I loved this preview of the book! I will be purchasing a copy to own and finish! I know that my students will love reading this book and will learn so much from reading it!

I just read a preview of this book, but I really enjoyed it! I have a copy of this book in my classroom library and this preview has convinced me I need to read it sooner rather than later and get this book in some kid’s hands!

It feels tricky to review a book that I only read a excerpt of, esp for my students. I liked it and felt the honesty, plus some level of mystery and political education will get them involved with the story and expand their understanding of culture/country that might be different than their own










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This books is about a Filipino-American teenager named Jay who is a senior in high school. For a long time, he and his cousin Jun have written letters back and forth, but then the letters just stop, It turns out that Jun is dead and no one really wants to talk about it, Mysterious, right? Jay really wants to travel to the Philippines to figure out what happened to Jun. It was pretty easy to figure out (watch for context clues), but an important story about drug abuse and relationships.

This book was well written and honest. Although it is fiction, it reads like a non-fiction buograohy. Losing a relative isn’t easy, but losing someone under mysterious circumstances makes grieving and closure very difficult. I would recommend this for teenagers and young adults and in classrooms.

It was hard to write about this. It was an amazing novel but it touched on so much about loss, grieving, and state sanctioned execution. @randyribay this book was simply incredibly written. I felt Jay’s pain and his love for his cousin. His family was estranged before the loss. It was because of this loss that Jay decided to fly to reconnect and discover what truly happened to his cousin. As a reader, I connected with the emotions that Jay went through. The policies of any government effects the lives of each of their citizens. Without saying too much, this novel hits it out of the park with requiring us to think. Thank you for writing this ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ novel; I hope many will pick it up and read it! Thank you @kokilabooks,@penguinteenand @netgalley for the E-Arc

Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. Jason (aka Jay) is a young American Filipino teen. When he finds out that his favorite cousin has died, he travels to the Philippines to find out what happened. His uncle is a strict and angry man and refuses to help Jay what happened to his son. Throughout Jay’s journey he gets to know his family and makes new friends and eventually learns the truth of the young man his cousin had become. Jay is a kind and empathetic character that you can’t help but want to succeed. His development over the course of the book is profound, as is the growth of the other characters. I love how the relationships between the various members of the family progress. Even though the death of his cousin is sad, the book is overwhelmingly heartwarming. I thought it was beautiful.

Even though I read an excerpt of this book, I did read the entire book, eventually.

"The Patron Saints of Nothing" is a coming-of-age story that follows an adolescent boy, who's about to graduate high school, as he delves into the mystery of his cousin's death and how the two of them had drifted apart in recent years. At the same time, the protagonist realizes that the Philippines is under threat of a President who acts more like a dictator than a politician. This could be a factor in the cousin's death, which is starting to look more and more like murder.

Since this is a YA novel, a lot is focused on the family dynamics, which is essential to the plot and the character development of the story. The novel is a combination of topical issues, YA tropes, and culture clashing, all of which makes this a great story. If you don't read it because of the political issues, then read it because it's a great addition to the YA collection.

I really enjoyed this book and the unique voice to YA literature that it presented. I highly recommend this book to anyone looking for an entertaining and perspective-changing read.

Brilliant, honest, and equal parts heart-breaking and soul-healing. I’ll give this astounding book to all the teens and adults in my life. I suspect you will, too. I’d give it 50 stars if I could.

Jay returns to the Philipines to find out why his cousin was murdered. This coming of age book is powerful in Jay's quest to connect with his roots and reconcile who he is based on his new relationships with his relatives. Love, pain, parental relationships, controlling relationships, and drugs are all themes in this book. So enjoyable!

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 5 STARS (Rating for the SNEAK PEEK only)

Patron Saints of Nothing by Randy Ribay was a stellar book that was captivatingly written. I honestly felt a connection to Jay as I can relate to feeling a sense of cultural separation from my parents, who were both born in the Philippines then immigrated to Canada. The vast differences in upbringing and the need to understand the unfamiliar.

The sneak peek of this book made a definite impact and I will definitely read the completed novel. From the excerpt I've read, I can easily say I'd recommend picking up this book. Patron Saints of Nothing by Randy Ribay will join the ranks of the BIBLIO-ELITE!!!

~ Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for kindly providing me a SNEAK PEEK of this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This book was powerful and eye-opening. It was a bit slow to start, but once I got into the groove, it was definitely worth the wait. It showed the difference between the US and the Philippines under Dutertè’s iron rule and drug wars. The characters were richly written and had me invested in the story. Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for my ARC in return for my honest opinion!

Despite being a mere few chapters this powerful, all-consuming coming-of-age tale packs a punch! It has so many layers and is a deeply interesting exploration of some thought-provoking topical issues. With a compulsive fact-meets-fiction narrative Randy Ribay writes with courage, brevity and conviction about a topic, culture and country close to his heart.

If you enjoy real-world issues considered through the eyes of engaging fictional characters this is a must-read novel. It's a poignant, heartbreaking piece on the state the world currently finds herself in and I was deeply moved by Ribay's words and phraseology.

I simply couldn't tear myself away and was sad when I turned the final page of the excerpt. I predict that this will be a stunning success; it absolutely deserves to be. I have already purchased a copy for my shelf. Keep your eyes out for it this summer! Many thanks to Kokila for an ARC.

PATRON SAINTS OF NOTHING by Randy Ribay is excellent and highly recommended - longer review coming for full book. Do not miss this title. Starred reviews from Booklist, Kirkus, Publishers Weekly and School Library Journal.

This book does not have a slow start. We are thrown right in the middle of someone's life (and death) and the grief they are thrown into.

We get just enough of a taste of the differences between Jay's mom and dad, the way that culture shaped them and how Jay navigates them to get really interested. I want to see what the rest of the book is like!

I never fully realized the importance of representation until I started reading this book. With just these few chapters in this sampler I have had so many emotions and all of them have to do with this awed feeling of seeing my cultural background and home country being the main part in a book. There were so many instances where I found myself thinking “That’s so true!” I am definitely looking forward to seeing how this story progresses and am so intrigued to get a deeper understanding about something my birthplace is going through right now.

Will not be giving feedback on this title. I thought it was a full galley. I do not usually give feedback on sneak peaks or partial galleys. My apologies for the confusion

Disclaimer: I received a copy of this sneak peek from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

First, I'm glad I got to take a sneak peek of this new book coming out this month to give me a better idea on if I wanted to read it. So far, I will say that I do want to read a little bit more to find out the truth about Jun and the corruption facing the Philippines in this novel, but that's part of the reason why I don't want to finish reading it.

Let me explain.

I may not have any Filipino heritage in me, but I have a lot of friends that I grew up with that do, and hearing about this kind of mentality in the Philippines when it comes to drugs breaks my heart. There are also something things in the Filipino culture that are similar to my culture (Chamorro) so for some reason when I hear Jay talking about his family back in the Philippines and some of the customs he got to experience made me think about my family back in Guam. Nothing extreme like what was in this sneak peek, but definitely some that I could relate to.

I think also a part of me was really upset with how Jay's sister Em reacted to the news he told her about their cousin Jun, and how she seemed not to care. Family is supposed to be one of the most important things in the Filipino culture, and for her to react that way makes me think about those comments I've always heard about Filipinos from the Philippines being culturally different from American Filipinos. It's similar to what they say in Guam about Chamorros born and raised on Guam compared to American Chamorros. It's like we lost a sense of family, and to me that's not okay.

However, more on the book. This sneak peek that I received was just that. A sneak peek that didn't get to go too much into the meat of the book for me to really make a sound judgment on my thoughts. I think it was off to a great start, and while it ended in such a weird spot for me, I do think my thoughts and rating may change if I get the opportunity to finish the rest of the book. Jay is definitely not the typical male protagonist that I'm used to reading about - since most of my genres with male protagonists have some fantasy aspect to it - so reading about a regular high school guy trying to find out what happened to his cousin in a modern world was different.

I think also my favorite part was how the author really made a character that I could relate to, someone who is of mixed race that feels like he doesn't really know half of who he is. In the part of the book that I read, he doesn't know certain Filipino words, only vaguely remembers them from past years. (Funny thing is that I actually knew what balikbayan was when Jay himself didn't, so go me!) Also reading a little more about the author tells me that he may have written some of himself into Jay, so that's exciting as well.

All in all, I give this a neutral rating so that it gives me some flexibility to change it in the future and review it after reading the entire book.

This sneak peek preview of Patron Saints of Nothing sucked me in so fast! I felt as ignorant as Jay, the main character, for not knowing about President Duterte's war on drugs. I literally had to google it to get myself more informed. I can't wait to read the rest of this book - I need to know how things flush out for him once he gets to the Philippines!

If the full book is anything like the sneak peek I will definitely be purchasing a copy for myself once it is released. The writing is beautiful and captivating and the characters are full and make me want to learn more about them.