The Warm Hands of Ghosts

I took on this book to better understand PTSD, the strength of a human mind and love that is strong enough to pull a soul out of the depths of despair that is unimaginable. Arden writes with a distinction that puts me in the trenches with nurse Laura and her brother soldier Freddy and the hero Winter. Faland, well, you’ll understand the depths in Faland. Arden tells this story from the inside out. Bold, kind, jarring, spirited, horrific, and in the end, it’s a love story, with warm, dependable hands.

I suppose Arden isn’t the first author to invoke the powers of fantasy to highlight the mundane, awfullness of trench warfare– the shelling, the slime, the sickness, the rats.

And she certainly isn’t the first to tell a tale of a sister hellbent on finding her brother in the ravaged landscape of war-torn Belgium during World War I.

But perhaps, it is Arden’s twist on this tale that gripped me– the sister is a seasoned veteran nurse, survivor of a hospital bombing positioned too closely to an ammunitions dump– and is escaping her hometown of Halifax, Canada because a ship exploded taking away all of her family except the brother.

And perhaps it is the seducer, Faland’s, version of forgetting that wove a glittering thread of evil that highlighted the terrible parts of the war– surviving an overturned pillbox, losing beloved siblings to the whims of a general safe in his requisitioned Chateau– that made me unable to look away.

Told in alternating POV, we get Laura, the nurse, returning to the battlefield to find her brother Freddie after a mysterious package arrives with his dogtags but a note that says he is missing. We also get Freddie, surviving a charge against the Germans only to be trapped in darkness.

There is history about Canada in the war I learned here, and an appreciation for the technological changes spurred on by the war (corsets and motorcycles coexisting). The magic is subtle, it is a character in the story rather than a defining characteristic, almost magical realism.

Arden’s ability to convey cold miserable settings with ardent kinds of love already compelled me in The Bear & the Nightingale, and this book also lived up to the expectations I have for this author.

Arden is such an excellent author; her writing is more like talking—or perhaps like we occupy space on the pages—than picking out words on a page. She describes things in such a beautiful and articulate way, without getting bogged down by literary conventions.

This is a book that will probably be hard for most people to put down. There is so much about the first World War, and it is as ugly as you might have heard or read about… Certainly worse than mere words can capture. But in this story, we learn about characters in the trenches, enemies who become dependent upon each other, the nurses and the doctors and the volunteers who give so much of their lives to help save or at least comfort the broken men returning from the battlefields. Laura is an amazing woman and one that we can’t help but admire; she’s not a perfect heroine. She has the scars, literally, to prove it. Freddie is the reflection of a soul at its wits’ end, fully hopeless, yet still valued by those who care for him. Winter is something of a surprise in his resoluteness and refusal to turn away from a promise made. Pim is beautiful and fragile… (She may have more in common with Freddie than we might imagine.) Falen is perhaps like someone we have met in the desperate situations of our own lives… He is evil, he is relentless, but he is not invincible. And Jones is that person we know that we can always lean into and depend on—for he is honorable, caring, and determined to give everything… especially to those in dire need.

From the very beginning, I was so delighted by the writing style. The descriptions and the ideas unfolding on the pages literally drew me in, and I was thrilled to have found a book that spoke to me and moved me, creating a tale almost like mythology. The idea that “ghosts have warm hands“ is a prevailing theme in the story, though it’s not until the latter part of the story that we understand how this is possible. However, know that this is not a traditional ghost story; some of the ghosts are truly spirits, tragic figures that remain to fulfill a purpose. The more tangible ghosts are found in the pieces of self that each of these characters has left behind in the agonies of war, who they were…and then who they can become.

When all seems lost, on the horizon there appears once more hope. It begins as a small light and then grows more brilliant. Freddie searches for such a light. It offers a healing—but one that will take time. It’s a story that reminds us that during this healing we should allow ourselves—and others—space. We should also remember to search for the hope that may seem so faint at first. As we move farther along on the story’s path, I believe we are encouraged that hope can be discovered once more. There is love in this story; but it is a love that allows—demands—that a person put everything on the line for another. It’s a love that is focused on rescue and healing and redemption—leaving judgment behind. Allowing those so broken the grace, the right, to begin again.

I really can’t more strongly recommend this book. There is very little writing that occupies unwarranted space. It is brilliantly precise. There is mystery. There are certainly some startling twists. It does not disappoint. (There is a brief, vague development of homosexuality in the story, but it is not at all graphic. It is presented in a way that did not offend me. Like war, something that exists, even if we’re not completely comfortable with it.)

Find yourself a comfy spot, perhaps place a drink at your elbow. And dig in for a unique journey into places we’ve never been, meeting people we will never actually know… But perhaps recognizing who they are in the people around us. Because life is sometimes like war, and I think it behooves us to try to save the damaged souls, friends and enemies alike, and refuse to give up hope. Laura and Jones seem to emphasize that everyone is worth saving. Through Laura, the author seems to convey advice that the reader should keep the ghosts of the past in their proper place, but recognize their presence. Laura personifies passionate dedication: risking all in attempting to leave no one behind. (Belief in ghosts is not a prerequisite to enjoy this story.)

An excellent job by Katherine Arden!

As a combat nurse stationed in Belgium during WWI, Laura Iven was familiar with death and dying. There were other types of trauma; physical and spiritual trauma. No one was immune from developing shell shock.

Experiencing a serious leg injury, Laura was discharged from the medical corps. After three years in the combat zone, she was sent home from Flanders, Belgium to Halifax, Nova Scotia. Tragically, her home life unraveled soon after when a munitions ship explosion killed both of her parents. Her only living family member was her brother, Freddie.

In November 1918, Laura received notice that Freddie was presumed dead after the Battle on Passchendaele Ridge in Flanders, although an enigmatic and unfinished message indicated that perhaps he was missing in action. Further complicating matters, Laura received Freddie's tags and soldier's uniform jacket. Wouldn't he have been laid to rest in his uniform? Requesting the assistance of Mary Borden who ran a Belgian hospital and Mrs. Pim Shaw whose son was also presumed dead, Laura signed on to return to Flanders and work at the Belgian hospital while searching for answers about Freddie's whereabouts. If he did indeed die, how did he die? Presented in a dual timeline, we are privy to Freddie's story on the Ridge in 1917 with the intertwining of Laura's story as we track the siblings.

How else could Freddie Iven and the German, Hans Winter have survived in the forbidden zone when they become trapped in a German pillbox, but to befriend one's enemy? They vacillated between hope and despair but forged a joint effort, promising to stay alive while creating a bond of protection. First and foremost in Freddie's mind, find Laura.

In the "haunted trenches", soldiers talked about a hotel where mysterious wine was served as a salve to soothe the souls of its visitors. "The man in the hotel-he's called the fiddler....but what they all say, every story, is those who've drank with him, heard the music, seen what he shows you, and then come back out here-well they're always pining for it... But you only see it once. You can't get back. They say men have gone mad...and no one ever sees that man again." Faland's eery fiddle music could be mellow, romantic or angry. When Freddie arrived at the hotel, control over him was profound as Faland tried to claim Freddie's memories. Freddie needed to stay strong in order to find Laura and fulfill his promise to Winter to stay alive. However, he was losing his grip on reality. He looked haunted, the shadow of the man he was before the war.

"The Warm Hands of Ghosts" by Katherine Arden is a historical fiction novel laced with fantasy as a brother and sister search for each other in war torn Belgium during WWI. Laura's efforts were intermittently buoyed through the assistance of her hospital friends, Pim Shaw, Mary Borden and Dr. Jones. Freddie's traumatic struggle was one example, among many, of the effects of shell shock. Would Freddie be able to claw his way out of the abyss or lose himself to Faland's promise of blissful forgetfulness? Highly recommended.

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.

After being wounded and discharged from service, Laura returns home to even more tragedy. But when she receives word of her brother’s death back in Flanders, something doesn’t quite make sense, so she travels back to the front to find out what happened to her brother.

This was definitely historical fiction with a spooky twist. I think WW1 is a topic many people, especially Americans, don’t really know much about anymore. I’ve read and watched documentaries in the past, and what I’ve come away with is that it was a gruesome and deadly war, and by the time it was over, the world was a completely different place than it was before.

And that was a pretty heavy theme in this book; neither Laura nor Freddie were ever going to be the same again.

I liked the blending of real life with soldier’s “stories” of ghosts, along with the experiences of our characters throughout.

There’s a bit of a dual timeline that I really enjoyed as we see the threads slowly come together.

Although there is a heavy paranormal aspect to the story, I felt the setting and actions still felt very true to life.

Audiobook note: This is dual narrated, and and I thought both narrators did a great job. I also really enjoyed how it was produced, especially w/ POV shifts mid-chapter in certain points; it felt very fluid.

What this book is giving: ✅ Haunting Historical Fiction ✅ Combat Nurse ✅ Presumed Deceased Brother ✅ Allies & Enemies crossing lines ✅ Gruesome war wounds ✅ War is Hell

As another reviewer remarked, I will read anything Katherine Arden writes. The Winternight Trilogy and The Small Spaces Quartet were both captivating reads. I found this book less compelling. Perhaps because of my schedule, I was never able to sit and read long enough to establish continuity of the story. It seemed less imaginative than her previous work. The main characters of Laura and Winter were solidly written characters. Thumbs-up.