Absolutely beautiful. Time slipped away while I was reading it and I loved it all. "The hands of ghosts are warm" is something I never thought about but how true it is.

This book took me by surprise, I’m not really a big historical fiction reader but this sounded so good so I had to give it a shot and surprisingly I loved it!

I read this book in a single day. I couldn’t put it down, I was so invested in these characters and their stories.

Overall, a wonderfully haunting story that makes me want to pick up more of this authors works.

Well, drat. This isn’t the review I wanted to be writing for this book.

I loved Katherine Arden’s Bear and the Nightingale trilogy and also greatly enjoyed the first book in the Small Spaces series. I’m bummed and surprised to report that this book did very little for me.

Arden’s writing is as lovely as ever, which of course goes a long way toward making an otherwise unappealing story more readable. It just wasn’t enough to save this one, even if it allows for moments of appreciation for the author’s talents.

I understand from the author’s note what Arden was attempting to do here, but I’m not sure it was a successful endeavor. This is mostly a horrors of war novel, which isn’t exactly rare, and the magical element feels like both an afterthought and a disappointment. Though there were flashes of potential (particularly early in the story when we first encounter our mysterious stranger), the magic lacks both the originality and the sparkly, evocative quality that has made Arden’s other work such a delight to read.

I’ll continue to eagerly await new offerings from Arden, who I suspect has many more good books in her. But I recommend skipping this one.

What is it about?

Laura Iven is a nurse injured in WWI. Shortly after losing her parents in an explosion she gets news that her brother has died on the front. The 3 little ladies that she is staying with tell her that isn’t true and she needs to go back and find him.

Meanwhile, you hear her brother’s story.
Told kind of like a Christopher Nolan movie, the time lines happen at different paces until they finally merge together near the climax.

Was it good?
Yes! Freddie’s time line jumps right in with on the edge of your seat tension. His story is like a bad nightmare that is told so beautifully you can picture it.

Laura’s point of view is a little slower and more thoughtful. She’s resistant to the mystical elements in her life, but she’s willing to do anything to find her brother.

The story has so many thought provoking parts and pieces. I had many interesting conversations with my people about similar hypothetical situations.

I strongly recommend this book for fans of historical fiction, ghosts, devils, war, or Katherine Arden

I left my review on Story Graph, Goodreads, and Amazon.

All I can say is that this book is a monster book!!!
And by that, I mean, it has the author’s soul all over it. Have you ever read a book that you knew was incredibly considered and meant so much to the author. For instance, many authors, arguably most, would say that they put their blood, sweat, and tears into their project, and you might believe them based on the sheer challenge of writing anything for any length of time. In Ghosts, you feel the impact of the writer’s care in every word, the punctuation, and every decision.
The flow of the book was like riding a gentle wave toward shore where you know you’re safe, moving toward the shore at a precise speed that will effortlessly land you in exactly the place you cared to end up the whole time. That is my experience with this book. Such a work of art, and what a story and oh my I will rave on.
My absolute favourite in a very, very long time.
Maybe I’m just in the mood for this type of novel set in this time and these places, with these characters, what can I say, it just worked for me on all levels and I think it’s going to work for a lot of people.

Thanks to netgalley or providing me with this ARC!

The Warm Hands of Ghosts is a book that changed something foundational in my brain, in how I see the world. Katherine Arden's stories of Laura and Freddie and Winter and Pim showed the inhumanity of war and the uncertainty of a changing world in clear, relatable, horrifying ways.

This book was violent and scary and beautiful and intelligent and amazing. I finished it in two days because I could not put it down. I'm torn between wanting to write paragraph after paragraph of praise and wanting to tell you just to go read the book. Do it. Let it live in your brain and illuminate how you look at humanity.

Thank you to NetGalley, Katherine Arden, and Del Rey for the ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review!

Book Name: The Warm Hands of Ghosts
Author: Katherine Arden

ARC
Thank you to Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine, Del Rey and NetGalley for an ARC of The Warm Hands of Ghosts by Katherine Arden

Stars: 1
Spice: 0

Historical Fantasy
“Gothic”

Thoughts
- PTSD
- Graphic Depictions of Injury
- Horror > Gothic
- “Unreliable Narrator Vibes”

Darker and far more depressing than expected and the opening was mildly confusing. The descriptions of violence were just gratuitous, since Laura, out FMC, was unable to do process it due to her PTSD. The Gothic “vibes” of this felt more in line with a typical horror movie than a gothic crimson peak. (Hopefully that makes sense.) The exploration of PTSD would have been interesting but it just felt depressing. Overall this book just wasn't what I expected and therefore wasn't the best read for me.

Due to the Negative Nature of this review, I will not be posting it to Goodreads or retail sites with respect to the publisher and author.

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC! "The Warm Hands of Ghosts" by Katherine Arden is a gripping and haunting tale set amidst the backdrop of World War I, following the poignant journey of Laura Iven, a combat nurse searching for her missing brother amidst the chaos of war. Arden's vivid prose immerses readers in the stark realities of the battlefield, where hope dwindles and desperation reigns supreme. Interwoven with Laura's story is the gripping narrative of her brother Freddie, trapped in a life-or-death struggle with a German soldier. Through their harrowing experiences, Arden explores themes of loss, resilience, and the enduring bond of family amidst the turmoil of war. "The Warm Hands of Ghosts" is a powerful and evocative portrayal of the human spirit in the face of adversity, leaving a lasting impact on the reader's heart and mind.

Here's the thing: I think I really struggle with historical fiction. This wasn't solely historical fiction; it definitely had a fantasy/folklore aspect to it, but I would say the primary genre was historical fiction (perhaps alternative history?). The whole first half of this book, I kept wanting to love it, but just really struggled to feel engaged. However, the second half of the book definitely did sell me on how smart and beautiful of a book this is!! I'm really glad that I stuck with it.

Katherine Arden is a fantastic writer and I was frequently in awe of her way with words. Freddie's journey in the book was truly something special. The symbolism in his journey of losing himself in his war experiences and then needing to work so hard to find a way back to himself felt like a profound illustration of a veteran with PTSD. I also felt the concept of how our stories (positive or negative) are the things that create our sense of self was so powerful.

I was also really taken in by the author's note at the end of the book; I love to hear how and why a book was created. This was outside of my comfort zone but I am so glad that I read it!

(This review was posted on my Instagram account on 2/15/2024).

A haunting, tragic story of war and unconditional love, this book easily became a 5-Star read. Whether its wartime Halifax or an unknown French battlefield, Arden does an incredible job transporting us there, and we're experiencing the story as if we're right alongside the characters. Our main characters have their own voices, and complex emotions are rarely portrayed as well as they are in this story.
Laura is a complicated heroine, which is really refreshing after reading so many historical fictions about saintlike women. She feels she is an unlikable woman, but we see that though she is stern and sometimes reckless, she is very compassionate, determined, and able to overcome her biggest fears for those she loves, especially her brother.
Freddie, while young and inexperienced in the world, provides such a sense of hope that makes it impossible to not root for him in every arena. He is clever and naive and optimistic and worrisome all at once, providing a well-rounded look at a young man's coming-of-age in a war torn world.
This story gives brilliant accounts of overcoming loss, living with PTSD, finding hope in the darkest of times, and so much more, while seamlessly incorporating the paranormal aspect that is often associated with war.
I received an advanced reader copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.

I loved everything about this book, from the detailed history and setting (World War I Belgium and Halifax, Canada) to its beautiful but haunting story. It was the perfect blend of historical fiction and fantasy. I was already a big fan of Katherine Arden’s Winternight trilogy, but this book is very different from her other ones, and apparently it’s a book that took her a long time to write. It’s worth the wait.

In 1918, Laura is a war nurse who’s been discharged with a leg injury. She arrives home to Halifax when a ship (the SS Mont-Blanc) explodes in the harbor. The ship was full of high explosives and the explosion killed nearly 1,800 people, and blowing out a large sector of buildings in Halifax. Laura loses both of her parents in the tragedy. Then, weeks later, she receives a box with the uniform and dog tags of her brother Freddie, but no explanation of what happened to him. Not knowing if he’s dead or alive, she returns to the front, determined to find out.

We get both Freddie’s and Laura’s perspectives in this story, only Freddie’s story begins a few months earlier, in the Battle of Passchendaele. As their stories converge, both Freddie and Laura hear about a mysterious man known as “the fiddler”. The soldiers say that once you’ve entered his bar, drank his liquor and heard his music, you’ll never want to leave, and you’ll spend the rest of your life trying to get back. Of course, amidst the horrors of war, this is only one more strange story going around, and it seems pretty understandable that the soldiers would want to be anywhere other than where they are.

Laura and Freddie are great characters, as are the friends they make in their journeys. Laura is so strong and determined, but she’s also haunted by the memory of her mother’s death, who was alone in their house in Halifax’s harbor. She also struggles with her physical injuries from the war, including scarred hands from nerve gas. Freddie is haunted by the things he’s done in the war. As Arden tells the story, it seems like basic right and wrong gets turned around in war, where you’re forced to kill innocent people, betray friends, and fleeing means you’ll get shot by a firing squad.

I won’t tell you more about the story. I loved the vivid, atmospheric writing and the way the fantastic elements just blended seamlessly with the history (war is already such a strange, unimaginable environment). It reminded me at times of the first Wonder Woman movie, the way it was horrific and beautiful at the same time. I also loved the way Arden slowly builds the relationships that Freddie and Laura develop over the course of the story.

The book is named for a World War I memoir, Ghosts Have Warm Hands, by Will R. Bird, a soldier in Canada’s Black Watch from 1916-1919. In this memoir Bird describes several experiences where he was guided to safety by the ghost of his brother, who died early in the war.

I want to share what Arden says about this book on Goodreads:

Ghosts is a book about love and loss, how the world ends, and how it goes on. It’s about the nature of evil and the shape of hell, and about war. I started it in 2019, and here it is coming out in 2024, when young men are fighting in trenches in Europe once again. Perhaps enjoy is the wrong word for the book I spent a long time calling the Fiend. But I hope it haunts you, as it has haunted me.

Katherine Arden
Note: I received an advanced review copy from NetGalley and publisher Del Rey. This book published February 13, 2024.

I tend to be a rather quick reader but occasionally I run across a novel that demands that I slow down to savor it. THE WARM HANDS OF GHOSTS was exactly such a read. I took my time learning the characters and the time period as I have always avoided books set during the World Wars yet I feel I need to read it a few more times to be able to comprehend it all.

THE WARM HANDS OF GHOSTS is set mostly in Europe during the Great War and follows Canadian combat nurse Laura Iven as she searches for her younger brother, Freddie, who was lost and presumed dead. Laura comes across strange clues that all is not as it appears. She is joined by Pim Shaw who lost both husband and son as well as Mary Bradley who run a civilian hospital in Belgium.

I think what really drew me into this story was the pure grittiness of the story as Ms Arden doesn’t pull any punches about what a hellhole the trenches were. She shows us men being trapped and drowning in them after a bomb collapses the walls. She shows how people will do almost anything to escape the horrors including trading away pieces of their souls. After reading this book, I definitely appreciate the men and women who fought for our freedom even more.

I doubt I would haven given this book a chance if it wasn’t for the author who I already followed because of her excellent writing so I do I highly recommend this book even if you tend to skip books set during wars. I also feel that readers who enjoy their history seasoned with a touch of fantasy will really enjoy this novel.

I was given this book at no charge by NetGalley in exchange for a fair review.

I have never read any other books by Katherine Arden, and while I do own both the Winternight and middle grade series by her, I've yet to pick them up. So when I saw a standalone available to read, I jumped at the chance.

I think my favorite part of the book was the writing. While I am not the biggest historical reader, I don't think the fantasy elements were done all that well (mostly just not enough time or explanation), and there were definitely pacing issues, but the writing itself added a certain whimsy and at time darkness, to the story that I could really appreciate. I will say however, that the transitions between characters and sentences at times was quite harsh and abrupt. It took me out of the story many times since I constantly had to go back and reread to see what happened.

I enjoyed Freddie's chapters the most because there was more emotion there and he actually felt like a real person. Whereas Laura felt like both Mary and Pim. None of them had distinct voices, and while Pim was the only one with a slight personality difference, any of the three women could have been interchangeable. Freddie's chapters had grit and trials and he struggled. On the other hand, Laura had answers for everything and from one chapter to the next most of her problems were solved. I could have liked the whole sibling dynamic a lot more if Laura just wasn't one of the siblings. She was so self righteous and thinks she's so smart and important. She acted like her purpose was better than everyone else's and that even those who were in fact NOT inferior to her, knew less than her. It was annoying and made me enjoy her chapters a lot less, which was unfortunate since most of the book is told from her POV.

I also think that both romances were rushed and didn't add anything to the story. These would have both been great friendships, and just throwing romance in there so undeveloped didn't make me believe it was anything other than a trauma bond. It should have been left out because two of the characters in particular stood well enough on their own and made the story tragic enough without adding in some random kissing.

Maybe it's just because I don't read a lot of historical fantasy or fiction to begin with, but I did have a relatively good time with this. I found it to be a quick read in spite of disliking most of one characters chapters. I wish the fantasy element was better explained and played a bigger part in the story because it felt unique and interesting. I will definitely pick up her other books since I have heard a lot of good things about the Winternight series. I am rounding up to a four star for the purpose of this review, but I think this was more of a 3.5

Katherine Arden had me hooked right away with this story of World War I nurse Laura Iven and her brother. Growing up in Halifax, their mother was very religious and made sure they knew the end would come at some point. Like most kids, they didn’t pay much attention to her until the Great War came to their doorstep.

Laura trained to become a nurse and when the war began, she was a field nurse in an area that was bombed. Suffering severe injuries, she was discharged and sent back home to Halifax. Laura’s brother Freddie had enlisted and was fighting in Flanders. During this time a tragic accident happened in Halifax, killing their parents, thus leaving Laura with no home and family in Halifax.

Laura is taken in by some elderly women and is working at a local hospital when she receives a package containing some of Freddie’s possessions. It is believed he is dead, but things just didn’t make sense. It just so happens the women Laura lives with like to hold seances and one night as they are having a seance for a woman, they get a message about Freddie being alive.

With no family left, Laura becomes determined to find out the truth, so she goes back to the trenches as a volunteer in Belgium, hoping to find Freddie or at least discover what happened to him. Her journey had me riveted, from the dangers of war to the evil spirits that lurked about.

Katherine Arden wove a tale of suspense, a bit of thriller and a bit of romance as she relates the horrors of the Great War and those who served.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Del Ray Publishing for allowing me to read an advance copy. I am happy to recommend this book to readers and to give my honest review.

There is something to be said about a novel based on war that grabs my attention in a way a novel of this sub-genre hasn’t since A Farewell to Arms.

Arden allowed for her words to flow as gut-wrenching but poetic as all those who had to describe the horrors on earth as they endured them, and while other succumbed to them.

Instead of romance, this is a tale of familiar love that is stronger, deeper, while at the same time being weaker & more fragile.

I don’t think I’ll ever be able to get over just how beautifully Arden was able to transcend good v bad, and just focus on one’s humanity while reading.

I was absolutely thrilled to receive an ARC of the warm hands of ghosts! I had no expectations going into this book because I hadn’t read anything else by this author but I thought she did an exceptional job.

I think this book can be described as a historical fantasy/sci-fi ish. The main character, Laura, is a World War I combat nurse. Being a nurse myself, I was instantly drawn to her no nonsense nature, dry humor, and sense of duty to others. I enjoyed the oscillation between both Laura’s and Freddie’s POVs. The story was haunting, thrilling, and beautifully written. Katherine Arden does a fantastic job recreating the powerfully disturbing and eerie landscape of war while showcasing how the ghosts of war can haunt both our minds and souls.

The story was poignant, unique, and fantastical. This book consisted of many elements that I enjoy reading - wartime imagery, field/combat medicine, dual point of views, and harrowing journeys to find solace and connection in the darkest of times.

A huge thank you to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group/Ballantine/Del Rey for providing me with an advanced, digital copy in exchange for my honest review.

Most of the time, I choose to read books that are my ‘comfort reads’- novels like Arden’s Winternight trilogy, filled with fantasy
escapism and whimsical adventure and all the tropes I love as a reader.

Warm Hands of Ghosts is nothing like that.

This book feels like storytelling as an art form, achingly beautiful in prose and so hauntingly human. Instead of creating a new fantastical realm, Arden draws inspiration from a horrific time in history, creating a darkly surreal setting that feels like fantasy but comes from reality.

A book about heartbreak and hope and humanity, Warm Hands follows a combat nurse in WWI who is searching for word of her brother- a soldier presumed dead despite eerie signs that suggest otherwise.

If you’re not into war books, this might be hard to get into… but it’s a devastatingly gorgeous story that I continued to think of and reflect upon days after completed the book.

The Warm Hands of Ghosts is heart-wrenching, slow-paced, and methodical. It is crushingly character-driven. This book tucks itself nicely between Literary Fiction and Historical Fiction, only springing the speculative elements once readers have dug themselves far enough into the story to not want to leave. Like Faland, The Warm Hands of Ghosts captures the reader in a dream-like state and refuses to let go.

Many people have noted content warnings for PTSD, but I'll specify that's for all PTSD, not just PTSD caused by war. I'll also add a content warning for severe mental illness in general. I was crying like a baby in the final five or so chapters because I related so deeply to the mental illness discussions. In the end, this was a healing book for me.

Laura, Freddie, Winter, Jones, and Pim will stick with me forever.

Thanks to Del Rey for providing me with an advanced review copy. All the above thoughts are my own.

** Review on Back Shelf Books will go live on Feb. 19th.

Laura Iven was wounded and discharged from the medical corps, but as far as she knew in January 1918, her brother was still fighting in the Great War. She receives word of his death, but it doesn't make sense. Laura returns to Belgium as a volunteer at a private hospital, and hears about haunted trenches and a strange hotelier. She hopes to find out what really happened to her brother. In November 1917, Freddie Iven woke along with a wounded German soldier named Hans Winter in an overturned pillbox. The two formed an alliance to escape the pillbox, and neither wanted to kill again. They take refuge with a mysterious man with the power to make the war disappear.

The two timelines outline each of their stories: Laura getting her brother's few effects that were found to be shipped to Halifax in the wake of disaster there, and Freddie waking with Hans on the battlefield. Laura maneuvers through society in Halifax as she struggles to decide if she wants to return to Europe to find out what happened to Freddie, and makes friends with two women who have some ties to the war itself. She is staying with three sisters who seem to have some facility with spirits, a nod to the spiritualism of the age and likely also the Fates themselves. She has flashbacks from her time in the war; her battlefield hospital had been right next to a munitions depot and was a target, leaving her scarred and brittle. Freddie and Hans in their story thread decide without words to help each other off the battlefield. Freddie is traumatized by the experience and the death all around them; the sensory input in these chapters is overwhelming and shows exactly what war was like.

The talk of the Fiddler and the wild men on the battlefield hint at the odd and supernatural long before either Freddie or Laura meet him. Rumors tell of the Fiddler, of the hotel bar that is found once and never again, and those people who are determined to find them again no matter the cost. It's a brief respite from the war itself, bombs and gunfire everywhere, with the chance of dying at every turn. The title comes from the belief that ghosts actually have warm hands compared to dead bodies, or if we consider the lost memories and flashbacks to be a different kind of dead. There's a bleak sense of finality in the novel, which is how many of the soldiers and medics of the period felt at the time. Between the Great War and the influenza pandemic, it was hard to see the positives of life, but people did take it where they could. Not everyone has a hopeful ending, but we do get closure for them all.

A haunting and slightly surreal look at WWI through the eyes of a brother and sister. It's brutal from the first page and it's hard to imagine that Laura and Freddie can go through more loss and more hurt, but they do. Laura is a great character - strong, capable, precise, and working her way through both a physical ailment as well as one of her emotions/spirit. It's gripping, and you'll think about it long after you finish.