Reviews tagging 'Confinement'

The Warm Hands of Ghosts by Katherine Arden

12 reviews

kirtreads's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

This book took me over two months to read because it is raw, emotional, dark, and does not throw punches. I had to listen in bits and then process and then come back. I can understand why the author calls this “the fiend”. I normally hate war fiction but this felt so raw and real, and I actually cared about the characters. 

This novel isn’t sad for the sake of being sad. I think Kathrine Arden actually does a great job of capturing the inexplicable and crazy hope that people can have in their darkest moments. However, it still is dark. The ending will crush you, but it is so worth the read. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, War, Xenophobia, Suicide, Abandonment, Body horror, Confinement, Medical content, Medical trauma, Panic attacks/disorders, Terminal illness, Death of parent, Mental illness, Genocide, Gore, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Suicidal thoughts, Death, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

cjbrimmer's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional informative mysterious sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Panic attacks/disorders, War, Grief, Violence, Death, Gore, and Gun violence

Minor: Confinement

uranaishi's review

adventurous dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Injury/Injury detail, Grief, War, Death, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, and Murder

Moderate: Gaslighting, Gun violence, Medical content, Medical trauma, Blood, Body horror, Death of parent, Misogyny, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, Panic attacks/disorders, Self harm, Suicide, Violence, Abandonment, Suicide attempt, Gore, and Toxic relationship

Minor: Terminal illness, Vomit, Pregnancy, Drug abuse, Xenophobia, Classism, Cursing, Deportation, and Sexism

silverhill's review

dark mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, War, Death of parent, and Death

Moderate: Confinement, Medical content, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, and Violence

dreichler's review

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic relationship, Confinement, War, Death, Death of parent, Gun violence, Medical content, Medical trauma, Suicide attempt, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Murder, and Violence

mmccombs's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad slow-paced

4.0

An absolutely harrowing portrait of war and trauma and loss with an interesting twist. For some reason this is the year of WW1 content for me, I started the year with In Memoriam and the recent movie adaptation of All Quiet on the Western Front. Both do a good job of showcasing the horrors of the War, but this book stretched that even further into a blend of horror and fantasy that was very compelling. The message of this book was perhaps a bit on the nose, but the sheer apocalyptic vibes to it felt very visceral and made it hard for me to put this book down. 

For me, the characters lacked a bit of depth, but I didn’t totally mind because everything else felt so lush.  I also feel like the middle was a bit meandering and bloated, the author notes in her acknowledgments that this book was difficult to write, and in some ways it was difficult to read. There are lots of moving parts to this one (realistic depictions of war, the fantastical elements of Faland and his hotel, and the horror of ghosts and surrealism), which sometimes didn’t feel like the gelled together. But in the end, I thought this was a wholly unique and haunting depiction of a time period that continues to feel all the more relevant to our current moment in time.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Injury/Injury detail, Death of parent, Confinement, War, Grief, Medical content, Gore, Mental illness, and Blood

Minor: Pandemic/Epidemic

sarasreading's review

challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

This was an intense read for sure. Very different from the Winternight trilogy, but equally beautiful. Her writing is entrancing and visceral, which I absolutely loved. 

This would almost be a 5 star read for me, but I wasn't as invested in the present-time storyline as much as the one from the past. The latter was absolutely riveting and I was on the edge of my seat with all of the plot and relational tension, meanwhile the present POV was mostly uneventful travel for a good portion. 

In the end, I was deeply moved by this book, and it's going to stick with me for a long time. I may eventually bump it up to 5 stars if I can't stop thinking about it. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Grief, Confinement, Injury/Injury detail, Fire/Fire injury, Medical content, War, Emotional abuse, Medical trauma, and Death

Moderate: Death of parent

nadiajohnsonbooks's review

dark emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

This book was beautiful. One one hand, it's quite a unique story, with traumatized protagonists that felt real enough to touch. On the other, it sits comfortably alongside the classic, heartbreaking war stories contemporary to its setting during WWI.

Laura is a service-disabled combat nurse who loses everything in the span of one winter. The Canadian army discharges her after she is injured, her parents die suddenly, and her brother, Freddie is missing in action.

Details of Freddie's disappearance don't sit right, though, and when a spiritualist acquaintance insists that he is alive, she can't get the thought out of her head.

So she returns to Flanders to learn what she can, though her investigation is confounded by  speculation and supernatural rumor.

Laura and Freddie's story is full of love, but love is not an easy thing when surrounded by death and destruction. It deals with trauma, and the struggle of finding the things that make life worth living in spite of the horrors. And it shows that Hell is a place that we've created for ourselves.

In her afterword, Arden writes about the way WWI is essentially a gap in our history curriculum in the States, overshadowed by WWII. Having grown up in the States, I can attest to this.

But I'm also Flemish, my mother coming from Vlaams-Brabant, so I learned about it anyway. I've seen the way Flanders has bounced back, but I've also seen the toll that being the epicenter of two world wars has taken on our landscape and the Belgian national character. Beyond that, it's surreal to know that you come from a place that, to most of the anglophone world, is synonymous with war.

I appreciated the thoughtful way in which Arden handled the horrors of war while writing a book that did not much take place on the battlefield.

I'm very glad I read it.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, War, Death, and Confinement

Moderate: Death of parent, Mental illness, Suicide attempt, Blood, and Medical content

lila_still_reads's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious reflective sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Death, Grief, Blood, Body horror, Violence, Medical content, Gore, Confinement, War, and Death of parent

Moderate: Suicide attempt and Torture

Minor: Medical trauma

downtown_kb's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

“Armageddon was a fire in the harbor, a box delivered on a cold day. It wasn't one great tragedy, but ten million tiny ones, and everyone faced theirs alone.”

Laura is a combat nurse who has returned home after an injury. Not long afterwards her parents both die in an explosion. Her brother, lost on the front lines, is her only remaining family. She becomes determined to find him but she must face many horrors in the process.

This was beautiful writing, captivating characters, and the perfect blend of real life twisted into the horrific. There is gore and ghosts, murder and a creepy unraveling of sanity. I was fascinated by “The Fiddler” and the new take on the Faustian bargain. It was so cleverly laid out. Set in the midst of WWI this setting lends so well to horror, as the author details in her afterward, because of course, at baseline it was a horrific time but taken just a step further you get lost in not quite knowing what is real along with the characters. I was hooked. This will stay with me for a long time. Rounded out well with a bit of romance, I was so relieved that the main characters get peace at the end of the madness. 

The audio by January LaVoy and Michael Crouch was fantastic.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical content, Murder, Confinement, War, Death of parent, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Blood, Violence, and Suicidal thoughts