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The Scar
Sign of Satan.
A sleepy village has become a prosperous suburb. But its heritage of witchcraft in the seventeenth century still lives on. Until one night a moment of folly heralds the return of a soul in torment, hellbent on seeking an inhuman revenge.
Soon a young girl will tread the paths of evil. Possessed by a demonic spirit that corrupts her innocent thoughts and seduces her beautiful body, time after time after time.
And slowly the devil's mark will appear on the flesh of Satan's chosen offspring... The Scar.
A sleepy village has become a prosperous suburb. But its heritage of witchcraft in the seventeenth century still lives on. Until one night a moment of folly heralds the return of a soul in torment, hellbent on seeking an inhuman revenge.
Soon a young girl will tread the paths of evil. Possessed by a demonic spirit that corrupts her innocent thoughts and seduces her beautiful body, time after time after time.
And slowly the devil's mark will appear on the flesh of Satan's chosen offspring... The Scar.
219 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1981
About the author
Gerald Suster
23 books10 followersGerald 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.)
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.)
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
March 10, 2024
Suster’s batting three for three for me, with this possibly being my favorite of the bunch so far. It had pretty much everything I want when the hankering for a schlocky early 80s Hamlyn nasty overtakes my senses.
Taking place in and around a prestigious private college in England, a satanic ritual conducted among some students for a laugh soon turns deadly as one by one they’re slaughtered in horrifying ways. Their deaths remain a mystery, though every single victim was killed while out with the new girl, Helen, who was at the ceremony but seems sweet enough. Is she responsible, knowingly or unknowingly? Is she cursed? Possessed? A witch?
This moves along at a nice clip, with a mystery that remained intriguing even if the answer was pretty obvious from nearly the beginning. It’s slightly raunchy for a 1981 title, similar to other Satan-themed British occult novels of the era, as well as Brian McNaughton’s late 70s/early 80s work. The characters weren’t overly likable, obsessed with class standing and, I imagine, speak with pronounced affectations. But they were drawn well enough that I remained invested in the story, which is outrageous and stretched my suspension of disbelief to its limits. In a good way.
It had most of the cheesy tropes I look for, including my favorite: research projects relating to the dark arts or an ancient evil. There were lots of references to various punk and new wave bands, which led me to discover that at the time this was written (1980 or so), those terms were mostly interchangeable. My favorite reference was a professor’s thoughts on a real life erotic S & M novel, The Taming of Julia, declaring it “stale fantasies in leaden prose” even though the author of that book happens to be Suster himself, written under a pseudonym.*
Overall this was quite fun, and I look forward to reading more of Suster’s novels. They’ve all had that perfect mixture of camp and creepiness that I look for in pulp horror from this era. This one’s fairly gruesome as well, even a little disturbing, as there’s a noticeable hint of glee or feeling of awe present in the writing when detailing the life spilling out of someone and the light slowly leaving their eyes. Anyways like I said, fun stuff.
Hopefully one day a publisher like Valancourt sees fit to reprint Suster’s horror work, as most of it has become extremely rare and pricy online in recent years. Until then I’ll just keep on hoping to come across his stuff while haunting the local used book shops. Which would be some trick for me to pull off considering much of it was never even published here in the states.
————————————
As an aside, the book seemed extremely misogynistic at some points, but surprisingly forward thinking at others, calling out the witchcraft craze of the Middle Ages as men taking out their lust and lack of power over women on the women themselves, and I found the contrast interesting. To be fair the sexism could be explained as being strictly the various characters’ views, but it was still a bit puzzling.
* or so I thought. I can find no evidence online of Suster having written The Taming of Julia at the moment, other than another review here on GR that supposes the same thing. He did write erotica pseudonymously, however.
Taking place in and around a prestigious private college in England, a satanic ritual conducted among some students for a laugh soon turns deadly as one by one they’re slaughtered in horrifying ways. Their deaths remain a mystery, though every single victim was killed while out with the new girl, Helen, who was at the ceremony but seems sweet enough. Is she responsible, knowingly or unknowingly? Is she cursed? Possessed? A witch?
This moves along at a nice clip, with a mystery that remained intriguing even if the answer was pretty obvious from nearly the beginning. It’s slightly raunchy for a 1981 title, similar to other Satan-themed British occult novels of the era, as well as Brian McNaughton’s late 70s/early 80s work. The characters weren’t overly likable, obsessed with class standing and, I imagine, speak with pronounced affectations. But they were drawn well enough that I remained invested in the story, which is outrageous and stretched my suspension of disbelief to its limits. In a good way.
It had most of the cheesy tropes I look for, including my favorite: research projects relating to the dark arts or an ancient evil. There were lots of references to various punk and new wave bands, which led me to discover that at the time this was written (1980 or so), those terms were mostly interchangeable. My favorite reference was a professor’s thoughts on a real life erotic S & M novel, The Taming of Julia, declaring it “stale fantasies in leaden prose” even though the author of that book happens to be Suster himself, written under a pseudonym.*
Overall this was quite fun, and I look forward to reading more of Suster’s novels. They’ve all had that perfect mixture of camp and creepiness that I look for in pulp horror from this era. This one’s fairly gruesome as well, even a little disturbing, as there’s a noticeable hint of glee or feeling of awe present in the writing when detailing the life spilling out of someone and the light slowly leaving their eyes. Anyways like I said, fun stuff.
Hopefully one day a publisher like Valancourt sees fit to reprint Suster’s horror work, as most of it has become extremely rare and pricy online in recent years. Until then I’ll just keep on hoping to come across his stuff while haunting the local used book shops. Which would be some trick for me to pull off considering much of it was never even published here in the states.
————————————
As an aside, the book seemed extremely misogynistic at some points, but surprisingly forward thinking at others, calling out the witchcraft craze of the Middle Ages as men taking out their lust and lack of power over women on the women themselves, and I found the contrast interesting. To be fair the sexism could be explained as being strictly the various characters’ views, but it was still a bit puzzling.
* or so I thought. I can find no evidence online of Suster having written The Taming of Julia at the moment, other than another review here on GR that supposes the same thing. He did write erotica pseudonymously, however.
December 6, 2022
Helen is the new raven-haired student at a prestigious private college for rich kids who want to improve their grades and everyone has the hots for her. Soon she attends a Satanic ritual the other students are having for, you know, shits and giggles. The ritual fails, Satan doesn’t appear, but Helen suddenly goes berserk and tries to bite a fellow student. She soon recovers, but begins exhibiting strange behaviour, being even more promiscious than before. Nothing like Satan to make you lust for sex. Later, one by one, she seduces and copulates with every man who was present at the ritual, all of whom end up dead in a variety of ways soon after the deed is done. She also makes fast friends with a solitary crow and a horny on-the-dole voyer. Or familiars, as one might call such bestial servants. She also has a small scar below her breast, which gives the novel its title.
There’s a pattern at play here, which her meek history teacher Laurence discovers after Helen sets him up as a scapegoat and a rapist. Having been caught with his dick hanging out, Laurence does what any historian would do in the situation and goes into research mode, poring over old books for clues. He uncovers a tale which none of the other characters really believe: it’s witchcraft, of course, as is hinted from the very beginning.
The rest of the tale behind Helen’s killing spree is slightly stranger, but it has to do with some actual historical figures and their bloodlines. There’s no holding back here, Suster goes all-out on cheese and gravy with the story. The plot stretches creduility to a breaking point but somehow still holds up, thanks to the characters and a fine sense of time and place.
There’s a lovely quality to the gallery of characters, from the rich Oxbridge brats to loser punks. Geoffrey the Satanist is a drug-fiend who spouts out an Enochian incantation by page 33 with “Coraxo chis cormp Od Blans Lucal Aziazor Paeb Sobol Ilonon Chis Op Virq Eophan Od Raclir Maasi Bagle Caosgi” and so on. Henry is from a poor family, who sacrifice their own well-being just so their precious son can play at being a rich kid. Mick is a violent punk who is entranced by Helen and soon escalates to voyerism and murder. Laurence the teacher is a piece of work as well, seemingly placid but seething underneath with barely held-back insanity, who at one point gets so horny that he entertains visiting a prostitute, but ends up buying a Victorian-style sex fantasy book at a porn store (The Taming of Julia (Illustrated), which seems to be an actual book, perhaps something written by Suster under a pseudonym?). One does suspect that Suster had his tongue firmly in cheek when he came up with this scene.
Gerald Suster wrote a handful of horror novels under his own name, as well as a bunch of history books, with subjects such as Hitler as a black magician, Aleister Crowley and the Tarot. With a strong interest in the occult, he was apparently quite a figure in the British scene before his untimely death in 2001. Suster’s writing in the modern-era The Scar is breezy and fun, with a suitable sense of irony, signalling that the writer was very well aware that he was churning out cheap thrills for a paycheck (some of Suster’s novels seem to be Victorian-era pastiches of Arthur Machen, which may or may not be heavier going), with nice contemporary pop culture references. The punk venue is very eighties believable, down to its toilets. Someone puts on Pink Floyd’s Meddle, Sex Pistols gets referenced, as well as The Velvet Underground. Mick dreams of driving a Jensen, one of the characters discovered Satanism by reading Dennis Wheatley, Helen has a paperback of The Exorcist and so on. The novel slips a bit with its far-fetched plot, which it fortunately doesn’t seem to take too seriously itself, but the trappings around it are reasonably entertaining.
(The gray thing on the cover is an embossed image of a dagger that gets referenced in the novel. I’m thinking it didn’t quite turn out as planned.)
Read all my horror novel reviews at mikareadshorrorfiction.wordpress.com
There’s a pattern at play here, which her meek history teacher Laurence discovers after Helen sets him up as a scapegoat and a rapist. Having been caught with his dick hanging out, Laurence does what any historian would do in the situation and goes into research mode, poring over old books for clues. He uncovers a tale which none of the other characters really believe: it’s witchcraft, of course, as is hinted from the very beginning.
The rest of the tale behind Helen’s killing spree is slightly stranger, but it has to do with some actual historical figures and their bloodlines. There’s no holding back here, Suster goes all-out on cheese and gravy with the story. The plot stretches creduility to a breaking point but somehow still holds up, thanks to the characters and a fine sense of time and place.
There’s a lovely quality to the gallery of characters, from the rich Oxbridge brats to loser punks. Geoffrey the Satanist is a drug-fiend who spouts out an Enochian incantation by page 33 with “Coraxo chis cormp Od Blans Lucal Aziazor Paeb Sobol Ilonon Chis Op Virq Eophan Od Raclir Maasi Bagle Caosgi” and so on. Henry is from a poor family, who sacrifice their own well-being just so their precious son can play at being a rich kid. Mick is a violent punk who is entranced by Helen and soon escalates to voyerism and murder. Laurence the teacher is a piece of work as well, seemingly placid but seething underneath with barely held-back insanity, who at one point gets so horny that he entertains visiting a prostitute, but ends up buying a Victorian-style sex fantasy book at a porn store (The Taming of Julia (Illustrated), which seems to be an actual book, perhaps something written by Suster under a pseudonym?). One does suspect that Suster had his tongue firmly in cheek when he came up with this scene.
Gerald Suster wrote a handful of horror novels under his own name, as well as a bunch of history books, with subjects such as Hitler as a black magician, Aleister Crowley and the Tarot. With a strong interest in the occult, he was apparently quite a figure in the British scene before his untimely death in 2001. Suster’s writing in the modern-era The Scar is breezy and fun, with a suitable sense of irony, signalling that the writer was very well aware that he was churning out cheap thrills for a paycheck (some of Suster’s novels seem to be Victorian-era pastiches of Arthur Machen, which may or may not be heavier going), with nice contemporary pop culture references. The punk venue is very eighties believable, down to its toilets. Someone puts on Pink Floyd’s Meddle, Sex Pistols gets referenced, as well as The Velvet Underground. Mick dreams of driving a Jensen, one of the characters discovered Satanism by reading Dennis Wheatley, Helen has a paperback of The Exorcist and so on. The novel slips a bit with its far-fetched plot, which it fortunately doesn’t seem to take too seriously itself, but the trappings around it are reasonably entertaining.
(The gray thing on the cover is an embossed image of a dagger that gets referenced in the novel. I’m thinking it didn’t quite turn out as planned.)
Read all my horror novel reviews at mikareadshorrorfiction.wordpress.com
August 21, 2020
Enjoyably gruesome and colourful horror story from this interesting author who died far too young.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews