Laura returned home from nursing the wounded and dying on the front lines of WW1 to a Halifax that exploded in a ball of fire (look up the real-life Halifax Harbor explosion) that took both of her parents. When she receives news that her younger brother is missing, presumed dead, she returns to Flanders, determined to find out what happened to her last remaining relative, for better or worse. Meanwhile, Freddie, her brother, awakes after an explosion in No Man’s Land, to find himself on the brink of life and death, with only an enemy soldier to guide him. Then they meet a mysterious stranger who promises more than the misery around them, but at what cost? As the siblings each have interactions with this strange man, they’re faced with the darkest side of humanity, both in real life and possibly the world beyond…..

This book is told from the POV of each sibling in parallel timelines.

This book is positively unforgettable from beginning to end. From its setting against the Halifax Harbor tragedy (If you’ve been to Halifax, or ever go, I recommend the Halifax Maritime Museum for more information on this. It was a huge tragedy that was just unbelievable in scope.), to the firsts of WW1, I couldn’t look away. Each parallel storyline, which follows the siblings, was great. Very vivid and exciting with great writing.

And there’s some great twists in there that left me really stunned. It’s quite a jaw-dropper in parts, and I really enjoyed that it had not only the vivid mystery and thrills of the main storyline, but some good twists in there as well. That’s really all I can say.

This is another great book to start the new year with. It’s a great historical thriller that you’ll sail through on a chilly evening!

4.5 ☆

I’m so so happy I was able to get a copy of this arc!!!! It’s as wonderful as it sounds!! Not as creepy or horror related as one may think, but the horror really does come through the question of how much are you willing to forget the pain? Both of the point of views of the siblings worked so well- I love winter and freddie’s relationship throughout the story. It showed the psychological horror and effects of war quite well- I’m very pleased with the story over all. Kudos to the author!

Even though I love Katherine Arden, I did not expect to love this book. Typically I don't like war books, and I don't read much historical fiction, but since this was written by a favorite author and also has speculative elements, I wanted to give it a try. And I'm so glad I did! It was hard to read at times because of the brutality of war, so plenty of content warnings for violence, war, bombing, amputation, injury, death, etc. Arden tackles themes of PTSD and the importance of memory. The character work was fantastic and the paranormal elements were interesting. The writing has a dream-like and often nightmarish quality; Arden doesn't shy away from the brutality of war, and she writes about it in a way that amplifies its absurdity and violence.

This author knew how to make a reader really feel; whether that be heartbreak, longing, loneliness, both hope and hopelessness, even feelings of cold and exhaustion. I just find that to be an absolutely astounding talent. Despite the bleak contrast of war, seduction of the devil (the fiddler), feelings of love and friendship continue to prevail throughout. I will gladly be selling this when it comes out in February!

Huge thank you to NetGalley for the opportunity to read this ARC! I’m a big fan of Katherine Arden’s Winternight Trilogy so I’m not shocked that I loved this one as well.

This book started off slow for me, but once I was few several chapters I was hooked. Arden did a great job of creating a dark, suspenseful narrative that kept me glued to the page (especially the portions describing the horrors of the trenches). The different POVs kept me actively engaged and knitted together beautifully by the end.

Don’t shy away from this gem based on reviews comparing to Winternight - while vastly different, there are elements of this story (Faland’s character in particular) that will take fans back to the magic that Arden creates!

I absolutely loved this book except for the last couple chapters. I loved how The Fiddler was put in the middle of the war. I enjoyed the dual POV between the sister and brother until the end. Unfortunately, the ending felt rushed and the relationships felt thrown into the book.... just because. It would be a five star read if the last couple chapters were cut out. I will be recommending this book but i will tell them what pages to stop reading because it will feel "thrown in". Otherwise, it was a fun book and very well written.

Laura is a nurse who has returned home to Halifax after being wounded in France during WWI. After the terrible Halifax explosion takes her parents, she receives an odd package from the front which implies the death of her brother Freddie but did not confirm it. Haunted by her mother’s death, Laura decides to head back to France to work in a private hospital in the hopes of getting to the truth about Freddie’s death. Freddie also has his own storyline, deep in the trenches. He has to decide who is a friend and who is an enemy and what the true meaning of honor and courage is.
This was a fabulous work of historical fiction with an element of magic worked in. It was harrowing to read but a page turner nonetheless.
Thank you Netgalley for the ARC. My opinions are my own.

The Warm Hands of Ghosts follows the story of Laura and Freddie Iven. Set during WWI both siblings are serving on the front lines in Belgium. Laura is a field medic. She is seriously wounded and discharged back to Canada. Freddie goes missing and is presumed dead. When Laura receives a box of Freddie's belongings she decides to take a job with a private hospital and travel back to Belgium to discover what happened to her brother. We discover that Freddie is still alive but injured and trapped in an overturned pillbox. He forges an unexpected alliance with a German soldier to try to escape and return home.

I truly enjoyed this story. This book is combines historical fiction and the supernatural. It really captures the devastation of war and grief. It is filled with complex characters who don't always make the right decisions but are doing the best they can given the circumstances they find themselves in. Katherine Arden is a brilliant writer and I am always excited to fall into the stories she creates.

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Ballantine for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I've never been a fan of World War fiction or war fiction in general, but The Warm Hands of Ghosts had me in it's grip from moment one.

Thank you to Random House Publishing Group/Del Rey and NetGalley for an eARC of this book in exchange for an unbiased and honest review!

While I don’t read a lot of historical fiction, I am typically drawn in by those that promise a touch of magical realism or fabulism, so this new story by Arden, of Winternight trilogy fame, was really intriguing to me.

Unfortunately, I really struggled to connect with any character and the concurrent plots and ultimately DNFed this around the halfway mark, as I knew that continuing to force my way through the story would only make me resent it more.

The big things that sticks out in my mind is that the conversations always felt very stilted. Especially with Laura and the women she travels with, it too often felt like characters were talking at each other rather than to each other, building a scene from the way they interact and the information they exchange. I truly had no idea where the story was going based on the actions and words Laura and the other women used.

The far more compelling story was with Laura’s brother Freddie on the front, and these chapters were so brief. While haunting and compelling to a certain degree, this part of the story felt aimless. Even around the halfway mark, where the fantasy/speculative elements had JUST started to arrive, I wasn’t sure what the characters motivations were (other than, you know, survive), or what I was supposed to suspect or feel about where the plot was going.

I’ve read some other reviews that give some much-needed historical context to some of the character’s beliefs and the people some of the characters are based on. It’s disappointing that this, in hindsight, makes the story more interesting to me and that I didn’t find that interest while reading the story.

During WWI, a wounded combat nurse goes in search of her brother, a soldier believed to be dead in the trenches. Against the odds, her brother is alive after seeking refuge with a man who has a very curious offer...

What you need to know:
historical fiction
dual narration/multiple timelines
character-driven, strong female lead

Why I am not the best person to advise:
I generally don't like historical fiction or different POVs and timelines. 🤦‍♂️

I found the setting to be atmospheric and detailed.
There are gothic/speculative moments, but overall it's more of a story about family, hope, trauma, and war.
Arden is a very capable writer, but I found the first half slow and the last bit rushed-- can't please everyone.
I had expected more of a fantasy/horror vibe (I haven't read the author's previous work).

Overall, well-written with some haunting prose. This reader would have liked more ghosts.

I liked it, I didn’t love it. And I wanted to love it so badly!

My issue with the book isn’t in the prose, which is romantic and so at odds with the subject matter of WW1. It isn’t with the structure of the story, because I liked the quick chapters and the dual timelines quite a bit.

I think where I struggled was in the relationship building and the overall length of the book. As far as relationships go, I loved the way Freddie and Winter are devoted to each other and I loved the way their lives are tied together but it just felt…unearned, I guess? I think we could have spent less time with Freddie and Faland in the hotel and more time with Freddie and Winter, watching their bond develop more fully.

I think another round of edits could have lobbed off about 50 pages of this book and it would have been all the better for it. Like I said, I’d have been happy with less time spent in the hotel and maybe that’s where some cuts could have been made.

Ultimately I thought The Warm Hands of Ghosts was beautifully written, I got through it in a couple of days so I was
clearly into the premise, but I didn’t love it the way I wanted to.

3.25/5

4.5 stars. Katherine Arden's The Warm Hands of Ghosts brings to life the trauma of war (specifically the Belgian front lines of WWI) in a moving way.

Army nurse Laura returns to Belgium to find out what happened to her younger brother, Freddie, who has been declared missing and presumed dead. But Freddie is not dead. After an explosion traps him in a pillbox with a German soldier named Winter, Freddie and Winter bond over their shared experience of the horrors of war, and when they escape and are separated, Freddie is drawn to a mysterious fiddler who helps him to forget, but at great expense.

I wanted to love this. I don't know if I went in with high expectations or if it was just very different than what I was expecting but it was just okay.

It is definitely full of haunting, beautiful writing that does not shy away from the horrors of World War 1. But I struggled to connect to the story. The characters all felt flat and the plot never really developed. The plot was also scattered and could never quite make out what was actually going on. Some things do pick up at around the 75% mark, but other than that it was such a slog. I think that there were so many things that could have happened and they just...didn't.

My summary for this book is that it's set towards the end of World War I, and everything is awful, with everyone in pain. Even the supernatural elements are full of agony.

Katherine Arden, who previously wrote about fairytale-like creatures, now explores urban legends during World War I. The characters in the book are all weighed down by an overwhelming sense of sadness, but it's not unbearable. The characters are able to manage their pain.

The Warm Hands of Ghosts is one of those books that leaves a lasting impression on you by how deeply it cuts you.

This review is based on an advanced reader copy provided through Netgalley for an honest review.

Wow. I am so thankful to the publisher for an advanced copy. I read this in one day. It was haunting and explored the dark horrors of war during World War 1. Yet, it was also so hopeful and filled with light. What a beautiful writing style also.

If I could give this book 10 stars I would. Katherine Arden, authors of the awesome trilogy, The Winternight Trilogy, now has an equally compelling story inThe Warm Hands Of Ghosts. Set during a terrible battle of WW I it follows decorated nurse Laura Ivens in her quest to find her younger brother Freddie who has disappeared. She receives a box with some clothing, both his dog tags and a mysterious note. After a tragedy takes both of their parents and their home, Laura is compelled to look for her brother. Meanwhile Freddie is engaged in his own journey, first for his safety and then for his life. Saved by a German soldier during a horrendous battle, as they work their way to somewhere they will be safe, he falls in with a mysterious stranger called Faland. But what Faland wants from Freddie is more than anyone should have to give. The Warm Hands of Ghosts follows Laura and Freddie in their quests. The time period is brutal, the depictions of war and the destruction it wreaks mentally and physically exhausting and damaging, but in Arden’s hands it is a story that you will be unable to put down, even if you want to. While not fantasy as her previous books, there is a significant presence of things mystical and inexplicable. This book stands above the crowd!

Haunting, magical, devastating, lyrical. There are not enough adjectives to capture the full range of emotions this story evokes. It’s a blend of all that is beautiful and ugly in our world. Arden’s writing takes you on a journey that constantly pushes and pulls you, bringing you to a world full of hope and possibility, only to yank you back into a harsh and unforgiving reality. She paints such a realistic picture of the World War I front, while adding her signature blend of magical realism. This a story that grasps you fully, unwilling to let go even after you’ve turned the final page. It’s masterful writing full of grief, family, love, and hope.

If you loved Katherine Arden’s previous work and the lyrical fairytale-esque world of Anne of Green Gables, then this book is absolutely for you! It’ll haunt you with its haunting imagery, gritty realism, and through it all build you up with hope.

Thank you to Netgalley, Delrey Books, and Random House for the e-arc in exchange for an honest review.

An aside to my general review:
As I read, I could not stop thinking of Anne of Green Gables. In the last book, the one featuring Anne’s daughter Rilla, the family receives a letter from Walter (second oldest boy) who enlisted to fight for the Canadians in World War I. In the letter, Walter talks about making a push over the hill and how he saw the Pied Piper in his dreams (a game they used to play as children), and how he is no longer afraid. He knows the Pied Piper has come for him and he will follow. My mind cannot escape the eery similarities between Wilfred and Walter, both Canadians fighting in World War I, and between Faland and the Pied Piper, a fairytale character using his magical instrument to call the men to follow. This connection does not appear in Arden’s author note, but I cannot help but wonder if she was inspired by it all the same.

If you are a fan of The Invisible Life of Addie Larue then you will like the Warm Hands of Ghosts. I really didn't know what to expect from this story before I picked it up. I just saw the word 'Ghosts' and I was ALL in. I will say that I felt like I had whiplash every time I picked this book up, but it was so exciting and such an interesting premise. I just kept running back to this story every time I put it down. One thing that I really thought was brilliant was the way that the author really shows the perspective of someone who suffers from PTSD in both main characters. However, I felt like the ending of this story really was rushed and not as fleshed out as I would have liked. The first 75% was amazing but I think the last 25% lacked a lot of detail that I believe it needed for this to be a 5 star read for me. I definitely would recommend though and had such a good time. Thank you to Random House Publishing and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this beautiful book.

I love this book so wholly and utterly that it's taken me a couple of days to think that I can even probably use my words about it.

I adored the Winternight trilogy and gave the books 4, 4, and 5 stars and came away fairly certain that I'd want to read anything else Arden wrote for adults. The Warm Hands of Ghosts is a very different book, but the elements that made me fall in love with her work the first time are all present here and honed to a fine edge: a deft hand weaving mythic elements into fiction, vivid characters built with psychological and emotional insight, a penchant for putting marvelous, astute observations into beautiful sentences, and wringing my heart out.

The mythic elements here are so subtly played early on that I almost thought this might be just magical realism until things really got going. It's also not an area of mythic fiction I've encountered very much--fairy tale retellings are perenniallly popular, classical myth is in the midst of a boom at the moment, and this is apocalyptic myth? Christian mythic fiction, with an emphasis on the christian myth rather than christian fiction? The chapter titles are from Revelations, which is about as weird as the Bible gets (and yet, is somehow still less unhinged than Leviticus) and there were allusions to Paradise Lost and Dante's Inferno scattered throughout the book--I've never read either and might have missed some references, but I can confidently say that you needn't have read them to love this. Certainly, apocalyptic myth is a perfect choice for a story set WWI.

In browsing other reviews, I saw one by a reader disappointed by difficulty relating to one of the main characters. Your mileage will vary, of course, but I had a very different take. Laura, our primary protagonist, is businesslike, prickly, jaded as hell, and with an iron core. She has also been a combat nurse for the preceding few years before we meet her, injured and honorably discharged from the military (Canadian). Take the reputation (read: psychological armor) of nurses in peacetime: capable & efficient but also absolutely no-nonsense and with an acquired benevolent ruthlessness, especially if they've been working in nursing for years--and turn it *way* up for combat nursing. The effects of wartime medicine on nurses and doctors/surgeons are devastating. There are no characters in this book who have not been broken by the war (one character was broken by a different war). Among my notes made while reading was: "I LOVE that in this book characters get to be people; they get to be cranky and overtired and have maladapted coping mechanisms."

Arden's prose and imagery are poetic without ever being overwrought. She brings the Great War to hellish life, portrays the many faces of trauma in a matter-of-fact way while letting those same folks be people instead of just tragic spectacles. She writes slow-blooming, imperfect love stories that don't take over the narrative or make me roll my eyes. She wrote a book about war and love and loss that broke my heart without being depressing. And perhaps most strikingly, she manages to impress upon the reader just how jarringly and wholly the world was remade over the course of the war, forming a violent divide between the world before and the modern age for everyone who lived through it.

I love this book so much. I received an ARC (thanks to Random House, Del Rey, and Netgalley) but have pre-ordered the hardback and plan to badger everyone I know into reading it. I'm now an absolutely devoted fan of Arden's. I read remarks by the author about how much she struggled with this book for years and very nearly gave up and abandoned it... I'm very, very glad that she finally bested it.