Two strangers discover their loved ones died under the same odd and mysterious circumstances. One of them sets off to find the truth, which leads to a woman, whose name always changes.

This one was downright creepy at many parts, but also really slow in some. It was worth the slow parts. Don’t expect a fast paced horror, it’s more of a literary horror where it slowly creeps up on you.

“Don’t let her in. She’ll leave you alone when I’m gone.”

Old Soul comes out 1/28.

Thanks to NetGalley and Penguin for the ARC!

Susan Barker’s "Old Soul" is a restrained horror story that aims for spine-tingling unease but reaches only skin-crawling boredom.

The book’s premise is straightforward—a mysterious woman drifts through the world, somehow extending her (undead?) life by preying on vulnerable people. The narrative is fractured but gradually pieced together through a series of globe-spanning testimonies.

In theory, Barker’s approach sounds engaging, as if the range of perspectives would enrich the story’s mystery. In practice, it’s a real drag. Typically, I try to write reviews with a focus on whether the book is succeeding in its narrative goals, so it’s irrelevant if a writing style doesn’t personally gel with me.

In "Old Soul," it felt impossible to maintain this approach.

The prose is distractingly cluttered by a tendency to misconstrue information as specificity—a call can’t be a call. It must be a “WhatsApp call.” A camera can’t be a camera. It must be a “DSLR camera lens.” When it doesn’t feel like product placement, it reads like the author simply populates each page with details from a cursory google search: “What are foods people in eat in Japan? Okay, Mos Burger it is.” It’s not world-building as much as it’s word-dumping, and it makes the storytelling feel fruitless.

If one were to strip out most of these adjectival details, the book would simply be the same horror cliché over and over. Perhaps this Mad Libs style of writing will be enough for some readers, but it certainly wasn’t for me.

What did I think?? A lot, and at the same time not much. The first 25-30% was incredible. Once I figured out what I was reading I couldn't stop. Such a novel novel, so to speak. The plot was clever and original and the characters were people I cared about, wanted to follow the progress of. And then - it went on and on and on and on. All the energy that built up in the beginning began to dissipate in all of the repetition. I won't give any real spoilers but let's just say that I hated the ending and while each of the mini stories in this book were interesting, they just diluted the effect of the initial build up. The writing was excellent and the plot was very unique. I just wish it were a LOT shorter.

This ARC was provided by NetGalley and the publisher, the opinions expressed herein are strictly my own.

Old Soul is a unique horror/thriller. It has a slower pace, but it fits the story. There are a lot of characters and timelines, but it never feels overwhelming and it's easy for the reader to keep track. In fact, to call it horror/thriller doesn't seem exactly right, but that's probably the best fit.

What a wild ride! It starts off with this super eerie vibe, which totally sucked me in. Jake and Mariko meet by chance in Osaka, and they immediately bond over this mysterious and tragic connection—both of their loved ones had died under the same strange circumstances after encountering the same woman. Talk about a whoa moment, right? 🌍

As Jake dives deeper into the mystery, he travels around the globe, interviewing people whose lives were also upended by this dark-haired woman. Each of these stories is like a slow-burn horror tale, and while the premise is so unique, there were moments where the book did feel a bit drawn out. The tension definitely dips in the middle, but it picks up by the end with an unexpected twist that had me like, "Wait, WHAT?" 🤯

I loved how atmospheric the writing was, though—Barker’s style is all haunting and lyrical, which made it feel like the book was more of a literary horror experience than just a regular thriller. It's creepy, yes, but it also leaves you with a lot of questions. And the ending was a total mind-bender! 🔮

Overall, I’m giving it a solid 4 stars. I was hooked enough to keep going, even when the pacing slowed down, and the eerie vibe definitely stuck with me.

Big thanks to NetGalley for providing the ARC in exchange for my honest opinion! 🙏

Old Soul by Susan Barker, this book starts at the airport in Osaka, Jake and Mariko have both been laid over by a canceled flight and see each other in passing at the airport, but when they turn up at the same grocery store, they decide to get through it together and this is how they start talking and learn that Mariko‘s twin brother as well as Jake’s best friend both went missing after being around a certain woman. Throughout the book we go from the woman with different people to Jake, who is trying to figure out who this woman is. I just want to say this book had some truly creepy moments in it and although, not straight up horror nor paranormal. It definitely has a touch of both. I like the different international settings from Japan to Russia to Arizona, I know a lot of reviews said they were confused by this book and although I wasn’t, I did notice that it did feel as if something was missing, but not enough to make the book unenjoyable. I found the writing style was a bit strange, but all in all I really enjoyed the story. this is an original story that I absolutely enjoyed and definitely recommend. #NetGalley, #SusanBarker, #OldSoul,

This was the first book about westerns that included the horror genre I have read. It was a thrilling ride. Trying to figure out who the killer was is the reason why I read thrillers. Reading all the clues and deciphering what they mean is what makes a book like this fun to read. I followed the clues and was pretty spot on about who the culprit was. Great book to read cozied up in a chair with a drink and a blanket.

OLD SOUL is an alluring tale told through testimonies of individuals throughout the world who have encountered one peculiar woman and had their bodies and lives inexplicably altered. This woman is always on the move and never ages. Designated as “literary horror” the novel is more subtly haunting than traditional jumpscares and gore typically found in the genre. Aside from one graphic scene at the end the story leans more supernatural than horrifying. This is a truly unique reading experience begging to be discussed.

Read This If You:
-are more drawn to darkly different stories
-can handle a story without proper punctuation
-are intrigued by an epilogue unlike any other you’ve read

Many thanks to NetGalley and Penguin Group Putnam for an electronic ARC in exchange for an honest review.

A creepy horror that follows a woman whose only goal is to keep living. This is the opposite of a cozy book. The terror is terrifying, the victims were messy and not innocents, and the ending... well, you'll just have to read to find out. Read only if you are in the mood for dark things.

This was such a cool and unique story. It dives into the idea of reincarnation, following a character who’s lived so many lives through different times in history. The stories are emotional and gripping, and you really feel connected to all their experiences. The writing is very vivid so it’s easy to get lost in the timelines.

If you’re into stories that mix history, love, a dash of mystery, you'll want to check this one out.

Thanks to Netgalley, the author and publisher for this advanced reading copy in exchange for my honest review.

This is a gorgeous and well-rendered amble through many periods and landscapes. Some may find it slow in the middle, but I appreciated the additional testimonies for their lyricism. Since the testimonies were inserted with no apparent focus on linearity, they reinforced the sense of timelessness while still leaving me feeling like I was building up to something. This is harder to achieve than it may seem. Overall, a venusian meditation on humanity.

This book was just okay. I didn't care for the writing style, so that's why I gave this novel only 3 stars. I don't think I like this genre as much as I used to. The story was a little confusing and I didn't feel connected to the main character. Also, this book wasn't suspenseful enough for me. Just a decent and average read. Nothing spectacular. Ho-hum.

Susan Barker's Old Soul is an eerie slow burn of a novel that transcends genre. Playing with elements of horror, speculative and literary fiction, character study, and being told through a collection of narrators, it's a book that is very difficult to define. This book will certainly not be for everyone, but I suspect that with the right audience, this book will be hailed as a masterpiece.

But what did I think? Well, let's get into it-

-Characters: this book has A LOT of them. After missing his flight, our main character, Jake, connects with a woman and comes to the realization that both of them lost a loved one in a suspiciously similar way, and begins to wonder if the strange woman in both of their stories might be one and the same. This leads him to start tracking down others who have similar stories. The book becomes a chronical of these stories, which is a fantastic concept in my opinion. The problem is, it's easy to get a bit lost in all of the narratives. Despite having finished this book only a few days ago, and having taken notes, I'm struggling to keep the characters, and their respective arcs differentiated in my mind. I think part of this might be due to the fact that I was not going into this book expecting this scope of a story. It also could be attributed to some of my issues with the pacing in this book (which I will get to). Whatever it is, I had a difficult time keeping the characters straight. I felt that Jake was a bit bland as a main character, but I think that serves the story well enough, since he mostly serves as a conduit for everyone else's accounts of "E" (which is how I will refer to 'the woman' since she has many different names throughout the story (which didn't help my confusion, of course)). I thought that E was well done as the villain, although I would have enjoyed getting just a bit more of her past. The small bit we did get was very effective for me in understanding her motivations, and I can appreciate that. I'd say that overall, I enjoyed the main players of this story quite a bit. I particularly liked The Sculptor, and I felt that her parts of the book were the most interesting. Getting to see E's vulnerability through her served as some much-needed humanization for our villain, and I think that the juxtaposition between these two characters and their philosophies about life and death were fantastic. And of course, The Tyrant was horrifying and was just mysterious enough to be a very effective means of delivering that dose of horror I came for. And I want to backtrack a bit here and state that even the more minor characters that I had difficulty distinguishing at times: they were all written and characterized very well, the confusion for me mostly came from the layout of the story. So, all of that said, I'd give the characters a strong 4.5!

Pacing- Oof, okay, before I get into my issues with this, I do want to preface by saying that slow burn stories are not my thing. I think that like 80% of my problems with the pacing are very much a "me" thing, and not a "the-author-doing-a-bad-job" thing. But full disclosure: this book is SLOOWWWWWW. I considered not finishing this book several times but then would talk myself into giving it another chance. And in the end, I am glad that I stuck it out, however, I do think there is a point in which a book can take too long to get going, and Old Soul was really pushing that limit for me. I don't think I started truly enjoying this book at all until I was past the 55% mark. That means that I felt this book was really slogging along for over half of its 350ish pages. Those numbers just don't do it for me. If slow burn is not something you enjoy, then honestly, this book is one you will want to skip. If you are a reader who likes slow burn, then disregard this completely. Like I said before, this all comes down to my personal preference, and I will say that the payoff worked pretty well in the end, but if I hadn't been reading this as an ARC, I would not have finished it, and I have to be honest about that. I'm giving the pacing a 1/5.

Horror- Once again, this is an aspect of the book that I suspect might be a bit divisive. How was the horror? Well, as I said in my character review, I found it fairly effective. I thought The Tyrant was quite upsetting, I mean, it's an omnipresent, malevolent being that is basically impossible for humans to stop. The sense of hopelessness that it inflicts is horrifying. And there are other details and story beats throughout the book that I found to be very effective. The blind cousin who could see the tyrant in the voids of his vision, the rearranged organs in the victims' bodies, the entire scene of that dad taking his kid out into the woods and playing 'death god', these were all fantastic moments of horror for me. But the horror here is subtle, and that's not what some readers are looking for in their books. I can appreciate it though, so I'll give the horror elements of this book a 3.5

Writing- This is my first time reading Susan Barker's work, and I was quite satisfied in this department. It felt like the author had a clear vision for this story and where she wanted it to go, which makes it easy as a reader to just sit back and enjoy the ride. 4/5

The Ending- after the slow descent into the first half, I was surprised to find myself invested in this story. As the different elements of the book began to weave together, and the ending drew near, I had a hard time putting this book down, which was a pleasant surprise after forcing my way through the first 175 pages. I will say, however, that the ending gave me a bit of whiplash. It all comes together so fast, and because of how slow the beginning of the story is, it doesn't feel like a very smooth finish. There were details that I felt would have been better off if they were delivered in a different order. For example, when E is in the desert with Rosa, we find out that The Sculptor's son is stalking them, but it isn't until a while later that we learn that Jake and The Sculptor's son are working together to try and stop E. I felt that if we had learned this first, and then had E figure out she was being hunted, the tension would have been much more effective. Also, the final bloodbath came together so quickly that I had to reread it a few times to figure out who had died when, and it just wasn't that satisfying to me. I wasn't expecting a happy ending for these characters, in fact, I think I would have been disappointed if the author had tried that, because The Tyrant is written to be so powerful that having it get outsmarted by the characters would have felt a bit cheap. I just think that the book would have been well served to spend a little less time with its setup and more time with its ending. As is, the book feels unbalanced. 2/5 for the ending.

Final thoughts- Old Soul is bound to be a love it or hate it type of book. My recommendation is that if you are an enjoyer of slow burns and subtle horror to give it a shot. If slow pacing is not your thing, skip this one. Thats really what my review boils down to.

I want to thank Netgalley and the publishers of this book for providing me with a free digital ARC in exchange for an honest review!

She is a mysterious woman who never goes by the same name, never ages, never stays too long, and never dies. She is an old soul. This is a different one folks and yet it is mesmerizing, gripping, intriguing, and horrific. It is also uniquely and wonderfully written and eerie.

When Jake and Mariko meet at an Osaka airport, they are complete strangers but over drinks learn that they have something in common - they both lost someone close to them in an unimageable and bizarre manner. Jake lost his best friend, and Mariko lost her twin brother. As they talk, Jake and Mariko learn that the ones they lost both met a dark-haired woman days before their deaths.

Jake sets out on a mission which takes him around the world, to find this elusive woman and along the way, learns the disturbing and unsettling stories of her victims. How they met the diabolical dark-haired woman and how meeting her changed their lives forever. The author weaves the victim's testimonies/stories expertly together with the dark haired woman's present day hunt for her next victim!

This was a riveting and captivating book that is more horrific than horror. It is unsettling, evokes unease, and dread. I enjoyed the writing, the descriptions, and the ominous vibe of the book. With each page turned, I wondered if Jake would ever find her and what would happen if he did. Would he get the answers he was looking for?

Old Soul is an original blending of horror and literary fiction. As I mentioned above, it is more horrific than horror. Plus, the ending! I found it to be very well done.

This was a creepy, atmospheric novel that spanned from the US to Europe to Asia. Jake and Mariko have just missed their flight in Japan. They decide to go have drinks and discover they both have lost people close to them in very weird circumstances. With the information Jake receives from Mariko he begins to dig further into their deaths. The book is broken into testimonies of other people who have lost loved ones in the same tragic way. He discovers there is a woman at the center of it all who all of the victims have come in contact with and have had their photograph taken. Who is this woman and how is it possible that she appears to never age?

The writing is excellent. With each country and testimony received, the author incorporates a good bit of the local dialect. I like this as it made it seem more authentic as Jake is traveling around the world however, it did hinder how quickly I could read the book. It slowed me down a bit, but I think in a good way as I was able to appreciate the cultures along with the main story.

While some testimonies seem to drag a little bit, I liked how it all connected. I think my favorite portions were those of the sculptor and her relationship with the woman. Overall, this was a highly enjoyable read and is one that I can’t stop thinking about.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for my ARC in exchange for an honest review

Wow. This book really surprised me. Initially, I had a hard time getting into it. I was kind of confused about what was going on and not a huge fan of the layout, but eventually, once things started getting revealed, I couldn't put this down! The way this book is set up is unique and works so well for this story. This isn't horror in a traditional sense. You're not going to be unable to sleep or anything. But it still has a lot of horror elements, in my opinion. The writing is beautiful and engaging. The characters, even the small ones, are memorable.

This two is told in two pieces, one is from Jake who, after meeting a woman at an airport and learning her brother died in a strange series of event that were similiar to how his own friend Lena died, takes off around the world collecting stories of other individuals who share the same story. Each story share a few similarities, they all meet a woman who takes their photograph, they all start acting a little strange, and it's like their bodies have been rearranged, and then they all die. Because this part is all these "testimonials," we don't really learn much about Jake for a while. He is more of a messenger than a true MC. It's almost in a way a collection of short stories.

The other piece of this story is told by the women herself as she meets her new victim. I really loved this part of it because it was so interesting to see it unfold as you learn what exactly has been going on.

I loved this book when I honestly thought I wasn't going to. And that epilogue! It was perfect.

Thanks to Netgalley and GP Putnam's Sons for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Old Soul by Susan Barker is a strange and slow story of one being's desperation to live and the destruction left in her wake. After Jake and another passenger both miss the same flight, a haze of alcohol and darkness lead to them both revealing they lost loved ones in similar circumstances. Jake then sets out on a journey to find out more, encountering individuals across the world who all experienced similar tragedies. At the center of the death and destruction is a woman who goes by many names and faces and serves at the hands of something otherworldly. It's a slow-paced, at times odd and stiff novel that may have worked better had there been fewer characters and stories involved.

This is a book that will stick to your bones. For the horror reader that is tired of formulas in their stories and wants a solid creature. The pacing is right about perfect, feeling almost like it’s dragging at the 50% mark before kicking you in the teeth.

Susan Barker excels in bringing multiple timelines and settings together into a big story populated by incredibly developed characters. In Old Souls, readers are treated to a global adventure in interludes that follow the terrifying persona of the dark woman. She speaks multiple languages and has such an intense charm that she lures people into her traps. Finding out how it all happens, and why, is the hook; propulsive writing and gradual revelation is the reward. And we get to see multiple characters in their specific times/places as they react to their situations and relationships. This horror novel will keep readers going forward to the climactic end.

This book is simply gorgeous. I really didn't know what to expect when I went into it, as I almost always go in blind, and it truly exceeded all my expectations.

The writing is beautiful, the imagery is so vivid - this is one I was definitely able to get lost in. This is true literary horror, it's deep, it's visceral, and it had its moments when it genuinely shocked me with its abruptness (in a good way).

The ending was also perfectly poetic and heartbreaking and honestly, after some reflection, I really feel that it was the only appropriate way for it to end.

My only criticism is with the lack of quotations to indicate dialogue. Occasionally, I had to reread sections because I couldn't tell what was what. Other than that, I high recommend picking up this stunning read.