With this, the book suggests that while the family shouldn’t be blamed for Jun’s death, they nevertheless can’t be completely absolved of that death either. But it’s true that Jun needed someone to listen to him and that no one-including Jay-was able to. This guilt isn’t productive, and Grace might never have seen how unhappy Jun was Jay notes that family members are adept at hiding things from each other. Meanwhile, Jun’s sister, Grace, worries that she should have seen “signs” of Jun’s addiction and helped him. Even worse, Tito Maning’s enforcement of the government’s anti-drug policies as a police chief helped create an unsafe environment for runaways like Jun. Though Tito Maning later tried to get Jun help for his developing drug addiction, his initial dismissal of his son-who was miserable as a teenager-set the events in motion that would eventually lead to his death. Jun’s father, Tito Maning, kicked Jun out of the house after finding weed in Jun’s room. Like Jay, Jun’s family dismissed hints about Jun’s unhappiness and allowed that unhappiness to continue. Jay now worries that there’s something he and his parents “could have done” for Jun, even from a distance, and he feels guilty about his earlier dismissal of his cousin. Around this time, Jun ran away from home, which effectively cut off all communication between the cousins for good and put Jun on the path that led to his death. He stopped responding to Jun’s letters years ago, something which clearly hurt Jun. In part, Jay’s truth-seeking stems from a place of guilt: he’s concerned that he is indirectly responsible for Jun’s murder. By presenting a complicated mystery without a clear solution, the novel suggests that everyone may be responsible for those around them, but that doesn’t mean there’s an easy person to blame.Īs Jay digs into Jun’s death, he realizes that in a way, everyone is responsible for it-including Jay and his family-but no one person can shoulder blame.
Eventually, Jay learns that everyone, himself included, had some part to play in Jun’s death, and no one person is responsible.
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. 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.
A Universe Where People Do Not Die for Doing What is Right.
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