Review: "America the Abandoned" by Brian Sansivero

America the Abandoned by Brian Sansivero
Published October 2025 via Artisan
★★★★★

Oh boy—if you like old houses, this is 100% a book for you. I've been following Sansivero on Instagram for ages, because I'm drawn to images of decay, and that decay is exactly what he documents. And this book, it's a gem: bird nests on mantelpieces, and layers of peeling paint, and mannequins popping up in unexpected places, and houses full to the brim with items that haven't been used since the 1950s, and on it goes.

The book is split between interior and exterior shots, with the former taking up almost the first three quarters of the book. I thought I would like the exterior shots more, but the deeper into the book I got the more the interior photos pulled me in. There's a short line under each photo—sometimes a little bit of context about the person who lived there (either hard-and-fast information or supposition based on the contents of the house), and sometimes a little bit about what Sansivero saw in the shot.

My favourite shots tend to be the ones with mannequins in them (what can I say—I am a sucker for a good mannequin in an unexpected place), but there are also a couple of gorgeous shots of what must have once been a quite nice yellow entryway, and in general a mix of delicacy and decay is always striking. (Many descriptions reference a given house as being one of Sansivero's favourite places to photograph—probably a few too many! But it made me smile to think how much this must be a passion project, if one he's hopefully turning a profit on.) It also surprised me how old so much of this abandonment clearly is. Maybe that's silly, but I guess it just boggles my mind that some of these places have sat abandoned for so many decades without being fully looted (I imagine some things have walked off, of course) and that nobody has claimed them or sold them or...something.

Most of the photos were taken on the East Coast, with a significant minority in the Midwest—I'm curious whether this means there might someday be a follow-up from points farther west.

If this sounds up your alley, I highly recommend it—but absolutely pick a format that allows you to see the pictures in colour and in a large size. (This is not a book to read on your Kindle Paperwhite!) And while you're at it, check out Christopher Payne's Asylum and Elizabeth and Ethan Finkelstein's Cheap Old Houses. And maybe Abandoned America...

Thanks to the author and publisher for providing a review copy through NetGalley.