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A review by togidemi
Patron Saints of Nothing by Randy Ribay
4.0
3.5 that i'm rounding up because i'd hate to assign three stars to a book with such a gorgeous cover. look at it. love it. GOD.
I... feel pretty meh about the book's story. It's kind of on par with its actual prose, I think - the latter's attempts to sound like a 17-year-old is writing it comes off as kind of cringey to me, but there are some actual gems in it sometimes. Listen. I'm anti-Duterte and anti-drug war, so please understand how much it pains me to say that the way it was covered in the book felt kind of... shallow and force-feedy. ESPECIALLY at the beginning of the book with the exposition dumps. There was hardly any enlightenment on why so many Filipinos are for it, except for the most obvious surface reasons. It's probably because it's a YA story - all my gripes about the book all probably loop back to it being for young adults, I think - but, yeah. My family is DDS so while I wholeheartedly disagree with them, I do understand their reasoning. And Jun was disappointing. I could talk a bit more about other things - the deal with Mia's , the unnatural bit with the bookstore, how Tito Danilo really only showed up to fulfill one (1) plot purpose real late in the book, the professor who also just showed up for plot purposes - but I don't have the energy. It's... it's a YA book.
So, what brought it up from the 2.5-3 star rating I would've given it on the story alone? WELL. I'm very weak for nostalgia and appreciation of Filipino things. A lot of the times it's clumsy and "HEY LOOK AT THIS FILIPINO(TM) THING" and I remember not being able to shake the thought that this was absolutely written for Fil-Ams and foreigners (which, in a way, it really was, so I'm not really its target demographic), but sometimes it becomes painfully relatable and comes alive for me. The frosty judgmental family dinners, for example, or the wandering around malls, or the karaoke session. I felt feelings for it. Those feelings were enough to carry the book for me and left me feeling pretty good at the end of the book.
TL;DR yeah it's YA what did you expect, but when it's not cheesily pointing out filipino(tm) things it does touch on "filipino themes" like family and identity that resonate with me. cover gorgeous. jay ate SINIGANG with WHITE BREAD wtf
I... feel pretty meh about the book's story. It's kind of on par with its actual prose, I think - the latter's attempts to sound like a 17-year-old is writing it comes off as kind of cringey to me, but there are some actual gems in it sometimes. Listen. I'm anti-Duterte and anti-drug war, so please understand how much it pains me to say that the way it was covered in the book felt kind of... shallow and force-feedy. ESPECIALLY at the beginning of the book with the exposition dumps. There was hardly any enlightenment on why so many Filipinos are for it, except for the most obvious surface reasons. It's probably because it's a YA story - all my gripes about the book all probably loop back to it being for young adults, I think - but, yeah. My family is DDS so while I wholeheartedly disagree with them, I do understand their reasoning. And Jun was disappointing.
Spoiler
The fact that he did actually eventually become an addict wasn't a bad thing, but it was handled poorly. Felt like a rushed lil plot twist as the book neared its end.Spoiler
boyfriendSo, what brought it up from the 2.5-3 star rating I would've given it on the story alone? WELL. I'm very weak for nostalgia and appreciation of Filipino things. A lot of the times it's clumsy and "HEY LOOK AT THIS FILIPINO(TM) THING" and I remember not being able to shake the thought that this was absolutely written for Fil-Ams and foreigners (which, in a way, it really was, so I'm not really its target demographic), but sometimes it becomes painfully relatable and comes alive for me. The frosty judgmental family dinners, for example, or the wandering around malls, or the karaoke session. I felt feelings for it. Those feelings were enough to carry the book for me and left me feeling pretty good at the end of the book.
TL;DR yeah it's YA what did you expect, but when it's not cheesily pointing out filipino(tm) things it does touch on "filipino themes" like family and identity that resonate with me. cover gorgeous. jay ate SINIGANG with WHITE BREAD wtf