4.5 stars for Katherine Arden's The Warm Hands of Ghosts

Historical Fiction has become so over-saturated in WWII and the atrocities it brought that we have forgotten the brutal nastiness that WWI first brought. The way WWI was fought, especially in the trenches in the Western Front, was so horrific and different from previous wars. Gas attacks and muddy, rat infested trenches that Katherine Arden brought to life with prose that was both beautiful and terrifying. They way grey became the overwhelming color or war was so present in this novel. These characters were brought to life with love and tenderness that became a mark of their strength and endurance they were able to take on in the front.

The slight edge of dark folktale that Arden used in The Bear in the Nightingale is also present in this more modern setting. Where the new world and old world connect.

With Arden's writing I tend to feel more connected to her beautifully stylized writing and less to the story.

Did not finish. This book wasn't for me unfortunately. I just couldn't find myself caring about the characters or the plot. I just didn't vibe with the book at all.

I loved this book. Katherine Arden has written some of my favorite books so I was very excited to read this and it totally delivered based on what I enjoy. I will say it is pretty dark and sometimes quite depressing book but also so captivating just a warning though since it takes place during WWI vibes. I loved how it mixed like historical fiction and paranormal elements. It was just such an interesting concept. I did prefer Freddie’a POV as it was more fast moving but still loved both. Would highly recommend and will be purchasing for our library and a copy for myself!

Inspired by the first World War, The Warm Hands of Ghosts is a cross between historical fiction, paranormal, and literary fiction. This is the story of combat nurse Laura, who is wounded and discharged, while her brother Freddie continued to fight in the war. But when she receives word once back in Canada that her brother has died amidst the fighting, Laura knows something is wrong and returns to volunteer at a hospital in Belgium in an effort to uncover the truth about Freddie. There are eerie musings amongst the nurses about haunted war zones and strange supernatural happenings amongst the soldiers. Then in alternating perspective, readers dive into the trenches with Freddie, who forms a surprising alliance with a German soldier before finding refuge with a strange man, who seems to possess even stranger abilities. Filled with ghosts both real and metaphorical, this book walks through the war with both Laura and Freddie confronting their traumas in the process. This one is sure to captivate readers and will stick with you for a long time after you put it down. I highly recommend!!

If I could rate different POVs, Freddie would get a 5/5 would not change a thing. I was on the edge of my seat for each one of his chapters. Laura, on the other hand, would get a 3.75ish? Still very intriguing, but definitely dragged at times and I felt myself rushing her chapters to get to Freddie.

The Warm Hands of Ghosts uses fantasy as a way to peel away the mangled confusion that is trauma to get to the crux of what matters. This book is beautiful and horrible and I am so glad to have read it. In the midst of the Great War, a combat nurse searches for her brother, that everyone believes to be dead, despite impossible signs he might not be. This is a story about love, in all forms, and how we must face the most joyful and terrible parts of ourselves to be saved.

Without giving too much away, there are two storylines happening that readers move back-and-forth between. The first is following Laura as she wields hope like a weapon in finding her brother alive and the second is her brother, Freddie. Both characters are well formed and compelling and yet continued to hope for more time with Freddie and Winter. There is immense dread and blind hope that is woven so artfully into his story that I had trouble doing anything else until I found out what happened.

Katherine Arden said about writing this book: "I didn’t so much write it as hunt it down, through darkness, and drag it, both of us bloody, into daylight, pinned for everyone’s eyes." That is how it felt to read it. As a reader, you're on the hunt with Laura to save her brother and as it gets bloodier and darker, you slowly start to ask yourself, what will be left to save?

I received an ARC from NetGalley

There is nothing happy or light about this book. It takes place during the incredibly dark times of WWI so sorrow and desperation are to be expected. The story is told with a dual timeline narration. In "present" day (1918) Laura, a field nurse, is injured and on leave when she learns that her brother is missing and presumed dead. But things don't add up for her and she heads back to Belgium in search of answers. Freddie's story starts in the past (1917) when he becomes trapped with the enemy only to escape and realize the enemy may be his only friend. The timelines eventually come together and both viewpoints take place in the same timeline.

Here are the positives…the plot is quite captivating. Under what circumstances would you sell your soul to the devil? How desperate to escape your own mind do you have to be to willingly give away all of your good memories just so you don’t have to withstand the bad ones for one minute longer? The story, itself, is well written. There is some truly beautiful prose in this book. This one describing war struck a chord with me…"It's a hell with no master, that men made themselves...Appetite without judgement: torment by numbers and entirely mindless. Of course I hate it." The words just roll off the tongue. It’s fantastic.

Now…here is what I didn’t like and here is why I struggled with a rating of 3 or 4. I say this often when reviewing books...character depth and character connection plays heavily into my ratings. I much prefer characters over plot. This one lacked the character depth and complexity I need to make a connection. The characters for most of the book were incredibly bland. Take Pim...she was a widow who had lost her son in the war...I would expect emotional complexity from her. I didn't feel that until the very end of the book. I needed to feel her sorrow and her desperation throughout the story. Laura, I think, was meant to be bold and fearless, a take charge kind of woman. Unfortunately, that fell flat for me as well. Instead she came off aloof and apathetic, detached and rather dismal for the majority of the book. Like Pim, I started to see some raw emotion at the very end but by then, it was a little too late. I definitely felt myself more drawn to Freddie's story than Laura's which is quite unusual for me. I love Historical fiction with strong, bad-ass female protagonists. Unfortunately, I didn't get that vibe from Laura. Her personality came off as drab and dull and reading her chapters left me feeling very unsatisfied. Faland was a truly intriguing character. Rarely is the antagonist my favorite character in a book but I felt he was the most well written. He felt like heroin. He was devastatingly addictive. Even though they knew that he could destroy them, they were still drawn to him, they still craved what he could give them.

Although I struggled with the character connection, it had an amazing plot and with time, the whole story fell into place. It just took a little too long to get there. With that being said, I would definitely recommend this to anyone who likes historical fiction with a touch of the supernatural.

The Warm Hands of Ghosts is a great read. It is a war story,a ghost story and a love story all combined in one.
Back at home recovering from a war injury,with her brother still overseas, nurse Laura Ovens, loses both her mother and father i n an explosion. Shortly thereafter she receives her brother' s uniform jacket and is told that he is dead. During a seance held by the sisters that she is looking after, she is told that he is not dead.
Determined to find the only member of her family still alive, she returns to Flanders to look for him. Once there she meets Faland,the mystical fiddler ,who is said to drive men mad with his music.
This is the story of her trials trying to save her brother and her brothers fight to stay sane.

Historical fiction with a twist! The Warm Hands of Ghosts takes place during the second half of WWI. I found it very interesting because in addition to what was physically happening at the time, Arden strongly focused on how the war drastically affected people emotionally too. The wounds of war go far deeper than one can see. How do people learn to cope and move on? I loved Arden's main characters and enjoyed seeing how they grew and evolved throughout the storyline. This would make a great book club book as there is so much to discuss and interpret. Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine, Del Rey for the eARC.

Another great story by Katherine Arden. Even though it's vastly different from her Winternight Trilogy, it hooked me from the start. The war setting felt so realistic and harrowing here, it really got across that end-of-the-world feeling. The writing was absolutely phenomenal (something normal for Katherine Arden) and I loved the characters and their journeys.
Complex and heartbreaking, this is a hauntingly beautiful story.

The Warm Hands of Ghosts has much to recommend it. The protagonist, Laura, is determined, courageous, and dedicated; the setting, the battlefield of World War I, is heart-wrenching and hopeless; the story, an artful weaving of historical fiction and the paranormal, is compelling. Katherine Arden can certainly turn a phrase and her brilliant writing is natural and captivating. There are layered themes about family ties and love, the bonds of people forged through trauma, personal choice, and the deep, gut-wrenching pain of souls devastated by the effects of war. With all of this going on, some of the "twists" or "reveals" held together and felt more authentic than others. Drawing upon apocalyptic imagery and Biblical evil incarnate, Arden paints all the horror and insanity of war without apology or answers. As bleak as this all may sound, the redeeming relationships with paths forward for the characters ultimately give hope.

Laura Ivens was a nurse serving in WWII until she was injured and sent home to Canada. However, her brother is still out there fighting and she still feels the need to do something. While home in Canada, Laura receives a trunk of Freddie’s belongings but while at a neighbor’s house and on-going seance, the “spirits” seems to indicate Freddie isn’t dead and Laura needs to try and find him.

I give this book a genre of magical realism because there are points where it feels as though the lines between the real and the paranormal are blurred. The mysterious hotel of the fiddler and the dreams, and ghosts. There is subtle romance and longing. There are family ties and risking everything to save the ones you love.

Katherine Arden set a precedent when she wrote her beautiful Winternight Trilogy. Though different in content, it is no less beautiful, heartbreaking, and complex in the way she weaves her narrative. This book will take you on a powerful journey of survival where each character struggles to hold themselves together. I want to thank NetGalley and the Publisher for providing me with an advanced reader copy in return for my honest review and feedback. Arden has created another masterpiece of words and prose which flow through the lives of our characters.

As a fan of the Winternight trilogy, I was so excited to receive this ARC! It did not disappoint. A lovely blend of historical fiction and fantasy, I was mesmerized by the entire story.

This was an amazing story. It had all the unnerving and harrowing elements I like to read in a supernatural historical fantasy.
Don’t expect this to be like Arden’s Winternight trilogy. It’s totally different.
The war battles with its fear, horror, and hope were very evocative. I felt like I was there observing the characters’ lives, especially the mental agony of Freddie and Winter. It was very moving and heartfelt.
There’s a surprise twist I did not see coming. But then when you think about it, you can sympathize.
The supernatural were just enough to give you the creeps. But the allure of oblivion after someone has these experiences is so understandable. Is there enough reason to continue living or is it better to lose those memories in Faland’s shabby gilded mansion?
My only criticism is that some of the answers were a little too easily given. After all the harrowing trauma, some things just wrapped up a little too neatly. I did expect more sadness at the end than there was. But I’m happy for those characters were life will find a way despite all the tragedy.

Rating 3.5/5.

What a harrowing journey this was.

After returning from nursing for the Great War, Laura is taking time to recover and heal her wounds. When she is informed of the death of her brother Freddie, killed in combat while serving in Belgium, Laura attempts to mourn but things just aren't adding up. Her suspicions mounting, she decides to travel back to the warzone in an attempt to find answers, fighting the enemies unseen of her past, her present, and her own mind.

I was intrigued by the blurb and was so fascinated by the idea of a war story from a speculative angle with a dual point of view of both Laura and her brother. Katherine Arden writes grief well and successfully captures the multifaceted experience of a traumatized soldier, as well as the horrors that follow and cling to positions like nurses as they leave the realm of battle and attempt to move forward to live a full life. Freddie's chapters were terrifying; it was always a guessing game as to whether what he was seeing was real or if it was a result of compounded stress, hunger, and fear, but somehow holding tight to his compassion for the people he meets on the journey from the trenches. While not in immediate danger in the beginning, Laura's flashbacks of war fuse with those of her past; she struggles to keep her survivor's guilt at bay and her head above water. Trouble comes from all angles as being a woman in the early 1900s has its own host of problems, and I felt for Laura when she was constantly belittled and her expertise in nursing scoffed at. I wish that Laura's chapters were as substantial as Freddie's - I found them dragging at times and she was rather dry, not actually responding to the things happening to her. I feel as though the women in the story were lacking in personality and there was great opportunity for depth in that arena.

This is the kind of story that stays with you, when people who go through terrible things and see the unimaginable have to do anything they can to survive. When someone believes to be at the end of their rope, the mind attempts to march forward in any way possible, twisting and warping and grasping, manipulating what it knows to keep a person alive. From that manipulation, and maybe from hope, tales are born and exchanged in an attempt to bolster the human spirit. Whether our characters were at the mercy of one of these tales is up to the reader's interpretation.

Thank you to Del Rey and NetGalley for providing me with this eArc in exchange for my honest review!

Told in alternating viewpoints, Laura is a nurse in WWI who is injured in the line of duty and sent home to Halifax. She receives her brother Freddie’s personal effects and notified he is presumed dead. But the elderly ladies she boards with make their money conducting seances and one of their subjects brings a message for Laura to return to the western front and find Freddie.

Laura is kind of a stilted character and her chapters kept ending right as something finally started to happen. On the other hand, Freddie is so real and rounded but his timeline is bleak and visceral and that made his chapters difficult to read. When the threads all come together at about the 75% mark, the story is so good! But I found it a bit of a slog to get to that point.

The prose is beautifully written, and there are some echoes of scenes from the Winternight books. Are those supposed to be the ghosts? I definitely expected more ghosts. Ultimately, I wanted to like it more than I actually did.

First and foremost thank you NetGalley for my advanced readers copy of this book. I went into this book with high hopes as the author has a large presence in the book community because of her other books (that I have not read personally, but have heard nothing but great things about.) I went into this knowing that it was a war themed plot. Even though it’s not my favorite type of story line, I was hoping the ghost aspect would provide an equal balance. For me, it didn’t. It seemed to focus mainly on WW1 and as someone who isn’t into history, I found myself confused a lot of the time when reading. I will say that there are several characters who grew close to my heart by the end of this book.

I have nothing but good things to say about this book, from the characters to the narrative to the writing style.

Our protagonists Laura and Freddie were absolutely one of my favorite parts of this book. They felt very real, very raw, and despite experiencing severe trauma, with writing that navigated author-described apocalyptic scenarios of war, the prose never felt saccharine, never felt exploitive, yet also never hid from the truth of it all. Laura is never truly soft and the narrative doesn’t ask her to be in order to be kind. Freddie displays genuine weakness but maintains his quiet strength. They felt like whole people and they’re relationship with each other as well as with all of secondary characters were very well done.

There was also a great blending of historical fiction and fantasy here, which was admittedly a bit delayed, to the point I put the book down and said, “Did I get tricked into just reading a war book?” I still thoroughly enjoyed the story playing out but really was pulled in when some of the more fantastical elements began. The mystery was well plotted,and after reading a lot of unsatisfying novels right in a row, it really felt like the book knew where it was headed, and neither rushed nor drug it’s feet to get there.

This book may not be for everyone. It can be graphic. It can be grim. It can be brutal. But ultimately it’s a story about finding a way to move forward when everything feels lost, about unfailing dedication through love, and about opening our eyes to the horror and truth of the world and I think we could all use a bit of that.

4.5 stars
I love Katherine Arden's writing style. I can't explain it, it is so immersive and flows so well. It really brought this story to life in my head.
This story was a dual POV as well as a dual timeline. At first it was a little bit confusing, especially listening to the audio because you really have to listen to figure out the timeline. Our first timeline is Laura. She has returned home from being a nurse in the war after being injured. She receives her brother's belongings when he is presumed dead. She feels in her gut, something is off, so returns to Germany to try to find him.
The second POV is Laura's brother Freddie. He has been trapped after an explosion with a German solider in a pillbox. They are able to claw their way out and take refuge with a man they think can help, but may not be the best source of help.
The way each story wove with the other was magical. The side characters would show up in the story they did not originate in and I could tell sooner or later they would crash together and I was so interested to get to that point. The effects of war were heartbreaking, we are able to see Laura tending to the wounded as well as Freddie fighting and dealing with the aftermath of fighting in a war.
I really liked all the characters in this book, Laura and Freddie were great main characters. They had such depth and such great backstories. The side characters were great too, I especially liked Pim who worked in the hospital with Laura and Winter (the soldier stuck with Freddie at the beginning) was extremely intriguing.
When I finished reading this, I just felt. It wasn't a specific emotion, I just felt, and I love when books bring that out. It was extremely well written and interesting.

As a fan of the Winternight trilogy and the Small Spaces books, I was eager to pick up the Warm Hands of Ghosts. WW1 books are not a historical fiction era that I'm usually drawn to, but in this case I made an exception. I appreciated the metaphorical focus of war = hell/apocalyptic in the chapter headings and even how the characters interacted with the world. The trauma and ugliness of war is at the forefront; not even for the soldiers but for the combat nurses like Laura as well. With a bit of a paranormal/fae flair, some characters interact with a not-quite-human character who offers them a Faustian-like bargain to wash away the War's troubles at a cost. The plot moves along steadily between two main points of view, Laura looking for her brother Fred, and Fred looking for a way out of the misery and trauma of the war. I've always enjoyed the author's pragmatic yet descriptive prose and this book is no exception. A huge thank you to the publisher and to Netgalley for sending me an eARC in exchange for my thoughts. A full review will be on https://armedwithabook.com/tag/ariels-arcs/ closer to publication.