I love Katherine Arden, both her adult works and children’s works. I was so excited for something new and adult from her and it did not disappoint. I love her depictions of World War I Europe. Arden easily transport us back to this haunting era with such a beautiful and meaningful novel.

Katherine Arden weaves stories of such heartbreaking beauty and vivacity it seems almost criminal that they aren't real. To take the trauma and tragedy of WWI and make something so marvelous and sad and lovely takes a very special talent. I will travel whatever road Ms. Arden wishes to take me down and thank her endlessly for the privilege.

As a rule, I don’t read books about WWI or WWII. But I was willing to give Arden the benefit of the doubt since I enjoyed the Winternight trilogy. And I am so glad that I did. This is an absolute gut punch of a book in the best way possible!

The book follows two siblings, Laura and Freddie Iven. Both served on the front lines in Belgium during the fall of 1917. But while Laura was wounded at her hospital and discharged back to Canada, Freddie disappeared. Although her brother is listed as presumed dead, a seance (which Laura does not believe) and several cryptic letters from her former nursing colleagues suggest that all is not as it seems. A blend of (un)real horrors on and off the battlefield add further confusion, but possibly also revelation, as Freddie struggles to survive in fall 1917 and Laura returns to find closure in spring 1918.

Arden deftly conveys both the great horrors and small hopes of war without sliding into either grimdark or nostalgia. She does so by employing short chapters and truncated sentences that move the plot forward rapidly. She also bounces between two different times and POVs (i.e. Laura’s & Freddie’s). This slightly disjointed writing style helped to convey the madness of war in short bursts that prevented the heavier content from weighing the story down. It also heightened the tension deliciously as the mystery of Freddie’s fate unfolded.

I was struck most by the characters though, every one of which felt painfully real and sympathetic. There were no noble heroes and evil villains, no dramatic war-time romances. Just people (dead or alive) trying to make sense of literal hell on earth as best they can, and inevitably mucking it up along the way. This realism, in combination with Ardren’s gorgeous descriptive prose, resonated emotionally for me in a way that the recent wave of post-apocalyptic SFF novels (which cover similar themes) have not.

In my opinion, there is nothing to critique in this book. 10/10 I would not change a word! But I will note (given the undeserved vitriol in some other reviews) that this story does not have the same YA tone and characterization as the Winternight trilogy. It is darker, the MCs are morally grey, and the story structure is more complex. If you can handle that, I unreservedly recommend this book to anyone who enjoys historical fantasy or magical realism!

Thanks to Netgalley and Del Rey for an advance copy of this ebook.

I Heard about this book on booktok and it did not disappoint. I love the main character and the dialogue. I’m very picky about my historical fiction and I could not put this one down!

4.75 Stars

“The Warm Hands of Ghosts” by Katherine Arden is an expertly woven tale of both history and the paranormal. Arden brought to life the trauma of The Great War and in her own fashion, gave us a story with multiple layers of the unknown. Freddie and Winter’s mental, emotional, and physical trauma and struggles during one of many battles of the war was engaging, tense and one that left you rooting for both men, who are from opposite sides of the conflict but brought together with a shared purpose: survival at all costs. Laura’s purpose to find what truly happened to her brother is a mixture of acceptance, hope and mystery that took her on a journey rife with trials, tribulations, ghosts, new friendships, and heartbreak.

Told in dual points of view, we first meet Laura Iven, a nurse who was wounded during a bombing and honorably discharged. She is back home in Canada when her world is turned upside down. Through cryptic letters and her missing brother’s affects returned to her in a questionable manner, she decides that she must return to the war zone in Belgium to find out what truly happened to her brother, Private Wilfred Iven. She embarks on a journey with acquaintances, Ms. Mary Borden, and Mrs. Penelope Shaw. Through the hauntings of ghosts of her past and present and a mysterious man that is spoken of only in whispers, the women journey into war torn Belgium to find answers and most of all, themselves.

Wilfred “Freddie” Iven wakes up buried in an overturned pillbox and finds himself among dead comrades and enemy soldiers alike. But he is not the only man to survive the bombing. Hans Winter, a German soldier, is wounded but also alive. Both men put aside their differences to attempt to rescue each other from certain death. With their struggles and trauma highlighted throughout their journey, both men find that their fates are intertwined to one another if they are to ever find healing and peace amongst the death and destruction of war.
I recommend this book to those who enjoy history with a twist to it. I felt that the book was well researched and brought to life the time-period and the war as the backdrop to both Iven siblings’ stories.

I received this ARC from Netgalley for an honest review.

There I'd nothing that Katherine Arden wrotes that is not deeply thoughtful and full of nuance. This story, set during World War I, of Laura an injured nurse grieving her parents and searching for her missing soldier brother while being trailed by the ghosts of her loved ones completely mesmerized me.

Add in the fantastical fiddle player luring soldiers to his facade of a luxurious hotel who exacts a terrible price from his guests and you have a perfect set up for a haunting and unforgettable story.

I wasn't sure how I would feel about this story after loving The Winternight Trilogy as much as I do, but I was so happy to see that I was every bit as swept away in the lives of these characters as I was for Vasya and Morozko.

My only complaint is the ending wrapped up a bit too quick and easy and this book had a more hopeless feel than the very hopeful Winternight series.

𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘞𝘢𝘳𝘮 𝘏𝘢𝘯𝘥𝘴 𝘖𝘧 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘎𝘩𝘰𝘴𝘵𝘴 speaks a universal truth that sadly, despite the progress of time and evolution of society is still prevalent i.e. it explores the horrifying and deeply heartbreaking war times.

- ~ -

Personally the story had a lot of potential but it didn't manage to reflect well.

It's a mixture of magical realism what with all its spirit world and the real horror of wars. It's intriguing but I never managed to connect with the characters or the plot.

3.79 / 5✩

𝘛𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘬𝘴 𝘵𝘰 𝘗𝘶𝘵𝘯𝘢𝘮 𝘉𝘰𝘰𝘬𝘴 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘕𝘦𝘵𝘨𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘦𝘺. 𝘈𝘭𝘭 𝘵𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘨𝘩𝘵𝘴 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘰𝘱𝘪𝘯𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘴 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘮𝘺 𝘰𝘸𝘯.

3.25 stars... I liked it... not my usual read, but I thought the premise was good. It read a little slow for me, but I enjoyed the story enough. I was intrigued by the fact that Freddie was there but also not there. I liked this historical fiction with a hint of paranormal. It kept me engaged but it was something I had to read in chunks. If you're a fan of historical fiction (or the war of 1918) this book might just be for you.

What a stunning book. And I mean that literally, as I feel a little whacked in the head by the whole thing.

This is the story for you if you love Hadestown, Labyrinth, The Magicians series, and (even the slightly-less-good-than-those) Divine Rivals. It’s dark, full of folk magic and creeping ghosts.

The author has clearly done her research, and the result is rich and layered and easy to binge.

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC! Free stuff doesn’t color my opinion, honest.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️+

I am in awe of this book, and will be thinking about it for a VERY long time. This is the first time I’ve ever had a historical fiction in my top 5 books of the year. This is also the first time I’ve ever finished a historical fiction book in less than 24 hours. It’s THAT good.

Katherine Arden’s ability to completely submerge the reader in a time period is astounding. I felt physically present; smells, sounds, feelings. She wrote such rich, in-depth, quite distinguishable characters, that with each change of point of view I felt excited to read more. The women in this book were exactly what I wanted to read; strong, intelligent, not leaning on anyone but themselves and their own drive for a conclusion. The romance was delicately peppered in, and did not at all overwhelm the story or undermine the women’s personal stories.

Thank you NetGalley and Penguin Random House for this experience in exchange for an honest review!!! 📚

I want to be able to tell you how this book made me feel. It’s my favorite type of book, my favorite type of feeling — it is so intimate. Every word and sentence like an almost kiss. This book lives in that tender space between two people sitting close together, whispering in the quiet of a night, their lips almost brushing. This book is full of hope, determination, grit, and the way love not only survives but gives us something to fight for.

It is a book I didn’t know I needed until I read it.

I cannot speak to the historical aspects of this novel but I can speak to it as a story. And to me, it is a damned good one. I would follow these characters to the ends of the earth. I cannot wait to have a copy in my hands to love deeply.

Full review closer to pub date.

I really enjoyed Katherine Arden’s “Winternight” trilogy with its unique blend of history, fantasy, and religion, so I was very delighted to receive an ARC of her newest novel, “The Warm Hands of Ghosts.” A World War I story with a man playing music in the night to seduce soldiers away from the blood and screams of battle, and a sister who won’t stop looking for her brother? Sign me up! Unfortunately, as evidenced by the 10 days it took me to finish this book, the story played out unevenly and I had a hard time making myself persist. The descriptions of war and the anguish of war were poetically desperate and dark, and honestly were my favorite parts of the book. I cared about Freddie and Winter, the two soldiers– they were the most well-developed characters; but for God’s sake, I am tired of relationship pivots less than 10 minutes from the end of stories and authors need to stop doing that (I dropped my rating one star for that because it was unnecessary and added nothing to the plot). Laura, Freddie’s sister, was all right but a bit one dimensional until she started interacting with the American Dr. Jones– I would have loved more of their story. The cover, title, and description sold me, and some parts were all right but overall this new Arden novel wasn’t my favorite.

📣 WWI historical with fantasy elements featuring two siblings who have been separated by the horrors of war

Thanks to the publisher & Netgalley for the complimentary ARC and the publisher for the complimentary hardcopy. All opinions provided are my own.

📖 what are you currently reading? I’m reading a really great fantasy called The City of Stardust by Georgia Summers.

The Warm Hands of Ghosts by Katherine Arden is one of those engrossing—& not in a polite way—books that grabs you & doesn’t let go.

Set during World War I & featuring two siblings—a woman & a man—who have been separated by war, this book is largely concerned with the front, the combat hospitals & ruined villages & military fortifications where protagonist Laura & her brother Freddie find themselves.

This is a world that’s been in flux for a long time. Their parents worried & warned about the end of days in the 1910s & their once outlandish, paranoid predictions feel all too real in World War I.

Former combat nurse Laura is retired but—upon receiving mysterious items that belonged to her brother & potentially contradictory news about what happened to him—she resolves to return to Europe, serve as a nurse again, & use her downtime to investigate what actually happened.

Laura’s perspective is fascinating, as is her brother’s, who we shortly learn was imprisoned in a collapsed fortification with an enemy German soldier. Left to die, the lines between sides blur, & their journey together further complicates it as their relationship is tested by violence & death, potential & actual.

The war horrors in this book are real & imagined, & there’s a visceral violence to what happens to people ravaged by war & who are ravaging others. It’s often sad & disconcerting but there is hope too, in the relationship between Laura & Freddie & their burgeoning loves.

This is a fantasy that will hold your attention, entice you & leave you feeling both hopeful & unsettled.

4.5 ⭐️. Out 02/13.

[ID: Jess’s hand, partially covered in a tan sweatshirt, holds the book in front of a red, orange, & green set of trees.]

I am an unabashed lover of Arden's Winternight Trilogy and was curious to see if I'd like her writing under entirely different circumstances. Spoiler alert - I do. This is one of the best books, if not THE best, that I've read all year. Set amidst WWI, Laura, a discharged Canadian nurse, is perplexed when she receives her enlisted brother's things, but no death notice, just a "presumed missing." She goes BACK out into the forbidden zone to work again in a hospital setting while also looking for her brother.

Meanwhile, her brother has undergone an absolutely horrific experience with a German soldier, and is looking for escape, mainly a mental escape. He becomes entwined with The Fiddler, who haunts the haunted, shell shocked men of the Great War and slowly loses pieces of himself. Laura finds herself joining forces with the German, Winter, in order to try and save her brother.

This book was beautifully written, with elements of psychological horror I've never seen before in lit fiction. I will be recommending this to EVERYONE when it's published.

Katherine Arden’s Winternight Trilogy is one of my favorite series, so when I saw she had written a new book, I knew I had to read it. I was not disappointed. This book is haunting, magical, and moving.
This book is set in WWI with our main character, Laura, recently discharged from being a nurse on the warfront due to an injury. She’s forced to go home and leave her brother Freddie, a soldier, behind. Soon after returning home, Laura is sent Freddie’s personal effects. She sets out to investigate what happened to him. Back on the war front, Freddie finds himself unexpectedly allied with an enemy soldier. They come across a mysterious man who may be more than he seems.
The war scenes in this book were haunting and moving. I definitely found this book hard to read at times due to that. But that just goes to show Arden’s mastery of writing. The scenes also serve a purpose so that the audience knows what the characters have gone through and to better understand why they made the decisions they did.
I feel like the book focused more on Laura and her working through her trauma and her quest to find out what happened to Freddie than it focused on Freddie’s POV. For that reason and due to how the characters were written, I found myself more connected to Laura and wanting to read her chapters more than his. I also found the fiddler to be a very intriguing character who reminded me of Morozko from the Winternight trilogy at times.
My only big complaint is that I felt like the ending of the book was too rushed. Things seemed to wrap up too neatly with a bow after everything that happened in the book and all the things the characters went through. However, overall this was a very interesting read and I highly recommend it to those that are a fan of historical fiction with some fantasy thrown in.

NetGalley gave me an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review. While I am a fan of Katherine Arden's previous works, I can't say that I loved this one, and, honestly, I didn't even really like it all that much. The characters fell flat for me and the story itself was just okay.

I went into this book completely blind. I had not read the synopsis or heard anything about the storyline. I enjoyed the Winternight Triology and knew that I’d read whatever Arden wrote in the future. This book was spectacular. I have been trying to come up with a good review for The Warm Hands of Ghosts for a couple of days now, and I still am struggling to find the words to convey how much I enjoyed this story. I felt like I was in the warzone. I felt the pain and terror of the pillbox. Arden paints a very real picture of WWI, drawing on the experiences of real soldiers and historical accounts. I enjoyed the dual POVs. Both characters have witnessed unspeakable horrors yet each find hope in their own ways. I will be posting my review to Instagram in the next week.

Warm Hands of Ghosts is another brilliant story from the master storyteller, Katherine Arden. Going in, I already loved her books from the Winternight Trilogy, so I was expecting to like this book, despite it being a total different genre (war novel) than her previous books. What I didn’t expect was just how much I would love it.

Beautiful and heartbreaking, this haunting book about war, love and loss is so vividly told, it gets under your skin and stays there. The supernatural element adds an extra layer of richness to the story that I was not expecting. It is obvious that Arden did her research as she was able to so powerfully capture the atmosphere of war.

As with any of Katherine Arden’s books, I totally recommend reading. 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for sending me a copy in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you to NetGalley for sending me an e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

The Warm Hands of Ghosts by Katherine Arden was a haunting depiction of family devotion, grief, and the courage to survive and live again. It was an evocative and beautiful read.

With hints of magical realism, the author introduces characters that suffer from their experiences with the war yet are still determined to find the light at the end of the tunnel. While at times heart wrenching, the overall tone of the book was hopeful and inspiring.

For obvious reasons, this was a five-star read. The writing was impeccable, the characters were idiosyncratic, and the plot was perfectly paced and a standout from other similar books. This atmospheric tale is perfect for those chilly nights when you just want to cozy up with a good book. Highly recommend.

I rate this book 4 out of 5 stars. I really loved this book! The story line was so captivating, it drew me in, and I thought it was very interesting to have the main character’s point of view be a year apart from the secondary character’s point of view. The way that both point of views wove into each other was very well done. I think it was a great book and recommend it. I love that the author included a mysterious character that acts as an urban legend among the soldiers and that really added a fantastical touch to a WW1 era novel. The fact that this book takes place during WW1 was something that I really gravitated towards because I’m a huge fan of books that take place during the different eras of wartime and any other historical fiction book. This is definitely a good book to read if you’re a fan of historical fiction books! This book was very good at making you feel all of the emotions that were running high during the war, as well as making you emotionally invested in each of the character’s lives and journeys. The only thing I will say is that you really have to pay attention to the labeled dates at the top of each chapter because if you don’t pay attention to them between the 2 main character’s chapters it can kind of get a little bit confusing to remember when certain things are happening. That might’ve just been a personal struggle since I have a hard time remembering all the little bits and pieces, but I figured it was worth mentioning. This might also have been intentional to make you feel unoriented and lost like the characters were, so I don’t subtract too many points for that. Other than that, I really love this and I will be buying a copy once it’s released to the public. Thank you to NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this wonderful book.