"For history enthusiasts and lovers of folk music and lore...." I really enjoyed this collection of ballads and learning about their origins. The art work is wonderful. It took me a little longer to read than probably should have but after reading about a ballad, I had to listen to its various versions before moving on to the next.

I really enjoyed this book, and will probably invest in a physical copy for the illustrations. I have enjoyed this author/artists Literary Witches deck, and as a fan of murder ballads, folklore, folk horror, & passed-diwn songs, this title was right up my alley. It's an easy read, with enough history to give you the meat of the story, accompanied by a gorgeous illustration of the ballad, and then the song itself. I could easily see this book being a podcast, because I'd love to hear these songs with an audio of the lore. Each chapter is easy to read & then put down, so I enjoyed it over a few evenings. Highly recommend for fans of musical history & folklore.

What a stunning mix of history, folklore, music and tragedy. The folklore and events behind the beautifully written lyrics are about tragic and heartbreaking events but they remain alive and passed down through the generations due to the music and stories shared.

The art work by Katy is so hauntingly gorgeous! Its absolutely mesmerizing to look at the detail in these simple pictures 🥀

There’s a recommendation for addition reading and the known recordings of the ballads at the end of the book 🎶

This was well put together and would be amazing as an audiobook where you could listen to each of the ballads!

Thank you to the author and artist, Katy Horan, publisher Andrews McMeel Publishing and Happily Booked PR for the opportunity to read this book. I received an epub and am leaving my review voluntarily.

This book will be published 4/29/25.

What an interesting concept. I really enjoyed the collection. Each piece really was enjoyable. It's something different.

The illustrations were great but what really made this one stand out for me was how original the idea was. It reminds me of one of those wikipedia-rabbit-hole nights where you become obsessed with a specific topic and wanna know more and more. When we're following one random story, graphic novels tend to get a bit boring for me; this stopped that form happening. Instead of one story that doesn't get enough time to be explores, we get a collection of well researched mini-stories and enough information to never get bored.

This is the kind of book you can get as a gift for a book lover, not having to worry about if maybe they already read/have it, or if it will fit their taste exactly, because as long as they're into creepy stuff, good art or graphic novels, this will be fun and original.

3.5 Murder ballads are something I’ve been fascinated with since I first found out about them. I love seeing a collection of them. I really enjoyed that each ballad is paired with a historical note and an artwork. Although I do feel the informational sections could’ve been better written. Maybe a little more engaging of a voice would draw me in better. However, the artwork was perfect, emotional and dark, I liked it a lot. The ballads themselves are great, and I like the wide variety covered here. .

I loved this! Admittedly anything illustrated gets an extra star in my book, but this one didn’t need it. It was already at five stars! The format kept a quick pace, combined with interesting stories and beautiful art, I read this whole thing in one sitting. I just couldn’t stop!

As posted on Goodreads:

This book is a brilliant combination of history, folklore, lyrics, and beautiful artwork that I absolutely loved. Murder ballads are not something I knew a lot about going into this book, but the concept was intriguing and the book cover is gorgeous - and before I even finished the foreword I was hooked.

I took my time reading through this book, enjoying the artwork and even making a playlist of the songs mentioned (when I could find them), and listening to them from start to finish.

If you, like me, enjoy folklore/folk art, music and true crime (kind of a bizarre combination, but it works), this is a beautiful coffee table book that you’ll actually want to read, and that will spark plenty of interesting conversations.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing an ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review.

I grew up with murder ballads because my grandmother is Irish and my grandfather is English so I've always loved learning the songs and the stories behind them. This was an interesting read. It goes into the history behind the ballads while also providing the lyrics and the artwork is gorgeous.

Ho trovato affascinante il concetto di ‘murder ballads’ (canzoni popolari ispirate a omicidi, reali o immaginari) e al fatto che si siano tramandate spesso per secoli, e talvolta attraversando l’Atlantico, esclusivamente per via orale. Tracciarne le varianti, e risalire quando possibile ai fatti di cronaca che le hanno ispirate dev’essere stato un lavoro immane, come indicare le versioni moderne spesso incise da grossi cantautori di oggi. Sono tutte più che inquietanti, ed è interessante riflettere su come anche oggi canticchiamo spesso testi di cui non percepiamo davvero il significato orrorifico, o come molte filastrocche per bambini (di un tempo, adesso il massimo è Whisky il ragnetto, per fortuna - o purtroppo, io lo detesto 🤣) siano state le testimonianze di fatti di cronaca che avevano avuto un forte impatto.
La cosa più debole sono le illustrazioni dell’autrice, che ho trovato piuttosto mediocri.

I really enjoyed reading about the history of these murder ballads and learning if there was any truth behind the story. I didn’t realize how much history was behind some of these ballads and how long they have been around. This was super interesting topic and a pretty fast read.

Thanks to Andrews McMeel Publishing and Netgalley for the complimentary copy of this book. All opinions in this review are my own.

Beautiful collection of historical ballads. I'm in no way an expert on the genre, but I am an enjoyer of media where music and literature come together. Beyond the beautiful ballads themselves, I loved reading about the historical and sociological context from their earliest iteration to present day interpretations. The book is very accessible to novices, so you can absolutely jump into it with zero previous knowledge.

The highlight for me however were the illustrations. Just like the cover, they are dark, ominous and eerily beautiful, accompanying the texts perfectly and enhancing the atmosphere.

This one is for fans of folklore, music and true crime - an interesting combination for sure.

✨ Disclaimer ✨ I received a free copy of this book and this is my honest review.

Thought provoking analysis on a variety of murder ballads. As an amateur folklorist and a devourer of true crime, it was an enthralling read. Beautiful artwork that really brought the book together as a whole. Highly recommend.

I had high expectations going into this, but unfortunately, it didn’t live up to them. While I appreciate the effort that went into exploring the history of murder ballads, the analysis felt shallow in places. Some interpretations seemed to miss the mark entirely, oversimplifying complex themes or drawing conclusions I didn’t find convincing.

The selection of ballads was also a letdown. A few of the choices didn’t seem to belong in a collection about murder ballads, and better-known or more fitting songs could have taken their place. This left the book feeling incomplete, like it wasn’t quite sure what it wanted to be.

One highlight was the stunning artwork—undoubtedly the book’s strongest feature. The illustrations are beautiful and bring a touch of magic to the pages.

While I didn’t enjoy this as much as I hoped, I can see its appeal for casual readers who want a visually pleasing coffee-table book rather than an in-depth exploration of the topic.

Therefore only 1.5 ⭐.

god why did I think this was going to be about women killing people and getting ballads written that are "good for her" kinda songs? for what it actually was it was ok. anyway someone write this please.

The illustrations in this were a highlight for me. There is a poetic cultural relivence throught the reading that itches for more. There is a lot to consider in review of the information Murder Ballads has offered and Katy Horan has created a space for a lovely piece of history to be locked away for safe keeping.

*The publisher has provided me with an advance readers copy in exchange for an honest review.*

I don't find Horan's analysis of murder ballads as a whole to be entirely convincing (she describes the "murdered sweetheart" genre as being a misogynistic form of victim-blaming; I read it more as a warning passed between women trying to survive in a violent patriarchy) and there are a few ballads in here I would have swapped out for others ("The Unquiet Grave," "The Death of Queen Jane," and "In The Pines" don't really qualify as murder ballads, and their spots could have been taken by songs like "Mary Hamilton," "Matty Groves," or "Tom Dooley.") But ultimately, this is meant to be a coffee-table book, and the illustrations are very pretty.

“Everyone who hears a song and repeats it…also recreates it.” “While early collectors of ballads drew from manuscripts and broadsides, other folklorists wandered through both Europe and America, ‘collecting songs from the actual folk responsible for the folk tradition…such as twentieth-century musicologists John and Alan Lomax.” The movie “Songcatcher” (2000) describes a musicologist’s journey into the most isolated mountains of Appalachia to record and document ancient Scottish-Irish ballads that had been orally passed down for generations.

Katy Horan, illustrator/interdisciplinary artist has meticulously researched the stories behind 20 murder ballads of both “Black America and Renaissance Europe, and songs based in myth as well as tales of real murders…Murder ballads almost always chronicle a transgression, a trust betrayed.”

A murdered sweetheart ballad often describes a killer’s desire to avoid marriage. A woman might be “drowned, battered or murdered by men”. “Delia’s Gone” relates the true murder of a 14 year old Black girl killed by her boyfriend in Savannah, Georgia. In some renditions of the ballad, Delia is described as “worthless” while other balladeers express love and mourn for her.

“The Twa Sisters” is a jealous-lover ballad. Two sisters love the same man. When he chooses the prettier, younger one, the elder sister drowns the other in the river. A passing fiddler discovers the girl’s body and constructs a magic fiddle from her bones and hair. The killer is revealed when the magic fiddle is played.

“Frankie and Johnny” is a song addressing domestic violence. “Frankie was a Black woman who-walk(s) free after killing a dangerous man in self-defense…when Hollywood capitalized the story (Frankie) was ‘erased’ as it was co-opted for entertainment.”

“The Cruel Ship’s Carpenter” describes revenge beyond the grave/spectral revenge. A young girl, promised marriage, was instead lured into the forest, killed and buried in a shallow grave. The culprit fled aboard an ocean going vessel only to see an apparition-the ghost of his beloved and his baby. He confessed! This ballad started as a broadside in London, became a broadside in Boston, later to become prominent in the Maritime Provinces of Eastern Canada. The song title eventually evolved and the song was renamed “Pretty Polly.”

Brought to mind are two murder ballads, not in this read, but for consideration. “The Queen and the Soldier” written and recorded by Suzanne Vega concerns a soldier who knocks on the queen’s door telling her he will not fight for her “fun” anymore. He asks why there must be a battle? She summarily orders his execution. A contemporary murder ballad “Goodbye Earl” is sung by The Chicks. A song of domestic abuse…perhaps her friends will help her dispose of Earl’s body!

Badman ballads arguably written in the “ragtime tradition” have elevated the bad-ass killer to folk hero stature; songs such as “Stagolee” and “Big Bad Leroy Brown”, continue to maintain their popularity.

In 18th Century England “when British ballads were traveling en masse to America…variants occurred when a song’s geography changed as singers personalized the lyrics…lyrics that often shift over the course of a song’s recorded life.” Author Katy Horan’s totally enjoyable read contains a Catalogue of Notable Recordings for each of the 20 Murder Ballads discussed as well as an Extensive Bibliography. The song lyrics and magnificent artwork complete the package!

Highly recommended.

Thank you Andrews McMeel Publishing and Net Galley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Nice little folklore-book about a bunch of different murder ballads. Like the author, my interest for folk music started with a version of The Twa Sisters, although one of the version of the ballad in my native Swedish. Nicely illustrated,

Murder Ballads is a unique book combining beautiful illustrations with the lyrics of classic murder ballads as well as written and researched explanations on the origin stories of each song. The artwork throughout this book is exceptional. Not only the full-sized pieces that act as portraits for each song, but the page details and illustrations filling in-between spaces are perfect. A warning that some of the art is, however, gruesome, as the topic is murder after all.

The book also features lists of notable performances of each song which is very cool. Now that I have read through the book a first time I plan to read it again while listening to the music.

I'd recommend Murder Ballads to those interested in illustration artwork, poetry, music, or music history.