The Warm Hands of Ghosts by Katherine Arden
on February 13, 2024
Genres: Fiction / Fantasy / Action & Adventure, Fiction / Fantasy / Historical, Fiction / Historical / 20th Century / World War I
Pages: 336
Format: Hardcover
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Katherine Arden steps away from the folklore and fantasy of The Bear and the Nightingale series to deliver something darker, more haunting, and deeply human in The Warm Hands of Ghosts. This is not a light read—it’s a somber, atmospheric story that blurs the line between history and the supernatural, between the living and the dead, and between love and loss.
The Story
Set during the final years of World War I, the story follows Laura Iven, a former combat nurse who returns home to Halifax after being injured and discharged. When she receives word that her brother, Freddie, has been killed in action, something doesn’t sit right. His personal effects don’t match the brother she knew, and soon, eerie whispers suggest he might not be gone after all.
Determined to uncover the truth, Laura returns to Belgium, volunteering at a private hospital near the front lines. There, she hears rumors of haunted trenches and a mysterious hotelier whose wine grants soldiers a strange kind of peace.
Meanwhile, on the battlefield, Freddie wakes up after an explosion to find himself trapped with a wounded German soldier named Hans. Together, they navigate the horror of no man’s land and stumble upon something—or someone—otherworldly. What follows is a chilling and emotional journey that explores the cost of survival when death is everywhere.
My Thoughts
This book is dark, lyrical, and profoundly heartbreaking. Arden captures the brutality of war with unflinching honesty, showing how it shatters people both physically and emotionally. The writing is gorgeous—every sentence feels heavy with grief, memory, and longing—but it’s also a story that demands patience.
For me, The Warm Hands of Ghosts was a 3.5-star read. I admired the atmosphere and the themes—it’s a tragic yet painfully realistic symphony about the devastating consequences of war—but I also felt it could have been shorter. There were stretches where the pacing lagged, and I found myself wishing the story would move forward more quickly.
Still, there’s something undeniably haunting about this novel. It’s not a ghost story in the traditional sense, but it lingers with you like one. Arden’s use of speculative elements—memory, death, and the thin veil between worlds—feels more like emotional truth than fantasy.
Final Thoughts
The Warm Hands of Ghosts is a dark and beautifully written exploration of love, loss, and the ways war erases and reshapes humanity. It’s tragic, atmospheric, and deeply introspective—a book that asks what it really means to survive when so much of the world has been lost.
(3.5/5)
Read this if you like:
Lyrical, haunting historical fiction
Stories that explore the supernatural side of grief
Emotional, character-driven war narratives
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