Kate’s Practically Positive Review of: Patron Saints of Nothing by Randy Ribay

I just finished listening to Patron Saints of Nothing by Randy Ribay (while crying quite publicly on the subway).

Genre: YA contemporary

One-Sentence Summary: High school senior and Filipino-American Jay visits his family in the Philippines to learn more about the murder of his cousin in President Duterte’s war on drugs.

My take: Wow. This book was a journey. I loved following Jay and his thoughts as he discovered detail after detail about the last years of his cousin Jun’s life.

My star rating: 5 stars

Pros:

1. While Jun is not a living and active character in this book, he is written with such love and care that I feel I know him. Though his death occurs at the beginning of the book, my heart breaks anew with each discovery Jay makes about him.
2. This book bleeds empathy. It provides a rounded view of many different people about drugs, depression, faith, law.
3. Ramón de Ocampo gives a genuine and heartfelt performance of the audiobook. It was a joy to listen to Jay’s internal dialogue, Tagalog and other languages used throughout the book, and the calming cadence of Mass.
4. I was raised Catholic, and Ribay’s description of going to church is the most beautiful description of church I’ve ever read. The comfort in the words and the repetition – the way he wrote out call-and-answer of Mass – all felt like home to me.
5. I love Ribay’s characters. It’s one of those books that will have me thinking about the characters for months, wondering what they’re doing “now.”