The Warm Hands of Ghosts has much to recommend it. The protagonist, Laura, is determined, courageous, and dedicated; the setting, the battlefield of World War I, is heart-wrenching and hopeless; the story, an artful weaving of historical fiction and the paranormal, is compelling. Katherine Arden can certainly turn a phrase and her brilliant writing is natural and captivating. There are layered themes about family ties and love, the bonds of people forged through trauma, personal choice, and the deep, gut-wrenching pain of souls devastated by the effects of war. With all of this going on, some of the “twists” or “reveals” held together and felt more authentic than others. Drawing upon apocalyptic imagery and Biblical evil incarnate, Arden paints all the horror and insanity of war without apology or answers. As bleak as this all may sound, the redeeming relationships with paths forward for the characters ultimately give hope.
Review of a Digital Advance Reading Copy Provided by Del Rey
Content Analysis:
Profanity/Language: 53 religious exclamations; 41 mild obscenities; 8 derogatory names; 4 F-word derivatives.
Violence/Gore: Brief description of the explosion of a boat resulting in deaths, floating bodies in the harbor; reference to a leg injury received during a bombing WWI; description of a person killed when glass window shattered (blood, shards of glass in body, eyes, etc.); throughout the book there are many times that characters recall details of various battlefield experience that have graphic descriptions, mention of blood, etc.; scene where characters are trapped in the dark with dead bodies, rats; man grabs another man’s wrist, twists, forces face into muddy water; man hits another man across the face to bring him to his senses; graphic description of battlefield hospitals, the conditions, some of the men’s injuries; frightening nightmare; ghost with bloody eyes appears several different times; description of a scar; reference to the sinking of the Titanic and all the coffins and dead buried; two soldiers struggle and one kills the other by drowning him; description of injured men getting off of a train–their minds have broken under the effects of the war; description of people dying in gas attacks; corpse begins to bloat; descriptions of no-man’s land; scene in which orderlies move a body and the corpse’s body falls into two pieces; soldiers asks for someone to kill him; bomb damages trucks and kills driver; reference to inadvertent cannibalism; character cries in pain when bandages are changed; a patient was an attempted suicide; blood running, description of gangrene sloughing; character is trampled in a riot and sustains injuries; descriptions of injuries in newly arriving soldiers; man is shot; characters struggle with a gun in an attempted assassination; series of scenes are replayed for characters involving horrible things on the battlefields (e.g. man’s head blown from shoulders); character shoots another in the head; report that someone was sent to firing squad for desertion.
Sex/Nudity: Implied attraction between a man and a woman; several different men admire the beauty of a woman (are smitten); character has a passing thought that she hopes there is not a naked girl behind a mirror; passing reference to a whorehouse; to relax a group of patients, a character tells an anecdotal, humorous story referencing an ingredient that lessons sexual desire; character undresses to wash (non-sexual); passing reference that men would like to take women to bed; reference to a woman who runs a prostitution business; man leans close to woman to talk to her, romantic tension; man kisses another man and they hold hands, brief scene; woman touches a man’s face; man and woman kiss.
Mature Subject Matter:
World War I, death on the battlefield, death of a family member, illness, severe injuries, mental health issues (resulting from war), suicide (reference to an attempt), treason, desertion, murder, evil incarnate, same-sex romantic relationship, seance, Ouija board, paranormal.
Alcohol/Drug Use:
Adult characters smoke; adult characters drink in social situations; adult characters drink in private; adult characters sometimes drink to excess; nurse gives a patient morphine.
