Actual Rating: 3.5

Going into ’Old Soul’ I was simultaneously nervous and excited. Horror isn’t my go to genre (although it’s one I do want to try and start checking out more) and I was slightly worried that this would stray too far into slasher territory for my tastes at times. Yet the premise infinitely intrigued me and I really wanted to check it out. Happily I can report that this didn’t go down the roads that I feared although I still had a few struggles with it initially. Once I was hooked ’Old Soul’ was a deeply compelling and disturbing read. Yet I can’t deny that it took a fair bit of time for me to reach that ‘must read’ point.

Usually I try to start my reviews off with the positive points of a read then circle back to what I struggled with towards the end. Yet it feels more natural to start with my struggles in this case as they came early on in the book and mostly disappeared as the story went on. The truth is that I really couldn’t connect or invest in ’Old Soul’ for the first twenty or so percent of the book. It had moments that deeply disturbed me but others that I couldn’t find myself invested in at all; and still others that felt somewhat bizarre. Those weirder elements made me fear that this was going to head down a route that I really wouldn’t connect to but thankfully they seemed to fade away, or in some cases click into place, as time went by. If I hadn’t received an arc of this book I probably would have given up on it truthfully but I’m glad I persevered as in the end it paid off.

The style of ’Old Soul’ is rather memorable and one that generally worked for me. It’s split into a combination of ‘testimonies’ and a storyline set within the Badlands. Each testimony details a different individuals experience with the mysterious woman that this book resolves around and the impact that she had upon someone close to them. Some of these segments were highly disturbing and watching the effect upon some of her victims was simultaneously compelling and difficult to watch. The Badlands storyline also engaged me and gave some additional insight into what this woman was ultimately up to. As you read the book and discover these various snapshots everything seems to click into place, painting one highly disturbing picture on the whole.

For me personally the characterisation in this book differed quite vastly at times. One of the first characters that you were introduced to I found hard to wrap my head around yet others were vividly detailed in an often uncomfortable light.

When it comes to what’s actually going on with this mysterious figure and the brutal deaths I was totally caught off guard. Granted I’m not all that familiar with the horror genre but to me it certainly seemed like a fairly unique and unexpected premise. It was chilling to wrap my head around and came with some deeply described stories at various points in times. The fact that you got to glimpse a variety of settings really intrigued me and I also appreciated how everything was gradually woven together.

Between it’s unusual premise and deeply detailed looks into a variety of people’s run ins with the mysterious ‘woman’ it centres around ’Old Soul’ makes for a unique and memorable read over all. Its deeply disturbing and uncomfortable to read at times and doesn’t shy away from the darker aspects of human life. On occasion the writing did seem to go into a little too much detail on background information I wasn’t overly interested in that linked to the characters but didn’t feel truly vital to the plot. It’s pretty unflinching with its depictions of decay too in a manner that I really was not expecting.

Just as a final note of caution there’s a lot of potentially triggering content in this book ranging from things like suicide and mental health to animal violence. I always struggle with the last of these so I wasn’t exactly thrilled that they featured, although it did mostly happen off page with the end results being most of its depiction.

Altogether I’m somewhat torn as to whether or not I recommend ’Old Soul’. As I’m personally glad that I read it and am intrigued enough to want to check out the author’s backlist at some point in time then I suppose I do. But I do feel the need to stress that the start could well be a major struggle for other readers too. The ‘weirdness’ may not bother other people given how vastly taste can differ but I wouldn’t be surprised if others initially found it hard to engage too. If that’s the case I do recommend trying to push on until at least the thirty percent mark as by then I was hooked. Its just a shame that the start was so ropey for me. Yet once I was engaged I stayed hooked throughout and ultimately ’Old Soul’ is a story that I won’t forget for quite some time.

Old Soul follows Jake after he meets Mariko by chance and uncovers a disturbing connection: their loved ones died after encountering the same mysterious woman. Jake follows the bloody trail to her and uncovering her true purpose.
I did find it quite slow which didn't necessarily feel like it was building to a crescendo, just slow pace with a much quicker ending.
This has such a cool concept and I really enjoyed the unnerving accounts that Jake picked up and the impending sense of doom because you knew what was coming. It didn't feel formulaic or like a copy of something else, which I find horror can sometimes do.
The final act pulled all the strings together to a gruesome and action packed finale, exactly what I wanted.

It started off strong, and I was very interested in the storyline, however, it kind of went flat for me. It had so much potential, but this story just wasn’t for it, sadly.

Thank you to Netgalley for my ARC!

This book has been classed as a horror and whilst I cannot disagree with that I found it’s more of an atmospheric horror than a slasher or gory horror. Saying that it is a great book and I enjoyed the way it was written with going through the decades/centuries of “the woman” and her victims from testimonies of those who witnessed her integrating with their loved ones. The MMC Jake is the one gathering the testimonies after a chance meeting with a woman whose twin brother died in a similar way to Jake’s best friend and he sets out on a journey to find out the truth behind the woman who links the deaths of not only his best friend but many others.

The blurb, tagline is what drew me in “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.”

Overall I did enjoy the book and would definitely recommend it. It is creepy and a good read. Thank you to the author, publishers and netgalley for this arc in return for an honest review.

“Old Soul” is a supernatural folk-thriller with a dual POV that started off strong but ultimately didn’t hold my interest.

The beginning of the book really drew me in—I was captivated by the folk spiritual elements, and the combination of mystery and supernatural intrigue kept me turning the pages. The testimonies scattered throughout the story were compelling, adding depth and history to the novel’s eerie atmosphere.

However, around the 55% mark, the book completely lost me. I was hoping for a steady build-up in tension, but instead, the pacing slowed significantly. The writing seemed to put the brakes on just when the story should have been picking up, and I found myself skimming sections rather than feeling fully immersed. The inconsistency in chapter lengths—some being quite long, others very short—also made the reading experience feel uneven.

Another issue I struggled with was keeping track of the characters. There were so many that I found it difficult to picture them, and the text didn’t always clearly indicate who was speaking. Dialogue often blended into the narration, making it confusing to follow conversations. Strangely, this only seemed to be properly addressed in the final chapter, which made me wish the formatting had been clearer throughout the entire book.

Overall, I think Old Soul had a lot of potential, especially with its intriguing premise and atmospheric storytelling. But the slow pacing, structural inconsistencies, and lack of clarity in character voices made it difficult to stay engaged. Unfortunately, it just didn’t work for me, so I’d rate it 2 stars.

When Jake and Mariko meet by chance at Osaka airport and begin to discover that they’ve both lost loved ones in eerily similar circumstances, Jake becomes set on finding out precisely what happened and exacting revenge if necessary.

The poetic writing and creepy, seemingly supernatural start to this novel captivated me at first. Each separate story sequence reveals a little bit more about the strange woman who has different reincarnations for each vulnerable victim she encounters, alongside the ability to remember all her past lives.

An off putting point in the novel was the merging of conversation into the narrative without the benefit of using speech marks. And as I read on, the samey nature of the victims’ deaths and the increasingly confusing text made me less keen to continue with it.

In fact, the repetition of horror, the gratuitous violence, the more we discover about the woman’s background and what makes her tick to the extent that she loses her air of mystery, meant that the narrative became less disturbing and dark and my interest was lost.

A great premise and an inviting synopsis won me over to start with. Although I persevered, despite my later reservations, and finished the book, my initial enthusiasm was dampened. Grateful thanks to the publishers and NetGalley for the eARC in exchange for an honest review.

The synopsis of this book really interested me and I was looking forward to reading it but, sadly, I got really confused with the characters and storyline and found it difficult reading without the quotation marks.
DNF - 11%

An unsettling literary horror novel! I really liked the premise and felt pulled in right away. The novel is split into “testaments” from a lot of different characters and a present day timeline following “The Woman” which made this feel more like a collection of short stories rather than a cohesive novel. Especially because our narrator isn’t always present and I felt as if we didn’t get to know any of the characters seeing as we only spend 1 chapter with them, leaving me feeling detached from everyone.

There were some testaments that were fantastic and others that fell flat for me, I often preferred the ones with the most horror/creepy elements.

By the second half, it started to drag and my interest was wavering, especially with the last couple of “testaments”🙃 I also was disappointed slightly in the ending; the epilogue felt unnecessary and feel it would’ve been stronger to end with the final chapter instead. There also wasn’t any dialogue punctuation so it could be confusing at times but eventually I became used to it.

Overall it had a lot of potential and started off well but eventually felt like it went on too long and lost a lot of the horror aspects. I’d recommend this for literary fiction readers as opposed to horror fans seeing as the horror elements get lost in later chapters 🤷🏻‍♀️

TW/CW: death of parent, death, animal death, infidelity, incest? (Implied), cancer, body horror, ableism, alcoholism, depression, suicide attempt (brief mention), domestic abuse, suicide, child murder, drug use, sexual content

DNF @ 30%

I enjoyed Susan's writing but I felt like I was reading through a fog and could not get a grip on what was actually happening. I won't be sharing my review, but thank you for the opportunity.

Dark, sinister and disorienting from the start, this novel is confusing and disturbing, as it gradually reveals the horror of the 'old soul' of the title and what she must do to survive. You are gradually brought along through the novel to see and understand more and more of who and what are at the heart of the terror and untimely deaths of people through the ages. Where it fell down a bit for me was in the repetitiveness of the deaths, which felt like you were reading the same thing again and again, and in the sometimes over-described violence of action as friends and family of previous victims team up to stop the horror in tracks. A novel that is as scary in what it doesn't say as in what it does, let down a little bit by offering too much - information, violence - towards the end.

This was the grabbiest thing I read all month. It starts with a chance encounter between a gay American named Jake and a Japanese businesswoman named Mariko, in an airport; both discover that they’ve lost someone close to them, in an eerily similar way: their personalities changed, they died of heart failure after agitated behaviour, and autopsies showed them both with situs inversus, a condition where all your organs are on the wrong sides of your body. The conversation leads Jake into a globe-hopping quest to track down the mysterious photographer who befriended his best pal and Mariko’s brother before their deaths, a woman he’s convinced is somehow responsible. (He’s not wrong.) His conversations with people who’ve encountered her are intercut with a present-day narrative entitled “Badlands”, set in the southwestern US, where the photographer is about to go hiking in the wilderness with a vulnerable young influencer-wannabe. The tension in these scenes is incredible; we just know something bad is going to happen, but we have no idea what, and Barker balances uncertainty with sickening conviction so well. Eventually, Jake catches up with the photographer and the two strands merge, in a finale that truly shocked me not so much for its violence—though its violence is brutal and all the more effective for coming virtually out of nowhere—as for the plot decisions it makes, the characters that the narrative eventually throws its weight behind. Almost by definition the novel feels very Lovecraftian, but there’s also a touch of Sarah Perry’s Melmoth here (in theme, if not in style), and some of the bleak Western horror-beauty of No Country for Old Men. Impossible to put down and highly recommended, this has strong book-of-the-year list potential.

OMG this was a spine tingling, epic scary read. Another of the books i couldnt put down, it is a scary story of a quest to stop evil. Highly recommended#OldSoul #NetGalley.

This was a bit of a roller coaster ride of a read for me. This book is made up of quite a few narratives with a common character threading through them all until the end where a number of the narratives link together. There were narratives I really enjoyed and others less so, however, I think something really clicked about 50% through that kept me wanting to keep reading. This is quite a slow and steady dark read and whilst perhaps not a horror it is quite creepy.

Sadly I had to DNF this book at 33% as I was not enjoying it.
The idea behind the book sounded very intriguing and I was looking forward to getting stuck into it. Unfortunately, because of the way it was written I found it difficult to follow what was happening and to create a connection to the characters. The stories, although all featuring the same woman killing people in a very unique way, felt disjointed and the violence felt gratuitous. I felt it was there only for the shock factor. In the end, I was not really sure what was going on and what the book was trying to say.
I also didn't like the lack of speech marks; it works, sometimes. But in this case, it just made a chaotic narration even more confusing.

Sadly, this wasn't the book for me.

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

When two grieving strangers meet by chance in Osaka airport they uncover a disturbing connection. Jake's best friend and Mariko's twin brother each died, 6,000 miles apart, in brutal and unfathomable circumstances.

I struggled with this initially, as I couldn’t fathom where it was going, but then got into its rhythm. At times, I got mixed up with who was narrating but, putting that aside, it’s a very readable story. Well written and it progresses at a good pace. There are a lot of characters to get used to as the plot skips along. It was a good read.

This book was amazing, what a terrifying and gripping story. I read an eARC of this book on NetGalley so thank you to the author and the publisher.

This was such a fascinating premise and so creepy! The way the story unveiled through testimonies was really clever too with how it juxtaposed with the events happening in the present timeline. We have a character chasing after stories of a dark haired woman after whom death shortly follows. This happens to the character’s friend and when he realises it wasn’t a sole occurrence he starts to seek out others who this has happened to. He searches out the loved ones of those who died, learning how they changed leading up to their deaths. This was such a clever way of giving us the different puzzle pieces to work out what was happening with the dark haired woman.

The writing was tense, evocative and frequently quite dark. The stories take place across many countries and landscapes and it’s just enough to give you the full picture of what’s happened, timed perfectly.

The only reason this didn’t get five stars for me was that the author didn’t use speech marks. This was quite jarring and confusing at times. I wasn’t sure if sometimes it was thoughts, action or speech. I know this doesn’t bother some people but I found it was pulling me out of the story when I was trying to work it out. This would have been completely enthralling otherwise.

caught me off guard! fantastic cover, incredible synopsys and the same can be said about Barker's writing. Definetly a must read. Not necessarily reinventing the wheel but manages to stand on its own and engage the reader. Fantastic writing and superb twists! Will keep an eye out for the author's new releases

A creepy well written novel. Jake and Mariko meet in an airport and find out that Jake's friend and Mariko's brother die in the same mysterious circumstances though different continents. Good characters and a plot that will keep you hooked. Thanks to Penquin UK/Fig tree and Netgalley for this review ARC.

Old Soul is one of those books that starts strong and compelling but goes on way longer than it should have done.

The opening with Jake and Mariko was arresting; the kind of opening that makes you sit up straight and settle in for what is sure to be a gripping read. The pair meet by chance when they both miss a flight at Kansai International Airport. As they get to know one another, it first seems like they have nothing in common, but soon they reach a chilling realisation: they each knew someone who died in the same disturbing and mysterious way.

What connects both these deaths, thousands of miles apart, is the appearance of a strange woman in the weeks leading up to the end. This new understanding leads Jake around the world in pursuit of answers.

The chapters alternate between Jake gathering testimonies from various people who have also lost loved ones to this mysterious woman, and the woman honing in on her next victim.

I have often expressed disagreement with Kirkus reviewers, but I think in this case they got it completely right. The longer this story dragged on, the more the tension drained out of it. Jake's investigations feel like a series of short stories, ones that became repetitive after a while. The eerie, mysterious woman, once well-explained, became far less eerie and not at all mysterious.

It was like the author built up all this tension in the first 25% or so, then just allowed it to slowly fade away over the rest of the book. By around the 75% mark, my interest had waned.

This is a book that took me a long time to get into and which, at about 20% and again at about 40% I seriously considered giving up on. This is rare for me - I hate to not finish a book. Having now finished Old Souls, am I glad I persevered to the end? On balance, yes. The book did improve as I progressed. I could see how the different vignettes fitted together and that the book ultimately came together as a whole - a dark, and disturbing whole thought it was. I don't mind horror books - although I wouldn't say they were my favourite genre. But there were elements of this book that felt just too chilling, dark, and depressing. I'm grateful to NetGalley for giving me the chance to read this ARC but I'm afraid that it just didn't do it for me.