gorgeous. well written. fantastic. i absolutely loved the entire vibe of this one, and the main message of the tragedy of war. thanks for the arc

I am sorry but I couldn't finish this one. I like fiction about the Great War but when the character of Faland appeared that seemed to confuse the storyline for me, it threw me off I assumed I knew who he was and what his appearance meant but as far as the other characters in the book I enjoyed the storyline of Laura's brother and Winters, the German soldier more than Laura's presence in the book.

1918 The Great War- Medically discharged, a decorated field nurse, Laura Iven, finds herself back home in Halifax, Canada awaiting news from her brother, Freddy, who is still fighting in Flanders. When Freddys personal effects arrive it is with a confusing report of his disappearance and presumed death in battle. Searching for answers, Laura takes a position at a private hospital in Belgium where soldiers tell tales of a very unusual hotelier who might have information about her brother.

The Warm Hands of Ghosts is a fantastic new tale by author Katherine Arden. I absolutely LOVED the Winternight Trilogy so I was very excited to read her newest adult novel set during World War 1. Although much different themes than her previous novel there was still the perfect touch of magical realism in which a hotelier provides soldiers with respite from the battlefield, wine that offers them oblivion, and a mirror which shows them what they want to see most…for a small price. I really enjoyed this novel and found the authors notes on her thoughts while writing this novel to be very interesting. A must read for 2024!

Beautifully written historical fiction, with each setting rich and vibrant and often terrifying. Arden describes the landscapes and sounds of World War 1 with such detail that it places the reader in that landscape, amidst the mud and muck and horror of war. The mystical elements are exquisite and cloying. Characters are fully drawn, complex - the reader aches and hopes along with them. Each of the relationships - among family, friends, enemies - is organically created and totally believable.

The Warms Hands of Ghosts by Katherine Arden is a book set during World War 1 that follows siblings Laura and Freddie and their different experiences with the war. The timelines take place a few months apart and the majority of the book is spent trying to figure out what happened in those in between months.

This was a very beautiful story. Arden is great at creating atmosphere. While I went into this thinking it would be more fantastical than it was, I still really enjoyed it. I loved Freddie’s journey. I don’t want to spoil anything but it really hit me hard. I didn’t really connect with Laura and her story which was unfortunate. I just felt like Freddie’s part of the book was so much more emotional and interesting that it overshadowed Laura’s part of the book.

If you go into this book expecting a straight ghost story/fantasy story, I think you will be disappointed but if you go in for the rich historical vibes with a sprinkle of fantasy, you will enjoy this.

Sadly didn't enjoy this one. I enjoyed that this was historical fiction set during WW1 and there was thorough research into the setting, but the plot, themes, and characters were underdeveloped. I wanted more from Laura and Freddie. More background on these main characters that just seemed like blank walls.

I received an advanced copy of The Warm Hands of Ghosts in exchange for my honest opinion. Thank you to Del Rey!

This book really blew me away. I was expecting a very standard WWI novel that would probably move me but not make me think much. And I was pleasantly wrong! This is a book about war and how to face it, but it’s also about all the things we do to make the pain stop. The call to slip away when it hurts too much. It’s about self destruction and what it does to those who love us. I think anyone with a background in sobriety or a 12 step group would resonate.

A haunting story that reflects on war, family and what ties us to each other and to life.

Who is this book for? Fans of historical fiction who want to dip their toe into genres such as gothic horror or fantasy

As a fan of Arden's Winterknight trilogy, I was excited to read this more recent work. However, fair warning that this work is very different from that series in terms of subject matter, tone, and the focus of the story. Laura Iven is a World War 1 nurse who was injured and sent home to Canada (before the start of the story), then faces the tragedy of losing her family, including her brother who was also fighting in the war. However, the circumstances of her brother's death seem suspicious, leading her to return to Europe to seek answers.

The story is told from two POVs - Laura and her brother, Freddie, with each POV operating on a slightly different timeline than the other. The story is a bit more on the slow side, most of the drama/resolution coming in the last 50 or so pages. The dual POV is interesting, but it does sometimes feel like it makes the story drag a bit. It is well written, but comes off a bit stilted and staccato at times, much different than Arden's previous writing. She has written that writing this book was a challenge, and I think some of that does end being reflected in the writing itself. At the same time though, I think the story benefits from that contrast. War is not poetic or romantic.

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Publishing for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

CW: war, death, violence, grief, death of family, PTSD, religion

I loved this book. So warm and beautiful and at the same time absolutely chilling and gripping! Would absolutely recommend.

The Warm Hands of Ghosts by Katherine Arden
Stars: 5

Perfect if you like:

Historical Fiction
Strong female characters
Dual Narration and multiple timelines
Descriptive imagery

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC.

Every year, at the end of November, Nova Scotia sends down an evergreen tree to Boston where it is raised and lit as the city’s official Christmas tree. It is a thank you for the assistance provided to Halifax in 1917 after two ships in the harbor collided and one, a French cargo ship carrying explosives, caught fire, causing a massive explosion that leveled parts of Halifax.

The impacts of this tragic accident are still being felt by Laura Iven when Katherine Arden’s book opens. Laura, a Red Cross nurse who has recently returned home to Halifax after being injured at the Front, learns that her brother has most likely died in Belgium. But when the news comes from the trenches that her brother, Freddie, has been killed, Laura can’t believe it. Something in her knows that he is still alive and she determines that she must find him, even if it means returning to the front lines as a nurse.

Arden’s story bounces between Freddie in 1917 and Laura in 1918, as the siblings move closer to each other not only in time but in place. But will they be able to survive not just a war but the devil and find each other? Arden’s novel explores the limits of human suffering but also the resilience of the human heart in the face of unimaginable horror. It examines the depth to which people will go to help each other, even at great sacrifice to themselves. Finally, it forces the reader to rethink what they might believe about good and evil, courage and cowardice.

I think when this book comes out next month, it is going to be a bestseller. The celebrity book clubs will be picking it and people will have it on their best of lists for 2024. And it should, this book manages to do many things well: keep the reader on the edge of their seat with a mystery while also forcing them to think about the nature of war, death, and the thin veil that separates the seen from the unseen. Arden states in her author’s note that the First World War deserves our attention and I hope that this story draws people in and encourages them to learn more about the events that impacted the rest of the twentieth century.

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for sending me this eARC in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

The Warm Hands of Ghosts is a magical realism novel set during WWI that combines the horrifying history of that time with a beautiful story full of love.This book dealt a lot with the impact and trauma of war and was at times very dark. It was hard to read at times and was not always fun to see the heartbreaking effects of war. Although the true heart of this book was definitely the characters. I loved both Freddie and Laura and their stories were both perfect ways to see the war through their own eyes. Through them I was able to see hope in such an awful time in history. I can see this book becoming a classic and even read in high school English classes as there is a lot of symbolism and deeper meanings.

I tend to read stories filled with lots of adventure and fantasy, and while this does have a bit of magic it was not like what I normally read. But I didn’t hate it! It kept me engaged and curious throughout. I would recommend this and will definitely be buying myself a physical copy of the book once it comes out.

This book was devastating and beautiful. And even while it was being devastating and showing some of the darkest parts of humanity, there was hope and love.

It made me feel so much. I thought I might cry several times, and my heart was actually racing near the end.

I fell in love with each of the main characters in all their pain, fear, love, and hope. Their story is beautiful.

This book is going to stick with me for a long time.

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

4,5⭐️ This book is haunting, devastating, and beautiful. It was hard to get a grip on the narrative but once I did I couldn’t stop reading. The writing was unusual but that’s may be due to the setting of the time and I’m not used to read something from/about that era.

I’m gonna need a long time to get over the after effect of this book bc the pain destroyed me🥲

This was a complicated read for me. There were a few different storylines going on at the same time and they weren’t really making sense everything did come together near the end, except for who one of the characters was really meant to be and I guess that’s part of the story itself. I haven’t read anything else by this author. Although I’ve wanted to for a long time. I am not sure that this story is going to make me jump for that opportunity. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for access to this.eARC in exchange, for my honest opinion.

absolutely loved this one and katherine's writing style! new author to me but definitely will be checking out more after this one.

I really loved this book! The atmosphere, the characters, the writing style was all so good!

The Warm Hands of Ghosts is dual POV with Laura, a recently discharged combat nurse in WW1 and her brother Freddie, a Canadian soldier in the war.

After Laura is injured in the war, she returns to her home in Canada where she faces more tragedy. She’s deeply scarred both mentally and physically from the war and worries for her brother Freddie, who is still serving overseas.

When Laura receives Freddie’s things in the mail as a sign of her brother’s passing, she is devastated. But something feels off to her and she returns to Belgium to find out what happened to Freddie.

We find Freddie stuck in a pillbox with a German soldier. They must work together to escape and form a bond along the way that makes them both traitors to their countries but allies to each other.

Both Laura and Freddie experience supernatural things on the battlefield and it’s hard to tell what’s real and what’s not. The question is: will Laura and Freddie find their way back to each other?

Historical fiction is a widely popular genre but this puts a new supernatural spin on it. World War 1 novels aren’t nearly as common as World War 2 novels so I learned a lot about it.

I loved the writing style as well and the dual POV and dual timeframes were done very well. I was really invested in Laura and Freddie’s stories as well as the side characters.

I wanted to savor The Warm Hands of Ghosts, slowing myself down so that I didn't finish it too soon. It is a tragic, painful story of a nurse (Laura) and her brother (Freddie), a soldier during WW1. The particular horrors of that war are on every page, making this difficult to read sometimes, but Arden's deft storytelling skill make you want to stay in it. I cannot recommend this book enough.

THE WARM HANDS OF GHOSTS weaves together two alternating storylines during WWI; one of Laura, a stubborn, prickly combat nurse who returns to the warfront after being honorably discharged in order to discover what happened to her brother, a soldier presumed dead; and one that starts a few months earlier, of Freddie, Laura’s brother, and what exactly happened to him. Both storylines are connected through a mysterious man (but surely just a man, surely not the devil, right?) who plays the violin with unearthly skill and runs a mysterious hotel for lost souls, but at what cost?

Though the plot is straightforward, it never drags or bores. Arden’s vivid, straightforward prose starkly depicts the physical horror and emotional toll of war, the price of remembrance, and the mixed blessing of forgetting. Her characters here tend to have a singular focus as their driving force, which perhaps renders them a bit two dimensional, but also shows how these characters must grasp onto a single hope or goal as a means of survival and moving forward in a war that evokes the apocalypse (in keeping with some of the actual beliefs of the time, which Arden expands upon in her author’s note).

This is very much a war novel, and historical fiction, with a speculative twist, but not a novel I personally would classify as fantasy (I would have liked about 10x more ghosts, to be honest). Readers looking for a similar read to the author’s Winternight trilogy may be disappointed - the richly built world, folklore, and adventuring of that trilogy is nowhere here; instead Arden has created an equally rich but quieter novel of hope and desperation grounded in the realities of WWI.

The Warm Hands of Ghosts is a beautiful story of war and loss that glitters with magical realism yet shows the heartbreaking and very real consequence of war.

It’s very different to her Winternight Trilogy yet beautiful in its own right. Katherine’s writing style still shines through. It’s a story filled with heart that will break your heart and crack you wide open.

This was very character driven, taking the time to thoughtfully explore how each character responded to war and their traumas. Whilst reading this I was reminded of the grit, determination and resilience of the human spirit. How much humans can be faced with yet somehow not break.

As readers we are shown a world where ghosts also exist and anything is possible.

The Warm Hands of Ghosts is a powerfully poignant tale that is haunting and beautiful.

Thank you Random House Publishing Group and NetGalley for my gifted ARC in exchange for an honest review!

I would call Katherine Arden's The Warm Hands of Ghosts a "Faust variation," but that label doesn't begin to do it justice. It's an exploration of life in the midst of war time and the turbulent reshaping of our world by WWI. The devil is necessarily present, along with futile struggles for mud-soaked ridges, nurses working endless shifts in field hospitals at risk of bombing, and the millions mourning the losses that war inflicted on them.

I'm not interested in summarizing this novel. You can get that from the promotional material. Instead, I just want to urge you, whoever you are, whatever you usually read to Read. This. Book. It's a bit of grey magic, dark and light, old and new. Give yourself the gift of the experience of reading it.

I received a free electronic review copy of this title from the publisher via NetGalley; the opinion is my own.