I usually avoid war tales, but I made an exception because I'll read anything Katherine Arden writes.

The Warm Hands of Ghosts is a story told from two perspectives: Laura Iven, a decorated war nurse, and Wilfred "Freddie" Iven, her brother and a Canadian soldier fighting in WWI. The storyline takes place during 1917-1918 and heavily emphasizes the battle of Passchendaele in Flanders (Belgium).

Laura receives the news on what seems to be the passing of Freddie, but something is not sitting well with her, and after a couple of incidents, she decides to go back to Belgium to find out what happened to Freddie. In the meantime, Freddie, who has gone through a traumatic experience on the battlefield, is faced with life-altering challenges and must make decisions that could have long-lasting effects.

The Warm Hands of Ghosts is not just a war tale; it also has supernatural elements that add to the horror of war and provide those on the battlefield with opportunities to escape, if only for a price. The ghosts in the story are not just spooky apparitions but also a representation of the trauma and suffering the characters are experiencing. The ghosts offer a way out for some of the characters, but it comes at a cost, and the consequences of their decisions are not always apparent.

This tale is undeniably a dark story about a dark subject, but it's not all doom and gloom. Despite the heavy emphasis on the horrors of war, elements of hope and healing still shine through. The story shows how love can motivate people to do things that are out of character and how it can give them the strength to endure in the face of unimaginable hardship. The characters in the story are not perfect and make mistakes, but they are all driven by a desire to find a way to heal and move forward. Ultimately, it's a story about the resilience of the human spirit and the power of love to overcome even the darkest circumstances.

One of the only criticisms I have of The Warm Hands of Ghosts is that I would have liked more development of the personal relationships towards the end. However, I understand that a book can only go so long before it loses momentum. Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed this book and highly recommend it to anyone who enjoys historical fiction with a supernatural twist.


Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC of this title in exchange for an honest review.

The Warm Hands of Ghosts is a slow-burn, literary fantasy set in WWI about a brother and sister determined to find one another through the terror and confusion of war. Though challenging, at times, it's a thought-provoking story that is full of heart. There are strong themes of grief and loss, but also of friendship and hope. If you enjoyed Divine Rivals but wanted a richer setting, more fantasy, and less romance, this book might be for you.

The Warm Hands of Ghosts was a very slow start for me but I'm so glad I stuck with it. I almost abandoned it but kept reminding myself how much I enjoyed other works by Katherine Arden. Around 40% it really picked up, but what made it slow in the beginning for me persisted throughout the whole book: I didn't feel a connection with Laura. So we get all this back story about Laura and her brother Freddie but it doesn't mean much, I'm not very invested in their story in the beginning. After we learn quite a bit about them and interesting things start to happen, I can't say I am 100% invested in them them but enough to be curious to know what happens to them.
This book is great. It's a unique story with a hint of magical realism and I really liked the dual timelines that eventually meet. It provokes reflection on the story and I think it would be a great one to discuss in a book club.
I was given a copy via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you Del Ray!

I really enjoyed Katherine Arden's The Bear and the Nightingale trilogy so I was very excited to read her newest novel. Oh my gosh! I was blown away. I read it in 3 days, and when I wasnt reading it- I was thinking about it. This is a beautifully written story about love, honor, fear, family bonds, and war. At the center is a wounded ( mentally and physically) WWI nurse, Laura, who goes back to the front in search of her younger brother, a soldier who was supposedly killed in battle. Arden describes despair, love, and hope so perfectly through her characters actions and words. While this could have just been a war novel, she deftly writes an undercurring storyline about a ghost-like figure who can give you your most desired wish but you must always pay him back in kind. Is he the devil? By mixing historical fiction with supernatural, Arden has given us a gift of a story.

First let me say: this book is about the Great War. There is a lot of war and death and darkness here which I was not expecting, but it was so well-written I was captivated. This book had me researching pillboxes and WWI nursing uniforms and the Halifax explosion (which did really happen and I did not know about!). I love a book that has be wrapped up in the plot, in the characters, AND the setting (which, in this case, was actual history). I know not everyone "likes" historical fiction, and war stories aren't for everyone, but we cannot forget the sacrifices of our past and the reason so many women and men risked or lost their lives. I absolutely plan to buy multiple editions of this book and read it again and highlight/annotate/tab the crap out of it...in the meantime though, I am going to read something a bit lighter and happier (because I am blessed with the freedom to do so).

The Warm Hands of Ghosts sounded so intriguing when I picked it up, and I honestly thought I would love it. A historical fiction around WWI, a touch of paranormal, strong characters - the set up was perfect. I have been thinking about this book for a couple days now, and I'm not 100% sure why it fell flat for me. Overall, it felt somewhat long, and I found it hard to completely connect with the characters. The setting being wartime was a dreary backdrop, but the characters did not shine through like I expected. Perhaps my expectations were too high, but this book was average. That said, I have been thinking about it for a couple of days, so I did enjoy it.

The nitty-gritty: A gruesome war story with surreal, ghostly elements, The Warm Hands of Ghosts is an emotional tale of a brother and sister during WWI.

I rarely read stories that take place during wartime—at least real wars, not fantasy or science fiction wars—so I was not prepared for the level of emotions I experienced while reading The Warm Hands of Ghosts, which takes place in 1917-1918 during World War I. Katherine Arden states in her author’s notes that she spent years working on this book, trying to get everything just right, and all that research and time paid off. I felt like I was in the trenches myself, living the horrors of war first hand. This is an immersive, emotional story that offers up moments of brightness despite the heavy subject matter, and I’m so glad I had the chance to read it.

In dual timelines, we are introduced to two main characters, sister and brother Laura and Freddie Iven. Both are serving in the war: Freddie has enlisted and ends up fighting at Passchendaele Ridge in Belgium, but word is he died during an attack. Laura is a field nurse but was badly injured when her hospital at Brandhoek was attacked and destroyed. After being discharged for her injury, Laura is back in Halifax recovering with friends, when she receives word of Freddie’s demise. Someone has sent her a package containing Freddie’s military jacket and tags, but the accompanying note is vague and doesn’t explain what happened to him.

A strange experience during a seance at her hosts’ home—a Ouija board sends a message that Freddie is actually alive—convinces Laura to return to Belgium to find her brother. Laura joins Mary Borden, who owns a field hospital in Flanders, and Pim Shaw, a distraught woman whose son Jimmy has died in the war, and together the three women make the transatlantic journey to help in Mary’s hospital.

In alternating chapters we follow Freddie, who has been trapped in a pillbox with an injured German soldier. With no way out except to work together, Freddie and the German, Hans Winter, form an unusual alliance in order to survive.

And in both timelines, a mysterious man named Faland bargains for stories and memories, turning them into haunting melodies on his violin. Faland will show you your heart’s desire, but his price is steep. Laura and Freddie both encounter Faland as they desperately try to find each other and survive the war.

This is a complex tale that weaves back and forth between Laura and Freddie, as their stories gradually come together, although it takes many detours along the way. It’s the relationships that keep the story going, as we follow Laura and Freddie, who are both trying to find each other (and neither one knows for sure that the other is alive). Then there’s Pim, who can barely go on without her son Jimmy and is driven to do unthinkable things in order to make peace with his death. 

My favorite relationship, though, was the one between Freddie and Winter, two men on opposite sides of the war who decide to keep each other alive and risk being branded as fugitives. Their story was so emotional and harrowing, as Arden describes their time in the pillbox, finally escaping, and then making a long journey by foot, both of them weak and injured, to find Laura, who Freddie is convinced with help them.

At the center of all this drama is Faland, a man who may or may not be the devil, and might not even be real. Some of my favorite scenes were set in Faland’s bar and hotel, where he lures desperate people with false promises, and then steals from them. It was so hard watching Freddie and Pim especially agree to Faland’s terms and then find themselves trapped with no way out. Faland and his horrible violin (you’ll understand when you read the story) seem to be a metaphor for the war itself, and I thought adding this weird, supernatural element was a brilliant idea.

And as you might guess from the title, the story is also populated by ghosts, both real and imagined. Laura sees her dead mother everywhere she goes (the way she died is horrifying, and I won’t reveal it here), and other characters claim to see dead loved ones as well. Despite the awful setting, Arden’s prose has a dreamy, magical quality to it that makes you wonder what is real and what isn’t. 

Arden does a great job of dropping other real life events into her story, like the famous Halifax explosion of 1917, as well as some medical advances during the time, which I found fascinating. She even includes mentions of the Titanic disaster of 1911, which seven years later is still fresh in people’s minds. The specifics of war in the trenches are painfully described, and as hard as it was to read at times, I have to applaud the author for pulling off such an immersive reading experience. And do make sure to read her author’s note at the end, in which she explains her themes and inspirations.

My only hesitation in giving this a full five stars is the way it ended. Arden gives readers an almost perfect happy ending, perhaps as an antidote to all the suffering the characters went through. But I wonder if the story would have had even more impact on me with a more open ended, not so neatly tied up finale. Still, I’m so happy this was my first Katherine Arden book, and it certainly won’t be my last.

Big thanks to the publisher for providing a review copy.

Katherine Arden is a favourite author of mine, and while the Great War isn’t a setting I usually enjoy I had faith that Arden would be able to make me forget that. I’m very pleased to report that it was the perfect setting for this story and I take back my reservations about the setting and time period.

This is by far the darkest of Arden’s books that I’ve read. Usually my issue with historical fiction/fantasy set in the World Wars is the inevitable romanticisation of the war and what people went through on the front lines. Arden instead shows the darker side, the people who didn’t want to fight, the ends people went to just to be able to survive, and the absolute horrors that those on the front lines faced. I found my heart breaking as I read The Warm Hands of Ghosts and I felt true horror at so much of what Arden shows.

Following brother and sister, Freddie and Laura, as they both search for each other after Freddie is believed dead on the front line. Freddie’s story is set slightly earlier than Laura’s but eventually the timelines start to merge and get closer to each other. It’s masterful storytelling as it feels like you experience some events twice, and it makes them twice as devastating as you see events from both perspectives. Going in blind is the absolute best way to experience this book, so I don’t want to spoil any more.

There’s a mysterious hotelier who drives the fantastical part of this story. You never quite know who he is or why he can do what he does. But there’s enough hints within the book that you reach your own conclusions by the end. While he’s supposed to be the antagonist of the story, and while I do think it is a necessary and great part of the narrative, I still think the Great War itself is the true horror hidden within the pages. The hotelier helps mix in the fantastical with the brutal realities of the setting, while keeping the darkness of the real world.

Go in blind and expect to feel the horror in The Warm Hands of Ghosts. It’s Arden’s darkest work and my new favourite of hers.

3.5 stars

1918, Laura a combat nurse who served in Belgium is back in Canada after being injured. Her parents just died in an explosion when she receives a package with her brother Freddie’s belongings. He is her last surviving family member. She must find out what happened to him.

The book really picked up for me at around the 45% mark. Then I was like oohh I’m interested. Before that it was a slug to get through.

Arden carries a metaphor of how war tears men apart memory by memory until they are shells of themselves - ghosts - burdened and wanting. She used Laura’s brother Freddie and a little magical realism to paint a picture we’ll never truly understand having never been in war ourselves.

The love the character of Jones. He was like this force that kept breaking Laura out of the magical spell Faland cast. I actually laughed at one point because he just shows up, says “what the hell?”, and brings Laura back to reality. The Americanism of him is so apparent.

The relationship between Winter and Freddie was beautiful until it took a turn. I don’t think that was necessary. Why can’t two people rely on each other and love each other platonically?

This is a lovely story about WW1 and the loss of self set in a fantasy setting. It is a little strange but the characters are fascinating. We alternate POV between a brother and a sister not realizing the timelines are not the same. The relationships really pull you in along with the darkness of the forbidden zone. Still thinking about this book days later

I enjoyed this book so so much! The imagery and detail and just overall atmosphere of this book is phenomenal. I have not read many historical fictions books because they tend to bore me but this one was great. The twists and turns were honestly shocking to me. 10/10 recommend.

Title: The Warm Hands of Ghosts
Author: Katherine Arden
Genre: Historical fiction, fantasy
Rating: 4 out of 5

January 1918. Laura Iven was a revered field nurse until she was wounded and discharged from the medical corps, leaving behind a brother still fighting in Flanders. Now home in Halifax, Canada, she receives word of Freddie’s death in combat, along with his personal effects—but something doesn’t make sense. Determined to uncover the truth, Laura returns to Belgium as a volunteer at a private hospital. Soon after arriving, she hears whispers about haunted trenches, and a strange hotelier whose wine gives soldiers the gift of oblivion. Could Freddie have escaped the battlefield, only to fall prey to something—or someone—else?

November 1917. Freddie Iven awakens after an explosion to find himself trapped in an overturned pillbox with a wounded enemy soldier, a German by the name of Hans Winter. Against all odds, the two men form an alliance and succeed in clawing their way out. Unable to bear the thought of returning to the killing fields, especially on opposite sides, they take refuge with a mysterious man who seems to have the power to make the hellscape of the trenches disappear.

As shells rain down on Flanders, and ghosts move among those yet living, Laura’s and Freddie’s deepest traumas are reawakened. Now they must decide whether their world is worth salvaging—or better left behind entirely.

I wanted to read this based solely on the author, as her The Winternight trilogy was phenomenal! The writing in this one was superb, but I found the book to be a bit odd. It felt sort of like a fever dream: vivid yet hazy. I loved Laura and her storyline kept me riveted (second time recently I’ve come across the Halifax explosion tragedy in my reading). Freddie’s story was also interesting, but it felt very hazy and out-of-focus to me. That being said, I do recommend this one---if you’re okay with not getting an explanation for everything in a story/

Katherine Arden is a bestselling author. The Warm Hands of Ghosts is her newest novel.

(Galley courtesy of Random House Ballantine/Del Rey in exchange for an honest review.)

ARC REVIEW
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Thanks to @netgalley for this eARC!
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Unfortunately, I have no praises to sing for this book. I actually DNF’d at like 89% or something like that because I was just skimming the pages to finish and finally just told myself to be done and not torture myself if I wasn’t enjoying it.
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Overall, the book had the makings of a really good plot. As a fan on historical fiction, I was excited to see that the story took place during WWI between a sister (Laura) who was a nurse during the war and her brother (Wilfred/Freddie) that is a soldier. After being wounded after an attack on the hospital, Laura is sent home. She later receives Freddie’s personal items and both dog tags with a letter that he is missing, presumed dead. After a few other points in the story, Laura ultimately, deep down, doesn’t believe her brother is dead and decides to go back to the war to try and find out what happened to him.
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Laura’s character felt so flat and dull. This was dual POV between her and Freddie and I was always looking forward to his POV just in the fact that it was more interesting. Freddie had a more interesting POV but at some point, he didn’t really add anything to spur the story along. His story turned stagnant and boring. The one part of his POV that was pretty interesting wasn’t explored at all, at least to the point where I gave up.
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Without getting into the plot, I ultimately decided to DNF because I just didn’t care about the characters, what was going to happen to them, or any of the side characters. Plain and simple.
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I think this story had potential but just ended up falling flat for me. I think there is an audience that could enjoy this, but it wasn’t for me. I don’t usually rate DNFs but will give it a 1.5 ⭐️ for potential.
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#arcreview #bookstagram #thewarmhandsofghosts #netgalley #historicalfiction #magic #WWI #war #readersofinstagram #reader

Historical Fantasy is becoming one of my new favorite genres and The Warm Hands of Ghosts was a a beautiful novel in itself. It's such a unique, sad and in depth story. An extra plus... The cover is stunning too!

I don't even know where to start with this. It's good; it's very good. It took me a week which isn't a huge chunk of time but is for me in the scheme of reading time. This book is just a lot to take in topic-wise and it's definitely one of those where you can't skim parts; every word is necessary. If you've read the Winternight trilogy, I feel like that tracks - as much as that series feels like a fairytale, you miss things if you don't focus and actually read it word for word.

The Warm Hands of Ghosts is, at its core, historical fiction. Set during World War I, you can tell Arden went through a lot of research and really cares for her subject. It opens with a huge Canadian tragedy that I'd never heard of which I promptly then had to Google and read more about. It's pretty heavy stuff but then we get right into the War.

Freddie's chapters, especially at the beginning, were so fascinating to read and were about as descriptive of the horrors of war as one can get without actually being there. Unfortunately, Freddie's chapters just weren't consistent. Once he meets the mysterious Faland, his story became a little stagnant.

It’s balanced nicely, though, with Laura who was an excellent MC and, honestly, the story is meant to be seen through her eyes and experiences. Through her, we get more of the political and social aspects of that period - the discrepancy between the "haves" and the "have nots,” women vs. men and women vs. women in a wartime setting. You experience more of the on-hand war experiences through Freddie's eyes but more of the “homefront” through Laura.

Weaving throughout is a magical and mysterious being and their actions that only serves to heighten what is already a tense situation. I, honestly, didn’t love this part of the book. It was fine but the story was so intriguing on its own without it.

Thank you so much to Netgalley for the providing me with an ARC of The Warm Hands of Ghosts. I was really looking forward to reading this and it didn't disappoint at all!

While I have read and adore her Small Spaces quartet for middle grade readers I’ve yet to read the Winternight trilogy though I’ve had them, ready to go, on my kindle for years. So The Warm Hands of Ghosts is my first book for adults that I have read. I loved it. It is part historical fiction and part literary fiction with a touch of the supernatural. It is about the lengths one sibling will go to find her only remaining family, and the lengths one man will go to escape the horrors of war…straight into a Devil’s (The Devil? Your decision) arms.

The authors note at the end and also the authors note to readers on Goodreads (read them both) explain how hard this book was to write for her as well as how America views WW1. History class was long ago for me but I definitely remember learning how different our world today would be without both the deaths from the war and the Spanish Flu. I can also see how submarines, airplanes, machine guns, bombs, etc would make the main characters mother think the Apocalypse was coming, how different that war was then anything the world had seen. Ms Arden did an excellent job describing the brutality and horror of trench warfare in a short number of pages. With her descriptions it’s easy to see how a Devil could thrive there and have an easy time getting men’s souls.

I’ll recommend this book to anyone who loves books about characters you grow to care for in a staggeringly vivid war environment with a touch of the supernatural in a few ghosts and a demon in the story. Pretty sure this will be one of my favorites for 2024.

Thanks to the publisher and author for the e-arc I received via NetGalley in exchange for my honest opinion.

This book was so unique and so brilliantly written. I loved both POVs and the storytelling was *chef’s kiss*. I don’t want to give away the plot so just trust me that this book is worth reading

I loved Katherine Arden’s Winternight trilogy. I still think of that series often and want to reread it. So I was really excited to get an ARC of her newest novel - The Warm Hands of Ghosts. Unfortunately, by far the best part of this novel is the Author’s note at the back. The book itself failed to move me. I did not care about the characters. The horrors of WWI the way Arden described them did not have the intended impact on me. In fact, I was bored most of the time while reading this book and really struggled to get through it. I took me 12 days reading every single day to finish this 325 page novel - it was truly a slog! So unfortunately 1 out of 5 stars. Not for me. Oh and was Faland inspired by Bulgakov’s Voland? I couldn’t help but notice the similarities of names

This was a delicious read!

For all my girls out there who are WWI buffs, this will be right up your alley. The story focuses on a brother and sister who have experienced everything that this war has to offer from different perspectives. Laura has been a combat nurse right on the frontlines of the war. She was sent home after a horrible injury that has left her with a limp and grotesquely scarred hands. While back in Canada, a ship explodes and seems to bring the feelings of war back to a once safe place. She loses both parents in the aftermath of the explosion and winds up in the home of three older women who hold seances. There she encounters Pim, a widow and mother of a fallen soldier. She also receives a box containing her brother's uniform, so it's assumed he was KIA. Laura and Pim become fast friends, and before you know it they find themselves back overseas in the thick of things. Mary runs a hospital and Belgium and invites Laura to work there where she can try to find out more about her brother's demise.

Freddie, Laura's brother, is at the front and deep in the machine of war. He exists only within the confines of mud, rain, and violence. After an explosion, he is trapped underground with a German solider. There you can feel the emotions coursing through him, fear, an embrace of death, and a tenuous allyship with Winter, the German soldier. From there you read their journey to escape and see Freddie slowly lose his mind.

In the midst of their stories, there is a connecting force- the Fiddler. A mysterious figure who plays haunting melodies on his violin and hosts legendary parties close to the Front. Those who go into his parties lose themselves in the revels, and come out with little clear memory of what happened. He has cast a kind of spell amongst those who visit, one where they long to return and forget the horrors of war. At times it's hard to distinguish between reality and fevered imaginings of those who have seen the most horrible parts of humanity. It makes for quite an interesting read. It reminds me lightly of the Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern, a personal favorite. I love that you can't quite tell what's real, and what's the product of a broken mind and spirit.

I would recommend this to anyone who loves an atmospheric story with deep historical roots. The stories of Laura and Freddie were beautifully intertwined, and I loved getting to see their journeys to reunite.

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House for an advanced copy of The Warm Hands of Ghosts in exchange for an honest review.

While I have not read the Winternight trilogy by Katherine Arden, I was very interested in The Warm Hands of Ghosts and I was not disappointed. I'd give this novel 4.5 out of 5 stars. Arden captures not only the horrors of trench warfare, but also the dutiful heroism of medical staff and civilians who risked their lives to provide aid to the soldiers amidst the brutalities of World War I. The novel also brought to light the Halifax Harbor explosion of 1917, a devastating event that, as an American (what we don't know about Canada is as vast as the country itself), I had never heard about. Arden does not shy away from the gruesome, but her writing also focuses on the dreamlike experiences of her characters' brush with the supernatural. Each character felt fully realized and well developed, sympathetic even if they were sometimes villainous.

The Warm Hands of Ghosts would appeal to anyone interested in WWI fiction, the supernatural, romance, dual narration, forthright characters, magic, and medicine. Laura was an incredibly believable and likeable heroine, and Freddie shows us the dark sides of our desires and fears. Overall, this is an engaging novel that, for all its dark moments, reminds us not to give up hope for a better world.