A captivating and exceptionally well-researched account of the Fox sisters rise and fall in the age of Spiritualism.

I was familiar with the basics of the Fox sisters story coming into this, and very familiar with the tenets of Spiritualism. I got a lot out of this as far as Kate and Maggie and the rest of the family went. There wasn’t a lot that was new to me regarding Spiritualism in general, though the information is well-documented and would give a good general idea of the practice and its popularity for anyone new to the topic.

To me, the real value of this is in the specific story of the Fox family. Spiritualism gets a bad name historically, and only recently have we seen smarter and more thorough analysis on its connection to feminism and the fortunes of women in this era. Here we see that first hand in the story of the Fox sisters, who come from a decidedly working class background, and would thus have had few options aside from a pragmatic marriage match in life.

Kate and Maggie ultimately take unconventional paths through life, some of which looks like freedom and some of which looks only like a different sort of cage than the one wrought by an unhappy marriage. The age of the girls when they began “working” as mediums says a lot about how much choice they had in their paths, and about who really benefited from what they were able to do.

I really appreciated the author’s approach to Spiritualism from the perspective of belief. Maggie and Kate were frauds from a factual standpoint, but the ideas behind and results of what they do is far more nuanced than that, and I appreciate the open mindedness of the narrative.

Oh, and bonus if you love gentleman explorers and the polar explorers of this era (raises hand): There’s a big sideline that dives into that in this book too, and as with the rest of the contents of the narrative, it’s fanatically told.

This was such an interesting and unique YA nonfiction. I really enjoyed hearing this history of the Fox sisters and the origins of seances in America. It's wild how big of a social impact they had on their time period but it isn't information about the past most people are aware of. I love that the author was impartial to whether the Fox sisters were legit able to communicate with ghosts or whether it was a hoax--they allowed the reader to draw their own conclusions which I thought was very nice. I'd definitely recommend this book!

I really enjoyed this book. The author chronicles the Fox sisters' lives, being open about what their lives were really about. The research even looks into the history of their beaus. It includes first-hand documents, including one of the sisters admitting what was really going on with their spiritualism.
I loved the narrator. The performance was lovely, and the tone was perfect for the content.

3.5⭐
The true story of the three Civil War-era Fox sisters. After they discovered they could communicate with the dead at a very young age, and after perfecting their craft, they end up being famous well known mediums as they got older. Until media campaigns against the sisters start to gather
Enjoyed this book a lot.

A real-life ghost story for anyone interested in the supernatural, American history, as well as women’s rights.

Thank you NetGalley and RB Media for this ARC in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

This was amazing. Atmospheric, spooky, and suspenseful. The perfect spooky season read! I will definitely be recommending this audiobook to anyone looking for spooky listens this fall.

The Fox sisters, the women who invented be able to talk to the spirits because they were board one night and wanted to scare their mother. It was interesting and sad all at the same time because they were young girls and they accused a man of murder that didn’t do it. Then they went on and made a living of from it. Only to have their lives fall apart when two of the threes sisters told the truth. After that they drank themselves to death.

This book was trying to be told like a story but it was really just a documentary of the three sisters. At some points it was very boring and hard to keep focused on.

I've always been fascinated with the subject of ghosts and spirits. I never shy from saying what I believe if someone were to.ask "do you believe in ghosts?"
The reaction from people today is no big deal. Worse case, they may laugh if you say yes or tell you how their grandmother could speak to spirits if you said no. In the 1600s,1700s, and the 1800s, there was a more dangerous response.  You were sacrilegious, a devil worshiper, or worse, a witch. Any of which could end up with you in prison or dangling at the end of a rope.
The Fox sisters were the first to introduce communication with the departed to the public.  That journey is what the book American Spirits is all about. 
The path these young girls were set on and the live they led, the good and the bad.
I was familiar with these sisters' role in spiritulism but not their story.  This is a well researched book that tells that story with no particular bias.
Believing or not believing is left entirely up to you,  Barb Rosenstock simply presents the evidence as she finds it.
I, for one  moved back and forth between believing in the sisters and rolling my eyes over how gullible  people were back then.  Then laughed at myself because people are still pretty dang gullible today as the news shows.
Anyway, I believe in ghosts. I have seen ghosts in my life, though I have never spoken to one.
As for the Fox sisters? Maybe I do... Maybe I don't.  I keep changing my mind.
It's not an impossible thought.  Can it be proven? I don't think so, but neither can the existence of God, but that doesn't stop people from claiming he speaks.to them and gives instruction.   Show me the scientific proof behind that, please.
The book is excellent and an engaging read.  I would suggest that if you like stories about ghosts and the paranormal, you should know some of the history behind these stories, and behind the large following of spiritualist
Who are the forerunners of today's ghost hunters.
Highly recommended.  American Spirits has been available since April 15, 2025

Thanks to @netgalley and RBMedia/Recorded Books for the opportunity to listen to this eArc in exchange for my honest and unbiased opinion.

I am always hesitant to give feedback on books that I haven't finished, but I feel like this might be worth saying. The narrator, quite unfortunately, is what made this not work for me. The narration is SO DULL. I made it through an hour and half before I had to set it aside, as the plot itself takes a while to get going. In and of itself, that isn't a dealbreaker - "slow burn" pacing definitely can work. However, slow burn pacing combined with a dull narrator makes it so... boring. I just could not focus on it. I might pick this up in print at a later date but sadly the audio wasn't for me.

This was fascinating. I heard some of it in fits and starts before, but it was nice to hear the real version of events, but told in a compelling way. The narrator had a lot to do and she totally nailed it.

I got this as an audio arc on Netgalley and it has since come out. This was very interesting. I'm a nonbeliever who has a big interest in historical stories about mediums and the like. This was narrated by someone I frequently came across as a narrator for ya, and the person really brought the needed emotion. This book wasn't written to dryly and was easy to understand.

This was a super interesting story and important to note that this is a non-fiction. It was really well written that it did not feel like a non-fiction, dry story at all. It definitely caught may attention and kept it. It was confusing at times as it felt like the author was going back and forth about what was true and what wasn't. As I thought more about this book after I finished it, I realized that I actually appreciate that the author never really definitive said what she does and does not believe and really leaves it up to the reader. Were these sisters faking this all these years and manipulated by their older sister? Or is there an element of truth? I guess it all depends what one WANTS to believe, as seances still do happen to this day...make up your own mind!

Thank you, NetGalley and RB Media, for the ALC in exchange for my honest review.

Um... I wish I liked this more than I did. The prose style of the book meshed with the historical facts didn't really hit the same way Gabriel García Márquez's "News of a Kidnapping" did. I had to check a couple of times to see if it was historical fiction or history, and my god... okay, I get it. They were famous for the rapping, which may work in the printed version, but to hear the "rap rap rap" every 5 minutes of the audiobook was driving me crazy.

2.5 sorry...

This was a very interesting read. 3.5 stars rounded up to 4!
I had some knowledge of the Fox sisters through a few YouTube documentaries throughout the years but this went into a lot more detail so I learned quite a bit. I loved the use of some of the writings from the sisters (especially Maggie Fox's letter), as well as the back and forth of how you may feel towards spiritualism/ghosts being "real". I really liked learning more about spiritualism too as the documentaries I watched previously focused more on just the sisters and their activities. Definitely would recommend to anyone interested in ghosts, spiritualism, and biographies in general.

This one was fun, but it was missing something. It wasn’t the story, but also I think it was? Idk how to explpain it. I think I wanted it to be more narrative. For the most part it was too facty for me. I think when the plot started dragging I would have skimmed the ending if I wasn’t reading this for work.

Ok so the number one thing about this that I liked was even though this is non-fiction, I don’t think there’s much in here that gave a “definitive” answer on whether or not this could or did ever happen. To me this is important because it doesn’t knock anyone that might be a believer. There’s another book I read last year that was on the same topic. but very definitively (in less words) said that the whole thing was a hoax.

The romance in this was hella traumatizing tho. Literally all the sisters and their partners were with terrible people. It was crazy. Idk They all had some weird thing happen to their lives and loved ones. I can’t lie, I probably felt the most for Maggie. She was going through it and those people deserved nothing but the worst for how they treated her.

I also learned a lot about this time period and the seances. I had no idea that their services were requested by so many people. like the President’s Wife? I learned a lot from this book and even though I read this for work, I enjoyed this. Definitely gave me something to think about when reading.

I don't typically lean towards nonfiction, but something about the premise of this title really jumped out at me, and I had to give it a try. Honestly, it was a great time. Rosenstock weaves the story well--starting narrowly on the basics, telling it almost like narrative fiction. Soon, we were zooming farther out into the implications of how spiritualism changed society, how it was interwoven with the struggles of the abolitionists fighting to end slavery, and finally pulling all the way back to reveal recollections from the sisters themselves. I was enthralled 90% of this book. There was a little too much about Arctic discovery for my taste, but I do understand why it was there. Overall, if you're looking for nonfiction to recommend to teens, this is a great place to start (especially if they're fans of the paranormal). Also, I'd like to note that this audiobook narrator was phenomenal, and gave their all to the most crucial parts of this tale. Especially her pronunciation of onomatopoeias. Instant goosebumps.

This was a well-written, thought provoking account of the spiritualist movement and, in particular, the Fox sisters, who were celebrities in their own right in the mid- to late-1800s. I loved the way this was laid out, with a chronological account of the Fox sisters’ rise to prominence and the resulting adulation from their believers and the revelations of their trickery in the end. This was easy to follow and written in a way that gets you swept up in the same hype their believers were and the extensive research was evident in this account. The narration was excellent and helped to keep me engrossed in this book. Highly recommended!

This was a good story learning about spiritualism and the history of it and the story of the fox sisters I'm not sure what to believe about Wether or not spirits exist but I do know that sometimes unexplainable things do happen

Thank you to NetGalley and RBmedia for the ALC in exchange for an honest review.

I’m not normally huge on history books but the topic of the Fox sisters has always intrigued me. This book is really well written and feels much more like reading fiction than a history book, though I also feel it kept true to fact and recorded quotes. The take on the “truth” of the sisters is delightfully balanced and pushes for a more subtle theme of “who knows, but it’s fascinating to imagine!” The background provided to set the events in history was good as well though a bit lopsided and more focused on I. The second half of the book. The narrator is fabulous- I can only imagine how tough it is to repeat the ghostly “rap rap rap” as many times as she had to.

a must read for anyone interested in spiritualism and its origin, i thought i’d heard/read everything there was to know about the Fox sisters but i was so wrong. this book captivated me as the Fox sisters captivated their 19th century audiences, it was a fascinating listen. Barb Rosenstock has very clearly poured a lot of time & energy into her research, her care and attention to detail is evident in every chapter

“like many celebrities today, the Fox sisters broke social norms. the séance format they developed, allowed 3 working class, barely educated women to advise higher class, well educated men who never would’ve listened otherwise.” this particular section of the last chapter stuck out to me as it wasn’t something i’d considered about the sisters previously. the way Barb humanizes her subjects really reminded me of how Aaron Mahnke (host of Lore podcast) does the same which is the highest compliment i can give!

The occult finds its way into almost every era and to learn about the rise of spiritualism in the US was a fascinating read. We often hear about these fraudulent psychics of the 19th century with their prior tricks and sleight of hand but we never really learn about who they were as people. Rosenstock researches, not just the seances of the Fox sisters, but their lives as well and how their careers influenced every facet of their lives. This was a deeply human deep dive into the lives of these three spiritualists that treated them with grace and compassion without sugarcoating who they were.