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.

Hello again dear reader or listener, tis I, the emotional wreck.
Congratulation Mrs. Arden, you managed exactly what you were hoping for. This book now haunts me. (If you’re curious I’m referring to the author’s note she’s left on the Goodreads page of the book – deeply rec reading it).

But before I try to explain, a big thank you to Ms. Folds with Random House for offering an eARC of this novel. My thoughts remain honest, if a little overwhelmed.

I don’t know what kind of otherworldly sorcery Arden imbues her words with to make them feel so visceral, poignant, truthful, beautiful and powerful. I’ve rarely felt with the depth that I have through her writing, even when it’s over extremely simple or seemingly mundane things. But I do know she’ll keep having a space on my shelves any time she writes anything. This latest novel merely cemented that.

Generally, I try to review with as few spoilers as possible, if any at all, and this is one of those books that I feel you really need to go into blind. One day I might just write a spoiler filled commentary, if nothing else to get the words out because I need to. However, I do think it’s important to know one thing.
This book is primarily historical fiction, with some supernatural elements, so do not go into it expecting some big supernatural showdown or magical fights. For those who are familiar with Arden’s Winternight Trilogy, I would say that Ghosts is almost half as fantastical. Maybe even a third actually. And it works perfectly, as frankly making it more of a fantasy with the World War just as an aesthetic backdrop would be a disservice to the memories Arden drew from.

Arden tells the story of Canadian siblings Laura and Wilfred Iven, a nurse and a soldier at the Belgian front between the winter of 1917 and Spring of 1918. Their pov chapters are slightly out of sync meaning Laura is shown in the future compared to Wilfred. As such we have one of my favorite narrative devices of all time, which is the weaving of two timelines in ways that make for emotional and deeply tragic near misses between two people trying to find their way back to one another. And we don’t know until the end whether they actually do. How many times have you found yourself watching or reading one such scene and started yelling at your screen or felt your chest tighten? For me, it’s every. Single. time. The author also touches on the Halifax explosion in 1917, a disaster I had distantly heard of in the past but never truly learned about until reading this book.

Arden managed to encapsulate in one book the sheer absurdity, horror, pain, hypocrisy, and anger that resulted from the first World War and the loss of an entire generation from the western world. The villain in this story is not who you think, not really. It’s the very thing that pushed people such as the characters in the novel to seek oblivion at the hands of the mysterious hotelier. It must be said however that the nuance in the hotelier’s character and the distribution of hints as to his real identity is truly impeccable, regardless of whether you clock it right away or you realize it fully in the author’s afterword. The effect is the same. Because like I said, his role as the villain and his true identity pale in comparison to the man-made horrors of the War. And that I believe is the whole point this novel is trying to make. But in between the harshness, the author also makes spaces for the little moments of joy, for the small but pure beauties characters and readers need to hold on and get through everything.

Another thing I loved in this book is the way Arden wrote the hotelier. She had shown this previously with Morozko in Winternight, but this author has a way of writing timeless beings that not only make perfect sense but they are not sugarcoated either. They are never immortal/timeless beings behaving like humans for instance, and I know I may not be explaining it well but this is the kind of immortal done right that I always crave. We discount how much of our being/life/culture is defined by the very fact that our time is finite, whereas Arden is aware and writes this type of character accordingly.

He whispered, “Winter said there’s ghosts all round you.” Faland snorted. “When you swim in the ocean there’s water all round you, but no one mentions it.”

It is also clear how well researched this story was, and personal knowledge aside, Arden brings the War to life in ways that are both authentic and oh so specific so as to give you the kind of full immersion that doesn’t leave you unaffected. It was really easy for me to picture the scenes she described, mainly because I live in Italy and my father puts history buffs to shame. That means I’ve been exposed to monuments, remembrance ceremonies, and countless documentaries for as long as I can remember. Arden’s words however made me feel in ways I don’t do often. There’s something different you can’t quite put into words, between listening to sometimes sterile documentaries, and reading a story, however fictional, informed by first-hand accounts and written the way Arden does. Moreover, I found her portrayal of complex trauma, shellshock, or PTSD, both respectful and honest, especially for how it was understood in that first war that irrevocably changed the western world in so many ways.

I said at the start that maybe Arden has her own kind of sorcery imbued in her work, but the true magic is in her not relying on the supernatural at all. She writes deeply emotional and realistic characters who struggle with all their might to hang on to what little shred of sanity and hope they have left. And she does so by showing truly everything. Every single one of the good but also the ugly emotions and thoughts that make us who we are. For the longest time you cannot be certain whether the ghosts haunting the characters are “real” or figments of broken minds, and at the end of the day it doesn’t even matter because the result is the same.

Her story was about loss and war and human nature, and trying to heal after going through an actual end of the world. It was deeply beautiful as it was harrowingly painful, in what I can only describe as the way you fully grasp your surroundings in the first quiet moments after a rush of adrenaline or intense fear. It was simplicity after chaos, that feeling of sound returning slowly in stages after something sudden and loud caused your ears to ring.

She didn’t look at him. No, she wanted to say. No, it’s not real, whatever this is. Good things don’t grow in this rotten earth.

I simply love this book. I loved the story, that way the plot unfolds expertly and through different views. I didn’t feel like the strength of emotion shown by characters, even in a short time, was ever out of place because that right there is the only way a person can survive through events like that. And by the end of it all, by the satisfying wrap up of everything, however bittersweet – because no story about the wars can have a happy ending the way we commonly think of it given everything that has been lost in the process – I was thinking back to everything I know of this moment in history often eclipsed by its more discussed second act, and while I did, I read Arden’s afterword, and it finally broke me.
I sat in bed crying at 4 am. Not because of the plot itself but for what it meant, for the messy depth of emotion it brought forth in me specifically with how I move through life and how certain things affect me. It won’t mean the same to everyone and that’s fine, I’m pretty sure you could closely relate the reactions to this book with each reader’s cultural/historical background which makes perfect sense. But it’s a story that needed to be written and demands to be read.

One thing is for sure, Arden will make you feel for and through her broken characters. It will not be pretty and there won’t be the generally accepted heroics or tropes. It will be unashamedly human.
And that, is why it is extraordinary.

Until next time,
Eleni A. E.

5 Stars

“Armageddon was a fire in the harbor, a box delivered on a cold day. It wasn't one great tragedy, but ten million tiny ones, and everyone faced theirs alone.”

This story is set during World War 1 following Laura Iven, a combat nurse who has been honorably discharged after her hospital was blown up and her brother Wilfred Iven who is a soldier in German occupied territory. Laura receives a heart- wrenching package bearing Wilfred’s belongings and a cryptic note of his disappearance, she resolves to find him and then journeys back to the front lines.

Long after the last pages, this book lingers in my thoughts. It was haunting, filled with hope, survival and the sacrifices people are willing to make. This book doesn't hold back punches, War is grueling and disgusting. Katherine has a way of making her story break through all your walls and have Warm Hands of Ghost settle into your heart.

This book cements Katherine Arden will be a permanent figure on my TBR whenever she releases a new book.

Thank you to NetGalley, Random House Publishing Group-Ballantine, Del Rey, and Katherine Arden for the EArc.

I inevitably have the hardest time appropriately reviewing books I’ve loved. Though loved is too tame a word in this instance. This is one of those books that I would love to devour, so that its words will somehow absorb and meld themselves to some part of my innards and become a physical part of me forever. It’s no secret that Arden’s WINTERNIGHT trilogy ranks among my favorites of all time, and now THE WARM HANDS OF GHOSTS will follow suit. ⁣
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An exploration of the far-reaching consequences of war, this book takes place during The Great War (or WW1). Families are torn apart, people are killed, soldiers and civilians and nurses alike have physical reminders of the high cost of battle. The hardest part, the invisible part, is the mental toll. Laura, a battle nurse, returns home to find her family killed in an explosion and her brother, Freddie, missing and presumed dead. Something won’t let Laura truly believe he’s gone and she sets off a mission to either find him, or to find out what happened to him. ⁣
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Historical fiction is always better with a touch of the paranormal, and Arden deftly weaves in a bit of supernatural mystery and magic into this book. Despite its heavy themes and heavier tone, there are some bright spots in this book that help lighten things up. The characters sparkle, particularly the old women that Laura boards with, and there’s a bit of a romantic element later on in the story. I wish I could read this one all over again and relive that enchantment and delight that this book brought me, but instead I’ll just have to add it to my annual reread list. 5 stars.

**Content/Trigger warning will be listed at the end of this review**

For once, the back cover description is correct on a book. This is a historical fiction book with a speculative element. If you are going into this thinking it will be like "The Bear and the Nightingale," please readjust your expectations. Please note, this does not make it bad, just different. Although "The Bear..." trilogy does have elements of historical fiction, it is much more fantasy with magic revolving around Russian mythology. "The Warm Hands..." really focuses on the historical (WWI) and the speculative element lends itself much more to helping explain the horrors of war.

I won't give away how the speculative element plays out, but what this book really dives into is the atrocities of war. And this is true for both the physical and mental injuries that occur. It has some really rough passages that explain the horrendous injuries that people suffered, both on the field, and how they were treated (or not-basically because there wasn't anything that could be done) once they reached a hospital/aid station. But I would say mostly that this book is about the mental toll it takes on, not only the soldiers, but on those who care for them. PTSD is talked about, and is a known response of soldiers during this time (although it's not called back then, it's called "shell shock").

It's beautifully written and heart-wrenching tale that's told in two points of view from siblings: the brother in war, and the sister who is a nurse during the war. Both dealing with their jobs and the realities of war from different angles. It's also about a loving sibling relationship and what you would do to save the other and get closure.

**Content/Trigger warnings: scenes of war, death, grief, PTSD, gore & blood, descriptions of grievous injuries, mental health

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the eARC. This book is a classic case of 'its not the book, it's me'. I had trouble getting into this and DNF'd (for now). I'm still interested in seeing where this goes but when I'm in the right mindset for a more serious and emotionally heavy read.

I think this is one that I'll have to come back to. I was expecting a little more on the supernatural front from the get-go, and after about 30-40%, I felt like I was still waiting, so I decided to put it down. If you're looking for a historical fiction about WW1, though, you'll love this! It's compelling and well-written. Just not what my expectation was.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the ARC.

Beautifully written story of battlefield horror, love, trauma, and the power of memories. A supernatural element makes this war novel unusual and eerie, and the characters are remarkable.

Thank you NetGalley and Del Rey for an eARC in exchange for an honest review!!

The Warm Hands of Ghosts is a beautifully written historical fiction with some fun speculative elements (the devil, hello!!!). Laura Iven returns to the Belgian war front in early 1918 to search for her younger brother, Freddie, who has been declared killed in combat. Arden weaves the two points of view and timelines together so well, and I found both to be very compelling. The characters in this, while at times prickly and difficult, were easy to like and become invested in.

I loved Arden’s prose—it depicted the horrors of trench warfare starkly and allowed for the emotional toll of fighting during WWI to breathe. The prose is also quite atmospheric and haunting, and it contributed to the setting feeling very real. The characters were rendered beautifully, and while they are perhaps a little dogged in their pursuits, the context of the novel makes it work. I particularly loved the way Laura and Freddie’s relationship was portrayed and that their sibling relationship took center stage, though I did also enjoy the way the romantic tertiary plots developed.

I personally really enjoy war novels, especially when they are less about glory and more about the effects it has on one’s psyche and humanity as a whole. The speculative twist in this was catnip to me, and I was really interested in seeing how it would play out. This one is definitely weakest when it comes to plot—there are times where things become maybe a smidgen too easy or tidy, but I am not a plot-driven reader and I didn’t mind. This is definitely a slower read and I enjoyed lingering in the pages, though I imagine that won’t be the case for everyone. Still, I loved this and it will stay with me for a long time.

Genre: historical fantasy
Halifax, Nova Scotia, 1918 and Belgium, 1917

In 1918 Nova Scotia, Laura Iven grapples with loss: her parents died in the Halifax Explosion in December of 1917, and she’s been living with three older women who are spiritualists, who summon ghosts as a hobby. In January of 1918, Laura receives a package containing her brother Freddie’s jacket and both dog tags. She’s stunned, because she knows as a war nurse that one tag stays with the body, the other is sent to the family. So is Freddie gone? Her spiritualist landladies think not. Laura embarks on a journey back across to war ravaged Europe amidst the rise of influenza, to try to uncover the mystery of the last of her family. Told in dual timeline, with Freddie’s perspective from the battlefields of Passchendaele in November 1917, the Warm Hands of Ghosts takes a spiraling dream-like lens to watch the horrors of World War I.

Katherine Arden is a master of the atmospheric. The atmosphere of this book is war, terror, devastation and the ghosts of World War I, from the horrors of Passchendaele to the explosion in Halifax to the losses from influenza. We see this from the perspective of practical Laura, who was determined to become a nurse at a young age against her parents’ wishes. We see this from the perspective of the idealist dreamer, artist, and poet Freddie, turned soldier to fight against the great evil. Arden a master worldbuilder, using moments of reflection and memory, through the anguish of loss and pain, building an atmosphere of reality rife with the ghosts of war.

The Warm Hands of Ghosts is dark. Arden never shies away from the grittiness of what she calls the "time travel" of the experience in WWI - with weapons of immense destructive powers and nurses running onto battlefields in corsets and gas masks, the perfect juxtaposition of their old world and the new. Her author’s note draws on the tradition of apocalyptic metaphor surrounding the Great War. When writers of the time couldn’t bear the terror, they used science fiction tropes to distance themselves from the horrors.

This novel will have a very different feel than Arden’s Winternight trilogy, and it’s a testament to her writing skills that she can tackle a different subject matter and retain some of her signature style, but to different effect.

2.7 stars
One Liner: Umm… tries too hard

Jan 1918: Laura Iven is an efficient field nurse even after an explosion left her wounded. Back home in Halifax, Canada, she continues to volunteer at a local hospital. However, the news of her brother’s death in war results in too many questions and not enough answers. Laura decides to travel to Belgium as a volunteer at a hospital to find out the truth.
Nov 1917: Freddie Iven thinks he is dead until he realizes he is alive, but the clock is ticking fast. He and a German soldier (the enemy), Hans Winter, have survived. However, life is uncertain and dangerous with the war around them. What happens when the new acquaintances have to decide their next step?
With the brother and sister haunted by the ghosts of the past and present, can they find a way to save others and themselves?
The story comes in the third-person POV of Laura and Freddie (Wilfred) in alternate timelines (1918 and 1917).

My Thoughts:
After many recommendations for the author’s famous trilogy, I was delighted to see a standalone work by her. It’s easier to read a single book than three (that too big ones). Alas, the result is disappointing.
The bare bones are intriguing- World War 1, PTSD, soldiers, nurses, healing, hope, and a touch of paranormal. What’s not to like? But why is the book like this?
Laura should have been a terrific character. She is an efficient nurse, someone capable, assertive, decisive, and determined. The character is exactly the kind I like to read. Yet, there wasn’t a single instance I could empathize with her.
Freddie gets more of my support. He also has some intense emotions to display. His vulnerability has the pull to connect with the readers. Winter is decent, too, in a grumpy, wounded hero kind of way (he is not a hero here).
The desolate and bleak side of war comes across very well and is the highlight of the book. Can’t say it’s something new, but still, the desired impact is achieved.
Now, I love paranormal touches in books. But this one almost went over my head. I’m not a Christian, nor do I know much about the theories like ‘end of the world’ or the Book of Revelation. I could guess who the fiddler was, but there’s nothing new/ unique about the concept. (Moreover, my go-to expert on the topic has yet to read the book, so I couldn’t ask and spoil it for her.)
There’s some love inserted in the last section. Not sure whose idea it was, but the book would have been better without it. Or, the concept could have been explored in detail. Healing is different from trauma bonding. And can we please respect platonic friendships for what they are without forcefully turning them into romantic tracks? Also, given the period, the lack of self-exploration on certain aspects is unrealistic.
The ending is hopeful. But then, everything so easily falls into place! In fact, the same happens almost throughout for Laura. She puts in 1x effort, and others clear the path for the rest.
The author’s note helped me understand a few things. It reminded me of when I spent extra time and care on a project in college because the topic was a favorite. However, the final result was an average piece and not something I could call my best in any manner. I gave it a lot more than what was necessary.

To summarize, The Warm Hands of Ghosts has its moments but fails to impress as a package. The slow pacing doesn't help either. Maybe readers with more knowledge about religious concepts will understand and like it better.
Thank you, NetGalley and Random House Publishing (Del Ray), for the eARC. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the book.

Haunting and incredibly fascinating! It would make an amazing reread.

The ending felt rushed and it took me until about 70% before j was truly hooked. That's why it's not 5 stars.

All thoughts and opinions are my own. I received this advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.