Soul Catcher

In Leigh Bridger’s urban fantasy Soul Catcher (2009), the first in the Outsider series, a young woman with supernatural abilities must finally banish the demon that has stalked her through many lifetimes. If she doesn’t kill the demon this time, she will never get rid of it. The book received numerous award nominations. Bridger is the pen name for the New York Times bestselling women’s fiction and fantasy novelist, Deborah Smith. She received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Romantic Times magazine. When she is not writing, she runs a small press that publishes southern fiction.

Most people know Livia Van Belane as a talented, fun-loving artist, but she has a troubled past. Her father committed suicide when she was a little girl, and her mother and brother later died in a fire. Everyone blamed Livia for the fire, but she claimed that a demon was responsible. She spent the next few years in a mental institution, and now she is trying to piece her life back together.

Livia has a special ability. She can communicate with demons after drawing or painting them. She can then banish them back to Hell, by burning the paintings, before they cause trouble in the human world. Her grandmother once tattooed special protective symbols on her body, but when anyone asks about them, Livia pretends they’re just quirky markings.



Livia claims that a demon possessed her mother before she died. Her grandmother is the only person who believes her. What she doesn’t tell her grandmother is that, while she was in the mental hospital, she dreamed of a demon she didn’t recognize; she is compelled to paint him. Suspecting this is the demon that killed her mother, she wants revenge.

The finished painting is awful. The demon is ugly, scarred, and terrifying. Livia calls the demon Pig Face. She doesn’t plan to show it to anyone before she burns it to exorcise the demon. However, Pig Face is no ordinary demon. He doesn’t die when the painting burns. Instead, he escapes, looking for a host.

Pig Face possesses an attractive local man. He hits on Livia and they arrange a date. After the date, Livia plans to sleep with the man, but before she makes it home, he drags her into a deserted alley and brutally rapes her. Pig Face tells her who he really is before disappearing again.



Livia doesn’t know what to do because no one will believe her story. Before she thinks up a plan, her landlords find her. Somehow, they understand her predicament. They claim to be friends from previous lifetimes. They find Livia in every lifetime because they are supposed to protect her from demonic activity, but this time, they failed.

Livia asks these landlords what is going on. She doesn’t understand why this demon hates her so much and why it wants to abuse her. They tell her that the demon has been stalking her throughout many lifetimes. Every time, the demon possesses someone, rapes her, and then beats her until she dies. The demon gathers strength whenever it kills her, and if Livia doesn’t figure out how to stop it, the demon will take over the world.

The landlords introduce Livia to a soul called Ian. He is Livia’s soul mate; they have loved each other in countless lifetimes. The problem is that, now, he inhabits the body of the man who raped her. This is part of the endless cycle of seduction, torture, and death that the demon conjured up. Everything is designed to torment and break Livia. It is still unclear why it chose Livia, but everyone assumes that it is because Livia has special psychic powers.



While Livia races to understand her heritage and her past lives, Pig Face strikes again. It brutally maims and kills numerous innocent civilians for no reason other than bloodlust. Livia hates herself for being slow to figure out how to stop Pig Face, but Ian stays by her side, offering support the whole time. Other friendly helper spirits inhabit everything from animals to insects so they can help Livia track and kill the demon.

Livia despairs because she doesn’t see how this life will be any different from the other times. If she couldn’t kill Pig Face then, she can’t handle him now. Ian has complete faith in her. Although he inhabits her rapist’s body, she can’t help falling in love with him all over again. She vows that Pig Face won’t ever haunt them through another life again.

To defeat Pig Face, Livia must remember her past lives. Although she has been working on this skill, she does not want to remember the horrors she suffered before. Still, she faces her old memories and the trauma caused by Pig Face. Now, she is ready to kill him for good. She must trap him in a painting and burn him. Livia finds Pig Face again and seduces him. She locks him inside the painting and, with Ian’s help, throws the painting into the fire. Pig Face is gone, and Livia can enjoy her life.