it just emptied nearly overnight.
Another is on the mysterious disappearance of the colony of Roanke, North Carolina in 1587. **A Kingdom Strange: The Brief and Tragic History of the Lost Colony of Roanoke** by **James Horn**
This was at the site of the first permanent English settlement in North America with the entire town found deserted and all residents missing, with the only clue being the word “CROATOAN” carved on a post. Great American History and and archeology lesson all in one. (it was also in an episode of the TV show Supernatural that was pretty good)
Quackery: A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE WORST WAYS TO CURE EVERYTHING by Lydia Kang and Nate Pedersen