Patron Saints of Nothing

By Randy Ribay

SHORTLISTED FOR THE CARNEGIE AWARD 2020

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.

When Jay Reguero hears of his cousin Jun’s death, everything changes. Although years have passed since they were last in contact, the stories about Jun just don’t fit with the boy Jay knew. Hoping to uncover the truth, Jay travels to Jun’s home in the Philippines – but the shocking realities of life there lead to even more questions. Can Jay find the answers he seeks?

A gripping and lyrical YA novel for fans of Angie Thomas’s THE HATE U GIVE, Patrice Lawrence’s ORANGEBOY and Nic Stone’s DEAR MARTIN.

"This powerful and courageous story offers readers a refreshingly emotional depiction of a young man of color with an earnest desire for the truth." - Kirkus starred review

• Language: English
• Publisher: Stripes Publishing
• Release date: Jun 27, 2019
• ISBN: 9781788951555

Randy Ribay

Randy Ribay was born in the Philippines and raised in the Midwest on a diet of books and Pokémon cards. Ribay is the author of An Infinite Number of Parallel Universes. A graduate of the University of Colorado and the Harvard Graduate School of Education, Ribay is an English teacher at a private school in Palo Alto, California, and a reviewer for The Horn Book. He lives in Stanford, California.   www.randyribay.com  Twitter and Instagram @randyribay

Reviews for Patron Saints of Nothing

[lflareads · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Patron Saints of Nothing is a read that touched my heart. Jay is finishing high school and has been accepted at the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor. His dad was born and raised in the Philippines and his mom is American. Jay's cousin, Jun writes letters back and forth with his cousin. Suddenly Jun dies and no one will answer Jay's questions regarding how. Jay ventures to the Philippines to get answers and visit family over spring break. Will Jay unearth the truth surrounding his cousin's death?

Jay is a strong character, who learns more about his culture right along with the reader. The happenings brought me closer to the characters and left me in tears at its conclusion.

[mjspear_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Jay was born in The Philippines but hasn't lived there since he was very young. Nonetheless, he is close to his cousin Jun. When Jun suddenly and tragically dies, Jay is determined to find out the reason why despite the family's resistance. Jay uses his spring break to return to Manilla and find out what really happened to his cousin. Along the way, the reader learns many things about relationships, dysfunctional but loving families, cultural differences, and the imperfect nature of friendship. In other words: Jun is not quite who everyone thinks he is and through this experience Jay reconnects with his Filipino side. A terrific look at the life of a first-generation American and the push/pull of alternate cultural traditions.

[fastforward-46127 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I never imagined when I first started reading this book how much I would fall in love with the story. I underestimated and thought it would be a typical story about a teenager coming to terms with his cousin's death. And while that was certainly an aspect that was well-done, the author also did a fantastic job in incorporating Filipino culture and some history into the story. It always feels like an added bonus when you are able to learn something while reading a fiction book.Jay Reguero was born in the Philippines but moved with his family to America when he was one. He is a senior in high school and was recently accepted to the University of Michigan (Go Blue!). He finds out his cousin Jun has died but he isn't given a whole lot of information about the circumstances. So Jay decides to fly to the Philippines and hopes he can get more answers there while staying with relatives. He is horrified to learn President Duterte's war on drugs might have something to do with Jun's death.I like how very early on in the story Jay comes to the realization he's pretty uniformed when it comes to what life is like in his birth country. He recognizes he's been practically living in a bubble and the fact that he could see this and want to do better, is an admirable quality.Nothing I can say will really do this book justice so please just trust me when I say it's a worthwhile read. It was a good story throughout but the last few chapters particularly resonated with me. And while the political climate is explored in depth, I was also impressed with how the author had this subtle way of dropping other important topics into the story. It's like he had many things he wanted to say with this story but was smart enough to not necessarily cram too much into the plot. Not that other writers don't put a lot of effort into their novels, but it just feels like this one really fine tuned everything and the result was impressive. Even if you don't normally read this genre, consider giving this one a chance!I won a free copy of this book in a BookishFirst giveaway but was not obligated to post my review here. All views expressed are my honest opinion.

[darcia_10 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This is not your typical coming of age story full of teenage angst and drama. While our narrator, Jay, is a teenager, this story is mature, poignant, complex, and emotional.Jay's search for answers takes him from his comfortable Michigan suburb to an entirely different sort of life with his extended family in the Philippines. I'm embarrassed to admit that, prior to reading this book, I knew little about the Philippines' drug war and its terrifying government policies. Randy Ribay's writing is totally immersive, so that, through Jay's story, I experienced and understood what it must be like to come of age in such a militant, dangerous environment.*I received a review copy from the publisher, via BookishFirst.*

[Saumya · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

It's very deep and it just generally made me more informed about the situation now. It teaches you a lot from a young person's perspective! Generally amazingggg!!!

[nancyadair-1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

"We can only handle so much truth at any given moment, I suppose."~Patron Saints of Nothing by Randy RibayThe world too often is quiet about things that should set off alarms.Horrible things happen. Articles, buried deep in the newspaper, or a flash of video and a few spoken words on the screen, mention countries we don't know and perhaps don't care about. The people and their suffering are real but they are 'other', foreign, from countries where dictators rule or rival factions destroy, while we are cocooned in comfortable homes and easy lives. Until it gets personal. Then the news is a clarion bell to wake us.The Patron Saints of Nothing by Randy Ribay wants to wake us to the realities of life under a dictatorship that placates citizens with free birth control while suppressing journalism and truth, through his profoundly moving and beautifully written novel. With early acceptance to the University of Michigan, Jay can coast through the rest of his senior year. But learning that his cousin Jun in the Philippines was shot by the police as a drug dealer turns Jay's life upside down. Jay visited his father's Filipino family when he was ten. He and Jun became fast friends and were pen pals for years until Jay's teenage activities and concerns took precedence and he stopped responding to Jun's letters. Racked with guilt, Jay wants answers. Jun was a good person. What happened that caused Jun to run away from his home? He wouldn't have done drugs. Why was Jun murdered? Why won't anyone tell him the truth?Jay becomes obsessed, learning all he can about the Philipines and life under President Duterte. Determined to find answers, Jay proposes a trip to visit his Filipino family and learn about his heritage.Staying with his father's siblings' families, Jay comes to understand that people are not always who we think they are and how growing up and learning the truth engenders more questions than answers.Although YA fiction, Ribay's novel will speak to all readers. He is a master of his craft.I received a book from the publisher through Bookish First. My review is fair and unbiased.Sometimes I feel like growing up is slowly peeling back these layers of lies."~Patron Saints of Nothing by Randy Ribay

[lindsay_w_2 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Jay is a Filipino-American teen who returns to his Country of birth to find out the truth about his murdered cousin. I’d doesn’t seem like he will get much help from his uncle who is in law enforcement and a supporter of President Duterte’s plan to clean up the country by killing petty criminals and drug dealers – which his cousin may or may not have been. Jay does find other allies, and the truth of his cousin’s life is eventually revealed. What is also a revelation to Jay is how little he knows of his country of birth, how the rules depend on where you were born and the colour of your skin, and how the truth is never all good or bad, just complicated – like his own family. Readers will also get a bit of history lesson on the political and cultural history of the Philippines including years of colonization and authoritarian regimes.

[ecataldi-1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Powerful and poignant. This young adult book chronicles one American Filipino teen who travels back to the island for the first time in a decade when he finds out his cousin and childhood friend had been killed. Jay has to confront the fact that while he has been living in a bit of a bubble in his middle class white suburban neighborhood and hasn't really bothered to keep up with his relatives, specifically Jun, who he used to write to frequently. Jay HAS to know what really happened to his beloved cousin Jun, or the grief may eat him alive. Everyone is saying he was shot because of drugs, but Jay can't wrap his head around that, that is the Jun he grew up with. Even though they hadn't talked in years, the island is calling to him to honor his cousin's memory by at least trying to put the pieces together. A wonderful story of identity, family, poverty, desperation, and hope. It's gripping and wonderful, the search for the truth doesn't always take us where we expect it to. A must read.

[jimrgill · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

A beautifully written and poignant novel, Patron Saints of Nothing focuses on contemporary events that few (if any) YA novels (or any novels that I know of) address—Duterte’s “war on drugs” in the Philippines and its devastating impacts on families.Randy Ribay’s protagonist, Jay Reguero, is a Filipino-American high school senior leading a typical, rather mundane adolescent life in Michigan. When he learns of his cousin Jun’s unexpected and suspicious death in the Philippines, however, personal regret and curiosity compel him to travel to Manila during spring break to visit his extended family and find out the truth behind Jun’s murder at the hands of Filipino authorities.Soon Jay’s “detective work” leads him to a host of discoveries he never anticipated. He learns a great deal about the country of his birth, the family he hasn’t seen since he was a child, and the personal consequences of national politics. While this story features numerous elements that you’d expect to find in a YA novel—friction between teens and their parents, budding romance and its inherent complications, dilemmas regarding identity and the future—Ribay’s novel transcends the trappings of the genre and depicts compelling moments of epiphany as Jay arrives at uncomfortable but necessary truths about how well we actually know those we profess to care about, the complex motives that drive human behavior, and our ability to control our own destinies. Highly recommended.