Old Soul

Sinister, mysterious and gorgeously realised, Old Soul is as good on the horror and subliminity of love (and its shadow, loneliness) as it is on nerve-flaying visions of the vicious supernatural * KALIANE BRADLEY, author of The Ministry of Time *
Old Soul is a mesmerising story brilliantly told. The way the novel slowly reveals its dark secrets as it moves with ease and elegance across continents and eras is hugely impressive. * IAN McGUIRE, author of The North Water *
Old Soul is like nothing else I've ever read ...More than anything, though, I loved how it made me feel: like I'd woken up after a long sleep to see for the first time how terrifying and strange the contemporary world has become. This the kind of story you tell around a campfire as the lights of civilization begin flicker out around you; a global, intelligent, and ambitious archetypal nightmare * KRISTEN ROUPENIAN, author of Cat Person *
Sinister, unnerving and nightmarish. Old Soul will sneak into your dreams and haunt you * CLAIRE FULLER, author of Unsettled Ground *
Old Soul is an utterly addictive and completely immersive novel. Beautifully written and filled with engrossing characters and unforgettable landscapes, it is the most propulsive thing I have read all year * LARA WILLIAMS, author of Supper Club *
Beautifully written and at times terrifying ... I was completely swept up in the atmosphere of the book and the plot continues to haunt and unsettle me, in the very best of ways * EMILY MIDORIKAWA, author of Out of the Shadows *
Old Soul enticed me in with a chance meeting between mysterious strangers with one thing in common: a nameless horror that haunts them. The novel that follows is expansive, twisty, gripping and intelligent; I loved it * JENN ASHWORTH, author of Ghosted *
Susan Barker is a tremendous writer and Old Soul snags the reader in its claw and mesmerises from page one. I often wondered if I was devouring the story or vice versa, I was so engrossed. It is not an option to put this book down * MONIQUE ROFFEY, author of The Mermaid of Black Conch *
Old Soul is an extraordinary achievement. A brutal interrogation of art, connection, the meaning of and impulse toward life itself. I couldn’t put it down * BETH UNDERDOWN, author of The Witchfinder's Sister *
Susan Barker’s Old Soul beguiles, terrifies, and utterly seduces you as swiftly and slyly as the mysterious woman at its center. It’s at once a thriller, a postmodern mystery, and an existential horror tale, but perhaps most deeply it speaks to our current moment: the drift and terrors of loneliness, the risks of intimacy and a piercing nostalgia that never lets us go * MEGAN ABBOTT, author of El Dorado Drive *
Smart, taut, and twisty, Susan Barker's Old Soul deftly delivers the chills * KAREN JOY FOWLER, author of We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves *
Old Soul is perfect read for the chilly depths of winter: a clever, spooky metaphysical mystery that spans continents—and even planets. Susan Barker’s novel kept me guessing until the end. You’ll never look at Venus quite the same way again * Chloe Benjamin *
Old Soul is the kind of brilliant, horrifying, stinking book I’m desperate for other people to read, so I can talk about it with them and get it out of my head. So much fun, fantastically tense, revolting and wonderful. * EVIE WYLD *
Susan Barker's diabolically haunting novel begs to be read over and over, its intertwined stories a feat of literary prestidigitation. Darkly magical and irresistible, Old Soul feels like it reveals a truth that's been long buried in our collective unconscious * ALMA KATSU, author of The Hunger *
An enthralling, gritty fever dream of a novel and a fable for the modern age * LUCY ROSE, author of The Lamb *
Brilliantly thought-provoking, disturbing and highly complex, with the pace of a thriller and the heart of a tragic love story * CAROLINE LEA, author of Prize Women *
A perfect novel, one that is so compelling and criminally well-written that you can’t put it down ... I can’t stop thinking about it * BOOKRIOT *
Elegant and eerie, mesmerising and compelling, Old Soul is like a glorious and terrible nightmare that you never want to wake up from * SAM MILLS, author of The Watermark *
A sweeping work of literary horror ... Eerie and suspenseful ... The slow-burning tension and lush, atmospheric prose build a creeping sense of dread that lingers long after the final page. Fans of both the deeply personal speculative horror of Carmen Maria Machado and the subtle, character-driven mystery of Haruki Murakami will be enthralled * PUBLISHERS WEEKLY, starred review *
The Ministry of Time meets The Leviathan in this deeply imaginative, beautifully written hunt across centuries and continents * Bookseller, Editor's Choice *
A twisting, expansive epic of menacing wonder. This is a novel of expertly restrained power: a wild cat in a bejewelled cage * KIRSTY LOGAN, author of Now She Is Witch *
A brilliant, engrossing read. Both beguiling and compulsive in all the right ways * IRENOSEN OKOJIE, author of Butterfly Fish *