I started reading it in December and finished in June. It wasn’t that I was unmotivated in fact I was quite moved by the unsettling nature of the book. However I felt like the book was an elaborately elusive entity and I was unable to get a grasp of it. I only knew what it was in the last quarter and then the epilogue threw me off again. The direction it was going was a snapshot in the end and not as climatic as the build up had eluded to.

I’m just done. I will think about it heaps. And just enjoy it from the retrospect but I don’t think I’d be inclined to read it again. I wouldn’t call it a horror. It was more like an artistic version of a horror. Creative but more subdued and grandeur in its ambition and style.

I received this book from Netgalley for review consideration. All opinions are my own and completely honest.

Old Soul was one of those rare books that completely pulls you under—mysterious, chilling, and utterly addictive. I found it impossible to put down. The story kicks off with a chance meeting between two grieving strangers and quickly unravels into a dark, twisting mystery that spans continents and centuries.

Susan Barker’s writing is truly immersive, and I loved how the layers of the story were slowly revealed. The thread of the mysterious dark-haired woman gave the book just the right amount of eerie edge.

Every twist caught me off guard in the best way, and I genuinely couldn’t stop reading. If you’re in the mood for something atmospheric, unsettling, and beautifully written, Old Soul is a must-read. Highly recommend!

This book was an ARC that I knew I wanted to read when I first saw it on NetGalley. I was so excited when I was accepted to review it.

I found this book a bit hard to follow to start with as it jumps between timelines and locations, but once I understood the plot I became fully engrossed. I loved the testimony of each character and how their encounters with the woman were very similar. I really liked the character development of the woman, so heartless from the start but you saw her vulnerabilities when she was with the sculptor. It was the first time she told someone her full story. The book was dark and suspenseful, I haven’t read a book like this in a while and it reminded me how much I like a paranormal psychological thriller. I will definitely seek out other books by Susan Barker.

Apologies in the delay in reviewing this book. I have been unwell this year and it has taken me a while to be able to read books again.

Thank you to NetGalley, Penguin General UK, Fig Tree, Hamish Hamilton, Viking, Penguin Life, and Penguin Business for allowing me to review this ARC.

Rating - 4.5⭐️

Reads like a bad Goosebumps novel. Characters were flat, story was plodding and unengaging, prose was ordinary - a very unimpressive and uninteresting read.

A compulsive read with a central character who is manipulative, destructive and horrifying but also dangerously appealing.

Some of the testimonies are overlong and a bit dull but there is excitement and tension as the hunt for ‘the woman’ intensifies.

And read the epilogue at your own risk!

This was an interesting, chilling and plain creepy at times read. Intriguing, compellingly and addictive.

This book captivated me from the start. It’s unlike anything I’ve ever read before. The twists and turns were amazing, and I didn’t know what to expect. I love the way it takes you through all the characters, you learn to love them all. The story telling is incredible, and I would recommend to everyone!

Reading this felt like slipping into a dream you can’t quite shake—unsettling, vivid, and completely absorbing. Susan Barker doesn’t just tell a story; she unravels something strange and unforgettable. The concept is unlike anything I’ve read, and the slow, creeping intensity made it impossible to look away. It’s not a book that rushes you—it lingers, haunts, and quietly takes hold. The language felt sharp and intentional, adding to the eerie beauty of the whole experience.

Old Soul by Susan Barker completely unsettled me—in the best way. From the moment I started reading, I was drawn into Jake’s grief-fueled obsession and the eerie mystery surrounding the ageless woman. The story unfolds through strange, atmospheric testimonies from people across the globe, and I found myself completely hooked, piecing together the puzzle right alongside him. There were moments where the pacing slowed, but I didn’t mind—I was too intrigued by the haunting mood and the bigger questions it raised about memory, grief, and what it means to carry an old soul. It’s one of those books that lingers with you long after the last page.

Thanks to NetGalley, publishers and author for an ARC of Old Soul.

This book definitely gave me the chills while reading. Towards the end I couldn't read it in a dark room. It is a fantastic story of the quest to immortality, and the lengths that can take.
Highly Recommend.

The horror at the heart of Old Soul was unexpected and interesting. While reading this book, I felt like I had travelled to so many different places and times. Susan Barker’s ability to describe and build various environments seemed effortless. I didn't enjoy the final chapter although I understood why she did it.

At the heart of Old Soul is the mysterious woman. Ageless, undying and in thrall to a Lovecraftianesque entity. Who is she? Where did she come from? That's what Jake aims to discover following a chance encounter. The narrative is split between the testaments of those who Jake encounters in his quest to locate the woman and her latest hunt. It's in the former that Old Soul really comes alive, with each of the testaments almost strong enough to stand on its own apart from the larger narrative. The latter unfortunately isn't as effective with the hunt being overlong and also because I just didn't care about the woman's latest prey, wannabe influencer Rosa. It's also a shame we found out pretty much everything about the woman, it would have been nice if she'd been left with some mystique by book's end.

Thanks to NetGalley, Penguin Fig Tree and the author for advance copy.

Thank you for a free copy for a review but sadly not my style of book. I got confused by the pacing and couldn't quite get back on it.

Interesting. Obviously well written but also engaging. The first time in a long time that I could not stop reading. A lot of books that end up being heavily marketed are not this good. The slow reveal of the antagonist was well done. Equally impressive was the character building of persons of varied genders and races. The exception being Jake, but perhaps this was purposeful in that he was merely to act as a cypher to not get in the way of the testimonies at the heart of the story. Some impressive evocative imagery is also present - the description of the portrait of Ursula and the evil presence embedded. The Hungarian date night outfit. Although, in my view, the most depressing testimony, I did enjoy the Welsh father's almost comical dislike of his daughter's teenage best friend.
A thoroughly good read, if a little uneven towards the end as the epilogue felt a bit too much.

"Ambiguous signs in horror are so unnerving because it's the stuff we encounter in our everyday lives"
I picked Old Soul after reading the tag line “The woman never goes by the same name. She never stays in the same place too long. She never ages. She never dies. But those around her do.” I went in expecting something akin to the Grudge or similar but got something completely different. The story starts with two random strangers who meet after missing a plane. The pair find out that they share the same disturbing tragedy. The story proceeds to tell the tale of a mysterious woman and a decades long list of people she has encounter and who have passed on after their meeting. The tale is told through multiple perspectives and a twisting time line. I very much enjoyed this, it might not have been what I expect but it was definitely something I needed to read.

Terrifyingly brilliant
A creepy story that will keep you turning the pages and looking over your shoulder. I definitely recommend reading with the light on!
The characters are intriguing and the ending is absolutely unforgettable.

Ambitious literary horror that lingers
—
There’s a Korean urban myth that when someone changes too much, they’ll die. In Barker’s eerie literary horror, seemingly unconnected narrators tell stories of friends and loved ones who changed subtly before terrible things happened to them. In each case, the presence of a mysterious woman is harbinger of all that turns dark.

With a complex braid of narrators telling eerily similar tales, the horror builds until the truth begins to seep out, and unfortunately, so does the tension. Knowing the mechanism of the horror, it deflates its effect, however, the book lingers because it is so well written. The plot falters near the end and as this is literary horror, not everyone gets out alive.

Three and a half stars.

I’m not entirely sure how I feel about this new literary horror novel. It starts with an intriguing premise and mesmerising writing, but it loses momentum a little in the middle and the end left me with mixed feelings.

Jake and Mariko meet in airport by chance, but they discover the have something very unusual in common. They’ve both lost someone suddenly, in strange, disturbing circumstances. And, what seems to connect the two deaths is that both the deceased met and befriended a mysterious, mesmerising woman. They allowed her into their lives. They allowed her to take their photograph.

So Jake embarks on a mission to find out more about the strange woman. He travels the world to meet people who’ve lost loved ones in similar circumstances. He collects their stories, building testimonies on a mission to track down the woman at the heart of it all.

“Smoke and mirrors masquerading as some kind of femme fatale, when the truth was far more monstrous.”

The testimonies span the globe, leading a trail through the pain and destruction the woman leaves in her wake, each story dark, disturbing and – ultimately – tragic. It’s a clever way to capture the horror of the woman through different people’s eyes, and some of them make powerful short horror stories in their own right. But, moving between characters and places so much did mean that I didn’t get as absorbed in the narrative as I’d have hoped; they start to feel more like short vignettes, disconnected but also a little repetitive at times.

These are interspersed with an ongoing narrative, titled Badlands, which follow the woman herself, as she battles her own issues with her power and struggles to keep her latest victim compliant.

There isn’t a lot of outright horror in this book, but it’s dark and disturbing in a quiet way which gets under the skin. I was intrigued to know where it was all leading, but the ending left me feeling lost and unsettled. Maybe that was the author’s aim.

This book had a unique premise that kept me intrigued, but the disappointing ending and epilogue dropped my rating from three stars to two. The story alternates between Jake, a gay traveler investigating a string of eerie deaths linked to a mysterious woman, and Rosa, a teenage influencer unknowingly caught in the web of an ancient evil known as The Tyrant. While it leans more toward supernatural suspense than true horror, the plot felt overly drawn out, and the characters lacked depth. Though others may love its eerie atmosphere, it didn’t quite work for me—thanks to NetGalley and Penguin UK for the ARC.

How to review this novel without spoilers. This book had me closing the curtains and looking over my shoulder. I may navel look at photographs the same way again! A slow burn that ramped up the suspense until the epilogue which was mind blowing . Not my normal genre but I thoroughly enjoyed this novel. The characters were well drawn and the horror that slowly enveloped them was truly evil. I will certainly be searching through this authors backlist. Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC of this novel in return for an honest review.