Books bound in human skin—it’s a gruesome image and one most often tied to legends of occult treatises or murderous keepsakes. But are all of the macabre legends out there really true? How can you tell the difference between leather made from human skin and that made from animals? And, historically, what kind of books have actually gotten this treatment? Megan Rosenbloom, the world’s foremost expert on the subject, explores these questions and more in her book Dark Archives: A Librarian’s Investigation into the Science and History of Books Bound in Human Skin, which came out back in 2020. I don’t breeze through nonfiction books quite the way I do with fiction, but I’ve long appreciated Megan Rosenbloom’s work with the Order of the Good Death and I can never resist a good book about the history of books. Though it took me a while to get around to it, I found Dark Archives to be fascinating, informative, and definitely worth the read! Continue reading Review of Dark Archives—Macabre Nonfiction