Due to a sudden, unexpected passing in the family a few years ago and another more recently and my subsequent (mental) health issues stemming from that, I was unable to download this book in time to review it before it was archived as I did not visit this site for several years after the bereavements. This meant I didn't read or venture onto netgalley for years as not only did it remind me of that person as they shared my passion for reading, but I also struggled to maintain interest in anything due to overwhelming depression. I was therefore unable to download this title in time and so I couldn't give a review as it wasn't successfully acquired before it was archived. The second issue that has happened with some of my other books is that I had them downloaded to one particular device and said device is now defunct, so I have no access to those books anymore, sadly.

This means I can't leave an accurate reflection of my feelings towards the book as I am unable to read it now and so I am leaving a message of explanation instead. I am now back to reading and reviewing full time as once considerable time had passed I have found that books have been helping me significantly in terms of my mindset and mental health - this was after having no interest in anything for quite a number of years after the passings. Anything requested and approved will be read and a review written and posted to Amazon (where I am a Hall of Famer & Top Reviewer), Goodreads (where I have several thousand friends and the same amount who follow my reviews) and Waterstones (or Barnes & Noble if the publisher is American based). Thank you for the opportunity and apologies for the inconvenience.

DNF'd at 20% - Wasn't a fan of the writing, I could not get into the story. I pushed myself and tried to go back to it but it just wasn't doing anything for me.

When children start going missing in retaliation for the harm corporations cause their local communities, the rich and powerful now have to worry about what they’re going to lose. Known only as Jude, the mysterious force kidnaps children in plain sight, only to whisk them away to never be seen again.

Told from the perspective of six people, The Saint of Lost Causes follows the repercussions of Jude’s actions within the community: both to the bourgeois and proletariat.

This fast-paced thriller had me flipping its pages through the night; I loved how even with her ensemble cast, Schorman manages to give her characters equal time and depth across the earlier acts of the book.

I typically have trouble telling characters apart, especially when any more than five key characters are introduced. But each character is distinctive in their own right, in terms of their backstory, personality and arcs.

Schorman’s debut novel is definitely an ambitious one. Key to the novel’s themes, her characters come from various income levels; some are filthy rich, others live from pay check to pay check. Themes of capitalism and its consequences on society’s members are brought to the forefront of this novel; two characters in particular end up switching classes in the second act and we see how this impacts their mental health and their perspectives of themselves.

However, one glaring oversight in this novel is the lack of racial representation among its cast. Despite having six characters, none of the main characters belong to any minority groups. The few side characters that aren’t white are not named and tend to die within a few pages; as typical of white authors, the pain of minority characters is only used to move the plot along.

If we were to overlook this oversight, the next apparent flaw in the novel is also one of its strengths; with six characters to pay attention too, the ending of The Saint of Lost Causesfalls short of its premise by a lot. And I can’t blame Schorman much on this part, having to tend to six characters’ story arcs plus trying to squeeze in a critique of capitalism doesn’t leave much space to wrap up any loose ends.

In the second half of the book, the third and fourth act are so rushed, they combined are maybe the same length as the first act. The ending of just about every character is immensely unsatisfying, there is no real character development for any of them. The minor characters change more despite showing up less.

While I loved Schorman’s writing style and how detailed the first and second act was, the ending left much to be desired. I really wanted there to be a big conclusion to what Schorman had set out to achieve, either thematically or development wise.

The true beauty of the story was the grey area that the ‘“villain” Jude operated in; their motivations to commit the crimes they did were well-intentioned, even if their actions were clearly morally wrong. But Jude’s strongest facet was their strong belief that their actions was the only way to bring justice to the impoverished to the point that they were willing to disappear from society altogether in order to hide from detection. I wanted to know more about Jude, in more detail than what Schorman had included: what was their personal stake in all these kidnappings? Why had they turned to crime? How exactly did they commit all the crimes they did?

It felt clear to me that the novel was setting up for a sequel to expand more on the “villain” in the story but because of that stylistic choice, The Saint of Lost Causes felt incomplete. I would love to read the sequel, for the sole sake of finishing the story arc, but I do wish that we could have at least gotten a better ending for this debut book instead.

A part of me really liked this book. The premise is fantastic; there is a vigilante organization, headed by a person named Jude, who steals and kills the children of those who are responsible for massive crimes against the community through corporate neglect and coverups. We're first told about this from the point of view of the father (Jonathan) who is concerned for his own unborn child as another baby dies in front of him; the result of his own father's decisions and coverups as the head of a company, now his own. This could have been amazing; some sympathy for the rich, while also a major nod towards the fact that something like this seems necessary to get justice in the world. The blackout of the media regarding Jude, orchestrated by the American gov in this, and the general media blackout, the result of misinformation, is also a great thing to throw in here.

Was it well-executed? Not so much.

It read like a cheap cop thriller; FBI detective turns PI after his case is taken from him, shacking up with a girl 10 years younger than him (who came onto him. this massive slob) after her own boyfriend disappears as the result of looking into Jude's organization. Audre who asks no questions about his private life, screws him regularly, and needs no emotional support for him. is apparently a good hacker (not mentioned before) who leads Jude's org to them and eventually saves them all by killing the woman who is in charge of their cities part of Jude, and her ex. Then there is Cherie, a woman who throws away her career over Jude, who is conveniently killed at the end, and Haley, a girl despised at the office because she rose in the ranks, who is sleeping with the married Jonathan, who lets his wife languish and die after their child was literally cut out of her and is disgusted by the scar that is a reminder.

The book for sure makes you want to eat the rich, but the main male characters really put me off, and the ending was really meh.