If you loved The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue, then Arden’s haunting and enveloping prose will take you back to that feeling. This book is gorgeous and needs to be read and shared and remembered. Just like her Winternight trilogy, this book should be savored.

I had to think for a moment about what rating to give this book. This was one of my most anticipated reads of 2024, and sadly I was somewhat disappointed.

Objectively speaking, I think that Arden's writing is, as usual, quite beautiful and haunting. That aspect did not disappoint. However, the actual story itself, the pacing, and the aftertaste of dissatisfaction are what caused me to reduce the rating.

This book follows two siblings from Halifax: Laura and Wilfred (Freddie), back and forth between 1917 and 1918, during World War I. Laura was a nurse who was serving at a military hospital until she was injured and returned home, only for her parents to perish in an explosion in Halifax. Freddie, her brother, is serving with the Canadian army in Belgium, and he wakes to find himself buried alive with an enemy soldier and no way out.

The first 25-50% of this book is just SO slow. Glacially slow. It was really a slog to get through it. And the tone of course is extremely bleak. It is World War I after all. A horrible time, with the first modern horrors being inflicted across the world. Things picked up when Laura received her brother's things but a mystery as to how he died. Laura decides to return to the western front to find out what happened to Freddie, to discover that many soldiers are going mad, talking about a Fiddler who shows them their deepest desires, and the haunting of ghosts on the battlefield. The second half of this book was much more enjoyable, but I don't think there is much resolution about who or what the Fiddler is. There is an air of the supernatural, or possibly he is meant to be a religious figure, but it is all very obscure and it certainly wasn't clear to me even with the hints dropped here and there.

Again, Arden is a talented writer, but personally the tone and pace is so bleak and slow, respectively, that I could not possibly pick up this book and read a second time. I still can't say that I wouldn't recommend it to others. This book wasn't what I was expecting from Arden's return to writing for an adult audience.

Thank you to Del Rey for my arc.


I really enjoyed this. both haunting and sad at the same time. The Warm Hands of Ghosts takes you on this journey with Laura as she tries to find her brother. I will admit that i didn't expect this to have a magical realism aspect to it. I just assumed this was historical fiction and I've never been so happy to be wrong.

Many thanks to NetGalley for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review. Arden is a wonderful writer and that shines again in The Warm Hands of Ghosts.

While this is somewhat of a slow burn, it kept me engaged. It’s more character heavy and based around the brother / sister relationship and an unexpected relationship between a Canadian and German soldier during the First World War. There are different timelines that eventually converge as all characters come together.

There are some super natural / magical realism elements that open up discussion about the dark threads behind war, the human condition, memories and what makes us who we are. Some symbolism here with desire and mirroring what we want to see vs reality.

Seems this will be an excellent pick for the 2024 book clubs.

An easy 5 star review for Arden!

Thank you Netgalley for providing me with an arc of The Warm Hand of Ghosts by Kathrine Arden.

This was such a vivid and beautifully written book from Arden once again enthralling me in this WWI atmosphere and characters as they did in their Russian Folklore Trilogy books.

I have to say as we once again see genocide happening to Palestinians today and a War looming on the horizon, the effects of war written by Arden are not lost nor will they unfortunately ever be as so many outcomes of war are not only horrendous for nations, but unimaginable for those entering it and experiencing it.

Following Laura as a disabled nurse able to return to the front lines to search for answers for how her brother is missing, but assumed dead was inspiring to keep your strength, courage, determination, and hope alive.

A stunning blur written between the lines of reality of war as it's higher ranks enjoy the plunder of it all and the fantasy of soldiers knowing what war is really fought for is nothing but suffering.

Freddie's chapters were devastating to say the least, but offers readers insight of wishing to be an empty husk after traumatic experiences. Either dying inside and are no longer the same person you once were or you slowly decay and forget who, what, where, nor care about this earthly vessel you were born into.

Faland's character as the mysterious Fiddler on the front lines was such a treat to devour. Even with the religious implements made, it felt like we as readers were also gorging as sin eaters to have more and more as we descended into madness with him.

Also the title for this book is so perfect as Freddie battles his past ghosts and wishing to forget, and Laura wishing her ghosts would stop haunting her, they are both able to finally accept their ghosts and live with them closely embraced to their hearts, souls, their very beings to keep moving forward.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ an easy 5 stars

Thank you Netgalley for providing me with an arc of The Warm Hand of Ghosts by Kathrine Arden

This book was beautifully written. I haven’t read any other books by Katherine Arden, but they’re highly praised and after this- I might just have to give them a go. This novel was gorgeously heart wrenching. I typically find it hard to fall in love with characters throughout a standalone, especially ones this short. But that was not a problem with me through this. I cared about each character so much. This book delves into the mental trauma of war, and the way people can become a crutch to get through it. This book is a work of art. It pulled emotions out of me throughout the entire thing.

The story flips between two point of views:
the present Laura Iven, a discharged nurse who was injured and has recently been orphaned. Her brother was lost at war and is presumed dead, but there are unexplained parts to that- and Laura isn’t one to let the unexplained go.
The other perspective is told a few months in the past, following Wilfred (Freddie) Iven, a WW1 Canadian solider, and Laura’s brother. The novel follows him as he narrowly escapes death with an enemy soldier and desperately grips on to his sanity. His storyline was my favorite to follow. It was so painfully and stunningly raw and emotional.

There is also a slight paranormal fantastical element to this book. People whisper of a fantastical man: The Fiddler. He promises oblivion and it’s said that people who’ve seen him go mad trying to find him again. This aspect was perfectly woven into the storyline.

I could sing my praises about this book forever, but I’ll leave my review at this. I cannot wait for this book to come out, to see all the raving reviews from readers. This book makes me want to read more historical fiction. If this book even remotely intrigues you, give it a shot this February!

*I received this ARC from the publisher in exchange for my review.

I was really excited to read The Warm Hands of Ghosts as I'm a fan of Katherine Arden's other work, and while I think the positives of this are broady in-line with elements I loved in her Russian trilogy, there is something missing here that did not resonate with me on the same level.

What initially captured me about this book and what continued to capture me as I read it was the rather unique premise. The blurring of lines between fantasy and reality, the evocation of religious concepts - particularly those of hell and the devil - was both engaging and particularly fitting for a war novel. I was completely enraptured by the character of Faland from the first introduction until the end and every scene with him felt like a treat, the sort of thing that I can rely Arden to deliver on.

Additionally, It is inarguable that Arden has a particular skill for creating a sense of place. Her ability to evoke setting and atmosphere with words sweeps you up in the story from page one and you are always fully grounded in the story. She has a wonderful knack for detail and rich imagery that aid with this, not to mention generally smooth and effective prose. I also think she's always been good at creating a wide variety of character types that feel both real and unique, something that was present here as well as in her past works.

However, despite all of this something about this book fell a bit flat for me starting around the halfway mark and continuing throughout. There were a number of factors that fed into this - relationships that were never given the time to properly develop and either felt rushed or empty, narrators that never felt as interesting or complex as the side characters they interacted with, and a central concept that never fully came into itself. It is this last one that is the most significant, as I felt myself thinking "maybe she's bitten off a bit more than she can chew" towards the end. I very much understood the message that was intended here about war, suffering, the concepts of winners and losers in such a war, and how this shapes the public conception of the world itself. Yet this always felt a bit half-baked, never going as deep as I was hoping for. The book starts to feel a bit repetitive at parts and while I could imagine this could be in part purposeful (what is war if not a sort of groundhog day?) the way it is done here did not lend itself to being particularly engaging.

I do think this is a well written book about a topic that doesn't get nearly as much attention as other parts of modern history, but I came a way a bit disappointed having expected something more fleshed out.

This is one of those rare books that is difficult to pick up and difficult to put down. From reading Arden's account, it seems she had a similar experience writing it. I'll give fair warning that if you're an older sibling as I am, or if you've ever had to witness someone you love gradually lose ground to their internal battles, this book will probably rip your heart out in a thousand different ways.

But I'm getting ahead of myself.

The Warm Hands of Ghosts is largely inspired by Will Bird's memoir, Ghosts Have Warm Hands: A Memoir of the Great War, 1916-1919, in which he tells the story of how the ghost of his brother saved his life on multiple occasions during The Great War. As such, some of the themes in Arden's book involve the clash between Victorian spirituality and the horrors of modern warfare. Additionally, the book considers the personal bonds formed in such conditions--the lengths people will go to for the ones they care for, facing choices that will lead them into the dark and ruin them. Arden's book is thematically consistent with first-hand accounts in that it seems to agree with them on this: sometimes people make sacrifices for seemingly noble causes, only to lose anyway. This is true about war and it is true about love.

I'm also impressed that Arden interrogates the nuances of the devil (as he is understood in Western mythology). Faland, as he is named in this story, is handsome and charming and deceptive and all those standards you see the devil depicted as in other stories. But he's also so unbearably human. In a world that sends its children to the trenches, in a world that considers the human soul a number and little more--how can the devil be distinguished from the ruthlessness of humanity? More importantly, how can he be rejected by the suffering soldiers who deviate from their orders, orders which command them to go against every human instinct? The devil, we remember, was also a "bad soldier".

What would you do if you were told by the world, by your own countrymen, that your life is only as valuable as the destruction you can cause before you are yourself destroyed? If you were lost and forgotten and preferred that way? If you were plagued by your memories, by bitterness, rage, even love? What if someone--gentle in a harsh world--came up to you and told you that they could take it all away, and in exchange they'd honor your soul by forcing others to feel your joys and sorrows? You'd leave some mark on the world, but if nothing else, you'd be treasured by one being in a way that others refused to. It'd be tempting, no? Oblivion for justice. Your soul in exchange for someone to remember you.

I think it's terribly fitting to imagine The Great War in terms of the fantastical. Some things are seemingly beyond rationality, beyond comprehension. How better to represent the disconnect, between the world as we think it is and the world as it actually is, than to imagine there is something more than the world? I'm an atheist myself, but I can see why it's so appealing for people in distress to lean into the comfort of mythology, legends, and folklore. We are storytellers, humans. A great example of this very human tendency is in the legend of The Wild Men of No Man's Land, which is briefly mentioned in Arden's book.

I loved these characters, and it made it all the more painful to see them suffer in irrevocable ways. Freddie, for his endless love and selflessness. Winter, for his pragmatism and martyrish tendencies. Jones, for his reason and integrity. And even Pim, for her quiet determination and surprising ruthlessness.

The war demands a high price of everyone. You cannot enter it and not come out in some ways a villain, in some ways a martyr. It's how you leverage yourself that matters. It's about what you're willing to give up, how you are willing to change, that determines your survival. Nothing will ever be the same, and you have to decide if it's worth it anyway.

And I think that's why I struggled with Laura's chapters, and with her character more generally. Unlike the other characters, she isn't challenged to the same extent. She's never forced to make difficult, irrevocable choices. Any time she is faced with a hard decision, other characters make those hard choices for her. It's almost too easy, how she slips through the cracks while others are forced to offer pieces of themselves to just barely survive. So if you find yourself also struggling with Laura's chapters, I advise you to push through. The other characters, and the larger story, make it worth it.

There's different types of love in this story: love for a stranger, love for an enemy, love for a friend, love for a sibling, and romantic love. What I appreciated most about Arden's book is that all of these types of love are treated with equal care and given equal weight. All of these types of love are treasured and life-changing. All of them are changed and made ugly by the circumstances. None is more pure or virtuous than another. I'm a huge fan of stories in which 'love saves the day', but what intrigued me so much about this story is that one of its morals is 'love saves, but love also destroys, and either way, there is something gained and something lost--but it doesn't matter what love does, because people will keep choosing it regardless'. And Faland knows it.

Overall:
Well, I highlighted half the book, if that's any indication.
I loved this. I hated this. I loved it more than I hated it.
I know there are some scenes in this book that will stay with me for a long time, if not forever.
So, yes, this has my recommendation. For anyone who's intrigued by war stories, or character-driven stories. For anyone who enjoyed Divine Rivals by Rebecca Ross and wouldn't mind something grittier.
Easily one of my top books this year, and a good book to end the year with. I'll be buying a physical copy in 2024!

A vivid and absorbing tale of World War I and its impact. An inventive depiction of the tole war has on mental health and memory. I loved it! Thank you to Net Galley and Random House for the egalley.

Katherine Arden has the ability to write novels steeped in atmosphere, using magical realism to convey deep themes that resonate today. This book is very dark - as expected when writing about war - but does end with a shred of hope. Her characters’ traumas and shell shock feel so real. How do you know who the enemy is? How do you survive when you aren’t sure? The fairly slow pace of the book perfectly matches the events as they unfold. WWI was a brutal, terrifying, soul crushing slog. Arden portrays that so well. I will be recommending this.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the chance to read this arc in exchange for an honest review.

Vasilisa walked so Laura could run.

This book was incredible. So damn good.

PSTD (although it's never called that; this is WWI) features heavily, with several different aspects of how people cope. Courage also features heavily, although the definition of courage Arden employs is perhaps not the definition that immediately comes to mind. In the same way, grief is also featured. There are conversations spoken aloud and conversations that lie in the silences and the gaps between words, understood in an IYKYK kind of way. And then there are the ghosts.

Arden talks a lot about how hard it was to write, how the narrative kept slipping away, and I can see that—what a hard book to capture. But holy shit was the result fantastic.

Many warnings, however. This is a book that delves into the horrors of WWI and battles in the trenches, and also dives into the Halifax Explosion. The entire time, the Spanish Flu pandemic is lurking around the corner, seen and experienced but never named, except by the reader.

I received an ARC from NetGalley

Actual Review: 2.5

This wasn’t a bad book but I feel like Arden should have made this more Freddie’s story than the 50/50 split between him and Laura. I think the story suffered from the split and we only got the bare bones from both characters instead of a fuller story. I was more interested in Freddie and wish we could’ve seen a more in-depth look at him and his experience in the war and his relationship with Winter.

As far as I'm concerned, this book is damn near perfect. I'm having a hard time truly putting to words the reasons for why this worked so well outside of brief snippets. Of course, it's written supremely well. Arden is a phenomenal writer and knows her craft. At this point, I think it's pretty much a given that anything she puts out is going to be well written, evocative, atmospheric, and well-crafted. I adored the characters. Laura was a little rough around the edges, a little bit of a bitch (<3), and quietly sweet. Freddie was darling and tragic. The secondary characters -- Pim, Winter, and Jones -- were equally fleshed out and engaging, adding great facets to the stories. Faland was a fantastic villain. He works so well as a villain because you <i>get</i> why he is so successful at what he does. You understand it, you find yourself questioning if it's really so bad, what he's offering. It's very easy to understand why the people on the front fall victim to him. He was not cartoonish, there was grey to his character and it was fascinating. Additionally, the way that ghosts are used in this story, both as real specters and also demonstrative of trauma -- chef's kiss. Just what I'm looking for in this type of story. And I appreciate the setting of WWI. Please read Arden's author's note at the end, it sums up a lot of what I was thinking about while I was reading this about why the setting is so powerful and why I wish there was more works in this vein reckoning with its legacy. And distinctly anti-war in a very effective manner.

And I haven't even mentioned the references and influences! From The Master and Margarita, to Paradise Lost, to Wilfred Own and trench poetry, to Goethe's Faust, to even The Devil Went Down to Georgia! Fairytales, folklore, literature, history... I absolutely loved this novel. Beautiful, aching, and subtly hopeful.

Overall, I really enjoyed this book, and I teared up at the end, which rarely happens for me in books. The concept was really interesting and I enjoyed the storyline. The only slight downfall was that I didn't totally connect with Laura as a character.

Book: The Warm Hands of Ghosts
Author: Katherine Arden
Rating: 4 Out of 5 Stars

I want to thank the publisher, Del Rey, for sending me an ARC. This is one of those books that will not be for everyone. If you have not liked Katherine’s writing and storytelling style in the past, then you are not going to enjoy this one. If you are a fan of hers, I encourage you to give it a go. Just remember that this is an adult title.

In this one, we follow Laura and Freddie, who are deeply involved in World War I. Laura has served as a combat nurse, while Freddie is fighting on the front lines. An injury has forced Laura to return to her hometown of Halifax. Not only is she forced to give up her role in the war, she has to leave her brother behind. Once back home, she gets word that Freddie has been killed. She doesn’t believe it though; something is telling her that her brother is still alive. She returns to the war zone, determined to find him. In the meantime, Freddie finds himself in a rather difficult situation. He is trapped in a pillbox. As if this isn’t bad enough, he isn’t alone. With him is a German soldier named Winter. The two are enemies, yet neither one of them can leave the other behind. They strike up a friendship of sorts and form a bond. Yet, soon, they find themselves not alone. Together they take up shelter with a rather odd figure. This other man seems to have some sort of power that allows them to escape from the front lines.

Like in Katherine’s other books, this takes a while to get into. This is one that you have to take your time with and allow the story to come over you. Katherine has a beautiful writing style. The way she writes pulls you right into the world. You will find yourself in the trenches with Freddie and Winter. You will be in the hospital with Laura, praying that everyone who is brought in dead is not your beloved brother. You can feel the chill and horror that goes along with war.

World War I is oftentimes an even tin history that is overlooked and overshadowed by World War II. Many war stories focus on the horrors of World War II. Katherine brings to light the horrors that those who fought and died during World War I went through. Yes, this is fiction. However, the writing takes you right back to the era. It brings to life the trenches and the fear that goes along with it. It also shows us the amount of suffering that those who fought went through. World War I was kind of a war that was a bridge between old and new. We see that. We see how primitive some things were and how others were not. This in-between time is brought to life in this one.

This is a heartbreaking story. It’s dark and shocking. The bonds that the characters form, other than Laura and Freddie, are brought about by the shared experience of war. All of the characters are haunted by ghosts. While they may not see the same ghosts, they are all brought on by the horror and terror of being on the frontlines. Freddie and Winter have both witnessed how cruel humans can be to each other. Even though they are fighting on different sides, they know how people can change in dangerous situations. Being on the front lines makes people do things that they normally would not do. They lash out and kill. They turn off their humanity. By finding themselves in a difficult situation together, they see how much they are alike and form a deep bond. Laura sees the aftereffects of the battles. It is her job to bring the men back to life. She knows what it’s like to comfort a dying boy, to have to write those letters and to listen to the screams. Death is all around the characters. There is no escape from it. it leaves an impact on not only the characters but the readers. Many times war is romanticized in books and movies. That is not the case here. We get to see its true impacts.

This is not an easy read if you haven’t picked up on that already. It pulls you in and leaves you with this sick feeling. While this is fiction, you do have to remember that the events Katherine is talking about did happen. While the characters do not exist in real life, the way their stories are painted leaves an impact. Many people went through what these characters have gone through. This is what makes the book’s punch that much more powerful. While this is fiction, it is very much real.

Overall, I did enjoy this one. I don’t think this is going to be a book for everyone, but I am glad I read it. If you are looking for a historical fiction book that feels real, I encourage you to give this a go.

This book comes out on February 13, 2023.

Youtube: https://youtu.be/fSUEEbhpJ_0

I loved the Winternight Trilogy by Katherine Arden, and was thrilled to see she came out with a new book.

Her stories are captivating with well developed characters and plots that hold my attention. I appreciated all the little details that brought the story to life. There are also some small twists that take her books in unexpected places--and yet--they come across in a way that really adds to the story.

Another 5 star book in my opinion.

I am a huge fan of her Winternight Trilogy and this lived up to my expectations.

This is a beautiful story, albeit a very slow story. It took me a lot longer to get through, but I am mainly an audiobook listener.

I have made it to almost 100 pages and still am not emotionally invested in the story. I think the pacing is just too slow. I've enjoyed Arden's writing in the past, and she's great at beautiful imagery and phrasing, but this one is just not going anywhere fast. It's going to be a DNF for me.

Thanks to Netgalley and Ballantine Del Rey for the advanced copy of this one. Below is my honest review.

Katherine Arden was an instant request when I saw her newest book on Netgalley. Her series about Russian magic, starting with the Bear and the Nightingale, is absolutely divine, so I was pumped for this one.

Alas, it didn't quite live up to my expectations - which might be unfair of me to go in with them, considering this is a new book in a new world from Arden, but I couldn't help it. Really cool concept, really cool villain, a little repetitive and dragged for a large portion of the book. But it's still good - it's Katherine Arden after all! And of course, I'll still pick up her next novel.

3.5 stars rounded up.

This book is for someone specific. If you loved "The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue" and are a fan of Natasha Pulley, you might be that person.

Unfortunately, I am not that person.

This book is a historical fantasy where Laura, a former battlefield nurse, goes in search of her brother, a soldier gone missing-presumed-dead under strange circumstances. We follow Laura and her brother's stories in parallel until they finally converge.

I was so ready to be insane about this book. WWI and ghosts? How can that NOT be a five-star read? I was all in for the first 20%, but atmospheric stories are always a struggle for me and this one is very much so. And then we took a left turn away from ghosts and towards an Addie LaRue-esque magical devil figure, which is not nearly as much my vibe.

I got bogged down in the middle and, if I wasn't traveling with little else to do, I doubt I would have finished this without a lot of travail.

The primary thing this book did well is atmosphere. Its prose is very effective at creating a fractured, ungrounded feeling where everything becomes unclear. Good, evil, identity, reality, and everything you thought you knew blending into a soupy morass that fudges the borders of sanity. It's very good at conveying the absolutely self- and psyche-shattering nature of the war.

The characters feel very far away. Freddie is drifting somewhere between barely sane and completely untethered at all times, but even Laura, who is matter-of-fact and practical at all times, felt extremely distant to me as a reader. Absolutely no one is talking to each other about anything important. Absolutely no one is processing anything. Everyone is acting wooden, like puppets jerking through the day-to-day motions with no thought because they can't do anything else.

This is probably deliberate, and perhaps accurate to the way the characters would be functioning (or not) under the circumstances. But it did hamper my ability to care about all of them. There were two hard-hitting moments for me. First, Laura closing her eyes and asking her mom to help them at the end. And second, Laura's tightly-controlled jealousy after they get home safely and she finds that Freddie and Winter's relationship means she's still, fundamentally, alone.

Other than that, I found it fairly hard to connect with this slow-paced fever dream. I think this book will find its audience among those readers who appreciate a transportative atmosphere above all other things.