Old Soul
by Susan Barker
Reviewed by Galen Strickland
Posted January 29, 2025
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Susan Barker is another author new to me, but not to publishing. I received a free digital review copy of her fourth novel, Old Soul, from Net Galley in exchange for an honest review. The publisher is marketing it as literary horror, an apt description. I liked it and can recommend it, although it is possible its style and pace will not please some. It combines first, second, and third-person narrative forms, jumps around in time and place, and there are no quotation marks or indication as to who is speaking, although some of that can be deduced through context. However, in some instances it is just the thoughts in the mind of a character, not spoken dialogue.
Jake and Mariko meet briefly at the airport in Osaka. Both are late, the boarding gate has closed, and both are issued new boarding passes for flights the next day. Later that evening they chance to meet again at a food market. They dine together and engage in conversation, eventually discovering they have something in common. Mariko's twin brother Hiroji, and Jake's life-long friend Lena, both died of a mysterious condition. Situs inversus is a known genetic condition in which the internal organs develop in a reverse, mirror image of normal human anatomy. But in Hiroji and Lena's cases, the reversal came on suddenly. What could have been the cause? Jake and Mariko recall the time and place where their loved ones' condition changed suddenly, and it might have corresponded with an encounter with a mysterious, dark-haired woman. In both cases the woman had taken a photograph, and in those photos Lena and Hiroji appeared in trance, suspended as if puppets on strings. Even if it was the same woman, she was using a different name. Hiroji's encounter was with Damaris; Lena had met Marion. Mariko also tells Jake of Hiroji's wife Sigrid, so he decides to contact her to learn more of the story.
Jake's search for answers takes him around the world. Each of his journal entries are titled "Testimony," followed by a number. Mariko's was the first, Sigrid number two, Jake's own story of Lena is the fifth. Sigrid is in Berlin, but the stories she tells lead him in other directions. She had met Damaris, and recalls her story of a crippled Welsh girl, which sends Jake off to find and interview Bedwyr in the small Welsh village of Angels Singing, whose daughter Ceridwen had also died of situs inversus. Bedwyr was convinced Liesl, a woman from Leipzig was responsible, and his description matched that of Marion, but Lena died in 2011, Ceridwen in 1987. Something else said about Liesl, as well as a photograph she left with Bedwyr, sends Jake to Leipzig, where he interviews Jürgen Unterbrink, whose friend Ursula Pohl died under similar circumstances in 1968. One more clue concerns the death of Klára Szábo in Budapest in 1957. Was Vera in Budapest the same woman as Romy in Leipzig, Liesel in Wales, Marion in the UK, Damaris in Japan? If so, why did she not age over 55 years? And did her story extend further into the past? How far into the past?
The first chapter is set near Taos, New Mexico in 1982. Two women are identified only by their first initials. "T" is a sculptor, "E" is an admirer, later her lover. Interspersed between the "Testimony" chapters are six titled "Badlands," which follow a woman named Therese, and a younger woman named Rosa. Her real name is Rosy-Lee, but she also wants to become known as Aurora Rose through her YouTube and TikTok influencer channels. Rosa believes in the power of manifestation, that Therese came into her life in order to further her influencer career. It is the opposite actually. Therese manifested Rosa as her latest victim. Hint: Therese is not the "T" from the first chapter, but rather the "E," going by the name Eva at that time. The last Testimony is from Theodora, the sculptor. The section after her story is titled "Taos County 2022," which sees Jake put all the clues together, bringing him to New Mexico to unravel the mystery. I won't reveal anything else, neither who or what the woman is, how old she is, nor her agenda. I will also not reveal the fate of Jake, Rosa, Theodora, or anyone else. Suffice it to say the end was unexpected.
It is a horror story on many levels. If filmed it could be very graphic, very bloody in many scenes. The worst of those could be the fate of my favorite character, but again I won't reveal that. Like is probably not the best descriptor of how I feel about the book. I appreciated the mystery, the histories of all the characters affected by the mystery woman, even the complications that led to her targeting others. She may have been a monster, but we know from other stories that monsters can be created by external forces, not necessarily from any internal wrongness in a person. This is good enough for me to be interested in Barker's earlier, as well as future work. My library has her previous novel, Incarnations, but not her first two. No idea when I might get to that though. Apparently other people are interested too, either other readers requested it, or one of the librarians made the decision, but my library has Old Soul available in print and e-book. You should check your library too, or use the links above to buy from Bookshop or Amazon. It is also on audio for those who prefer that option.
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