Reviews with content warning for Suicide attempt - The Warm Hands of Ghosts

THIS BOOK!

***Possible spoilers ahead***

I personally don't normally steer towards reading historical fiction, but this book makes me want to pick up more for sure!

I adore Katherine Arden's writing style. She has a way of writing her characters perfectly for the setting they are in, and this is no different. The dialogue and themes throughout this story are extremely time period appropriate and absolutely captivating. Laura was a determined, stubborn, and fiesty FMC, and the characters surrounding her took her strengths to better themselves. Although I have never been part of a war, I could feel the damage the war did to Freddie looking back in Laura's memory of him and how his part of the story played out. I thought the two were a very nice balance for each other, and the way the storylines came together was perfect.

I also loved all of the side characters. They all felt necessary and played important roles, and I really love how Faland was a villain character that wasn't necessarily nefarious. He didn't have that typical villain tantrum, he kind of let the people around him decide their own fates without a ton of interference. It more or less felt like he was more curious about human nature and psychology, though he did try to sway them to stay with him and give over themselves, which in a way is almost a more hardened villain in my opinion.

And can we get an amen for Jones!? I absolutely loved him.

I would highly, highly, highly recommend this to any and all who enjoy historical fiction stories and honestly to anyone who just enjoys a good story. This is definitely going to be a top read for me for the year, and is quite possibly one of my new all time favorites.

Content Warnings

readingonthefly's review

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tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.5

I enjoyed this one! It reminded me of Divine Rivals mixed with The London Seance Society. Loved the narrators, as they both made it really easy to just continue on. There was a lot of war, and definitely more detailed than Divine Rivals. I really liked that there was a “bad guy” as it really gave me someone to actively root against. That being said, it kind of lost me towards the end. The last two sentences intrigued me though! Still recommend if you liked the above mentioned books and war doesn’t bother you!

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nadiajohnsonbooks's review against another edition

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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.

Content Warnings

lila_still_reads's review against another edition

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challenging dark mysterious reflective sad slow-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

5.0

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luckykosmos's review against another edition

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emotional mysterious tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.75

This is about the pain in remembering those you loved, because of the grief that comes with it. It's made of complicated people making hard decisions - do we remember war and the pain that comes with it because it makes who we are, or do we choose to forget it because the pain is too much?

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pixie23's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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