The Soul Stealer Kindle Edition

by Graham Masterton

Thank you to Graham Masterton, the publisher and NetGalley for the complimentary reviewer's copy. I am choosing to leave a fair and honest review.

Graham Masterton is often referred to as the British Stephen King, which raises expectations for all his novels. With that in mind, had this book been written by any other author, it would definitely be a five star, unputdownable book.

Masterton returns to the world of Native American folklore, a place that birthed his The Manitou novel. The Manitou is a must read in the horror cannon. This time, he uses the folk lore to skewer Hollywood, the US and the patriarchy in this slow burn thriller.

Trinity's sister disappears with her best friend Sally, driving Trinity to team up with Nemo, a former police detective.

There are problems with this book, ones that should not have come from such a talented and seasoned writer.

Masterton literally uses the 'Indian Burial Ground' trope. Then there is the dialogue. This novel takes place in Los Angeles, California, yet at times the characters sound as if they were in a London pub. This is a bit jarring. It took me out of the story as I had to pause and parse out what it would be in American. Masterton also uses the “Nobel Savage” trope and Trinity could easily be called a Mary Sue, who, inexplicably can use Native American magic. The pay off for the story comes so, so very late in the book, my eyes began to glaze.

I appreciate his attempt at a Jordan Peele like story, but where Peele and James Wan have one issue they take on, providing a clear path for the reader, Masterton had too many to concentrate on.

But the scares are good. The pay off is awesome.

Had this been anyone else's book, it would be a definite hit, but I expect more from you, Graham!

4 stars out of 5

https://www.amazon.com/Soul-Stealer-Graham-Masterton-ebook/dp/B09385K2VK

*** This book releases on March 3, 2022

Graham Masterton is a master of horror. Unfortunately that is behind him now. I'm not exactly sure what genre I would call this because it doesn't really pick a path and stays with it.
Hopefully I didn't have too high expectations, but it's Graham Masterton, so it has to be good.
Feels like it's missing a lot. It has too many one-dimensional characters and a very thin plot.
Oh well, can't win them all.

It was OK. That's about all I can say really. I hated the way woman were portrayed in this book but I liked the folk elements. I just wanted so much more.

I love this author and tend to favor this genre over others. However, I had a tough time with this book and was unable to finish. I hope to read other books and pick this one back up at a later time.

Thank you to NetGalley and Head of Zeus – An Aries Book for forwarding to me a copy of this to read.

I’ve been watching horror movies since I was a kid so I’m pretty desensitized to horror and gore but even I found this to be a bit much. The gore and brutality felt unnecessary and overdone. I also felt it was a bit misogynistic and didn’t enjoy the way women were portrayed. It felt longer than necessary.

I would not recommend.

Thank you Netgalley for tis ARC for an exchange for an honest review.

Wonderful book. I am impressed with the story and decisions of the author!

This book is reddit’s r/menwritingwomen come to life and set loose on unsuspecting townsfolk. I found the synopsis to be misleading and the writing and dialogue to be stilted, uncomfortable, and just…not good.

I prefer horror that steadily and insidiously sinks its teeth into you until you’re completely immersed in the fictional world that’s being built around you, but what I got were gratuitous scenes of sexual violence, torture, and gore written into an otherwise snooze-worthy plot.

(I cannot emphasize how gratuitous these scenes were)

The only things insidious about this book were the blatant misogyny playing dress-up as women’s empowerment and the weird disrespect towards indigenous culture. I only finished reading this book was because it was an ARC I received from the publisher.

NB Might contain spoilers!

The premise of “The Soul Stealer” opens with our protagonist Trinity being called up by Margot, an old school friend. She needs to see Trinity urgently. Unfortunately by the time Trinity reaches her, Margot has died. In true Masterton style Margot’s death is explicit and painful; burnt to death in the toilet of the bar she was due to meet Trinity in.

When Margot’s death is classed as a suicide, Trinity teams up with ex cop Nemo to investigate further. You just know that things are going to get hairy from here on in. Their investigation takes them into the glamour of the movie industry and an unsettling dark side where the allure of fame will always draw in victims and sacrifices must be made to achieve success.

Trinity and Nemo’s investigation runs alongside the tragic tale of Zuzana, a beautiful wannabe actress lured in by false promises. Through her we are given insight into what Margot was afraid of. And some of what happens is truly the stuff of nightmares. Not that I would expect anything less from the Master of Horror!

Alongside the graphic details I associate most with Masterton, is the American Indian folklore, the use of magic to trick and trance and people who shouldn’t exist in our world and yet do. Who in this case come in the form of Weywot and Ghost Woman. Both gave me a jump for different reasons.

With Weywot’s tale, some details reminded me of the film “Midsommer”. So if you liked that film, you’ll like this. This novel will also remind Masterton fans of “The Manitou” though with the film industry theme, “The Soul Stealer” reminds me of my personal favourite “Mirror”. I like the way he slides in musical references throughout too – I recognised all of them (just to give a flavour, there are nods to REM and ZZTop).

This novel has everything I expect from Masterton and I raced to finish it. Highly recommended for all horror fans! I received this advance copy courtesy of NetGalley but I have placed a preorder already for my collection.

Published on 3rd March 2022 by Head of Zeus

I really like this author, and had high hopes for this boom. Unfortunately I just did not enjoy it. I think there are people out there who will like this book. I just could not get into it. I got about half way through the book, and just could not finish it.

I have been reading Graham Masterton books for more years than I wish to admit and in this time there have been some excellent ones and some duds but The Soul Stealer is pure old school Masterton, and it’s been fun reading some of the other reviews who obviously haven’t read a Graham Masterton book before, yes It’s graphic in violence and sex, totally non PC and not for the faint hearted or prudish. & I’m not going to say that this is his best work but it was an intriguing few hours of nonsense, which is what reading fiction should be about, suspending belief for a while.
I don’t think it needed the Covid throw ins as they didn’t do any thing for the story it was just like he felt he ought to mention it and it was good to see him go full circle & back to the Native American background and reminding the reader about how their lands were stolen from them by the white man.

So i fully understand this is written as a horror/ thriller type book but to me there was still a lot of pointless gore and really disturbing images more for shock value more than anything else. It wasn't intelligent, get under your skin type creep factor, it was more like blatant "how twisted can you get and people still read about it" which I just find lazy. Horror always need to be taken with a bit of artistic licence but I just struggled to find any of it believable or even logical. The only things actually detailed were creepy sexual things (which are scarily detailed) and shock value extreme torture stuff. It really does have quite the torture porn feel to it rather than horror

I liked the fact it touched on the history of genocide and theft towards the indigenous community buuuuuuut i felt it maybe minimised traditions and beliefs and didn't really show the respect to the culture. And I also didn't buy that all the "good" characters somehow had a native bestie there to teach them the ways of their beliefs. No office but again, sacred rituals and traditions can't be learned in an hr and aren't usually just taught to outsiders for fun. The "casting couch/ me too" moment was also a bit lacking I guess. It basically went as far as to say, yes it happened, it still happens, not much anyone can do to stop it. And luckily women are stupid and desperate and will go along with almost anything for a step up. Which isn't true n isn't the world we live in. It felt more like throwing in current hot topics for clout with absolutely no clue as to the depth of the subjects involved to be fair.

And it still never explained how or why the initial event happened. Why one character was allowed to come and go to these parties but was then used for sacrifice in a completely different location and time without any of the prep apparently required..... but the items are all trapped and have to go through a big process. And when there was another murder in front of our main protagonist, and it's another close link to her..... I just can't see anyone would go on with their day ofter that or not actually do something to stop it. It was jist really weird. Maybe too many ideas but none which were thought out particularly thoroughly. Its a short read but I'm not sure it's time well spent.

I loved the fact that the historic murders and theft from the native community was the backbone to this story because that does still need to be drummed into society and acknowledge as to what happened in the past, even if its not pleasant, but I just wish it had been done in a more respectful way with more actual facts from the culture. Not just "great, we like you! Now you're a powerful healer aswell even though you have no link to the community or gifts passed down the family line or have spent years practicing and learning" Luckily all it takes is knowing the right words and boom, you're as powerful as the most skilled and respected shamans of the tribe.

I also didn't quite get why internal affairs agents would be involved at all. If you want to hire someone to keep someone else quite.... would internal affairs really be your 1st call?! A team who investogate hr breaches and bribes and such? Rather than say..... absolutely any other tactical devision of the police force who may actually be trained in hunting people or catching them or weaponry rather than paperwork

I won't even get into the fallic "scorpion"..........

Or whether the term "American indian" is even acceptable these days..... especially from a white English guy

Yeah this book is just really problematic for me. What a let down

I went into this book thinking I was going to have a great time. I had never read Graham Masterton before, but I had always heard good things. The description was interesting, it sounded like it would have heavy folk horror vibes, and I was really here for it. Unfortunately, it was a huge miss for me.

I only made it 15% into the book before I was ready to drop it. I only continued because it was an ARC, and I was telling myself that it might get better. That hope ended up being unfounded as the book never did get better. But it did keep getting worse.

This book suffers from a range of ailments. The characters were cardboard, the dialog and overall writing was stilted and awkward, and the plot was fairly atrocious. I went into the book expecting some "problematic" content based on what I read in the summary. Let me preface that I'm not someone who thinks that we should never write/read about problematic things. But context is important, and in the context of this story, I felt like this book way overstepped the line and walked right into misogyny territory while trying to pretend that it was about women's empowerment. I don't want to say too much and give away the plot, but suffice to say that I was not impressed with the content.

Overall, I was incredibly disappointed by this book. I tried really hard to find at least one positive thing that I could say about it, but I just couldn't do it.

Will please horror fans, but the Indian aspects don't sit well when there is so much amazing horror being put out by authors who are actually Indian. As a librarian, I would recommend prioritizing the purchase of Native authors.

DNF
I couldn't get into this story. Thanks for letting me have a copy. I really wanted to like it. But this wasn't what I thought it would be. I found it to slow paced for me.

The Soul Stealer is fast paced and engaging, and I read it in one sitting as I really wanted to know how it ended. It started off like a normal thriller, then turned to a horror story around half way through. I liked the references to American Indian tribes and their history, and the sense of the mystical. The two main characters are likeable, and I found myself rooting for them.

The setting is very much the modern day, with references to the MeToo scandal, Covid 19 and an interesting discussion around the 'Casting Couch', and women's power vs men's power.

The story is very graphic, with in depth descriptions of rape and murder and may not be for anyone of a sensitive disposition. As with many horror novels, you do have to suspend your disbelief for large parts of the story, however this is done cleverly with the American Indian mythology.

I was really hoping to relive my first reading of the manitou which I purchased when it originally was published and made me a fan of Graham Masterton, happily for me and all the other readers I can say that the author has aged very well indeed this book left me satisfied indeed

Old school horror at its finest. The characters were filled with emotion and the story line was fantastically creepy at best. A quick read. Graham masterson tells a supernatural scary story like no other,

Thank you NetGalley for this arc

I loved Graham's Pardoe/Patel series. This doesn't come close. Too sexually charged and descriptive, the writing is a bit stilted. I won't be finishing it. I'm sure plenty of people will enjoy it.

Thanks to Netgalley for allowing me the chance to read this. All opinions are my own.

Thank you to NetGalley for an ARC of The Soul Stealer.

I'm always on the lookout for something scary to read and the premise sounded intriguing so I was eager to dive in.

My first clue I wasn't going to be enjoy this is when the main female character, Trinity, tells Nemo, the P.I. that she has a lot of experience in forensics because she...wait for it...watches a lot of C.S.I. and reads forensic textbooks.

And then they team up like Butch and Sundance.

Yeah...no.

I'm no prude when it comes to blood, gore, and violence, but there are graphic depictions of sexual violence, rape, brutal depictions of torture that felt gratuitous.

Most of the men in the story, minus Nemo and Trinity's brother, are predators and abusive, including Trinity's father.

It's incredibly coincidental that Nemo and Trinity meet Rafael who has a grandfather that is a shaman, and they teach Nemo and Trinity the ways of the 'Force.'

The writing style was immature, the tone (I think) was meant to be darkly comedic but it felt flat for me.

This wasn't for me.

480 pages

3 stars

This book starts out painfully slowly. There also seems to be a great deal of useless filler.

That being said, this is not one of Mr. Masterton’s best efforts, a shame for one of my favorite authors.

Former detective Nemo Frisby attends a death scene at a local bar. Also there is a young woman, Trinity Fox, who witnessed the death. She was to meet her very frightened friend there and looked for her in the restroom. She saw her friend in a toilet cubicle. She was on fire.

The police call it a suicide, but Nemo and Trinity don’t agree.

Together they decide to investigate. That leads them to a fancy mansion where a movie director lives. What goes on in that mansion is horrific. The home is sited on an old Indian burial ground and there is something/someone malignant that lives there.

With the aid of members from a local tribe, they enter the home to fight for those they love.

I was disappointed in this book. While the writing and story idea were great as in all of Mr. Masterton’s novels, this book seemed to fall flat. The character development was lacking in my opinion. I like to know more about the main characters. This won’t stop me from reading more of Mr. Masterton’s work, however I still think he is a great author.

I want to thank NetGalley and Head of Zeus – An Aries Book for forwarding to me a copy of this good book for me to read, enjoy and review. The opinions expressed here are solely my own.