When the number of hauntings that plague the seaside town of Granitehead, formerly known as Resurrection, are increasing John Trenton decides to investigate. Having lost his wife and unborn child in a car accident, he is haunted by her, but she appears totally different, sadistic and angry. When he discovers the body of a local busybody, who has seen the spectre of her dead husband, impossibly impaled on a still hanging chandelier, he knows something must be done. The recently dead appear to be luring close relatives to their death. Uncovering the mysterious disappearance of a sailing ship "David Dark" and it's hidden entrapment of the Aztec god of death known as Mictlantecuhtli (a deity always depicted with an owl, a corpse, and a dish of human hearts, which are his chief sustenance) the ghosts appear to be appeasing the trapped deity, but how?



Though I usually find horror ghost stories mundane, the simplistic writing of Graham Masterton does bring a certain atmosphere to the novel making it enjoyable to read. Add in Ghosts, 17th century witch trials in Salem, exploring the depths for sunken ships, Aztec demons, and Native American magic makes this 1980's horror novel an entertaining read.

Ghosts, witches, sunken ships, Aztec demons, and Native American magic. Masterton is at it again. After a more subdued and spooky first half, the story escalates into a series of ridiculous world myth info dumps and heart-hungry undead. It’s silly but flows nicely, and has some scary scenes and a memorable monster. For the first hundred pages or so, I almost thought this was a restrained Masterton. But the gory deaths and random scenes of horniness put my mind to rest. The women in this book are a hoot: a super sexy twenty-year-old small business owner who throws herself at the protagonist after like five minutes of conversation, a steamy bakery employee who invites him over for homemade lasagna, and a mysterious nymphette servant whose nipples need to be described about ten times to get the point across. Goofy fun and nice use of Salem as a setting for demon antics. There’s a moment where the author uses the word “anoxolyte” to describe a death mask and when I looked it up, the only reference was a passage from this book. Making up words, man’s got style.

I did really enjoy the story, even though I found the main character quite unlikable. The story has a nice warm feel to it, like one of those horror movies you enjoy because of the atmosphere not because it's scary. There is quite a high level of corn but Masterton really does know how to right tension, there is an underwater scene that is brilliantly written.

Quite hard to review this because a quarter of the book was misprinted, the last 100 pages were 89-188 (again), basically missing the most important 100 pages in the book.

I gave it 4 because that was my feeling while I was reading.

This is the second book by Masterton that I've read but even though there were a few things I didn't like about it, it certainly won't be the last I read of him. This was an earlier publication by him. A few months ago I read Trauma, which was a more mature effort, in my opinion.

But, there was a lot to like about Pariah, as well. This guy really knows how to move a story along without any needless bogging down. And
atmospherically, there were moments, especially early on in the story, where he really knocked it out of the park. I was reading this at 2:30am and was getting nicely unnerved.

What I didn't like about the novel, and what made this a two-star read, was his main character, John.
Here's a spoiler-rich rant on John:

Spoiler

OK, so John loses the love of his life, his wife, and unborn child, in
a traffic accident. A month ago. Well, I guess life goes on as he sleeps with this woman he just meets, dates the girl at a cookie shop, and is also attracted to a young witch. Oh yeah, he's also ogling the niece of a local historian. But, don't get me wrong here, he still wants to save his wife from the region of the dead because he loves her so much.
Oh, and John, who says you can't trust a demon? They're true to their words, right?

BTW, about this historian guy: I was under the impression he wanted to
keep all references to the David Dark secret. So why does he sell a painting that any schmuck (that would be John) could figure out the name of the ship?

So, this book was a two-star read. Until:

Spoiler

I loved the state in which the demon returned John's wife to him. Well played, Mr. Masterton.

That earned the story one more star. It made it was worth the entire read.

A recommended read all in all, and I'm looking forward to reading Mirrors and Prey. I hear they are among his best.

Another horror masterpiece by Graham Masterton.

Very much 80s pulp horror, with all the pacing issues that come with it! I'm quite disappointed as The Pariah had all the potential of an interesting premise and didn't feel dated in its writing style despite the time it originates from - it simply had to be a tighter storyline, cutting out some of the 'faff' and expanding on the more interesting parts. A great start to it and an awesome concept (Aztec mythos and haunted ships?!) but the middle went on for too long and the ending was cut far too short. Still a nice journey for any classic, corny horror fan.

Graham Masterton est vraiment un des grands auteurs d'horreur. Ce livre, écrit dans la plus pure tradition de l'horreur des années 80 (il fut publié en 83) est un des rares livres m'ayant donné des frissons par moment. L'ambiance est très bien réussit, l'intrigue et l'histoire nous tiennent du début à la fin et les personnages nous semblent terriblment vrais, malgré la présence de quelques clichés. La fin est un peu décevante, car elle me semble facile et n'est pas à la hauteur de l'ensemble du roman, mais elle n'est pas mauvaise non plus, et ce n'est rien pour ternier le très bon souvenir que j'ai de ce livre. Une chaude recommandation pour les fans d'horreur!