BOOK REVIEW: HAG BY JOHN GOODRICH

Hypothetically, if you were battling cancer, what would be one of the last things you’d want to deal with? Would it be the vengeful spirit of a slave that is pissed and doesn’t care you are dying? If you were living in a Boston apartment building in John Goodrich’s Hag you might want to move it up on your list. Hag is one of the most satisfying stories I’ve read this year, keeping me engaged and invested to the bitter end.

We are introduced to David, a professor that moved to Boston after being diagnosed with cancer. It might not be the smartest idea, considering he has no friends or family there, but he is part of an experimental treatment and needs to be close to the hospital. His friend Sam visits as often as she can, and he does befriend a tenant of the building, yet for most of the week he is alone. That is until a ghost decides he needs her vicious company to help him forget the side effects of the chemo.

Apparently, the building David moved into is haunted. The tenants and landlord know about the ghost, in fact at one point the owner says this is why the rent is so cheap. It’s a little unclear at first why the spirit singles David out, though near the end we get a bit of an idea. I’m not sure if we need a reason for the attacks, but the reasoning we do get doesn’t justify the ghost picking on a guy with cancer.

I do like this setup for a ghost story. David’s weekly chemo treatments puts him out of commission for a couple of days, which is the perfect time for something terrible to happen. Goodrich threads in the tension by having the spirit randomly show up, with no clues as to when she’ll appear. Whenever David is too weak to get out of bed or is busy dry-heaving you’ll find yourself praying this isn’t one of the times she decides to show up to make everything worse.

When David found out about the cancer he decided to forgo the sad looks and comments from his friends and coworkers, so he didn’t tell them, except for Sam. His reasoning being he couldn’t stand the thought of how others would react. It feels a bit convenient for the story, how can anyone help him if they don’t see the ghost? I do understand why he’d act this way, I don’t always share the bad things in my life. Yet, for the story, it does stick out a bit, like someone’s cell phone not working or the car not starting while being chased by a maniac.

David is not completely without friends, he has Sam and the upstairs neighbor Valya. The friendship between the three of them is what makes this so much more than a ghost story. Sam is tough, she is fun, and she does something for David that I’m not sure a lot of friends would do. Valya is an elderly Russian widow that quickly takes David under her wing. I would love to read a story just about her life, she was a World War II pilot, walked across wartorn Germany, and now lives in Boston with her ghost of a husband. Yes, he is also a ghost, though all he really does is hang out in Valya’s apartment.

Goodrich takes these two side characters and fleshes them out to the point that you are just as interested in their lives as you are of David’s. They are not there just to help build up David’s story. Sam and her wife are trying to have a baby, Valya has children that are too busy to visit her. I enjoyed reading both of their story arcs and appreciated that Goodrich decided to make them more than window dressing.

As the attacks intensify, and the chemo continues to wreck David, I found myself wondering why he stayed in the apartment. It’s the one major hang up I have with the book. Like so many other ghost stories, the plot hinges on the fact that the person being haunted stays where the ghost is. If they leave, then there isn’t really a story. But, after the second attack, it became a bit frustrating watching David continue to stay there. Sam is there for some of the attacks and becomes the voice of the reader, asking David why he doesn’t move. His response is that he isn’t going to be bullied, then later, he decides he wants to help her. It sort of works as an excuse to keep him in the apartment. Though, I’d have to believe a more rational person would pack up and go.
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I applaud Goodrich for writing a beautiful story about a cancer patient trying to survive. There is enough horror in here to keep horror fans happy, but I believe it’ll be the story of David, Valya, and Sam that keeps you reading. Hag is a deep, heartfelt, cancer patient story masquerading as a ghost story that focuses more on surviving and friendship than it does on the actual haunting. 

All David wanted was to rest and get better. He moved from Vermont to Boston to beat his cancer. Even before the boxes are unpacked, he and his best friend Sam notice an eerie presence in his new apartment building. The emaciated haunt is a roiling storm of fury with black iron claws and jagged metal teeth. She attacks David without reason or pity, leaving him in agony.

Hag is a dark, brooding novel set in a blighted personal landscape. A story of deathless rage terrible love.

“An evocative craftsman of quiet and cosmic horror, with a deft touch for all things eerie and unsettling, John Goodrich will appeal to fans of Laird Barron, Mary SanGiovanni, and Peter Straub.” - Brian Keene
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