I have been rereading the Winternight trilogy for the 3rd time but took a break to read Arden’s latest release The Warm Hands of Ghosts. And I’ve also read her middle grade series, the Small Spaces quartet.
Winternight is a really solid fantasy series that I love and keep returning to. Of the Small Spaces series, I thought the first book (also titled Small Spaces) and second book titled Dead Voices were very good. Book 3, Dark Waters, was fine. The final book, Empty Smiles, really left me disappointed. I don’t know if I’ve ever read a book with a more rushed ending.
It made me wonder like… did something happen? Was there an unmissable deadline? Did it maybe start to get too adult for middle grade and she didn’t know how to bring it back?
So I was excited but apprehensive about The Warm Hands of Ghosts. Luckily I ended up loving it. At times I think it gets a bit too fanciful and maybe takes itself a bit too seriously, but overall, I really enjoyed it.
And what’s really interesting to me is it sort of took a very similar character to the Smiling Man in the Small Spaces books, and expanded him into Faland in this book. They are also both similar to Medved in Winternight. All three are basically devils/gods who prey on human suffering.
There is so much to discuss about The Warm Hands of Ghosts. I had never read a WWI book and found it to be a fascinating and horrifying setting. I believe The Shining must be a big influence based on this book + Dead Voices.
If anyone wants to discuss these books and author I would love that!
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