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barrelrofl's review against another edition
dark
emotional
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Beautifully written and atmospheric. It reads like a grim fairy tale set against the backdrop of WWI.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gore, Violence, and War
hagwife's review
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
The Warm Hands of Ghosts is truly something else.
Set in WWI as it is, I went in with some expectations about how difficult and how emotional this read would be, but Arden's characters and writing pushed the book far beyond my expectations. It is both a war story and a story set during war and the level of accuracy and attention to detail is intense. Which is a good word for this book overall: intense. I could probably talk anyone's ear off for hours about this book, but its really hard to put in words.
The one thing that I can articulate is how much I adore the fiddler. Faland might be my favourite written conceptualization of the Devil because he's custom designed for this story. He slips in at the edges, a soldier like so many, and a lost soul like all on the battlefield. Arden picked just a few of the many threads and spun them into quite a wonderful construction – Faland isn't evil, he just is, because he takes nothing that is given. It doesn't mean he didn't cajole or manipulate to get his mark to there, but his motives aren't clear-cut. And he takes his time. The soldiers he pulls into his bar are different marks than Freddie or Pim. The level of care he puts into his personal favourites is quite something. Not to mention the fiddle, the music, it's just all kind of unreal. Arden created a version of the Devil, the fiddler, perfect to her exact needs and setting, tailor made. It keeps the focus on the characters and their struggles, and not everything else that usually comes with a divine being from the Christian tradition.
Set in WWI as it is, I went in with some expectations about how difficult and how emotional this read would be, but Arden's characters and writing pushed the book far beyond my expectations. It is both a war story and a story set during war and the level of accuracy and attention to detail is intense. Which is a good word for this book overall: intense. I could probably talk anyone's ear off for hours about this book, but its really hard to put in words.
The one thing that I can articulate is how much I adore the fiddler.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Car accident, and War
Minor: Suicide attempt
horationelson's review against another edition
emotional
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Confinement, Death, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, War, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Gore, Gun violence, and Violence
Minor: Car accident, Murder, and Alcohol
blacksphinx's review against another edition
challenging
dark
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Alcoholism, Confinement, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Mental illness, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Alcohol, War, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Panic attacks/disorders, Sexism, Xenophobia, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, and Gaslighting
Minor: Suicidal thoughts, Classism, and Pandemic/Epidemic
ceredonia's review against another edition
challenging
dark
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Gun violence, Racism, Suicide, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Murder, War, and Injury/Injury detail
mariakureads's review against another edition
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
I absolutely loved the tone, pace, and overall story that Arden put together in and around the last year of WWI among the battlefields of Belgium.
There was a great touch of realism with all the details and grit that she manages to not just give me a fantastic historical book, but she adds adds in layers of magic and fantasy and I got a great merger of the two that kept me on the edge of my seat.
The book flashes back between discharged combat nurse Laura and her brother Freddie, a soldier still on the front lines, weaving both along as Laura who gets a cryptic message regarding her brother along his belongs decides to go back to the front lines seeking answers which leads her to finding out that not everything is as it seems.
I found this to be a great read, at times an ode to the war and the people affected, and others time a magical tale laced with hope, and dash of madness yet highly detailed that I never lost my place or the realities of the time and the surprise that the characters not just navigated through the war and it's nightmares but also their adaptation to seeing their world transformed before them.
I loved Arden from her previous work, The Bear and The Nightingale and it's safe to say she's got me for her next book and wherever she may take me.
There was a great touch of realism with all the details and grit that she manages to not just give me a fantastic historical book, but she adds adds in layers of magic and fantasy and I got a great merger of the two that kept me on the edge of my seat.
The book flashes back between discharged combat nurse Laura and her brother Freddie, a soldier still on the front lines, weaving both along as Laura who gets a cryptic message regarding her brother along his belongs decides to go back to the front lines seeking answers which leads her to finding out that not everything is as it seems.
I found this to be a great read, at times an ode to the war and the people affected, and others time a magical tale laced with hope, and dash of madness yet highly detailed that I never lost my place or the realities of the time and the surprise that the characters not just navigated through the war and it's nightmares but also their adaptation to seeing their world transformed before them.
I loved Arden from her previous work, The Bear and The Nightingale and it's safe to say she's got me for her next book and wherever she may take me.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood
Moderate: Death, Violence, Medical content, and War
Minor: Suicidal thoughts
abby_can_read's review against another edition
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
📖
This was a beautiful book. It was emotional and captivating. I liked the two different narratives and how they overlapped and connected. The characters were amazing and the relationship with great.
This was a beautiful book. It was emotional and captivating. I liked the two different narratives and how they overlapped and connected. The characters were amazing and the relationship with great.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Violence, and War
Moderate: Mental illness, Medical content, Medical trauma, and Death of parent
Minor: Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Suicide attempt, and Murder
limdurlu's review against another edition
emotional
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence, Medical content, and War
Moderate: Suicide attempt
saucy_bookdragon's review
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
"Other times Laura would think, furiously, at her mother, Pageantry? Justice? What a joke. 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."
There were a lot of great elements in The Warm Hands of Ghosts. The atmosphere is atmosphering, heavy with grief and the horrors of war; there's some intriguing fantasy elements; the prose is beautiful. The ingredients are there for a masterpiece, too many actually.
A lot is going on in this pretty short book. It has a dual POV where one POV is far more interesting than the other. The book opens with seances and ghosts-but-not-actually, which made me think that this would have a very small dash of ghosts and mostly be a historic fiction novel, until a third of the way through we're introduced to an entire magical hotel. There's also a bit of a queer romance that would have benefitted from some further exploration, especially given it is 1918 and has other complications besides gender.
I kind of wish this had been entirely from Freddie's POV as it likely would have fixed most-if-not-all my problems. I found a lot of this interesting as a dark fantasy about how horrifying WWI was and grief, but it was a bit of a slog.
Also in the author's note Katherine Arden mentioned that WWI is mostly taught with maybe one documentary and high schoolers skimming All Quiet on the Western Front which she's right but let the record show that I did not skim Western Front, I actually read it entirely.
There were a lot of great elements in The Warm Hands of Ghosts. The atmosphere is atmosphering, heavy with grief and the horrors of war; there's some intriguing fantasy elements; the prose is beautiful. The ingredients are there for a masterpiece, too many actually.
A lot is going on in this pretty short book. It has a dual POV where one POV is far more interesting than the other. The book opens with seances and ghosts-but-not-actually, which made me think that this would have a very small dash of ghosts and mostly be a historic fiction novel, until a third of the way through we're introduced to an entire magical hotel. There's also a bit of a queer romance that would have benefitted from some further exploration, especially given it is 1918 and has other complications besides gender.
I kind of wish this had been entirely from Freddie's POV as it likely would have fixed most-if-not-all my problems. I found a lot of this interesting as a dark fantasy about how horrifying WWI was and grief, but it was a bit of a slog.
Also in the author's note Katherine Arden mentioned that WWI is mostly taught with maybe one documentary and high schoolers skimming All Quiet on the Western Front which she's right but let the record show that I did not skim Western Front, I actually read it entirely.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Gore, Violence, Medical content, Grief, War, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Suicide, Xenophobia, and Suicide attempt
lou_christie's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Violence, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, War, and Injury/Injury detail