Patron Saints of Nothing Themes

Patron Saints of Nothing centers around a high school senior named Jay Reguero. When Jay’s cousin Jun dies in the Philippines, Jay travels there to discover the truth about Jun’s final days. In his youthful ignorance, Jay assumes that Jun’s death has a simple explanation, that justice is possible, and that those around Jun fall neatly into categories of “good” and “bad.” But as Jay untangles the causes of Jun’s death, he comes to…

Patron Saints of Nothing initially appears to be a murder mystery: high schooler Jay Reguero is determined to find his cousin Jun’s killer, and he travels from Michigan to the Philippines to do so. Though Jay is aware that the murder could have been government-ordered, his desire assumes that a single person killed Jun and that this person can be blamed for his death. Eventually, Jay learns that everyone, himself included, had some part…

Patron Saints of Nothing centers around the death of Jay Reguero’s cousin Jun. Jay is initially crippled by grief but resolves to find out who murdered Jun, and more importantly, to travel to the Philippines and figure out why Jun died. Jay seems to believe that Jun’s death will then mean something—that Jun won’t have died for nothing if the mystery of his murder is solved, and that some positive resolution will follow…