The Warm Hands of Ghosts

Dark historical paranormal fiction that takes all the brutal misery of World War I and kicks it up a notch with a few friendly ghosts and a mysterious fiddler straight out of a Charlie Daniels Band song (look it up, kids). Not for the faint-hearted, with unflinching, horrifying descriptions of the bloody trenches and field hospitals. Battle-hardened, determined nurse Laura Iven is a strong heroine, but her younger brother Freddie is the character who will live rent-free in my mind for a long time. Just 21 years old, Freddie endures many levels of physical and emotional hell as his war trauma is compounded by actions he takes to save the life of a wounded German soldier when both men are trapped underground. His loyalty and his sanity are both tested numerous times, to the point where ending his existential pain feels like an act of mercy.

It's impossible to imagine a truly HEA ending for this dark story, but at least there is love, grace, and (at least for a few decades) peace. In her author's note, Katherine Arden makes the case that the WWI years were “as close to a moment of historical science fiction as we will ever get: an indescribable mash-up of changing mores and technologies. And its participants, like time travelers, were people of one era flung without warning into another.” The Warm Hands of Ghosts perfectly illustrates that premise, making it much more than just another piece of book-club-bait historical fiction.