Book Review: Patron Saints of Nothing by Randy Ribay

Shelly's Book Corner received a review copy from Amazon Vine and voluntarily provided an honest review. This does not affect the opinion of the book or the content of the review.

A powerful coming-of-age story about grief, guilt, and the risks a Filipino-American teenager takes to uncover the truth about his cousin's murder.

Jay Reguero plans to spend the last semester of his senior year playing video games before heading to the University of Michigan in the fall. But when he discovers that his Filipino cousin Jun was murdered as part of President Duterte's war on drugs, and no one in the family wants to talk about what happened, Jay travels to the Philippines to find out the real story.

Hoping to uncover more about Jun and the events that led to his death, Jay is forced to reckon with the many sides of his cousin before he can face the whole horrible truth -- and the part he played in it.

As gripping as it is lyrical, Patron Saints of Nothing is a page-turning portrayal of the struggle to reconcile faith, family, and immigrant identity.

Review:

Jay is Filipino American and goes to the Philippines to find out how his cousin Jun was murdered. They used to be close but lost touch. During this journey, Jay is forced to come to terms with how out of touch he is when finally visits. Jay doesn’t really know anything about the culture and how drugs have taken over the country as well. When the book first started I didn’t really care for Jay but as the story progressed and he finally opened up his sheltered eyes I liked him more and more. I enjoyed reading the letters from Jun and he really was a good kid who just got caught up in an unfortunate situation.

This was my first time reading a book by this author and it was a very important and powerful read that sheds light on a very tough subject matter. This story was a real eye opener since I had no idea the drug problem was this bad in the Philippines. The way they deal with the drug problem was shocking as well. I wasn’t expecting that method at all. After reading this book I will definitely be reading more books by Randy Ribay.