Book: The Warm Hands of Ghosts
Author: Katherine Arden
Rating: 4 Out of 5 Stars

I want to thank the publisher, Del Rey, for sending me an ARC. This is one of those books that will not be for everyone. If you have not liked Katherine’s writing and storytelling style in the past, then you are not going to enjoy this one. If you are a fan of hers, I encourage you to give it a go. Just remember that this is an adult title.

In this one, we follow Laura and Freddie, who are deeply involved in World War I. Laura has served as a combat nurse, while Freddie is fighting on the front lines. An injury has forced Laura to return to her hometown of Halifax. Not only is she forced to give up her role in the war, she has to leave her brother behind. Once back home, she gets word that Freddie has been killed. She doesn’t believe it though; something is telling her that her brother is still alive. She returns to the war zone, determined to find him. In the meantime, Freddie finds himself in a rather difficult situation. He is trapped in a pillbox. As if this isn’t bad enough, he isn’t alone. With him is a German soldier named Winter. The two are enemies, yet neither one of them can leave the other behind. They strike up a friendship of sorts and form a bond. Yet, soon, they find themselves not alone. Together they take up shelter with a rather odd figure. This other man seems to have some sort of power that allows them to escape from the front lines.

Like in Katherine’s other books, this takes a while to get into. This is one that you have to take your time with and allow the story to come over you. Katherine has a beautiful writing style. The way she writes pulls you right into the world. You will find yourself in the trenches with Freddie and Winter. You will be in the hospital with Laura, praying that everyone who is brought in dead is not your beloved brother. You can feel the chill and horror that goes along with war.

World War I is oftentimes an even tin history that is overlooked and overshadowed by World War II. Many war stories focus on the horrors of World War II. Katherine brings to light the horrors that those who fought and died during World War I went through. Yes, this is fiction. However, the writing takes you right back to the era. It brings to life the trenches and the fear that goes along with it. It also shows us the amount of suffering that those who fought went through. World War I was kind of a war that was a bridge between old and new. We see that. We see how primitive some things were and how others were not. This in-between time is brought to life in this one.

This is a heartbreaking story. It’s dark and shocking. The bonds that the characters form, other than Laura and Freddie, are brought about by the shared experience of war. All of the characters are haunted by ghosts. While they may not see the same ghosts, they are all brought on by the horror and terror of being on the frontlines. Freddie and Winter have both witnessed how cruel humans can be to each other. Even though they are fighting on different sides, they know how people can change in dangerous situations. Being on the front lines makes people do things that they normally would not do. They lash out and kill. They turn off their humanity. By finding themselves in a difficult situation together, they see how much they are alike and form a deep bond. Laura sees the aftereffects of the battles. It is her job to bring the men back to life. She knows what it’s like to comfort a dying boy, to have to write those letters and to listen to the screams. Death is all around the characters. There is no escape from it. it leaves an impact on not only the characters but the readers. Many times war is romanticized in books and movies. That is not the case here. We get to see its true impacts.

This is not an easy read if you haven’t picked up on that already. It pulls you in and leaves you with this sick feeling. While this is fiction, you do have to remember that the events Katherine is talking about did happen. While the characters do not exist in real life, the way their stories are painted leaves an impact. Many people went through what these characters have gone through. This is what makes the book’s punch that much more powerful. While this is fiction, it is very much real.

Overall, I did enjoy this one. I don’t think this is going to be a book for everyone, but I am glad I read it. If you are looking for a historical fiction book that feels real, I encourage you to give this a go.

This book comes out on February 13, 2023.

Youtube: https://youtu.be/fSUEEbhpJ_0

I loved the Winternight Trilogy by Katherine Arden, and was thrilled to see she came out with a new book.

Her stories are captivating with well developed characters and plots that hold my attention. I appreciated all the little details that brought the story to life. There are also some small twists that take her books in unexpected places--and yet--they come across in a way that really adds to the story.

Another 5 star book in my opinion.

I am a huge fan of her Winternight Trilogy and this lived up to my expectations.

This is a beautiful story, albeit a very slow story. It took me a lot longer to get through, but I am mainly an audiobook listener.

I have made it to almost 100 pages and still am not emotionally invested in the story. I think the pacing is just too slow. I've enjoyed Arden's writing in the past, and she's great at beautiful imagery and phrasing, but this one is just not going anywhere fast. It's going to be a DNF for me.

Thanks to Netgalley and Ballantine Del Rey for the advanced copy of this one. Below is my honest review.

Katherine Arden was an instant request when I saw her newest book on Netgalley. Her series about Russian magic, starting with the Bear and the Nightingale, is absolutely divine, so I was pumped for this one.

Alas, it didn't quite live up to my expectations - which might be unfair of me to go in with them, considering this is a new book in a new world from Arden, but I couldn't help it. Really cool concept, really cool villain, a little repetitive and dragged for a large portion of the book. But it's still good - it's Katherine Arden after all! And of course, I'll still pick up her next novel.

3.5 stars rounded up.

This book is for someone specific. If you loved "The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue" and are a fan of Natasha Pulley, you might be that person.

Unfortunately, I am not that person.

This book is a historical fantasy where Laura, a former battlefield nurse, goes in search of her brother, a soldier gone missing-presumed-dead under strange circumstances. We follow Laura and her brother's stories in parallel until they finally converge.

I was so ready to be insane about this book. WWI and ghosts? How can that NOT be a five-star read? I was all in for the first 20%, but atmospheric stories are always a struggle for me and this one is very much so. And then we took a left turn away from ghosts and towards an Addie LaRue-esque magical devil figure, which is not nearly as much my vibe.

I got bogged down in the middle and, if I wasn't traveling with little else to do, I doubt I would have finished this without a lot of travail.

The primary thing this book did well is atmosphere. Its prose is very effective at creating a fractured, ungrounded feeling where everything becomes unclear. Good, evil, identity, reality, and everything you thought you knew blending into a soupy morass that fudges the borders of sanity. It's very good at conveying the absolutely self- and psyche-shattering nature of the war.

The characters feel very far away. Freddie is drifting somewhere between barely sane and completely untethered at all times, but even Laura, who is matter-of-fact and practical at all times, felt extremely distant to me as a reader. Absolutely no one is talking to each other about anything important. Absolutely no one is processing anything. Everyone is acting wooden, like puppets jerking through the day-to-day motions with no thought because they can't do anything else.

This is probably deliberate, and perhaps accurate to the way the characters would be functioning (or not) under the circumstances. But it did hamper my ability to care about all of them. There were two hard-hitting moments for me. First, Laura closing her eyes and asking her mom to help them at the end. And second, Laura's tightly-controlled jealousy after they get home safely and she finds that Freddie and Winter's relationship means she's still, fundamentally, alone.

Other than that, I found it fairly hard to connect with this slow-paced fever dream. I think this book will find its audience among those readers who appreciate a transportative atmosphere above all other things.

Arden is such a a talented author. I have read everything she's written, even her middle grade novels..she's that good!
Now this book, was another brilliant tale with the wonderful characters she writes and a unique story line. Very good novel.

Hauntingly beautiful, and just lovely. I connected with the characters and just it was just an emotional from beginning to end. The eloquent writing was beautiful and I enjoyed the WWI time period, I usually read WWII and this was a nice change. I highly recommend this. 4/5 star Thank you to the publisher and netgalley for a copy of this e-arc.

I received an ARC from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

The Winternight trilogy is one of my favorite series, so I have been waiting for this book for years and it did not disappoint! Katherine Arden continues to be a must-read author for me.

Overall, this book was a dark read, taking the characters and the reader through the hellscape of WWI. It built slowly (as did the main fantasy elements), but by the halfway mark I didn't want to put the book down as I was invested in the outcome. I adored the cast of characters, and though there was a relatively large cast, I felt as if each character was impactful to the story.

As some other reviewers have pointed out, I was surprised that the style was a bit choppier and less lyrical than Winternight. However, I found this style fit the grunge of the WWI era and had no complaints. I also saw a couple people mention they didn't think the characters were fleshed out, but I personally thought this was just about the style of the writing. Once I got used to the style, which felt perhaps appropriately like that of the past, I found the characters to be quite distinctive and lovable.

!! Some light spoilers ahead !!
I did not expect any romance from this book based on its marketing, and the two romances in the book were minor subplots. I adored Laura and Jones, and I love how Arden writes such sweet, impactful moments in so few words.

My only real complaint about this entire book is that, while I saw the Freddie/Winter romance coming, it was built up to too subtly in my opinion and felt rushed at the end. I saw a couple reviewers mention that they wanted more consideration of Freddie's sexuality, esp in an extremely heteronormative time, but I thought Arden sort of addressed this by talking about how much the war had crumbled social norms.

This story was heartbreaking and hopeful and will stay with me for some time.

A World War I combat nurse embarks on a journey to learn the fate of her brother, missing in action and presumed dead in the trenches of Belgium. This is an unflinching and elegant story of love and war. Arden's research is impeccable; the language, the wartime attitudes, the trauma, the hopelessness, the sense of place all crafted with breathtaking skill. You think you're reading a brilliant work of historical fiction (which it is). Then the paranormal twist sneaks out of the shadows and lays a warm hand on your shoulder.

A fever dream of a novel, THE WARM HANDS OF GHOSTS explores the uncountable tiny armageddons faced by the individuals caught up in the apocalyptic Great War, they way they loved and lived and died and ultimately reckoned with what it meant to survive.

Laura Iven, a nurse who lost her family to a tragedy and her brother to supposed death in the trenches of Belgium, is haunted by the ghosts of everyone she’s been unable to save. When she receives her brother’s effects, however, she realizes that in order to find closure, she needs to learn what happened to Freddie. Her iron will is tested by this drive, which plunges her back into the nightmarish world of the front’s field hospitals and the Sisyphean task of putting men back together so that the war can continue to shred them apart.

Freddie Iven, for his part, was rescued from the hell that is the battlefield by Hans Winter—a man who should be his enemy, but ends up being his singular reason for continuing to fight. After the two are separated, Freddie finds himself in the thrall of Faland, a mysterious hotelier. Soldiers call him the Fiddler for the music he plays, and talk about how spending a night with him can drive soldiers mad with longing when they’re unable to return to his hotel. When he becomes Faland’s permanent guest, he begins to lose the parts of himself that even the war couldn’t take.

Faland is simultaneously a respite from the horrors of the world outside and a horror himself, turning pain into beauty but stealing the ability of the war’s victims to gain any kind of catharsis by making them forget. He is the crux of the book, posting the question of whether it’s better to choose oblivion when the brutality of the world appears to demand it, or whether being faced with that choice is its own kind of hell.. Faland steals his guests’ ability to bear witness, not just to what’s happening on the battlefields of Europe, but to what happened to them as they fought to survive. Freddie grapples with losing the parts of himself that the war marred, which are indelibly linked to the parts of him that gave him the will to survive the war in the first place.

Arden has crafted a gut-wrenching story of what it means to fight, die, and ultimately live in an unending war, firmly set in 1917-1918 but resonant in today’s world as well. The horrors that the characters confront are still with us, as are the choices they’re forced to make—and the observations of the costs of turning away from those ten million tiny armageddons in an attempt to gain some measure of peace.

4 stars, 7.43 on CAWPILE

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House for a free arc in exchange for an honest review!

So, the first thing I want to say is that I am a big Katherine Arden fan. When I first saw that this book was coming out, I was so excited! A fantasy historical fiction? I didn't read too much into what the book would be about because I wanted to go in blind.

At first, everything started fairly slowly for me. Seeing as this was tagged as fantasy, I was expecting more fantasy. It took some time for the fantasy elements to make themselves known and even then, they were much more subtle. But also sinister. And heart breaking.

What I think Katherine did exceptionally well with this book were the characters. Laura, so determined to keep going despite loss after loss and a war that appears to have taken everything from her. Freddie, so earnest and good. The things he went through made me feel so lost. And Winter. Stoic, strong, yet soft. I loved these characters.

This book definitely leaned much more on the historical fiction aspect, but it was well done and left me with an ache in my chest. And the ending! I'd call it bittersweet.

I wished we had a bit more fantasy elements and perhaps the climax went by a bit too fast for my liking. The stakes never felt that they were ever elevated as much as they could have been, but overall, definitely enjoyed this book!

This book was so beautifully written. It was frank, but evocative. Laura is a nurse in the First World War and excels at nursing until she is wounded and sent home to Canada. She has lost both of her parents and only has her brother Freddie left. When she receives his personal effects in the mail, it seems he’s been lost as well, but some odd things suggest otherwise. She decides to go back and search for him. She hears rumors of a strange man, a hotel, wine…

In a split storyline, we see Freddie, earlier, trapped in a pillbox with an enemy soldier. The two survive together and happen upon this man. They’ve vowed to keep each other alive, but can they?

Will Laura find Freddie in time?

I enjoyed this book very much. It kept my attention from the beginning to the end. I would like to check out more books from this author.

My god, Katherine is …. A GOD.
This was beautiful, but I had no doubt as I loved the bear and the nightingale trilogy.

This was different compared to that. But the same beautiful writing, prose; and story telling that makes those other stories so beautiful.

4.5/5 ⭐️
Wow. This book was amazing.
At first this book reminded me of Divine Rivals; a fantasy set in World War I. But Warm Hands of Ghosts felt like the older, darker, more serious big brother, while Divine Rivals is its romantic little sister. There were scenes that conjured images in my head reminiscent to the movie 1918. Both so visceral and scary, yet you can’t look away.
I would say don’t walk in expecting this story to be exactly like her Bear & the Nightingale series. That series had more whimsy to it. However, the closest to feeling like that are the conversations between Freddie and Faland. But the author also carries on her obvious passion for research and capturing the world at that time in history as close as she possibly can. You could almost believe it is real. That the mythical, fantastical aspects are her allegories to explaining what the men and women who were a part of WWI had experienced.
This was such a hauntingly beautiful story. I will absolutely be recommending this story.
Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group - Ballan for providing an advance reader copy of this book for my honest review.

When you love a previous book by the author as I did with "The Bear and the Nightingale", it's hard for another book to live up to my expectations. I never connected to the characters and story as much as I hoped to, but the story line was creative and unique. I'll continue to read whatever Katherine Arden writes.

I am a fan of Arden's work so naturally I requested this book. There is a lot to like here, hence the three stars, but I am really really disappointed that it didn't match the author's previous works. You probably will still like this book if you have never read a word by the author, but to be honest, her debut was an absolute smash hit, so it IS hard to keep up.

The Warm Hands of Ghosts
Written by Katherine Arden
Published by Random House Ballantine del Rey
Publish date February 13, 2024


Characters: 5/5
Plot: 5/5
Pace: 4/5
Overall Enjoyment: 5/5

I really enjoy reading books set in historical times and this one did not disappoint. Set in WWI, the story is told in alternating characters from a brother and sister. Laura I’ve is a field nurse who gets wounded and sent home from the medical corps. Leaving her brother Freddie behind to continue fighting the war. She soon receives his uniform and other personal items and told of his death. However, things do not feel right with Laura and so she returns to a hospital in Belgium to volunteer in hopes of finding more information about his death. While there she hears stories about haunted trenches and a hotelier named Faland who runs a very nice hotel and bar and who gives a certain wine to so.died.

Then we are taken back to Freddie and how he wakes up in an overturned pillbox. While looking around he realizes out of all of the dead soldiers everywhere, there is one soldier living. That soldier thought is a German soldier. Even though they are supposed to be enemies, they work together and dig their way out but once they do they must figure out which way is the right way and which way will lead them straight to the enemy.

Can Laura find out what happened to her brother Freddie?

I thoroughly enjoyed this book and must say that Arden is a brilliant writer who is able to add sadness and sorrow to a book and still allow the reader to feel a beautiful connection to a story that is a true one. There is so much detail to the historical events that show you that Arden did her research. This is such a beautiful story about how people on opposite sides can come together and find a solution to find where they need to be. This was the perfect mixture of science fiction and historical facts.

5 stars

Thank you to the author and publisher as well as NetGalley for giving me the opportunity to read this book in exchange for my honest and unbiased review.

Set in World War I, the story centers on two siblings, Laura and Freddie. Laura is a nurse, sent home in Halifax from the war after being injured. Freddie is a soldier. When Laura learns that Freddie disappeared under mysterious circumstances, she manages to find her way back to Europe in the hopes of finding her brother. While Freddie is nowhere to be found, Laura gradually learns he’s somehow connected to a mysterious fiddler a person can only hear once…

This is a beautifully dark, atmospheric read that’s also a heartfelt exploration of identity and war. I absolutely loved it. Highly recommended for fans of historical fiction with a touch of the supernatural.