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.

The Warm Hands of Ghosts possesses this luminous quality that is, I think, signature to Katherine Arden. I’ve waited years to read another one of her book and this was…surprising. But also utterly devastating.

It took me a while to finish this book because I stopped multiple times, hit a block, then started reading again. The themes were a bit difficult for me to process due to how melodramatic they felt. With the prose being so polished and heart wrenching, the war and a new world’s devil seemed to be too crass of a reality, too raw of a story.

But somehow the book kept on nagging me. Maybe it’s Laura’s quiet resolve to defy sufferings, maybe it’s Freddie’s desperate refusal to lose the broken pieces of himself, or Winter’s blind faith in some inevitable salvation—they kept me reading in angst. Honestly, I didn’t care about the plot anymore halfway through because I knew they were going to see each other again and made it home. It just felt too good to leave. I was probably stuck in that bar for real, addicted to Faland’s music.

Please don’t take another 5 years for the next book. I can’t wait for what Katherine Arden comes up next.

4.5 stars

This book is a stunning, haunting, melancholic exploration of war, tragedy, love, madness, and grief. Being Katherine Arden, of course the writing it beautiful. But don’t go into this looking for anything like The Bear and the Nightingale. This is completely different, but still amazing.
Over the background of the absolute horror of the trenches of WWI, we have a brother and sister battling their ghosts, their trauma, and even reality itself to find their way back to each other. The relationships in the book are heartachingly touching. Parts of the book are a kind of fever dream; the characters aren’t the only ones questioning what is going on. The last 15% of the book is the most emotional. I cried for most of it.
And at the end, we’re left with both the devastation we must live with, but also hope and love. I highly recommend.

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the preview. All opinions are my own.

Katherine Areden is one of the few authors that I will read anything she's written. After reading the Winternight trilogy, I was in love with the voice and the fairy-tale like prose. This book has the same voice and the same fairy-tale type prose. I saw the author's name and grabbed the book, not even reading the description. I was surprised to find it is a story set in World War I. I'm not sure I've read any books about World War I, as everyone seems to be focused on World War II as a setting for many novels. This is an emotional read.

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

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

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

My Thoughts:
The story unfolds from two points of view, Laura Iven and her brother, Freddie Iven. I liked both of these characters and they were fully developed in the book. The plot moved at a steady pace with at atmospheric feel. The ghosts in the story enhanced the tale and somehow seemed to fit.

I feel like I have a much better picture of what World War I may have been like for those serving than I had before reading this book. The scenes in both the trenches and the hospitals were gritty and heartbreaking. War is such a destructive, terrible thing. For those of you who read this book be sure to read over the author's note at the end - I found it interesting. Kudos to Katherine Aren for another great novel!

Thanks to Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine, Del Rey through Netgalley for an advance copy. Expected publication on February 13, 2024.

Set during the Great War, this historical fantasy will not disappoint. Filled with family drama and the pains of being at war, you will contiune rreading this until you react the very last page.

Thank you to NetGalley and Del Rey for providing me with this ARC!

Every now and then a book comes along that makes you feel like you're a better person for reading it—The Warm Hands of Ghosts is undoubtedly one of those books. The Warm Hands of Ghosts details a time, World War I, which is so often lost in the shadow of what came next. Author Katherine Arden lovingly and unapologetically places that time period out in the sun and shows it as it is, devastating, all-consuming, and hungry. She does not try to sugar coat a time that many thought was the end of the world or to tie it up in a neat ribbon of hope at the end, but lets the pain and uncertainty flow unchecked. It feels heartbreakingly real and it is clear the author carried out a massive amount of research in order to do justice to the time period and the people who suffered in it.
"'Waiting for something to happen?' Laura asked Lucretia as they walked.

'Well, yes,' said Lucretia. 'To you, you know. All your ghosts. You're tailing them like penitent-beads. Your family. Your patients. Not dear Freddie, of course. Because he's not dead.'
Laura said nothing."

Arden’s characters, two siblings, Laura and Wilfred “Freddie” Iven are painfully lifelike characters in extraordinary times. Laura is a tough, far too experienced combat nurse who was permanently injured in the line of duty and honorably discharged. Her brother, Freddie, is a bleeding heart artist who is on the front lines of the war. Both have seen far too much of the earth shattering war already, but when Laura is sent her brother's uniform and dog tags along with a note that he's missing and presumed dead, she sets out to find the truth of his fate—for how could the military send home dog tags and a uniform of a missing man? As she gets closer to the truth, she realizes there is much worse than the physical agony of death on and off the battlefield. (Content warning: this novel contains graphic descriptions of men dying from various wounds throughout the novel. There are also depictions of amputations, the loss of sanity, and murder.)

I was immediately ensnared by the story, as Arden effortlessly depicts the two characters in different time frames, Laura in 1918 at home in Halifax, Canada trying to find purpose after her discharge, and Freddie in 1917 finding himself trapped in an overturned pillbox. The juxtaposition of these two very different, but similar hells, which were both suffocating in their own ways, made it impossible not to care about the siblings. I was at once invested to find out what happened to Freddie and pained the more I learned of his past struggles and watched Laura trying to piece together the truth of his fate.

"'Lord,' the second doctor said finally.
'Think all the girls who went to war came back like that?' Cut up, incorrigible?'"

Laura, though not always likable with her brusqueness and pragmatism, was an incredibly sympathetic character to me. Her matter-of-factness and cynicism probably should have conflicted with her utter devotion to her brother, but instead they form the basis of a very three dimensional woman desperately trying to hold on to not only those she loves, but also, herself. I wonder how anyone could find this character anything but moving, as she is a determined, self-made career woman in survival mode living in a world on the cusp of ruin. It is clear that Laura isn't sure where she belongs in this world if not for her role as an older sister or her job as a nurse. I admired her for her resolution to move forward in the face of impossible odds and for her ability to hang on to her reason in a world very much without it.

Side characters Winter, a German soldier and unlikely ally of Freddie, and Pim, a grieving widow who also lost her son in the war, both search for their own answers in different ways. I found Pim to be a particularly poignant character study of grief and will undoubtedly always think of her when I think of this novel. Arden does a fantastic job of demonstrating the different ways in which people can splinter in the face of overwhelming adversity and loss. Her depictions are somehow understated, but managed to effortlessly sear the imagery of war and despair into my head. The emotions she conveys with such few words are palpable and heart wrenching.

"No poet, living or dead could have imagined this place, real upon earth, and their very language was insufficient to describe it."

To be honest, I found The Warm Hands of Ghost to be a difficult read, which it should be, given the subject matter of war and loss. In fact, it took me almost a month to complete the novel, despite truly wanting to know all of its mysteries and the fate of the characters. The longer reading time had more to do with me and less to do with the novel. However, it does take about 45% of the book for the setup to end and the supernatural stuff to really start coming into play—something that may feel slow to readers who are really keen to get to those parts of the story or aren't huge fans of plain historical fiction. In fact, it took so long for the supernatural elements to become a major part of the plot that it felt a bit jarring for me when they actually started occurring. It felt like I had been reading a historical fiction novel, with a few grieving widows turning to seances to cope with their loss on the side for spice, so it was a bit shocking when ghosts, who I thought had been mere symptoms of PTSD started playing a role beyond trauma, and the devil started playing a tune to make soldiers dance. It was almost like reading two different books in one.

Though it took me some time to get used to the novel pivoting from its depressing, brutal realism into the realm of the otherworldly, I did eventually get accustomed to it. Admittedly, other parts of The Warm Hands of Ghosts remained uncomfortable, as it's inescapably apparent that the atrocities of humanity being committed in this novel are eerily similar to the times we are living in today. That makes The Warm Hands of Ghosts feel disquieting—less like a fictional tale of the past and more like a cautionary tale of what happens when humanity loses the pieces of itself that make it, well, human. It’s truly a testament to Arden’s writing that readers are unable to escape the implications of the past repeating itself and the connections to all of the historical events occurring in our own lifetimes.

"'You hate the war as much as me.'
Faland drew the cork on a new bottle and raised it in a toast. 'Yes, I hate it, clever boy. It's a hell with no master, that men made themselves.' He drank, said meditatively, 'Appetite without judgment: torment by numbers and entirely mindless. Of course I hate it.'"

Ultimately, The Warm Hands of Ghosts is truly unlike anything I've read, combining historical fiction and the supernatural in an unforgettable homage to grief, humanity, and the total devastation of war. The novel manages to examine the price one is willing to pay in order to be okay, to highlight a time period of inescapable uncertainty, and begs the question of what truly makes a person a person. If you don't mind darker stories and love complex characters who don't make the “right” decisions, I highly recommend you pick up The Warm Hands of Ghosts.

"The Warm Hands of Ghosts" by Katherine Arden is a hauntingly beautiful and evocative novel that captivates from the first page. Arden, known for her skill in crafting immersive fantasy worlds, delivers another masterpiece that seamlessly blends magical realism with poignant storytelling. The narrative unfolds with lyrical grace, drawing readers into a world where the boundaries between the supernatural and the tangible are delicately blurred.

One of the novel's greatest strengths lies in Arden's ability to create characters that feel both ethereal and profoundly human. The protagonists resonate with authenticity, their struggles and triumphs serving as a mirror to the complexities of the human experience. Arden masterfully weaves together threads of emotion, exploring themes of love, loss, and the enduring nature of memory.

Katherine Arden's brilliance extends beyond the enchanting narrative and characters in "The Warm Hands of Ghosts" to her remarkable depiction of the forbidden zone during World War I. With meticulous research and a keen eye for historical detail, Arden brings to life the haunting landscapes of war-torn territories. The forbidden zone becomes not just a setting but a character in its own right, echoing the ghosts of the past. Arden's portrayal of the harsh realities of World War I adds a layer of historical authenticity to the novel, grounding the fantastical elements in the grim and poignant backdrop of a war-torn world. Her ability to navigate the complexities of the forbidden zone with sensitivity and precision contributes significantly to the novel's atmospheric depth, creating an immersive experience that showcases Arden's prowess in historical and speculative fiction. Her prose is atmospheric, lush, and meticulous.

Arden's narrative unfolds perfectly with mystery and revelation, keeping readers entranced until the end. The pacing is expertly handled, allowing the story to unfold organically while maintaining a sense of suspense that lingers throughout. The novel's ability to blend the mystical with the mundane, the magical with the everyday, creates an enchanting and thought-provoking reading experience. The book is undoubtedly a mesmerizing tale. Some readers may find the fragmentation of the story somewhat challenging, especially as Arden waits until later in the narrative to fully introduce the magical elements. The initial chapters focus on building the historical and emotional foundation, which, although rich and evocative, may lead some readers to anticipate the fantasy aspects sooner. However, once the magical elements are revealed, they seamlessly weave into the narrative, enhancing the overall depth and intrigue of the story. While the delayed introduction of the fantastical elements may initially feel like a narrative choice that keeps readers in suspense, it ultimately underscores the careful layering of the plot, revealing the magical dimensions with a calculated precision that enhances the novel's overall impact.

In "The Warm Hands of Ghosts," Katherine Arden once again proves her mastery of storytelling. It's a testament to her ability to create immersive, emotionally resonant narratives that transcend genre boundaries. For those seeking a novel that lingers in the mind long after the final page, Arden's work is a literary treasure that showcases the enduring power of her storytelling prowess.

Thank you to NetGalley and Ballantine Books for the advanced copy of this book in exchange for my honest reviews.

Wow. I scarcely have words to express my thoughts about this masterpiece.

WWI has always held a part of my imagination and horror, and this story so perfectly captured the terror and strange juxtapositions of that world.

In this story, we follow Laura, a nurse from Canada, as she returns to the front after being injured to seek out the truth of what happened to her missing soldier brother after his jacket and a mysterious note arrive home. There’s ghosts, historical detailing that would make a historian fall in love, and a fantastical devil weaving mystery through the plot.

This book hooked me in and didn’t let me go. It was beautiful, poignant, gritty, and lyrical. It examined the realities of war and the bonds that carry us through the darkest times.

I’m a bit speechless after just finishing this lovely book. After finishing it, it feels whole, it feels complete. Even though one character who plays an impactful role doesn’t have a “complete” ending, I am content with how things ended.

This is a very well written story about siblings whose family has been torn apart during WWI. Along their way, they encounter a paranormal character, who is not what they seem. It’s an interesting take on those who suffered and survived, and suffered even more after the end.

I would highly recommend this to all. Historical fiction with a paranormal twist, a solid 5 stars. Thank you NetGalley and DelRey for this read.

Big thank you NetGalley and to the publisher for the chance to review this book pre-release. This was an absolutely amazing combination of historical fiction, and gothic horror. I loved the combination, it was really well done and completely unique. A more formal review will be available on my IG/TikTok and Goodreads.