This did not affect my overall opinion of the book. (via Goodreads) *Huge thanks to Stripes Publishing for sending me a free physical copy. Hoping to uncover more about Jun and the events that led to his death, Jay is forced to reckon with the many sides of his cousin before he can face the whole horrible truth - and the part he played in it.Īs gripping as it is lyrical, Patron Saints of Nothing is a page-turning portrayal of the struggle to reconcile faith, family, and immigrant identity. But when he discovers that his Filipino cousin Jun was murdered as part of President Duterte’s war on drugs, and no one in the family wants to talk about what happened, Jay travels to the Philippines to find out the real story. Jay Reguero plans to spend the last semester of his senior year playing video games before heading to the University of Michigan in the fall. Ultimately, learning the truth about Jun forces Jay to come to terms with the fact that a person can be many things at once.A powerful coming-of-age story about grief, guilt, and the risks a Filipino-American teenager takes to uncover the truth about his cousin’s murder. This revelation complicates Jun’s character: he was kind, thoughtful, and frustrated by the government’s policies, but he was also hypocritical himself, since he sold drugs that would have hurt other people. Meanwhile, Tito Maning actually tried to help Jun despite their strained relationship. However, they later discover that Jun had left Reyna a year before his death and was using and selling drugs. At the start of the novel, Jay and Grace believe that this account is why Jun was murdered and that Tito Maning had something to do with his death. Around the same time, Jun began an Instagram account to share photos of the drug war’s victims, which would have been hugely subversive. He and Reyna then went to live together in the slums.

Jun went to stay at Tita Chato’s house, where he fell in love with Reyna, a trafficking victim that Tita Chato’s organization was helping. At some point, Tito Maning found marijuana in Jun’s room and kicked him out of the house.

He believed that the church wasn’t doing enough to help people in poverty and that the Philippine drug war was harming more than it was helping.

Jun often expressed frustration with the hypocrisy of others, especially his police chief father, the government, and the Catholic church. He and Jay frequently wrote letters to one another when they were young, and Jay notes that Jun was one of very few people he could really talk to. Jun was a deeply intelligent and thoughtful person. He was shot and killed by a vigilante prior to the start of the novel. Jun is Jay Reguero’s Filipino cousin, Tito Maning and Tita Ami’s estranged son, and Grace and Angel’s brother. A Universe Where People Do Not Die for Doing What is Right.

Patron saints of nothing jun