This cover is so gorgeous. I really enjoyed this novel. It took my a moment to get through it but it was entertaining.

You would think that a book set in the dark, unforgiving landscape of the Great War would be filled with paralyzing tragedy and despair. But instead, Katherine Arden reminds us that while the world may have felt like it stopped, it did indeed keep going - and families, friends, and strangers alike kept coming together and being thrust apart. Set across two storylines, this book tells the story of a desperate sister trying to find her lost brother, and the same lost brother trying to find himself. As the timelines first crawl - then collide - the story picks up other characters who are on their own missions: a woman trying to salvage her hospital. A mother trying to find out what happened to her fallen son. A doctor trying to make a life where there should be none. A soldier trying to reunite with his friend. Every character introduced is rich and developed, and you can't help but root for every single one of them.

Book Summary:

Laura Iven worked hard as a field nurse during the war, saving as many soldiers as possible. That was until she was wounded and sent home. Not that coming home proved to be any safer.

Now Laura is facing the death of her parents and the reported death of her brother. But something’s wrong. There’s no evidence for his death - merely his disappearance. If Laura could find her way into the field again, she could find him.

My Review:

I’ve been hearing SO much hype about The Warm Hands of Ghosts. It’s all over the place, including a few book boxes. So, I was pretty hyped about it. While it was a good read, I don’t think it quite met my expectations.

However, one should probably take my review with a grain of salt, as I’m not always a fan of historical fiction or fantasy. I loved parts of this story, such as the overall writing (how they revealed Laura’s past was a chef’s kiss) and the atmospheric vibes from the pages.

Despite loving the overall writing style and atmosphere, I didn’t fall in love with this book, which is odd because I liked the characters just fine. Maybe it was my fear of getting attached (ghosts + wartime usually equals heartbreak, right?).

Highlights:
Historical Fiction
Magical Realism
Ghosts & Horror

Trigger Warnings:
War Time Violence & Death
Missing People
Familial Death

Katherine Arden never disappoints. I will say this book is harder to read than Winternight due to the recency of the historical events. I had to take breaks while reading. I love the dual pov from siblings. The romance plot lines for both siblings were incredibly sweet and it evened out the heaviness. I appreciate the research that went into this and spotlighting lesser known events during the time period. The fantasy aspect was so interesting. The plot twist later on was crazy!

“Mother always said the world would end, and it did.”

“The horsemen galloped, disembodied, and the old world writhed in torment, giving birth to the new.”

Sadly wars are the ending of worlds, as a whole and individually, but with it brings a rebirth. Reading all the evil that people can do to each other I couldn’t help looking for those undercurrents of hope for the future. For the death of outdated ideals and the birth of more freedoms and the spur in sciences (I know it’s dark outlook, but I got a thrill when Jones talked about blood types and transfusion).

This is also a story about people reaching out for a connection with others, family, friendship, love. Even in the bleakest times we need those connections.

“Good things don’t grow in this rotten earth.”

But I as a response to book Laura (hey you got my name too!) and with the idea of connection, sometimes good things do grow from the most foul things or experiences, shown in the relationship Freddie and Winter. I related with Laura's persistence to keep what was left of family together even when she thought Freddie was dead.

Lastly, Faland you smooth fae Lucifer mother fucker. Even as just the reader I felt like he was screwing with me. Katherine Arden this is the second time you’ve done this to me (first was Morozko in The Winternight Trilogy).

If I said any more I’d start spoiling the book. Sorry for the flow of consciousness review this book does that to you. I adore it.

I was late to read this book and I completely regret it. Thank you to the author, the publishers and NetGalley for the chance to read and review this book!

This book, however, took my breath away in a different way. It is a shocking, dark, and profoundly heartbreaking tale. It is a tragic yet painfully realistic symphony that explores the devastating consequences of war, dragging people into a bleak world that lies somewhere between the realm of the living and the world of ghosts. As you read, you can almost feel the cold shiver of the lingering ghosts, their ethereal presence haunting your every step. You touch their spectral hands and are reminded that they are long gone, leaving nothing but echoes in their wake.
Katherine Arden masterfully transports us to the darkest and most harrowing corners of the battlefield.
We find ourselves alongside soldiers trapped in cramped spaces, struggling to breathe as they are surrounded by the lifeless bodies of their comrades.
Through her vivid prose, we navigate the darkness with them

I enjoyed the author's previous trilogy so had high hopes for this one. Their writing style is beautiful and does convey tone/atmosphere very well - almost too well here. This book was just too bleak/depressing (accurate tone for war!) with far too little happening with the actual plot and character development. It became too much of a chore to try and get through, but I do look forward to trying different works from the author in the future.

Loved the theme of family in this. Definitely made you feel the utter terror of war, the depravity of grief… ugh this one hurts your heart. Need to be in the right space to read.

"Laura, I will tell you three things that are true. You may believe as you like. The first true thing is this: Your brother is alive."

After she receives her brother’s possessions but no answers, Laura Iven chooses to return to Europe and the horrors of the Great War to discover the truth behind her brother Freddie’s supposed death in the trenches. Laura, a nurse discharged from the army after taking damage from a shell, is well aware of the brutal realities of the war. What Laura finds, however, is far stranger than she could have ever expected. Whispers of a mysterious fiddler haunt the front, and Laura begins to suspect that her brother might have fallen prey to a force greater than the war…

"Ghosts have warm hands, he kept telling me, as though it were the greatest secret in the world."

It is a rare experience to realize that a book will irrevocably alter you within the first few chapters, but I knew The Warm Hands of Ghosts would become one of my all-time favorites by the sixth chapter. This was everything. I walked into this with few expectations. I’ve never read a book by Katherine Arden before, and I generally have high standards for historical fiction. However, the premise was interesting enough that I was willing to take a chance, and I think I’ll always be glad that I did. My only regret is that I didn’t pick this up sooner, leaving it languishing on my shelf for months before finally beginning it.

Arden masterfully weaves the Iven siblings’ stories together with the setting of the Great War. The War is not just a backdrop there to bring these characters together, but almost a character itself. Its presence is felt on every page and in every interaction. The addition of a fiddle-playing devil should have felt trite, but there was nothing cliche or pointless about this storyline. Faland is not the scary, all-powerful villain commonly found in fantasy books. Still, there is something incredibly sinister about how Arden writes him, even if the real villain seems to be the war itself. This is perhaps my favorite interpretation of the devil; future iterations will only bring disappointment. Arden’s depictions of the war almost put the reader there alongside the characters, who seem almost like familiar friends by the end of the book. Her prose is heartwrenching, and her characters are beautifully crafted. How Laura and Freddie are developed and given depth is amazing, but even side characters like Pim and Winter are given very solid personalities. I don’t think I’ve ever had such a detailed understanding of a cast of characters before. This was poignant, beautifully written, and hauntingly authentic. It was a privilege to read. I will never get this book out of my head.

Although I also bought the book, my thanks to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group/Ballantine/Del Rey for generously providing me with a digital reviewer copy in exchange for my honest thoughts.

Whenever I read Katherine Arden’s books I realise how much of a gift she was to me and how much I love her stories. This was no exception. Discovering Arden’s writing has been a joy, in more ways than one. I loved Vasya from “The Bear And The Nightingale” and the beyond beautiful story. I loved this book just as much and our characters. I found myself emotional throughout but embraced the story like a warm blanket. Highly, highly recommend.

Usually, historical fiction is not really my jam, but I was really surprised at how much I really enjoyed this one! A little spooky and lots of historical drama and intrigue. Loved it!

I absolutely adored the Winternight Trilogy so I was very excited about this one. However, it did not live up to my expectations. While it was a solid book, it didn't grab me the way her other books did. It was still an engaging story, and I do plan to read future books by this author.

“Reality was a crumbling thing, a rotten tree.”

I put this book down initially because it has a slow start and I generally prefer faster paced books but I’m so glad I came back to this. This was a beautiful story. The ideas Arden is playing with—apocalypse, hell, people being thrust into a new world they aren’t prepared for—were so deeply realized. As a big romance reader I of course wanted the smidges of romance to take up more room but that’s not a fault of this books just a personal insatiable hunger. Read in tandem with the audiobook and especially liked Laura’s POV’s narrator. While I understand Freddie was losing himself throughout and that played into his character’s representation, I did want more characterization with Laura and Winter. They felt painted in broader strokes outside of their specific situations. The other characters—Jones, Pim, Mary, Faland—felt very genuinely realized and I was so engaged in their personalities and missions. Rounding up to 5⭐️.

Overall so so beautiful and definitely lots to think about :’)

“'Iven, we were dead together, we were born together. I cannot live without you.’ He didn’t sound happy about it. In fact, he sounded much the way Freddie felt, as though he’d been changed against his will, and was marking out the new boundaries of himself.”

(rounded down from 3.5)

Katherine Arden has written a very interesting story, combining the history or World War I and a sci-fi/fantasy/magical realism aspect. The narration switches between the POV of Laura Iven, a nurse from Halifax, Canada, who was badly injured while serving in Belgium and France, and her brother, Freddie, a soldier still in Europe, who has been reported to Laura as missing in action/presumed dead.

Arden describes the brutality of WW1’s warfare. You can tell she’s done her homework! The concept of shell-shock, which we now call PTSE is explored, along with the realities of dealing with mass casualty situations.

I was most interested in Freddie’s part of the story, with him waking up in total darkness after a major explosion on the battlefield. He’s in total darkness and eventually realizes there’s another soldier in there with him. The two of them band together to try to save themselves, even though both are wounded and the other man is the enemy: a German soldier.

The supernatural aspect of the book didn’t grab me that much, unfortunately. There’s a mysterious hotel in the middle of bombed out Belgium which is run by a “fiddler”. Soldiers who go there drink wine and forget their troubles. Literally. There are a lot of biblical references to the end of days, much of which I didn’t relate to, as a non-Christian reader. Apparently the chapter titles are biblical quotes.

The ending was a little too pat.

Thank you to NetGalley and Del Rey for the opportunity to read a review copy of this book. All opinions are my own.

“Ghosts have warm hands.” World War I historical fiction!

Laura receives her brother’s dog tags and uniform in the mail. This means that Freddie has died in World War I. She’s devastated but has a feeling that he isn’t dead. She leaves her Canadian home and travels back to World War I and takes up her mantle as a war nurse again to search for any information she can find about Freddie. What she discovers will change her life forever.

Likes/dislikes: Laura’s strength, perseverance, and love for her brother makes her a great character. My heart warmed as Freddie and the German soldier helped each other and became like brothers. I appreciated the World War I setting and learned quite a bit about its history. I didn’t know about the Halifax explosion before I read this book.
Language: R for 93 swears and 3 f-words.
Mature Content: PG-13 for adults drinking.
Violence: R for bloody deaths.
Ethnicity: falls to white.

Katherine Arden writes some of the most haunting and sweeping historical fantasy that I've had the delight to read -- The Warm Hands of Ghosts is a novel that will linger with me for a long time. Exquisite!

I have been dying to read this book since before it came out. I love everything I have read by the author thus far. This was no exception. It was just beautiful. I had so many emotions while reading. Laura, a combat nurse in the Great War, gets news that her brother might not have really died. From there she embarks on a journey for the truth. What she finds is so much more. There is magical realism and a bit of fantasy mixed in to make such a wonderful story. Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine for the arc in exchange for my honest review.

This was only just okay. I felt like the story was slow and the ending didn't pay off the way I was hoping

The Warm Hands of Ghosts was a pleasant surprise for me. After a slow start I started doubting this book would be for me, but once the pacing picked up I ended up getting super invested in the characters stories, specially Freddie and Hans.

Arden has a good atmospheric prose that captures the essence of the era, and the way the story unravels is tragically beautiful.

It’s not gonna be a book I could safely recommend to anyone, but this almost makes it more special. I think the right readers will find a precious gem in this story.

Absolutely OBSESSED with this book! WOW! Phenomenal writing, prose, etc. I am a huge fan of anything spooky, and this hit the mark.