The Warm Hands of Ghosts shouldn’t have been a great read for me. I purposely avoided Katherine Arden’s The Bear and the Nightingale and its sequels because when people talked about them, they always spoke of them as Historical Fiction first and Fantasy second. I’m not much of a Historical Fiction reader, and I didn’t realize that The Warm Hands of Ghosts was by the same author.
It might have been Laura’s character, the already eerie tone, or the promise of fantastical elements to come, but the first chapter of The Warm Hands of Ghosts hooked me. And once Freddie and Winter showed up? I knew I wasn’t putting the book down until the last page.
| Title: The Warm Hands of Ghosts | Author: Katherine Arden |
| Release Date: February 13, 2024 | Genre: Historical Fiction / Fantasy |
| Publisher: Del Rey | Page Count: 325 |
Synopsis
During the Great War, a combat nurse searches for her brother, believed dead in the trenches despite eerie signs that suggest otherwise, in this hauntingly beautiful historical novel with a speculative twist from the New York Times bestselling author of The Bear and the Nightingale
January 1918. Laura Iven was a revered field nurse until she was wounded and discharged from the medical corps, leaving behind a brother still fighting in Flanders. Now home in Halifax, Canada, she receives word of Freddie’s death in combat, along with his personal effects—but something doesn’t make sense. Determined to uncover the truth, Laura returns to Belgium as a volunteer at a private hospital. Soon after arriving, she hears whispers about haunted trenches, and a strange hotelier whose wine gives soldiers the gift of oblivion. Could Freddie have escaped the battlefield, only to fall prey to something—or someone—else?
November 1917. Freddie Iven awakens after an explosion to find himself trapped in an overturned pillbox with a wounded enemy soldier, a German by the name of Hans Winter. Against all odds, the two men form an alliance and succeed in clawing their way out. Unable to bear the thought of returning to the killing fields, especially on opposite sides, they take refuge with a mysterious man who seems to have the power to make the hellscape of the trenches disappear.
As shells rain down on Flanders, and ghosts move among those yet living, Laura’s and Freddie’s deepest traumas are reawakened. Now they must decide whether their world is worth salvaging—or better left behind entirely.
Review:
The Warm Hands of Ghosts is heart-wrenching, slow-paced, and methodical. It is crushingly character-driven. This book tucks itself nicely between Literary Fiction and Historical Fiction, only springing the speculative elements once readers have dug themselves far enough into the story to not want to leave. Like Faland, The Warm Hands of Ghosts captures the reader in a dream-like state and refuses to let go.
Many people have noted content warnings for PTSD, but I’ll specify that’s for all PTSD, not just PTSD caused by war. I’ll also add a content warning for severe mental illness in general. I was crying like a baby in the final five or so chapters because I related so deeply to the mental illness discussions. In the end, this was a healing book for me.
Laura, Freddie, Winter, Jones, and Pim will stick with me forever.
Rating: 5+/5 Stars. Going on the Infinity Stars list. I knew February would be a good month.
Thanks to Del Rey for providing me with an advanced review copy. All the above thoughts are my own.
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