Old Soul by Susan Barker

I love to read horror but I don’t think I have ever been so creeped out by a book as by Old Soul by Susan Barker. I first came across the book in a roundup in the Guardian and then I found it at my local library.

The story is otherworldly, creepy and unsettling. There is something deeply alien and also vast about its scope and also immersive in the world it presents. I don’t think I’ve ever another book that evoked a similar sense and I find it hard to pinpoint what was so unsettling.

Last year, I read Thirst by Marina Yuszczuk and it was a return to the vampire as a monster i.e. a character whose story is not about human motivations. In a sense, the old soul in Barker’s book is the same. There’s something monstrous but also human about her. I suppose I like that it’s not a story about routine actions and then the endless scrutiny around the motivations leading up to those mundane human actions.

I have recommended Old Soul to a few people. There is something spooky and unreal about the atmosphere, and at some point I suspect I’ll want to read it again. It is very much a book that is engaged with the present world we live.

And the prose is beautiful! I also much prefer the Penguin cover above! Here is Susan Barker also on horror as a genre.