A hauntingly beautiful tale of hope and despair in World War I. Arden has written on loss and love by following a pair of Canadian siblings anxious to reunite on the hellscape of France in 1918.

Arden's ending notes talk of her years spent on this novel - on how the world had changed so drastically but was still so effortlessly violent - from flying machines and phonographs to machine guns and poison gas. It was a time of technological advancement both fanciful and horrifying. She mentions how America presses more stock onto the damage from World War II, while she crafts a brutal reminder of how the 1910s set everything else in motion. The Warm Hands of Ghosts is not a book you feel good reading, but I think the story Arden has built is one readers do not want to look away from - at the end I had goosebumps and tears. She has empowered woman characters on the front lines and running the show, just as she shows the weakness of men in a time it was not permitted/expected. She shows the battle many faced of good vs evil, enemy vs friend, bravery vs fear. Arden masterfully weaves magical realism into the story.

An excellent addition to her reportoire, The Warm Hands of Ghosts will stay with me asI continue to unknot the layers of Arden's characters and story.

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House for the ARC.

Thank you to the publisher, the author and Netgalley for an e-arc of "The Warm Hands of Ghosts" in exchange for an honest review


This was not my favorite. I think it may be a me thing, but i had a hard time getting into it..

The Winternight trilogy is one of my all time favorites and I will say that Katherine Arden has once again transported readers through space and time and woven a story that feels both painfully real and magically hopeful. This story is harsh and unrelenting, as the war time setting is presented so vividly it feels at times as though you’re standing alongside the characters, but at the same time keeps you hopeful for a glimmer of light at the end of the tunnel for these characters living through one of history’s darkest, and often overlooked, times.

I rarely write reviews but it felt necessary for this one, as I know I’m going to be thinking about it for a long time.