Ang mga Kaibigan ni Mama Susan

I'll admit I'm really, REALLY late getting onto this particular boat. This book was originally published in 2010, when Visprint was still going strong, but thankfully Avenida Books has picked up Visprint's banner so it's still in circulation (publishing in the Philippines is ROUGH y'all). I picked this up is because I found out on Twitter that there's going to be a movie adaptation out on Amazon Prime, and I got curious.

Now, full disclosure: as a result of my upbringing, I'm AWFUL at reading Tagalog. I was raised in an English-engaged household and struggled with Tagalog all throughout my years in school, including while at uni (during which I improved the most, but not nearly as much as I'd like). Matter of fact I STILL struggle with it, especially if it's the literary Tagalog most often used by the literary luminaries who write in the language. Fortunately, Ong writes in a more colloquial Tagalog, which is a bit easier for me to grasp - especially now that I'm working and use the language a lot more.

This novel is the diary of a college student named Gilberto “Galo” Manansala, who started writing it as part of his requirements at school, but keeps writing in it as a way to record the events of his life and the way he feels about them. The first half of the book focuses primarily on that, and depicts not just the typical college drama involving teachers, friends, and romantic partners, but also what it means to be someone from the province who's come to Manila for a college education, and is relying on other members of his family to support them. When that support falls through, though, Galo takes certain extreme actions, and winds up having to go back home to the province to avoid the consequences.

The second half of the novel takes place in Galo's home province, where he goes back to see his ailing grandmother and (ostensibly) take care of her. While there, he finds out that something ain't quite right with Grandma, and with the town as a whole. This is where the horror actually comes in, as Galo learns about what his grandmother's been up to, what's happened since he left the town to go to Manila for his education - and what that knowledge does to him by the end.

Now, while the first half of the novel is pretty interesting because of the way it depicts life for the average college student, I did kind of wish it had been shorter? I understand that the author was trying to paint out Galo's life to give the reader a full picture of who he is as a person, and the events depicted and hinted at in the first half do come into play in the second half, but I did move through that first half wondering when the horror would finally come in.

Fortunately, once that second half begins the book really does live up to the horror genre, and it is horror in a specifically Filipino way that ensured I'd read this only in broad daylight. The tropes will be familiar to Filipinos who grew up watching the Shake Rattle ‘n Roll movies, the old Magandang Gabi Bayan Undas specials, and inhaled Psicom's True Philippine Ghost Stories collections: the old provincial mansion, the isolated town, the unique religious practices– All of those things will resonate with a creepy familiarity with Filipino readers. The themes, too, will have a familiar resonance for that same set of readers who engaged with the aforementioned media before; I don't think Ong is treading much new ground in that regard, since the theme of “Your sins come back to haunt you eventually” is a common one. But the execution is pretty enjoyable, and that ending is sure to send a tingle up the reader's spine.

So overall, Ang Mga Kaibigan ni Mama Susan was a pretty fun, fast, and undoubtedly spooky read - but largely in the second half. The first half is a bit of a slog, and I can imagine some readers just skimming their way through it to get to the creepy bits - something which I think they'd be justified in doing, as it does run a bit overlong for my tastes. But what happens in that first half has implications for what happens in the second half, so it helps to pay attention in order to see the full scope of the horror that finally descends on Galo by the end.