I really wasn't sure what to expect when I started this book. I’m not usually a big fan of the supernatural but I love war fiction, so the premise really intrigued me.

I can honestly say The Warm Hands of Ghosts is unlike anything I’ve read before. Katherine Arden manages to combine the horrors of war with elements of fantasy in a way that really works.

As expected, I really enjoyed the historical aspect of the book. The depictions of the front lines of WWI were so vivid. The cold, the mud, the fear, and the unimaginable trauma soldiers endured are brought to life with such incredible detail. Arden captures the bleakness and desolation of the trenches so powerfully that it feels like you are right there with the soldiers.

What surprised me is how much I also enjoyed the more fantastical elements. At first, I wasn’t sure how well the two genres of historical fiction and fantasy would mesh, but the author made it work brilliantly. The mysterious hotelier and the concept of oblivion brought a new layer to the horrors of war, making it even more haunting.

I enjoyed reading from both Freddie and Laura's perspective but I was particularly interested in Freddie's. His alliance and connection with Hans was heart-wrenching at times. Their bond is a reminder of the humanity that still exists in the most inhumane of circumstances.

The pacing was slow at the beginning, but I didn’t mind that. The build-up really allowed me to connect and care about the characters so by the time things picked up, I was completely hooked.

Overall I really enjoyed this book. It's unlike anything I've read before and I'll definitely be reading more books by Katherine Arden.

The Warm Hands of Ghosts is a historical fantasy story set during the First World War. While I enjoy Arden's writing overall, I found that I couldn't get fully invested in the characters or the story. I think it had a lot of potential but it was quite slow at times, some of the characters lacked depth and the plot felt a bit messy at times.

This book offers a well-crafted story that’s sure to resonate with fans of its genre. With relatable characters and a plot that keeps the pages turning, it strikes a balance between engaging storytelling and thoughtful themes. The pacing is steady, building intrigue at just the right moments, and the world-building is immersive without being overwhelming.

The author’s writing style is approachable and descriptive, painting vivid scenes and giving depth to the characters’ emotions and journeys. While some elements may feel familiar to avid readers, the story still manages to surprise with its unique twists and turns.

Overall, it’s an enjoyable read that’s easy to get lost in, ideal for anyone looking for a blend of suspense, heart, and insight. Whether you’re new to the genre or a longtime fan, this book is a solid addition to any reading list.

The Warm Hands of Ghosts by Katherine Arden is a historical fiction/magical realism blend that had me completely enthralled.

When Laura is recuperating at home in Canada following wounds sustained in war-torn France/Belgium in 1918 she is given a suggestion that her brother Freddie who was missing presumed killed may actually be alive, so she returns to Europe to try and find him.
The story is told from Laura's perspective in 1918 and Freddie's perspective from 1917-1918 from his injury that brought him into close contact with German soldier Hans Winter (we also get some interjections from Winter's point of view).

The author absolutely captures the bleakness and desolation of the trenches, the mud, the cold, the barren landscape. I've spent many days exploring the area and the historical sites so it felt incredibly poignant to me. Being able to tap into my experiences in the region made the experience of reading this beautifully desolate novel more personal.

I was entranced by this novel and would definitely recommend it.

As someone who is not a fan of historical books, I gave this one a chance just like I did with the Winternight trilogy, and once again Katherine Arden smashed it out of the park. This book was absolutely stunning, her writing is beautiful and my heart hurt for the characters. I loved all of the main characters in this and the romance side of the story worked perfectly as a companion to the main plot of Laura searching for information on her brother.

THE WARM HANDS OF GHOSTS is a haunting tale of world war one, blending a ghostly nightmare into the very real living nightmare of the war.

The best way I can describe this novel is like someone wrote a gothic novel about the first world war. As well as the grimness and waste of the war and the trenches, the book contains a slow, creeping unease that there is something else deeply wrong here. It is compelling and just serves to highlight the horrors of the fighting, the indiscriminate nature of death.

As it is a slow build, it does mean there's a long time before the speculative elements come into play - and even longer until they're a major part of the book. For this reason, the book should probably be approached more as a historical with a few speculative elements rather than a more typical historical fantasy. I really liked this blend and how it could be interpreted as a metaphor for shell shock at times.

The atmosphere in the book is so taut and thick you can almost taste it. There is a feeling of unreality to it all because it is so horrifying that you almost doesn't feel real, and yet there is a part of your mind pointing out that this and worse happened then. Freddie and Winters' experience in the pillbox feels like a piece of modern theatre trying to understand hell, all that crushing blackness. Laura experiences and treats horrors both at the war - the hospital being placed somewhere that's a key target - and at home - when a ship explodes in the harbour. The war touches everything and leaves scars visible and invisible.

The book follows both Laura in 1918 returning to the front to track down her brother and Freddie from 1917 as the Passchendaele campaign thunders on. It begins with Laura and it's not until she starts to learn what's happening that we see it, and it's so much worse than expected. I liked getting to see both sides as it underscores the danger of the mysterious Faland.

In all, this was a great book - and I will definitely be putting her debut series on my list.

The Warm Hands of Ghosts is a historical WW1 novel with sprinklings of the supernatural and paranormal - certainly different from any war fiction I have ever read before!

The story itself follows two main POV characters, Laura Ivan, a discharged field nurse, who is sent home following being injured after a traumatic shelling incident and her brother Freddie Ivan, a soldier missing, presumed dead by his family and peers. What follows in an interwoven story told across different timelines.

I very much enjoyed Katherine Arden's writing style, and I feel she captured the trauma and pains of war vividly. The story really is a love story of the heights we will go to for family and the loved shared between siblings, and you can really see that in the pages. Where the book fell a little flat for me, was on the *actual* love story plot - which honestly didn't work for me at all, but it didn't make me enjoy the book any less, I just felt it wasn't the main focus and didn't really add anything to the story.

Overall, a very enjoyable read! I dipped in and out of the audiobook also which was wonderfully narrated.

A bit late as per, but thanks so much to the publisher and Netgalley for the ARC - by the time I got round to reading it I had my lovely SE to read!

I adore Katherine Arden and I think her writing is so captivating and addictive.

However, I am not the biggest fan of books surrounding wars, especially the Great War. In reality I shouldn't have requested this one but I was so excited to read something new from Arden and tried to look past it. Stupid, I know.

I couldn't read this one but that is nothing against the book or Arden's amazing writing. It just wasn't a premise I enjoy.

I quite liked this...a combination of Faust, Tales of Arabian Knights, and All Quiet on the Western Front. Was skeptical, but it was quite compelling. When her parents are killed in the Halifax explosion in 1917, and she curiously receives BOTH sets of ID tags from her brother fighting on the Western Front and reported dead, Laura Ivers goes in search of her brother, a sensitive poet named Wilfred (hm....a not so subtle nod to Wilfred Owen). Freddie has seen the most horrendous horrors on the front, and has survived with the help of a German soldier. But when the mysterious Monsier Faland offers respite in his "hotel" and wine in exchange for stories as he plays his violin, the plot is set in motion. Laura has to save her brother, but knows the compulsion to follow Faland as she herself has felt his pull. A sort of surreal WW1 story, but it really works! Enjoyed it immensely.

The Warm Hands of Ghosts is a lovely, slow burning book about the horrors of war, hope, and humanity. Arden's prose are (unsurprisingly) lovely and I absolutely adored both Laura and Freddie's points of view. They're both complex and imperfect characters (my personal favourite), but Arden injects them with such an incredible sense of self and strong personalities. The wide supporting cast is equally wonderful and compelling, and their interactions with the two main characters really bolstered the story.

I always love historical fiction with a touch of fantasy and The Warm Hands of Ghosts is a fantastic book. I'm a huge fan of Katherine's and I can't wait to see what she writes next!

4.5 out of 5 stars

Wow, I struggled to start with, it was very slow but the story is complex and once over the first few chapters I was into my stride with this fascinating story. Set during the first World War in Ypres Belgium. The story follows Laura Iven, a nurse sent home from Flanders to Halifax Nova Scotia after being seriously wounded. Struggling to rebuild a life for herself and reeling from the sudden deaths of both her parents after a munitions ship explodes in Halifax harbour, she receives word that her brother Freddie, serving at the front in Belgium, has gone missing and is presumed dead. She decides she must return in the hope that he might still be alive. She volunteers to return to Belgium and work at a private hospital with a handful of other women.

A second story line set a few months earlier follows Freddie’s story on the front lines, where he is trapped beneath a German pillbox during the fighting. Buried underground, Freddie is sure his own death is imminent, ironically trapped right alongside a man named Hans Winter, one of the very German soldiers he had been trying so desperately to kill. But Hans and Freddie miraculously survive, leaning on each other and embracing the unlikely bond that springs up between them to dig their way out of the mud and find a way through the battlefield.

Strange characters and bargains seemingly made with fictitious events or mental sub conscious take place on this journey for all characters back to safety. Intriguing and challenging.

Wow what can I say! The Warm Hands of Ghosts is an historical fantasy that gets under your skin … in the beginning I wasn’t sure whether this story was for me (or rather for where I was emotionally). I loved the Winternight Trilogy from the same author but I wasn’t sure where this story would take me. I’m so glad I continued! I was totally pulled in.

In the beginning I thought there was such a contrast between what was happening at the time (the history) and the scenes with Faland. But as I continued reading, I realised under the surface, they weren’t so very different.

There is a contrast between Laura and Freddie’s characters. One with such strength and dedication and one shattered and lost yet both are broken and needing another person to break down the walls and offer compassion and nurture. The fear and guilt are tangible for them both. I was hoping Laura could get past her guilt to understand how important the warm hands of ghosts were. And for Freddie to find redemption and accept his own path to love. Faland is so nebulous, faery-like and hard to define. I love a character that makes me feel uncomfortable! One that I shouldn’t like but actually felt a lot of compassion for.

Many scenes in both narrations are hard-hitting and made me think. I loved the ‘darkness’ but equally loved the hope and possibilities.

I was sucked into the history in The Warm Hands of Ghosts but the feelings that stayed after reading are all related to the characters and how tangled their emotions were (and how they made me feel). It made me reconsider what I thought a ‘monster’ was.

Recommended if you need a push out of your comfort zone.

Many thanks to Random House UK for letting me read a copy of this book in advance of its release!

Katherine Arden has been on my radar ever since reading her fantastic "Winternight" trilogy, so I was utterly excited to hear of her upcoming book. Admittedly, I went into this expecting a similar atmosphere to her prior work, which initially hindered my reading experience, but once I decided to interact with this piece without drawing comparisons, I found myself greatly enjoying it.

Arden does a brilliant job at portraying the horrors of war, with this book specifically taking place in and around the trenches of WW1. Her decision to reflect and comment on the severe trauma of being caught in the crossfire through the lens of ghosts and devilish personages really resonated with me. I felt that she excecuted this idea brilliantly. The intense bond of the two siblings was absolutely heart wrenching, experiencing this story through both their eyes while their timelines slowly approached each other was a great decision craftwise.

On a more personal note, I also greatly enjoyed the medical aspect of Laura's profession and POV - I can't help it, I'm always a sucker for doctor/healer protagonists!

The Winternight trilogy, was my introduction to Katherine Arden, and she was phenomenal then, and even more so not.

The Warm hands of Ghost, is a breath-taking and emotional read, I could not put this down. She took my emotions on a journey very few books have done before. I enjoyed every aspect of this book, from the writing to the story and the world in itself. Love and despair go hand in hand with this books and by the end you will not be able to tell which apart. Freddie and Laura which be constant mental companions for the foreseeable and if you are on the shelf about this book, i suggest you jump off and right in.

You will not regret it

Stunning

I could not decide initially what I thought of this historical ghost story - it disturbed me and gripped me - atmospheric and haunting.

First World War, Belgium - combat nurse, Laura Ivan returns to Flanders to try to find out what has happened to Freddie, her brother, who disappeared - presumed dead - in November 1917.

He found himself trapped in an overturned pillbox with a German soldier - together they determine to live and claw their way out. But to escape the war they take refuge with a mysterious fiddler who has the power to give oblivion. Freddie sacrifices himself to save Winter, the German soldier.

Laura, against all the odds, has to find a way to rescue her brother before he becomes too traumatised to save.

The portrayal of war in the trenches was dark, raw and heartbreaking. The siblings fight for each other in the midst of devastation, mindless violence and deprivation. They are made to face their individual traumas and find a way forward to face the future.

All in the face of evil and the ghosts of the past.

A haunting book which will stay with me.

Brilliantly written story. I absolutely loved it. I held off for a few days after reading to allow some time to pass before reviewing, but my awe at how beautiful a book it is, hasn't worn off. It's just simply magical.

This was such a good book. I love historical fiction, especially when it is about eras/ situations that I previously knew nothing about and this was definitely one of those books. It was so well researched and so compelling in its narrative that not only did I love reading it but I felt that I learned too. A really enjoyable read and perfect for any fans of historical fiction.

This is a first for me by the author and one I enjoyed and I would read more of their work. The book cover is eye-catching and appealing and would spark my interest if in a bookshop. Thank you very much to the author, publisher and Netgalley for this ARC.

A beautiful book for sure, but unfortunately not my favourite from Katherine Arden. I think that it was really just very different to what I was expecting it to be? I think that I was honestly expecting more of the Winternight trilogy, and this just wasn't that. The magical element didn't feel as important to the story as the relationship between brother and sister was, which of course is not a bad thing by any means, just not what I was wanting from the book. However, this author is incredibly talented and this book continues to showcase that - she is a true master of crafting a story and I did feel like these characters could have been real historical figures. The author also puts across the bleakness and desperation of war very cleverly and clearly, and has a massive impact. All of the horrors of war are shown in this book (so please be aware of that going in). It is a book of hope however, and that theme plays from beginning to end. I think I would have definitely loved this book more if I hadn't gone in with the expectations of wanting it to be more like the Winternight trilogy.

I received this book from the publishers via Net Galley in exchange for an honest review.

I held off reviewing this for a couple of days after finishing because I just needed to sit in the glory of just how good this is.

I should start by saying I am not a historical fiction girlie at alllllllll, especially with war settings. So this just continues to prove to me that anything Katherine writes I will read with great abandon.

This did take me a second to get into because of the setting and because Laura is quite no nonsense. The writing just drew me in though and soon I was just speeding through. I loved Freddie and Winter’s journey so much, and Laura’s drive to find her brother.

The way the supernatural folds into the desperation of the people, and into the stage of war felt so real to me, and so delicately, beautifully done.

I’ve seen people say how different this is to Bear, but I can see so many similarities in how it felt to me, so I do think if you enjoyed that I would definitely recommend this.

4.5 stars. Read it.

First thing first: the cover is gorgeous.
A story about WWI, poignant and emotionally charged. I knew Katherine Arden's fantasy novels and this one was something more.
Not fantasy but the raw and horrible reality of war and what WWI was.
Great storytelling and character development, a book that moved me and kept me reading.
Highly recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher for this ARC, all opinions are mine