This a sibling story set during WWI. It's full of magical realism, an eerie hotel and an unlikely friendship. Though very different, I think it would be a great companion to In Memoriam by Alice Winn.

This book sounded so interesting. A nurse during WWI is searching for her missing brother after his effects were mailed home to her. She makes her way back after being discharged after an injury and some paranormal activity follows her there. This book is GRAPHIC in its descriptions and isn't shy about the gruesome realities of the trench warfare of WWI. She is a nurse and has SEEN some things, on and off the front.

This started off a little slow and jumps between Laura and Freddie's POVs with a time gap between them. So we follow Laura's search for Freddie, and his journey on the front lines of the war. I got really confused, REALLY fast with this book. It feels very disjointed in the writing and I had to power through this at times. I would fall asleep after reading 2 pages, often. You also felt like you were in a fever dream state while reading Freddie's POV, which was probably intentional, but that made it even harder to keep it straight at times. The twist at the end was half what I was expecting it to be, at least in the who. The why was not what I thought it would be.

It didn't feel like it was written by the same author of The Bear an the Nightingale or even Small Spaces.

While this world wasn't as engulfing as The Winternight Trilogy's, I think it's a very good standalone novel. I love the pairing of this grieving, changing world with the paranormal aspects of the story. I didn't love the third act, which was unfortunate, but I appreciated that this was more a story of familial love than a romance. We don't see those as often.

Thank you, NetGalley for an opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review.

Katherine Arden's "Winterlight" trilogy is one of my favorite book series ever. When I saw she was publishing another novel, I jumped at the opportunity to read it. Though the story was slower in the beginning and took me a while to get into, Arden's ability to craft language to express emotion and tell a story is unmatched. This story is set during WW1 so be prepared for vivid descriptions of war and wartime injuries/illnesses. I would definitely recommend for anyone who enjoys a historical fiction read with a touch of the supernatural.

This book killed me, and this read is going to stay with me for a long time.

Thanks to the publisher Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine | Del Rey and NetGalley for an ARC of this book.

Haunting. Very dark but captivating all the same. One of the most realistic war stories I’ve ever read. Toed the line between realism and the ethereal. I will definitely recommend this to readers.

Historical fiction isn’t a genre I usually read and while this wasn’t a particularly long novel, it took me awhile to warm up to the story. Which is fine - I was perfectly content to take my time with this read and enjoy branching out with my reads. After about the 15% mark that all flew out the window and I couldn’t stop reading.

The Warm Hands of Ghosts is one of the best books I’ve read this year. In addition to being beautifully written, I truly believe this book has something for everyone. If you enjoy historical fiction the author does a wonderful job of transporting you to Europe during World War I. If you enjoy complex characters you will fall in love with Freddie, Laura, and all of their comrades along the way. There are also some supernatural elements, a bit of mystery, and even some unexpected romances. Arden tackles a lot with this novel, but she does it all so well. I can’t wait to read her entire backlist as soon as possible.

Thank you to Ballantine/Del Rey and NetGalley for a review copy.

The Warm Hands of Ghosts is a spectacular book where Katherine Arden deftly weaves a haunting tale of longing amidst the backdrop of The Great War.

All the characters in this book are longing for something in their lives from a lost sibling to a lost child to finding a place to belong in a world no longer recognized because of the horrors of war. Each of the characters, no matter how small their part, are fully fleshed out and integral to the story. There is a lyrical and haunting quality to the storytelling that leaves both the reader and characters feeling disoriented. As you're reading you can actually hear Faland and his violin, which was just as much of a character in this as Laura was. This speculative element added an air of unease that kept you compelled and fully invested in the story.

Told through alternating timelines between our two main characters, Laura and her brother Freddie, we face the horrors right along side them as Arden refuses to shy away from the realities of war. It's this brutality and honesty that adds an urgency to the story as you desperately hope for the reunion and safety of these characters.

The Warm Hands of Ghosts was both tragic and hopeful as these characters are not only haunted by their pasts and presents, they are haunting each other as well.

Thank you so much to Del Rey, Random House Publishing and NetGalley for the ARC, this was my favorite book of the year so far.

This book is beautiful and compelling and haunting. It is haunting both in the sense that war is terrible and the consequences of war are terrible, but also in the way that it feels like ghosts are everywhere. This book was also gripping, I wanted to keep turning the pages to figure out what happened to Freddie.

Arden really did her research on WWI and you can tell. I highly recommend this title!

Katherine Arden blew me away with "The Winternight Trilogy" - her way with words, her ability to blend myth and history, and her layered characters made me fall in love with her writing and storytelling. So, to say that I was looking forward to "The Warm Hands of Ghosts" is an understatement. But, it seems that my expectations worked against me here, and while this is still a good book, I can't help feeling disappointed.

It's January 1918, and Laura embarks on a journey to find out what happened to her brother (who she thinks is dead). Meanwhile, her brother's journey is to find the will to live, and to not lose himself after everything he's been through. Will the two finally meet? What challenges will they need to overcome along the way? And what does all of this have to do with book's title? It's an intriguing setup, to say the least, but the book doesn't really do it justice. Firstly, there was something about the writing style that just didn't feel like it was the same author I've read before. There was a choppiness there, a lack of flow that occasionally even made me reread paragraphs to make sure I wasn't missing something. Perhaps, this was intentional, representing the feeling of chaos the war brings, but it was getting in the way of the narrative. Second, the characters were surprisingly bland, which was the last thing I expected after "The Winternight Trilogy". Took me a while to even remember the names, which is never a good sign. Faland was the only real standout for me, although Winter almost got there as well - I really wish that character was explored further. Both of them are secondary characters though, while the leads are a lot less compelling. Even the story itself had so many echos of other books I've read and movies I've seen that it just didn't feel fresh.

I know, at this point I'm starting to sound like I didn't like the book at all - I actually did. I thought it was generally fine, and I would be lying if I said the ending didn't get me all kinds of emotional. I wouldn't say anything about the novel was particularly bad, it's just that it wasn't particularly outstanding either, and it's not a book that's going to stay in my mind for too long.

Arden herself mentions in her Author's Note how difficult it was for her two write this, and maybe this is what comes through in the writing here. She talks about how awful WWI was, how apocalyptic it seemed, but you can't really feel it on the pages of the novel. In a way, all of her characters here already feel like ghosts, while the mysterious Faland is the one that feels the most alive (he really did save this novel for me). Yes, the journey the story takes you on is ultimately satisfying and beautiful, but it lacks depth and it lacks some sort of spark to make it truly memorable. The building blocks are there, the setting is there, it's all almost great. Almost. "The Warm Hands of Ghosts" had a lot of potential, but it just never fully reached it.

Katherine Arden, author of the captivating Winternight trilogy, here shares a mysterious, haunting historical fiction story with a speculative twist, set against the backdrop of the trudging, brutal destruction of World War I.

<blockquote>Armageddon was a fire in the harbor, a box delivered on a cold day. It wasn't one great tragedy, but ten million tiny ones, and everyone faced theirs alone.</blockquote>
I loooooved the mix of vivid historical setting and magical elements in Katherine Arden's Winternight trilogy (see links to my rave reviews below).

In The Warm Hands of Ghosts, Arden presents the story of Laura, a combat nurse who is searching for her brother Freddie in the confusion, relentless mud, and grim destruction of the Great War.

Freddie is reported as having died, but strange and unnerving clues indicate to Laura that something more mysterious may have happened to him. Others keep sighting Freddie, and Laura herself feels that he is near.

A German spy is on the loose in a small French community, and sources tell Laura that he may be linked to Freddie. Meanwhile Laura and a companion have an inexplicable, haunting experience in a fabled hotel with a sinister violinist who seems to control their emotions--and tempt them with forbidden, lost loved ones.

The story's pacing felt quite slow and the tone extremely dark and hushed for the majority of the book, so that my attention frequently wavered. The slog of fighting and of the horrifyingly deadly war is conveyed with vivid, crushing, uncomfortable detail. I was glad when Laura began to allow herself to be vulnerable toward the end of the novel, and I very much liked the resolutions of the story.

I received a prepublication edition of this book courtesy of NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group--Ballantine, Del Rey.

Arden is also the author of the Winternight trilogy, which I loved: The Bear and the Nightingale, The Girl in the Tower, and The Winter of the Witch. I mentioned these books in the Greedy Reading Lists Six Wonderfully Witchy Stories and Six More Wonderfully Witchy Stories to Charm You.

the warm hands of ghosts is easily one of the best books i’ve read this year. following two siblings—a field nurse who’s been discharged and is now home in halifax, and a soldier believed to have died in combat in flanders—during world war 1, katherine arden’s latest is an incredible story of family, sacrifice, and loss that i’ll remember for a long time.

to start off, arden’s writing is stunning and has a kind of clarity that gives her the ability to make you feel exactly what her characters are feeling. their hopes and fears become so palpable that they almost rise off the page, and the love between them—their determination to find each other, to help each other, to simply see each other safe and happy—builds into something that actually feels tangible. i feel like i’ve read a lot of books that fall flat despite the authors throwing in obnoxious amounts of dramatic dialogue and flowery metaphors; in contrast, there were countless scenes where the warm hands of ghosts had me in tears with a single sentence, sometimes even a single phrase. i’m not super familiar with arden, but after the bear and the nightingale (and now this) it’s pretty safe to say i’m in awe of her.

i also liked the use of dual pov in this book. i loved both laura and freddie, and the way their two storylines began to really intersect and fall into place around the middle was very well-written; there was a lot of attention to events and smaller details that brought everything together seamlessly. however, i honestly thought the ending felt a bit abrupt compared to the rest of the book. i definitely didn’t dislike it, but i do wish it was a little longer.

reading this book was truly an unforgettable experience, and by that i mean i cried about fifty gallons of tears and ended up going to bed at four in the morning (as the result of reading the last 70% in one night). it’s a breathtaking story that’s bound to be a favorite of many and clearly something arden put a lot of love and care into. i can’t recommend it enough and i’m looking forward to reading more by her!

thanks to netgalley and the publisher for providing this arc.

“The Warm Hands of Ghosts” by Katherine Arden - 5,217 stars) (Pub Date: Out Now!) is one of the most astounding books I’ve ever read. Ever. With its unflinching depiction of the hell that was the first World War, its evocation of skin-crawling’ly believable ghosts, and finally its completely unique portrayal of evil, it defies genre categorization. I haven’t stopped thinking about it since I closed the cover.

Good Things: Everything. Everything about this book is phenomenal. Spot on historical accuracy? Check. Flawed characters with intrinsically likable personalities and responses? Check. Gutting trench warfare realism? Check. Ghosts I hope to never see, but also hope exist? Check. Evil incarnate, as the last morose drunk at the proverbial bar before closing time, lamenting the changing times? CHECK. I have been a student of history, I have a college degree in History, and I have been reading Historical Fiction since the age of 6 (Little House anyone?)...and I had to stop reading multiple times, and go learn more about several key pieces of the story because I read them and thought to myself “is that how it really happened, holy god, it couldn’t have been that awful”...and it was. For those of you who study history, this book's absolute no-holds-barred dedication to the pure realism of war as hell is a punch in the face. I honestly had to pause in the early chapters and clench my jaw, do some deep breathing, look up photos from the time, and then…at the advice of my husband, watch the opening scenes of the most recent version of All Quiet on the Western Front, before I could resolve myself to continue, knowing better what I was marching into. I spent an inordinate amount of time reading through write ups on a remembered passage from Book 8 of the Anne of Green Gables series (Rilla of Ingleside) where Rilla’s brother Walter writes the great poem of The War about The Piper, describing the ghosts of those fallen to fight alongside the living as they prepare to ‘go over the top’. I read up about the Pied Piper, the actual poem “The Piper”, and yes, the Devil. I looked at maps of the battlefields, pictures of nurses, soldiers, and hospitals. I read details and viewed stills from the explosion in Halifax that kicks off the story. So much history blended with so much terror, left me spent and astounded.

Opportunities: I both wanted, and didn’t want, more ghosts. And I both wanted, and didn’t want more about the Violinist. And I wanted to continue to feel the cold chills of “omg, this is an amazing book” but also to not have newly concrete imagery in my head that I cannot remove now, of how the no-man’s land in Belgium, in 1918 is quite possibly worse than modern humanity can actually imagine. It is easier now, after this book, to believe in the Devil and that’s not actually something I set out to do…so, trigger warning maybe? But Ms. Arden, if you read this…you really really did good here. Like, potentially life-perspective altering for me.

Final Thoughts: Read it. Everyone should read it, Religious people, military history buffs, historical fiction/romance fans, science fiction and fantasy readers, horror fans…this literally defies all genre categorization. But be prepared to be rocked. Because it isn’t a light and frothy ghost story.

I appreciate the opportunity afforded me to have an early read of this story by netgalley and Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine | Del Rey. The opinions in this review are expressly those of ButIDigressBookClub and are intended for use by my followers and friends when choosing their next book. #butidigress #butidigressbookclub #thewarmhandsofghosts #katherinearden #holycrap #WW1 #thedevil #horror #historicalfiction #netgalley #netgalleyreviewer #arc #arcs

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Review Shared on Goodreads - www.goodreads.com/leah_cyphert_butidigressbookclub
Publishing Review 4/7/2024

Set during WWI, Laura Iven, a highly respected field nurse seriously wounded and released from service, returns to her native Halifax, Canada. While working at a hospital back home, she receives a cryptic message about whether her brother, a Canadian soldier serving in France, has died in combat. This mysterious message prompts Laura to return to France with a couple friends. Under the guise of working at a field hospital, Laura seeks to determine if her brother died, and if so, the circumstances that led to his demise. Amid an ongoing stream of patients, Laura searches for her brother among the living, the dead, and a nefarious individual who seeks to manipulate both.

A spectacular storyteller, Katherine Arden delivers a novel with unanticipated plot twists, unique characters, comical dialog, and a creative blending of history and the supernatural.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading The Warm Hands of Ghosts and found Lauren Iven to be a woman of compassion, conviction, quippy responses, and at times brazen decisions. The book had a slow start and aspects of the ending were predictable, but the characters and plot development maintained my interest. I would recommend this book to readers who enjoy historical fiction and magical realism.

4.5
Its not a folktale! I had kind of wished it could have been contorted into one. It is instead, exactly what it says it is. A war novel about a sister and a brother. But it’s a lot more than that too. And if you want to read it, be aware that (very on-brand for M Arden) there are fantastical elements in the story. Most of it is historical fiction. And then there are…ghosts and devils.

This story is about Laura Iven - Canadian WWI nurse, and her brother Wilfred, who is a soldier at Passchendaele (a real battle, one of the bloodiest of the 20th century, and maybe the most futile). The book opens with the explosion of the SS Mont-Blanc at Halifax which, I found out later, was the largest human made explosion at that time - all structures within an 800m radius were *obliterated*, a tsunami followed, 1700 died and 9000 were injured. A First Nations community was literally extinguished by the tsunami.

And this was like, page 1-10 guys. You’re gonna learn a lot about WWI, Mary Borden’s women-run hospital, the invention of successful transfusions, why nurses had scarred hands, what the hell the battle of Passchendaele was and why it was so (in) significant. But you’ll also learn about the human cost of the war. How it might have FELT to be a mother, a sister, a nurse. You don’t see a lot of ACTION in this book, but we do see a lot of CONSEQUENCES. And what are ghosts and tempting devils if not the living (or…not living) incarnations of those things? Be prepared for some fantasy with your wonderfully well-researched historical fiction, friends!

Recommended to adults with a pretty strong stomach. This book describes horrifying wartime realities in detail, and feels ripe for some trigger warnings. Amputations, murder, war, buried alive, some light religion, themes of suicide, mass murder, guns of all sizes and shapes, mental illness, PTSD, ghosts…

Published on Goodreads!

3.8 / 5.0

I really enjoyed the mystery and overall plot of this book. It lagged in places and sometimes the POVs were confusing, but overall I got through it in a timely manner. The magical realism was interesting in the world building and the characters were well written.

U til Next Time,
MC

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for access to this ARC.

I've been highly anticipating this book for YEARS. I devoured Katherine Arden's Winternight Trilogy. Although this book was different, it was told in a similar Arden style. I really admire this author's writing style - it's so polished and insightful while not being boring or dry. The plot was a little bit above me, but it was so beautifully written - both in terms of style and also plot, the latter of which was woven together so well. I feel like I will need to reread this at least one or two more times to really start to appreciate the work that went into writing this.

4.5 stars.

Thank you to the publisher, the author, and NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review!

I was slightly nervous to read this book because The Bear and the Nightingale wasn't my favorite. There were things I enjoyed about it but in the end, it made me not want to continue with the series. But when I saw the cover for The Warm Hands of Ghosts and heard it was a historical fantasy, I just had to try it out.

I am so happy that I read it because I loved it. It was beautiful. The relationship between the siblings was beautiful to read about and I was happy with how their stories ended.

🪖 Laura, a WWI nurse, receives an odd letter about her brother’s death prompting her to go to France to find out what actually happened to him. 🪖

I expected this book to be a creepy, ghost story set during WWI. Instead I would categorize it as a dry historical fiction with a supernatural subplot.

I DNFed this book around 70%. It’s getting 2 stars because maybe with different expectations I would’ve enjoyed it more? Maybe I will even go back and finish one day.

The author’s note made me interested to read more about WWI, but I thought this book was much less interesting than the setting she described.

Have you read this one? I’ve heard is very different than Arden’s other books. I’m hoping to read those later this year.

I’m extremely frustrated that I was not enjoying this book. It had everything set up for me to like it but I just did not care for any of the characters and anything that was happening.

I think at a different time I would come back to this, but not in the near future. It just was not for me.

DNF @20%