Book Review: "Old Soul" by Susan Barker

Susan Barker's imagination for creating this book is something to be admired. From what, on the outset just feels like Susan Hill's The Woman in Black, turns into something else entirely. When Jake meets Mariko she starts to talk about the death of her twin brother, Hiroji, and how before he died he had stated that he had seen a higher-dimensional being. As she talks and talks, she comes to his cause of death: heart defect. When Jake asks whether his organs were the wrong way around - Mariko shouts at him, demanding to know how he could know that about her dead brother. It's clear: Jake couldn't. But some things have happened before and will happen again...

The first part of this story is about a piece of Japanese folklore called the Shinigami - the death god, or sometimes referred to as the 'angel of death' (those of us who have read/watched Death Note will be familiar with this concept already). It emerged in Japan around about the Edo Period of the 18th and 19th centuries but could be older than that through oral storytelling. When Jake goes to visit Hiroji's ex-wife, Sigrid - he is shocked at her testimony relating to Hiroji's descent and death, which matches up with the more brutal stories of the Shinigami. Unfortunately, Sigrid is a little less likely to believe the folklore than her young son, Tomo.

As Jake speaks to Sigrid, he finds out that Hiroji would dance on the rooftop of their home at 2am, often with his feet coated in blood and looking as though he were possessed. From being a friendly, likeable character he turns vengeful and angry at his wife. Ultimately, in the forest, Sigrid would see two people and both of them were Hiroji. Initially, she thinks it is a Capgras Delusion - where you think your family or friend has been replaced by an imposter - but sooner or later she must face something far more terrifying than a delusion. This thing is real.

Susan Barker writes in a terrifying and haunting way. Beautiful and lyrical, this book is something you will not be able to stop reading. It is absolutely haunting in every way and the folkish atmosphere means that you are met with something centuries old but also in the modern day. I love the fact it is based in folklore because honestly, folk horror is totally my thing (if you weren't aware by now...where have you been?). I think I'll let this book destroy me.

We are also met with a Welsh family that Jake visits on his quest to find out what's really going on here. A girl in a wheelchair is photographed by a German woman, but that's not the beginning. Instead it begins with a single father, trying to look after his daughter who is wheelchair-bound and can't do anything for herself. Then he sees her on her feet. Then he sees her transported around the house. She has no memory of how she got there. Then, some days she acts possessed. He takes her to the doctor's office and they confirm there's no nerves that work in her legs and her standing, walking and even floating, should not be possible. Then there's a strange death and our wheelchair-bound girl is going mad as her father is reprimanded. Sent to live with her mother, the girl dies in her wheelchair of heart failure. She has since been dead for 35 years and yet, it is all very strange. Unlike Sigrid though, this man is convinced the devil killed his daughter and that's when he brings out the photograph. Rosa's story is a little different. It's of a girl who goes to do some social-media influencer stuff and have her photo taken. Yes, her photo... And that's where we see things happen in real time...

By this point, I am absolutely stuck to this book, it is fantastic. It reads like what would happen if the author of Cloud Atlas wrote a gothic horror novel. I am hooked, destroyed and completely willing to let this book consume me. I am sorry if I'm going on a bit but frankly, I am obsessed.

But then from the Shinigami and the Devil, we get Jake moving around other countries for other people's stories about this death-like creature and we realise that there is so much more to this narrative than we first thought. I won't tell you exactly which countries they are and what the folklore behind them is, but I think you have a good idea of where he ends up. It is called: The Tyrant. And ultimately I hope you have as much of a great time with this book as I do. Once you read Jake's testimony about Lena, you'll realise that maybe, just maybe the folklore side is just an excuse... maybe this thing is real. And when you know why he wants to meet Theo, it'll get even better...