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A review by nadiajohnsonbooks
The Warm Hands of Ghosts by Katherine Arden
dark
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
This book was beautiful. One one hand, it's quite a unique story, with traumatized protagonists that felt real enough to touch. On the other, it sits comfortably alongside the classic, heartbreaking war stories contemporary to its setting during WWI.
Laura is a service-disabled combat nurse who loses everything in the span of one winter. The Canadian army discharges her after she is injured, her parents die suddenly, and her brother, Freddie is missing in action.
Details of Freddie's disappearance don't sit right, though, and when a spiritualist acquaintance insists that he is alive, she can't get the thought out of her head.
So she returns to Flanders to learn what she can, though her investigation is confounded by speculation and supernatural rumor.
Laura and Freddie's story is full of love, but love is not an easy thing when surrounded by death and destruction. It deals with trauma, and the struggle of finding the things that make life worth living in spite of the horrors. And it shows that Hell is a place that we've created for ourselves.
In her afterword, Arden writes about the way WWI is essentially a gap in our history curriculum in the States, overshadowed by WWII. Having grown up in the States, I can attest to this.
But I'm also Flemish, my mother coming from Vlaams-Brabant, so I learned about it anyway. I've seen the way Flanders has bounced back, but I've also seen the toll that being the epicenter of two world wars has taken on our landscape and the Belgian national character. Beyond that, it's surreal to know that you come from a place that, to most of the anglophone world, is synonymous with war.
I appreciated the thoughtful way in which Arden handled the horrors of war while writing a book that did not much take place on the battlefield.
I'm very glad I read it.
Laura is a service-disabled combat nurse who loses everything in the span of one winter. The Canadian army discharges her after she is injured, her parents die suddenly, and her brother, Freddie is missing in action.
Details of Freddie's disappearance don't sit right, though, and when a spiritualist acquaintance insists that he is alive, she can't get the thought out of her head.
So she returns to Flanders to learn what she can, though her investigation is confounded by speculation and supernatural rumor.
Laura and Freddie's story is full of love, but love is not an easy thing when surrounded by death and destruction. It deals with trauma, and the struggle of finding the things that make life worth living in spite of the horrors. And it shows that Hell is a place that we've created for ourselves.
In her afterword, Arden writes about the way WWI is essentially a gap in our history curriculum in the States, overshadowed by WWII. Having grown up in the States, I can attest to this.
But I'm also Flemish, my mother coming from Vlaams-Brabant, so I learned about it anyway. I've seen the way Flanders has bounced back, but I've also seen the toll that being the epicenter of two world wars has taken on our landscape and the Belgian national character. Beyond that, it's surreal to know that you come from a place that, to most of the anglophone world, is synonymous with war.
I appreciated the thoughtful way in which Arden handled the horrors of war while writing a book that did not much take place on the battlefield.
I'm very glad I read it.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Confinement, Death, War, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Mental illness, Blood, Medical content, Suicide attempt, and Death of parent