A beautifully written story of a sister and brother during WWII. The brother loses himself after escaping death with a German solder. His sister, a nurse injured in the war, find herself back at the front to try and find if he is alive or dead. Powerful, unique and entrancing story.

So this was disappointing. The premises were so good, but the execution let me down.

First thing first, Laura's character was so bland. It was so hard for me to connect with her to get transported into the story, which is the thing I value the most when reading. She had literally nothing special that this is all I feel like saying about her.

It's my first Katherine Arden book, and I really liked her writing style, but it was so hard to follow. I found myself lost so many times while reading a single sentence. Some parts were choppy, which got me so confused and wondering how the hell it was connected to what I'd just read a few moments before. Thoughts interrupted midway that left me just like "wtf."

However, I did enjoy Freddie's POVs. I wish she'd have focused more on the development of his relationship with Hans, as well as Faland, who I thought was an interesting concept and figure in the book. I also appreciated the rawness in giving us a depiction of how destructive a war can be. I truly felt it and for that, I owe this book ⭐️⭐️.

Thank you NetGalley for providing me with this ARC!

If you liked Lovely War, READ THIS NOW! Even if you've never heard of that, read The Warm Hands of Ghosts IMMEDIATELY. This is now one of my favorite books of all time.

Arden writes with the most tender beauty that is filled with so much emotion and an almost kind of angst. It gets pretty graphic at some points but that lends itself to the reality of the situation.

Compulsively readable, the language flows so well and the two plot lines are so intriguing that you want to keep reading. I normally don’t like dual timelines but this is only a few months apart. The older timeline is basically a prequel to the other, they are not happening simultaneously, though sometimes it got hard to remember these things were not happening simultaneously (even though the dates are at the beginning of every chapter). The storylines beautifully merge together in such an intricate way that when you make the connections you can't help but say "holy shit".

I obviously don’t have a first hand account of WWI but it seems like a very accurate portrayal into the psyche of a soldier in the trenches, it’s total hell. It seems in line with what you'd see in non-fiction or movies. There’s a part where the explanations of the psychological horrors endured by the soldiers that felt a little heavy handed, bordering on pity to be honest, but it was still done with care.

𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘞𝘢𝘳𝘮 𝘏𝘢𝘯𝘥𝘴 𝘰𝘧 𝘎𝘩𝘰𝘴𝘵𝘴 is set in WWI, from the perspective of a decorated combat nurse, who has just lost her parents in the Halifax Explosion. She receives the effects of her younger brother, a soldier who has been fighting in the trenches of the western front, but something seems off. When all of her questions concerning her brother's death are met with non-information, and a ghost tells her that her brother is alive, she decides it is time to return to the front and investigate.

This story is ominous, with a sense of shifting reality. It unfolds slowly, and I struggled to connect to any of the characters; there was little-to-no growth. I was steeled for the grim realities of the Great War combined with the spooky atmosphere of supernatural elements, but not necessarily for a dearth of hope or redemption. I found myself quite disappointed by the overall outlook.

Katherine Arden is an excellent writer; however, I struggled to find the same deftly-handled nuance and balance that was so well done in The Winternight Trilogy. Far from being immersed, I felt a barrier of confusion between myself and the characters and story, or like I was looking at it sideways. This book was a monster of an undertaking. There was certainly thorough research into the setting, but the plot, themes, and characters were underdeveloped. Unfortunately, she just didn't bring it home for me.

Thank you to to the publisher and Netgalley for the opportunity to read an ARC of The Warm Hands of Ghosts by Katherine Arden, in exchange for an honest review. This book releases from Del Rey in February 2024. All opinions expressed here are my own.

This book was beautifully written and haunting. It really showcases the horrors of war in a way I haven’t seen before- or at least it shows the processing of those horrors in a new way.

I love the way the author writes romance- it’s not heavy handed but it doles it out in a really delicious way. I also appreciate how the romance is a lovely part of the book but not the main plot- which is the loving bond between two siblings above all else.

Did I stay up until 1am on a work night to finish this book? I sure did! I read one chapter just to see what the book was like and then I had to keep going. I don’t think that World War I is necessarily *under*represented in historical fiction but this was a new perspective on it for me (the protagonists are Canadian and the Halifax harbor explosion is a major influence on the plot), and honestly I was fascinated by how vividly Katherine Arden describes the particular horror and pointlessness of that conflict and that moment in time. The heroine, Laura, is a nurse who has been honorably discharged due to injury and gone back home to Nova Scotia but goes back to Europe to look for her younger brother, who is maybe dead or maybe missing, and it is a tribute to how well the second thread of the book about her younger brother (who is trying to save a German soldier after they were buried alive in a trench together and clawed their way out) was written that I wasn’t screaming NO GO BACK TO MY PERFECT STEEL-SPINED LAURA every time the point-of-view shifted because she really is EXACTLY my favorite kind of character. There’s a lovely understated romance but the heart of the story is Laura and Freddie’s devotion to each other and it’s just wonderful, and the touch of the supernatural adds the perfect flavor without overwhelming the sense of a historical moment. Natasha Pulley fans, ARISE, this book was tailor-made for you.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for sending me a copy in exchange for an honest review. I love Katherine Arden's "Winternight" trilogy and was so excited for her next book!

That being said, this book fell a little flat for me. The writing style was a bit hard for me to get used to, and then I just never really felt connected to Laura. I found myself wanting to skip the parts with Laura and just go back to Freddie and his situation. I do wish the situation with Freddie and Hans was explored more as well!

It's obvious that the author did a ton of research for this novel. The details about war are never glossed over and it's shown to be realistically brutal. I appreciate this from the author, but overall the rest of the book just wasn't for me.

This book takes place during WWI and follows two siblings through the war. The chapters go back and forth between Freddie, a soldier, and Laura, a nurse. The writing is beautiful and haunting. This was a page turner full of suspense, and also had characters with heartbreakingly relatable fears and motivations. I loved the spooky elements of this story as well. I feel like this book checked all the boxes for me, it was amazing!

3.5* for this magnificently written but rather gloomy story, set in 1918 as WW1 comes to its climax. The premise had a lot of promise but the characters fell a bit flat for me.

So I feel like this book is one of those that you'll appreciate rather than enjoy. Had I gone in with different expectations, I would have liked it a lot more than I did. I'd heard it was a bit slow and character driven, but then so was The Bear and the Nightingale and I thoroughly enjoyed reading that. But unlike the Bear this story didn't present me with a likeable character to root for. I kinda liked Freddie, and I sort of tolerated Laura's chapters but neither character felt alive and breathing. In terms of side characters, I enjoyed reading about Jones (the war surgeon) but he had very little page time. I absolutely adored Arden's characters in her previous books, so this surprised me!

But having a largely character-driven plot with relatively 2D characters just meant I was forcing myself to push through 70% of this novel. There was a bit of action and the tension grew around the 75% mark until the end; there's a few reveals there. However, the plot is very much as it says in the synopsis "ex-war nurse goes looking for lost soldier brother, lost brother and an opposition soldier navigate through the belly of WW1 and discover a mysterious man nicknamed 'The Fiddler'" The plot doesn't grow much beyond that. We find out more details about The Fiddler, we follow Laura as she tries to find Freddie, and we follow Freddie and Winter as they wade through The Forbidden Zone of WW1. That's mostly it.

If you took this book as a harrowing observation of the evils of war, the hypocrisy of men and the blurred lines between good and evil, it's bloody brilliant. It's beautifully written (I still loved Arden's writing, despite the snail-like plot) and it makes you think. Is it a whimsical, adventurous fantasy with characters to root for? Nope. Is it a heart-wrenching new take on the meaning of evil, infusing historically accurate descriptions of war with fantastical elements? That's exactly what it is.

Now to touch on the romantic aspects. There is a tiny morsel of romance. Like I said above, the focus of the book is the gruesome reality of war and the meaning of evil, so the romantic aspects are few and therefore not well-developed. Laura's romantic involvement felt more believable to me than Freddie's (that's all I can say without spoilers). In my opinion, Freddie's romance felt oddly out of place and Arden either could have done without it or should have developed it a lot better.

It was an interesting book and I enjoyed it to some degree. You can tell by the author's note at the end that Arden was meticulous in her research and is a proper history nerd (and I love that about her) therefore the descriptions felt very real and atmospheric. If I liked any of the characters a bit more I probably would have given this a higher rating. But as it stands I'm hoping and praying that her next book is a bit more light-hearted and faster-paced.

(Review posted on Goodreads, already published, please see link provided)

"The blessed forget and the damned remember."
this book was everything i needed, and yet, i wasn't ready for the turmoil of emotions that it caused me. i am utterly without words to describe how much i loved this book, it was stunning.

This book had such an eerie, magical feel. I absolutely love Katherine Arden's writing, and I was so excited to read something a little different from her after reading the Winternight trilogy. I loved Laura as a character; she felt realistic and relatable, and I loved how she was consistently motivated by her love for her brother. I thought a really interesting element of this book was the way that the magical aspects of the book contrasted so drastically with the bleak and horrific setting of World War I.

"The Warm Hands of Ghosts" by Katherine Arden is a hauntingly beautiful historical novel with a speculative twist that transports readers to the eerie and otherworldly landscape of World War I.

Set against the backdrop of the Great War, the story follows Laura Iven, a former combat nurse who returns to Canada wounded and is devastated by the news of her brother Freddie's death in the trenches. However, when she receives Freddie's personal effects, something doesn't add up. Determined to uncover the truth about her brother's fate, Laura returns to Belgium as a volunteer at a private hospital. Here, she encounters whispers of haunted trenches and a mysterious hotelier with a unique gift. As Laura delves deeper into the mysteries surrounding Freddie's death, she begins to question the boundaries between life and death, reality and the supernatural.

The narrative is split between Laura's perspective in 1918 and Freddie's experiences in 1917, creating a rich tapestry of interconnected stories. Arden's storytelling is both immersive and atmospheric, drawing readers into the nightmarish landscape of World War I, where the boundaries between the living and the dead blur. The novel's speculative twist adds an element of the supernatural, creating an eerie and unsettling atmosphere that keeps readers on the edge of their seats.

The characters, particularly Laura and Freddie, are well-drawn and deeply relatable. Their emotional journeys, as they confront their traumas and grapple with the supernatural forces at play, are at the heart of the story. Arden's prose is lyrical and evocative, painting vivid pictures of the war-torn landscapes and the ghostly phenomena that haunt the characters.

"The Warm Hands of Ghosts" is a thought-provoking exploration of the psychological and emotional scars left by war, as well as a chilling and mesmerizing tale of the supernatural. Katherine Arden's masterful storytelling creates an unforgettable reading experience that will linger in the minds of readers long after the final page is turned.

This story was a perfect example of "could have been and wasn't." Very disappointed in the storyline that started so well Arden could have created a terrific plot with just Freddie, Hans, and Faland, getting rid of Laura and her coterie of vapid women and inconsequential men, and the story would have been a thousand times better..

(Full review to be post on my page)

Absolutely beautiful story and writing style. I adored this book so very much and highly recommend it. I am looking forward to reading more from Katherine Arden.

The Warm Hands of a Ghost had all the makings of a brilliant, thought-provoking novel, filled with haunting questions. However, it was written through boring perspectives that stunted the emotional impact it was trying to have.

The Warm Hands of a Ghost follows a brother and sister’s traumas and triumphs during WWI. Laura is a war nurse discharged from the field after a severe injury. Back in her hometown, she receives news that her brother Freddie has died in combat. Something isn’t adding up, so she returns to the field to find out what truly happened to her brother. Freddie is trapped in a pillbox with a German soldier. Forced to work together, the two escape and form an unlikely bond under the pressure of the battlefield. After escaping, the two try to escape the war zone, unaware that they will come face-to-face with something worse than death.

First of all, I think the historical aspect was handled well. Arden did not shy away from the gruesome nature of World War I; in fact, she exposed the raw pain and trauma that it caused. She didn’t romanticize wartime. There is a brutal honesty about how detrimental WWI was for millions of people across several countries. It brought to light how soldiers were nothing more than pawns, calculated risks and losses. Laura and Freddy’s anger towards the powers playing with their lives (spiritual and physical) was palpable.

The fantasy aspect had strong religious undertones. What would the devil do if our world was worse than hell? What happens when the depravity of men wins, and human beings are reduced to violence and suffering? While, on a personal level, I don’t agree with this, it is an interesting question. There are lots of references to Revelation and the End Times. During both world wars, Christians believed they were in the final days. Our characters were asked repeatedly to choose between the horrors of the world or the manipulation of the devil.

Now, the reason this book didn’t work for me was the characters. Arden is a fantastic writer, very skilled at her craft. I’m still confused as to why the characters were so boring. If you’ve read her trilogy, you know she can write inspiring and complex main girls. So why was none of that present here?

I don’t know how Laura came across as so dull. She was incredibly strong-willed with a loyalty to her brother that is inspiring. Yet, I never got to know her. I was presented with personality traits and just told to accept them. It was frustrating that I never got to be in Laura’s shoes; everything felt so impersonal. Her trauma was extensive, but she was detached from it. Even though all of these awful things happened to her since she showed no reaction, I did not react either.

Freddie, and by extension Winter, were slightly better. They had the advantage of being in a more tense and emotionally charged situation. Still, though I felt bad for what they were going through, I didn’t connect with them.

The inability to connect to the main characters translated to the supporting cast. Since I couldn’t care about my core three, their friends and enemies were nothing more than shadows in the story. Any romance, betrayal, or tense moments between Laura, Freddie, and the side characters had no impact. Laura and her lover completely blind-sided me; Freddie’s romance wasn’t even explored; it was just there. What’s more, the romances were trauma-based, but we didn’t go into detail about that. I am very picky about my romances, and I need some emotional connection to my characters to care about who they love.

Warm Hands of a Ghost is a heavy novel that forces you to reconcile with the evil people are capable of. It’s raw and heartbreaking till the very end. If you can form a connection with the characters, you’ll love this one. It just wasn’t for me.

Thank you, NetGalley and Random House Publishing-Ballantine/Del Rey for the advanced copy in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions expressed are my own.

January 1918 Laura Iven works as a discharged nurse back home in Canada while her beloved brother Freddie fights on the front of World War I. The story unfolds from Laura and Freddie’s points of view. Freddie fighting on the wastelands of battle, only to be trapped inside a pillbox to die a slow, cruel death. Ironically finding he’ll not die alone, but die with an enemy soldier. And Laura, his sister who despite all logic and signs, senses her brother is still alive.

Both siblings will not only face the bleak forces of war, but a mysterious violinist with an otherworldly hotel. Eerie stories of wine offering oblivion, music producing madness, and a mirror depicting your heart’s greatest desire create more questions than answers. Is this hotel the perfect place to offer sanctuary, or traded one nightmare for another, stranger nightmare? One that can’t be fought with guns or bombs, but with truth and ghosts.

Both siblings grapple with the darkness of the world and their own dark hearts as they fight back to each other. Fighting doubts, fears, and darkness at every turn. Not all questions are answered and the reader is left wondering what exactly did the siblings fight other than the wastelands of WW1?

Overall, this is a dark tale, with a twist of otherworldly that Arden is so well loved for. This is not a feel good story, rather, an unflinching depiction of war and utter bleakness of the front, of a world on fire and humanity’s fight to keep going. My heart broke for the characters an all the memories they tried to forget, for we all hold a little darkness in our hearts we’d wish to forget as well. Perhaps, even contemplating death versus the risk of living like Freddie. A dark tale, one that brings terror and shadows. Yet, the will to fight and live.

Thank you to Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine, Del Rey and NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review. I am posting this review to my Goodreads account and pub date is 2/13/24.

“Ghosts have warm hands, he kept telling me, as though it was the greatest secret in the world.”

This book, I have so many words, and, yet, none seem to be satisfactory enough to express the beauty that is The Warm Hands of Ghosts, however, I’m going to try.

The Warm Hands of Ghosts is a fantastical story of war that is both eloquent and blighted in its telling. Though this story contains less of the glittering prose that we’ve become accustomed to in the world of Winternight, Arden does not cease to exercise her prodigious lexicon with a flourish that is singular to her brilliance upon the page. I still found myself highlighting every third passage for the beatific or poignant way she found to describe one thing, experience, or another. And though the imagery is often bleak, it is masterfully wrought.

Arden has told the stories of the people who were a part of the “forgotten war” that is both compelling and compassionate. She has still told a fairytale, but it is Faustian and filled with the darkness and terrors of war. Arden captured the stories of the men, women, and children who were touched by the cruel twists of Fate that thrust cavalry riders towards tanks and bayonets into eerie clouds of green gas - these may sound like fever dreams, and, yet, they were not.

At the end of this story, the author’s notes, and the acknowledgments I found myself fully dissolved into a puddle of tears (please, if you read this, read them all). It is heartbreaking, in the extreme, and, yet, there is hope. A thin streak of morning light peaking through the darkness. That humanity, however changed, cannot be lost without your consent. That doing what is right, can often feel wrong - or that maybe, right and wrong don’t exactly exist within the parameters we’ve set and that we must follow our hearts and those who we love to find our way back to the light.

Five brilliant stars for Arden’s Ghosts. 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟 Thank you to @randomhouse & @netgalley for the privilege of reading this early in exchange for an honest review. Pub date is Feb. 13, 2024.

Arden's writing was completely captivating and beautiful, tackling heavy-hitting themes such as war and loss. The pace in which the narrative unfolded was superb, the characters, even the secondary ones, felt rich and imaginative. My heart went out to Laura, a former combat nurse whose injury brought her back from the front-line only to face fresh demons at home. I loved the historical atmosphere Arden captured so flawlessly, immersing the reader in a past that felt authentic, and its blending with fantastical notes, treading the invisible liminal line between reality and fiction. This book is absolutely unique in its narrative and delivery, and I couldn't put it down.

I loved this book! Definitely a new genre for me but I really enjoyed it. I would definitely read more by this author in the future and recommend this book to all my friends.

Thank you Netgalley and Random House Publishing Group for the ARC.

This was such a hard, heartbreaking read. It took 7 pages to have me sobbing… I knew immediately that this book was going to change me and haunt me forever. 
By the end of the book, I had lost track of how many times I was left broken. Katherine writes with such beautiful but devastating imagery. 
The world during 1918 was very dark and under constant change. Everyone was adapting to better fit the hard times and learn to survive. And Katherine really captured these struggles so well, while remaining respectful to the realities of war. 
From madness, gangrenous limbs, scarring and life lost, this story leaves no detail of war left untouched. The humanity found within each character was so humbling to read. Just a brilliant piece of writing. 
I adored Laura in every way possible, she was a survivor. Every character in this was such a masterpiece and really help push this story to new heights. The love between Laura and Freddie is so pure, I cried so many times over the ways the siblings spoke of each other. And the sheer willpower Laura exerts in the search for her brother is awe-inspiring.
This story is told masterfully through dual POVs and timelines. It’s woven together so poignantly to give you the best sense of the deterioration into madness and hopelessness. This is a dark, haunting tale that I am so grateful to have read. This story is the ghost that will haunt me for the rest of my waking days.