Synopsis:
January 1918. Laura Iven was a revered field nurse until she was wounded and discharged from the medical corps, leaving behind a brother still fighting in Flanders. Now home in Halifax, Canada, Laura receives word of Freddie’s death in combat, along with his personal effects—but something doesn’t make sense. Determined to uncover the truth, Laura returns to Belgium as a volunteer at a private hospital, where she soon hears whispers about haunted trenches and a strange hotelier whose wine gives soldiers the gift of oblivion. Could Freddie have escaped the battlefield, only to fall prey to something—or someone—else?
November 1917. Freddie Iven awakens after an explosion to find himself trapped in an overturned pillbox with a wounded enemy soldier, a German by the name of Hans Winter. Against all odds, the two form an alliance and succeed in clawing their way out. Unable to bear the thought of returning to the killing fields, especially on opposite sides, they take refuge with a mysterious man who seems to have the power to make the hellscape of the trenches disappear.
As shells rain down on Flanders and ghosts move among those yet living, Laura’s and Freddie’s deepest traumas are reawakened. Now they must decide whether their world is worth salvaging—or better left behind entirely.
Review:
Thank you to the publisher for sending me an early copy for review.
Katherine Arden is a favourite author of mine, and while the Great War isn’t a setting I usually enjoy I had faith that Arden would be able to make me forget that. I’m very pleased to report that it was the perfect setting for this story and I take back my reservations about the setting and time period.
This is by far the darkest of Arden’s books that I’ve read. Usually my issue with historical fiction/fantasy set in the World Wars is the inevitable romanticisation of the war and what people went through on the front lines. Arden instead shows the darker side, the people who didn’t want to fight, the ends people went to just to be able to survive, and the absolute horrors that those on the front lines faced. I found my heart breaking as I read The Warm Hands of Ghosts and I felt true horror at so much of what Arden shows.
Following brother and sister, Freddie and Laura, as they both search for each other after Freddie is believed dead on the front line. Freddie’s story is set slightly earlier than Laura’s but eventually the timelines start to merge and get closer to each other. It’s masterful storytelling as it feels like you experience some events twice, and it makes them twice as devastating as you see events from both perspectives. Going in blind is the absolute best way to experience this book, so I don’t want to spoil any more.
There’s a mysterious hotelier who drives the fantastical part of this story. You never quite know who he is or why he can do what he does. But there’s enough hints within the book that you reach your own conclusions by the end. While he’s supposed to be the antagonist of the story, and while I do think it is a necessary and great part of the narrative, I still think the Great War itself is the true horror hidden within the pages. The hotelier helps mix in the fantastical with the brutal realities of the setting, while keeping the darkness of the real world.
Go in blind and expect to feel the horror in The Warm Hands of Ghosts. It’s Arden’s darkest work and my new favourite of hers.
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