The Block

by Gerald Suster

From the outside it was just another middle-class London flatblock. But inside it a brooding, ages-old evil was stirring to horrifically malevolent new life, infecting the occupants with murderous, corrupt impulses - impulses that would lead to an escalating orgy of torture, mutilation and all-out slaughter, climaxing in the bloodiest, most bizarre confrontation with the forces of Evil Incarnate that the world had ever known.

Genres: Horror

288 pages, Paperback

First published February 16, 1984

About the author

Gerald Suster was a British revisionist historian, occult writer, and novelist. He was best known for his biographies of Aleister Crowley (The Legacy of the Beast) and Israel Regardie (Crowley's Apprentice), and many novels of horror and the occult.

While working in California, Gerald Suster met Israel Regardie and Gerald Yorke, two of the few remaining occultists who had studied directly under Aleister Crowley... and became a well-known figure in the London occult and pagan scenes.

In 1989 he became a tutor at Boarzell Tutorial College in Sussex; however his teaching career came to an abrupt end when he was featured in an exposé of his occult activities in the News of the World newspaper on 16 April 1989.[3] Suster sued the paper for libel... and got £80,000 of costs from them.

After the case, Gerald Suster & his new wife went on honeymoon to Madrid. On their return, he focused on being a full-time author, producing books of horror fiction, biography, occultism, and erotica. He called his new occupation "my most productive period of creative writing".

(Adapted from Wikipedia.)

Reviews

[Stephen Glover · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was quite interested in reading about some of scandal surrounding the author, Gerald Suster, back in the 80's when his affiliation with Aleister Crowley and his interest in the Occult appeared in a national newspaper in the UK.

After reading this I was totally expecting a supernatural story (which certainly delivered) but I wasn't expecting the excellent last third of the book. I was a little preturbed when first opening the book to see an lindex of the main characters in the story - a total of 40 nonetheless in a novel just shy of 300 pages long. I would point out that a majority of these are only introduced fleetingly before being dispatched in gruesome manners.

I did find myself referring back to the character index a few times as I couldn't always remember who was who and I think some readers will struggle with this if they are disenchanted to do so. Overall though the vast array of characters are amusing and interesting which is quite an achievement considering the staggering cast.

The first 200 pages of the book are a build up to the grand finale - a number of bizarre deaths are occurring in an upscale tower block which we learn later has to do with a mysterious force which is slowly turning the residents mad. The final third is an awesome survival horror situation (which I love) where the 'normal' residents are forced to fight off the 'possessed' residents.

This is a typical horror novel from the mid eighties but it is also very British as well :)

I am looking forward to reading more from this author.