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As a Filipino American, I was really excited to read Patron Saints Of Nothing because 1.) it’s so incredibly rare to see myself represented in mainstream media at all, much less the protagonist of a novel, and 2.) the real-life, modern day setting of the novel in the Philippines of the Duterte regime is not far removed from the dystopian worlds that are familiar to YA fiction enthusiasts. I found the book to be a well-paced, engaging read. The story, a young man’s journey to his ancestral homeland to search for the truth about his cousin’s death, was deeply affecting.

This was a very emotional story, and I found myself tearing up a lot. As I was reading, it was difficult to disassociate my own experiences with the story at times. Some of the dialogue and characters’ correspondence seemed more literary that realistic, and I think that took me out of it occasionally. But then, the author would write something else so truthful and specific, it felt like a punch in the gut (in the best way).