The Warm Hands of Ghosts

Minutes ago, I finished Katherine Arden's “The warm Hands of Ghosts,” and I'm still trying to catch my breath. This book is not for the faint-of-heart or your typical beach read, but it is worth it, no matter how haunted it leaves you.

Having loved the author's previous “Bear and the Nightingale“ series, I was very intrigued that she had chosen a story during the last few years of World War I. I did not realize how raw and gritty the book would be, perhaps, because I had some expectations that the fantastical elements of the other series would reappear. That is not a criticism against this book, but against my expectations going in. What is common between this and her other books is her great skill in taking you to a place, where you can see, smell, hear, and touch.

At first, I had a hard time getting into the characters and I think it's because both Laura and her brother, Freddie, weren't always fully in the present moment, sometimes jarred back to horrific scenes of war or the aftermath in field hospitals in the middle of sentences or thoughts. Both of them, like so many other people returning from war, were shattered by what they experienced.

Unfortunately, I only met one of my Great Grandparents who had served as in World War I; the others had passed away before I was born. I would've been interested to hear my Moravian Great Grandfather‘s stories; he deserted and was imprisoned in a castle for a chunk of the war. I probably wouldn't be here if he hadn't done so. As I read this book, I pictured each of them and imagined what they may have went through.

And after reading this book, as well as Robert Graves' “Goodbye to All That” and some of Wilfred Owen's poems, the terrifically awful tragedy of the Great War was amplified. The descriptions of trench and hospital life seem like something out of a horror movie, not something that could possible happened to so many of our ancestors. But it did. Not to be outdone by the horrific actuality of that war, Katherine Arden wove in the sinister fiddler, one of the more evil and mysterious villains I've read in a long time. I won't say too much about that party if the story because it's better to read it yourself.

The Author's Note, as well as a post in Goodreads (wouldn't recommend reading those before reading the book) delve into Arden's struggle to write this book, as well as some of the inspirations. Her journey to complete. This book was almost heartbreaking. And now, I look forward to any further books she might be able to share with us.