Patron Saints of Nothing

National Book Award Winner

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Justification: This book is brand new YA fiction in my library and it's a National Book Award Winner. I was happy to snatch it up. I was also intrigued because much of the book takes place in the Philippines. I'm interested in differing cultural perspectives and I wanted to get Ribay's take on cross-cultural relationships. This book also fits into my overarching theme of using #ownvoices texts. Patron Saints of Nothing is written by a Filipino American author about a Filipino American protagonist and his experience connecting with his roots.

Reader's Response: This novel is about a Filipino-American teen called Jay who finds out his cousin Jun is dead. The word on the street is that Jun has been murdered in the Philippines as part of Duterte's (the president of the Philippines) war on drugs. Jay convinces his parents to let him travel to the Philippines from his home in Michigan under the auspices of visiting his extended family. Instead, Jay uses his spring break to dig deeper into the details surrounding his cousin's death.

What he finds is surprising and at times, heartbreaking, as the mystery unfolds. For one thing, no one in Jay's family wants to talk about Jun's death---especially Jun's police chief father. Jun's family acts like Jun never existed at all, which is both baffling and frustrating for Jay. Jay tells the reader: "Sometimes I feel like growing up is slowly peeling back these layers of lies. The truth of what happened to Jun is under there somewhere. And its burial seems increasingly intentional the more I think about it." (p.66)

Conclusion: This book is particularly compelling and it spoke to me because it's not just straight-ahead mystery fiction. The text digs deep and asks questions about whether or not Jay has a voice in a country that's not really his own. Is he engaging in cultural appropriation? Does he have a right, as an outsider, to speak out against familial tradition and local politics? Ultimately, the reader discovers just how much agency Jay actually has.

Patron Saints of Nothing is a well-paced, suspenseful puzzle of a novel. Jay is constantly exploring what the truth is and it's a moving target. This text has many revolving themes which focus on faith, identity, family, ethnicity, and nationality. I would recommend it to any young adult reader aged 14 and up.

APA Reference: Ribay, R. (2019). Patron Saints of Nothing. New York, NY: Kokila.