Details

Length: 318
Story Build: Slow(ish)
Character development: Moderate
Age Recommendation:  8th grade (with parent knowledge), high school
Reasoning: drug references, war on drugs in the Philippines, violence in the Philippines is discussed, prostitution is alluded to, language

Summary and Review

Patron Saints of Nothing is a novel about Jay, a Philippino- American teenager, who feels aimless until the death of his cousin, Jun, in the Philippines, drives him to investigate what really happened. 

Jay and Jun used to be pen pals, but as Jay got older, his responses became less and less until the correspondence ended. He was caught up in his life while Jun was living one, that Jay later realizes, was punctuated by turmoil. The Philippines of today is much different than the one of Jay’s memories as the current president has declared a war on drugs, which allows for the legal killing of “drug pushers”. 

And, according to Jun’s father, Jay’s uncle, that is how Jun died. He was a drug pusher who was murdered by either the police or a vigilante citizen. 

However, this does not match with the Jun of the past, and Jay is determined to find out what really happened to his cousin. He decides to spend his spring break with his family, secretly working with Jun’s sister and her friends to track down any information he can about his cousin’s untimely death. 

This was a novel that I thought I knew the ending to when I started reading. It was a novel that was slow at times, but in retrospect, it is one that is particularly challenging and relevant for me. It constantly begs the question: Do we really know the people we once loved? Is it okay to remember them differently than they really were because that is how we knew them? 

It’s also a tale about finding one’s purpose and striking out in the world to bring meaning to our lives. 

Jay is the typical teenager whose eyes are opened when he enters a world that is different from his day to day life. It is a constant reminder that what we deem as difficult is really relative. I had no idea, shame on me, that this war on drugs was occurring in the Philippines and how devastating it is to the citizens of the country. If anything, Ribay’s novel brings awareness to the terror happening and to the importance of not staying ignorant.  

Celebrations

I think Ribay took a really difficult topic and made it accessible for the YA reader. His descriptions of the different places where Jay visited in the Philippines were vivid, and he outlined the drug problem in a way that could be understood by his readership. Furthermore, I liked that he created a path for his protagonist that is different than the traditional one in terms of what came next for him. Students need to read about ways to make a difference in the world and to hear about stories that have real substance to them.

Hesitations

To me, the relationship between Jun and Jay could have been more established. I was sort of surprised by how upset Jay was at the beginning over Jun’s death since they hadn’t talked in so long. However, I understood why the author had the boys lose contact; it allowed the mystery surrounding Jun to be realistic.