You Trail Your Ghosts Behind You

I recently finished reading The Warm Hands of Ghosts by Katherine Arden. This is OwlCrate's March Adult 2024 book.

*POSSIBLE SPOILER ALERT*

  Rating: 3.5/5 stars

This exclusive edition features an exclusive cover designed by @vera.dramanovski, with sprayed edges, a reversible dust jacket by @june_page, foil case design by @divineliterary, and end pages by @offthehookstudio. The book is also signed by author Katherine Arden on an author page designed by @divineliterary with an author's letter bound into the book, and a bonus content for subscribers.

"January 1918. Laura Iven has been discharged from her duties as a nurse and sent back to Halifax, Canada, leaving behind a brother still fighting in the trenches of the First World War. Now home, she receives word of Freddie's death in action along with his uniform - but something doesn't quite make sense. Determined to find out more, Laura returns to Belgium as a volunteer at a private hospital. Soon after arriving, she hears whispers about ghosts moving among those still living and a strange innkeeper whose wine gives soldiers the gift of oblivion. Could this have happened to Freddie - but if so, where is he?

November 1917. Freddie Iven awakens after an explosion to find himself trapped under an overturned pillbox with an enemy soldier, a German, each of them badly wounded. Against all odds, the two men form a bond and succeed in clawing their way out. But once in No Man's Land, where can either of them turn where they won't be shot as enemy soldiers or deserters? As the killing continues, they meet a man - a fiddler - who seems to have the power to make the hellscape that surrounds them disappear. But at what price?

A novel of breathtaking scope and drama, of compulsive readability, of stunning historical research lightly worn, and of brilliantly drawn characters who will make you laugh and break your heart in a single line, The Warm Hands of Ghosts is a book that will speak to readers directly about the trauma of war and the power of those involved to love, endure and transcend it."

The Warm Hands of Ghosts is a historical fiction taking us back to darker times when tragedy struck on a greater scale during the Great War in the 1910s.

Laura returns to Halifax after being discharged due to her leg injury, leaving behind her brother Freddie who is still fighting in the trenches of the War in Belgium. She eventually receives word that her brother had died in the War, but something is not clicking into place for Laura and so she decides to return to Belgium as a volunteer at a private hospital and seek the truth of her brother's demise.

We follow two perspectives that transport us to different settings in the War, one is narrated through Laura's POV in the present time (1918) and the other is narrated in the past through Freddie's POV in (1917).

The characters forge unexpected bonds with both allies and enemies while navigating through a great bloody war that will forever alter humanity.

Themes of grief and hope are very prominent and they are what I consider to be the backbone of the book, and I admire the supernatural elements Arden wove into the story.

I found Freddie's chapters to be more compelling than Laura's as they were more heavy with emotions and witnessing what he had endured just made me more attached to him. Laura, on the other hand, was just okay, but it was Freddie who was the star of the book.

There is a small bit of romance (which I wish was a bit more prominent).

Check out The Warm Hands of Ghosts, and discover the mysteries of war.

Happy Reading :)