A review by louisekf
The Warm Hands of Ghosts by Katherine Arden

adventurous dark emotional informative mysterious sad tense slow-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? It's complicated

3.5

 Katherine Arden has written a very interesting story, combining the history or World War I and a sci-fi/fantasy/magical realism aspect. The narration switches between the POV of Laura Iven, a nurse from Halifax, Canada, who was badly injured while serving in Belgium and France, and her brother, Freddie, a soldier still in Europe, who has been reported to Laura as missing in action/presumed dead. 
 
Arden describes the brutality of WW1’s warfare. You can tell she’s done her homework! The concept of shell-shock, which we now call PTSE is explored, along with the realities of dealing with mass casualty situations. 
 
I was most interested in Freddie’s part of the story, with him waking up in total darkness after a major explosion on the battlefield. He’s in total darkness and eventually realizes there’s another soldier in there with him. The two of them band together to try to save themselves, even though both are wounded and the other man is the enemy: a German soldier. 
 
The supernatural aspect of the book didn’t grab me that much, unfortunately. There’s a mysterious hotel in the middle of bombed out Belgium which is run by a “fiddler”. Soldiers who go there drink wine and forget their troubles. Literally. There are a lot of biblical references to the end of days, much of which I didn’t relate to, as a non-Christian reader. Apparently the chapter titles are biblical quotes. 
 
The ending was a little too pat. 
 
Thank you to NetGalley and Del Rey for the opportunity to read a review copy of this book. All opinions are my own. 
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