Eye Opening Message, Disappointing Overall

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Patron Saints of Nothing follows Jason (Jay) as he embarks on a trip back to his homeland of the Philippines to find out what truly happened regarding the death of his cousin Jun. Jay is told that Jun was involved in drugs and was taken out by a government vigilante but Jay refuses to believe this, knowing that Jun is a caring, loving individual. Jay spends a week with different sets of family members and works to uncover what truly happened with Jun, navigating turbulent family relations and secrets.

I struggled with this book because I do believe the message is an eye opener about the travesties occurring over in the Philippines regarding their government and how they treat people, but my issues with this book lie within the writing and the unbelievable "luck" Jay seemingly has in going about discovering what happened to Jun. The writing felt very plain and uninspired in most parts, with flashes of brilliance. I enjoyed the first few chapters, the dream sequence, and the ending was written beautifully. Everything else just felt mediocre.
Jay really didn't meet much adversity in his quest for the truth with Jun, he was almost handed all the information he needed out the gate with every new encounter and it just felt too "on-the-nose".

I did enjoy the ending chapters, those felt full of emotion and were very well written. I am a big stickler on endings and I thought this book had the appropriate ending. Overall, this was a good book with some writing issues, but I am glad to have read it. Thank you to the publisher for a free copy in exchange for an unbiased review.