This book is simultaneously the story of a nameless woman who is somehow involved in a series of mysterious deaths spanning decades, and Jake, who starts to put the jigsaw pieces together when he happens across a relative of one of the victims. Unfortunately, though, it really wasn’t for me.

Trigger warning: no quotation marks (doesn’t impact my assessment, but see my opinion about this weird habit at the bottom of this review).

The storytelling has the feeling of gothic horror, and verges on literary fiction - the writing style is lyrical in places, which is an interesting counterpoint to the creepiness of the story.

The narrative alternates between Jake’s investigations of past incidents (‘testimonies’ from people who knew various victims), and the slowly unfolding current day events that are inevitably leading up to the woman’s next intended victim. As a storytelling device, this is very effective, as you can see how the two threads come together as Jake learns more about the woman.

For me, though, I found it a bit of a slog to get through: each testimony is essentially a short story of its own, with new characters and locations, so I had to do a complete mental “story reset” for each of these, which I find tiring, and was giving me a reason to put the book down between chapters rather than read on. This would be forgivable if each of the testimonies offered meaningful new insight into the characters and events, but I found them quite repetitive - they largely served as several very similar examples that establish the way the woman traps her victims.

If you’re a fan of the creepy gothic horror feel, then perhaps this would be satisfying enough. But I’m not especially (and the book wasn’t marketed to me as such), so I was looking for something else to grab and keep my attention - like some deeper insight into the motivation and background of the woman, or some interesting depth to the fantasy elements that formed the foundation of her situation. And this is where I was disappointed. Those elements, and the relatively arbitrary set of rules that govern how the woman sets her victims on their deadly trajectory, are largely left vague and unexplained.

However, despite the repetitive testimonies, and this lack of explanation of the foundations of the story, I was still interested in how the story unfolded. The ending is satisfying enough, if lacking in subtlety. And the epilogue gave me a small taste of the lore that I was missing in the rest of the story.

But overall this book wasn’t really for me, so my rating is probably low compared to fans of the genre.

And the lack of quotation marks. Why? Quotation marks like all other punctuation are there for a reason they help communicate the authors intention to the reader they remove friction from the reading experience the act of reading really shouldnt involve this much effort on behalf of the reader unless theres some specific purpose like deliberately creating a sense of distance or vagueness instead I just found it difficult and confusing sometimes it wasnt clear whether a sentence was direct speech or first person narrative so authors please stop doing this.

Thank you #NetGalley and Penguin Fig Tree for the free review copy of #OldSoul in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

Well this book was a total surprise not my normal choice but it kept me intrigued and consequently hooked me.

Through so many ages a woman travels always with a different name. Leaving a death behind her but with no know cause

Jake is on a delayed flight and totally by coincidence meets a someone in the airport who talks of her dead brother.

Jake goes on a quest to learn more of that mystery woman as the death of his friend Lena leaves question marks.

This story takes you on a journey.

Engaging book that kept me reading and wanting to know more

This is an exceptional book, a cosmic horror that keeps you intrigued throughout. I appreciate how there is no empty parts with fillers; every narrative is straight to the point. We have every story of the Tyrant’s possessions depicted during Jake’s investigation, but we don’t stay for too long with these characters, we fly by their interactions with the woman that brings them destruction and it’s so fascinating to read about something so demonic that feels almost real and next to you. The epilog was an amazing closure for something that will never end. I truly loved the sharp and quick writing, although there was lack of quotation marks, but you get quick into the flow of the book and it gets easier to fallow the character’s stories. I wish we got a lot more of a character development for Jake as our protagonist, just to have someone to cheer for, but the whole premise just leaves you helpless. You are just a spectator to the horrors that occur through centuries and you cannot do anything about it than tremble before it.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with the ARC and the opportunity to share my honest review.

4 stars

I really enjoyed this piece and the premise of it. It was very interesting and guided the reader through.

It is a horror book, which typically isn't my genre - but I did really enjoy it. As others have commented, the language throughout is quite strong so definitely for an older reader/adult (not YA)

Seeing Old Soul described as literary horror intrigued me, unsure how the text would be both beautiful and disturbing.

Like a polaroid exposing something unsettling at the edge of a breaking dawn, creeping deep inside the psyche; that’s how.

An ancient cosmic power which cannot be stopped leaves grief in its wake, at an airport Mariko shares her story and Jake realises the questions left by the strange circumstances around the death of his closest friend, aren’t unique. Over a multiple point of view set of journals and interviews set over centuries, the truth is pieced together from the shadowy clues a strange, alluring and seemingly unageing woman has left in her wake.

I found myself wrapped up in a trance reading, wanting to stay with the characters and find a way to read them safe and content, while hurtling towards answers and knowing they’d be both satisfying and awful.

Susan Barker has woven a deep, emotionally taxing (in the best way, if you need to have your sympathies and morals played with and tested, this is for you) and philosophically teasing tapestry of a book.

What a strangely disturbing creepy yet mesmerising story. One that I found myself nervous about reading at night. After the first few pages I thought it wasn’t going to be my kind of read. How very wrong that turned out to be. Most chapters left me with a feeling like something had crawled under my skin and I loved it!
If you are after something a little different this is definitely the book for you.
A big thank you to to Netgalley and the publisher for a free digital copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.

A fantastically chilling read. Thank you to the author, publisher and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this.

This is an amazing story of those left behind, who are grieving the loss of their loved ones, who have all died of a condition none knew they had until it killed them.

But it can't be a coincidence, right?

Told from the stories of those who watched their nearest and dearest die, one man wants to unravel the reason his best friend in the world died, and of something she did not have weeks prior. Is he clutching at straws, or is there a deeper, older evil roaming the world, and targeting them for some nefarious purpose?

An awesome, chilling book, that will touch those who have ever lost someone without warning. A top read.

An interesting, dark and creepy novel about a woman who has survived for nearly 300 years by taking the souls of disturbed and damaged individuals. Evil is personified in the apparently bland character of The Woman who over the years goes by different names. The non linear narrative worked very well leading to a present day denoumement.

A creepy, disturbing tale of a centuries-old evil which takes the form of a woman in order to capture souls to ensure its continued survival.

What I found particularly interesting was the description of the woman as quite nondescript and slightly unremarkable as it made me think of the banality of evil and how seemingly ordinary people can do monstrous things. I liked how Old Souls incorporates philosophical themes and encourages deeper thinking.

The pacing is a little erratic and the prose overly lyrical at times, but I felt compelled to keep reading and I'm glad I did as it's a unique read, a horror with a deeper message.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers for the digital ARC.

This book had a great plot with intriguing characters. I’ll definitely be looking out for more from this author.

This book had a great plot with intriguing characters. I’ll definitely be looking out for more from this author.

A deal with the devil that wreaks havoc on most everyone who comes into contact with her
I loved this spooky tale - devoured it over the weekend !
Thankyou NetGalley for an ARC in return for an honest review

This book is not for me. I didn’t realise it was a horror story.
It is full of bad language and really slow in places. I struggled to get through it.
The only part I enjoyed was the epilogue.

A very interesting concept. It jumped around a bit but didn't detract from the story. Follows a woman who is probably 300 years old and swaps people's souls to continue living, working with Venus.

I received this as a free advanced copy and leave this review of my own free will.

Captivating! This book had me hooked. Paranormal isn't my genre but this was certainly enticing. If you like this style then you will find this riveting to read.

Grateful ARC reader here giving my own review.

This is a book that on some ways might be hard to categorise cleanly. For me, it sits most cleanly in horror but it's rather different to most in this genre.

The store is linear but told out of order as a series of recollections. Initially I wasn't sure this would work well for me but it was so delicious a read that I didn't notice when it became comfortable and then I didn't want to put it down.

The niggles for me were the lack of quotation marks for dialogue - I know it's a stylistic choice and by the end I had made some peace with it, but it's not my choice and I'll never really 'get' it. I can see that it would be a different reading experience to include them and appreciate that may have changed the feel, but it did mean it took me a little longer to decide I was all in on the book. The epilogue also didn't work too well for me - I felt it was lovely to read and a great piece of stand alone writing, but I didn't feel it fit the tale that had been told throughout and the last chapter ended strongly enough without it, in my opinion.

Overall, I really enjoyed it. The pacing was perfect and although there weren't too many surprises by the end, for me, it was a very satisfying story told very well.

Odd and creepy, but completely compelling, this book is certainly different. I found it slightly confusing at first, but was quickly drawn into the well-written story. I will definitely look out for this author in future.

While I appreciated the beautiful prose and the deep exploration of love and connection across different lifetimes, I found some parts a bit slow and drawn out. Many readers online praise Barker’s lyrical writing and the way she blends philosophical themes with engaging storytelling, and I can see why; there are moments of real depth that invite reflection.

However, I also noticed some criticism about the pacing, which I felt was warranted. At times, it seemed to drag, making it harder to stay fully engaged. That said, the characters are richly developed, and their journeys are poignant, capturing the complexity of human emotions.

This book was a creepy , disturbing read, and perfect for this time of year.. Not my usual genre but always good to go a little outside of my c9mfort zone every now and then. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the advance copy