GZLA

NEST OF TONGUES

Spring 2026, Random House Books for Young Readers, TBD pp

NEST OF TONGUES is a lyrical, slow burn, YA paranormal/horror that inverts the monster-hunter trope to explore questions of sibling relationship, identity, otherness, familial duty, and the dangers of losing/missing cultural and communal knowledge.

Siblings Caleb and Lily Abadiano are manananggal, mythical creatures of the Philippines living in secret in San Jose, getting by as seemingly mediocre teens who hunt only at night and just enough to survive, so as not to attract suspicion. But their safety is threatened when a bayani (monster hunter) is rumored to be in the area, and one of their kind turns up dead. And when Caleb is suddenly marked as the bayani’s next prey, the siblings must decide if they’ll stay to fight or be driven from the only home they’ve ever known.

Told using dual POV narration and featuring anonymous interludes, Randy likens NEST OF TONGUES to other paranormal/fantasy YA like I Feed Her to the Beast and the Beast is Me by Jamison Shea, Legendborn by Tracy Deonn, and She is a Haunting by Trang Thanh Tran.

GZLA

EVERYTHING WE NEVER HAD

August 2024, Kokila/Penguin Random House, 288 pp

STARRED REVIEWS

KIRKUS – “A powerful and moving family saga.”

BOOKLIST – “Exquisite.”

SCHOOL LIBRARY JOURNAL – “A must for all collections, this four-generation saga of Filipino fathers and sons will resonate with teenagers of all cultures.”

PUBLISHERS WEEKLY – “Emotionally resonant…richly layered”

BULLETIN OF THE CENTER FOR CHILDREN’S BOOKS – “insightful and powerful…a masterclass”

ACCOLADES

National Book Award for Young People’s Literature longlist
Indie Bestseller’s List

GZLA

PATRON SAINTS OF NOTHING

June 2019, Kokila/Penguin Random House, 304 pp

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.

Jay Reguero plans to spend the last semester of his senior year playing video games before heading to University of Michigan in the fall. 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. Hoping to uncover more about Jun and the events that led to his death, Jay is forced to reconcile the many sides of his cousin before he can face the whole horrible truth — and the part he played in it.

As gripping as it is lyrical, Patron Saints of Nothing is a page-turning portrayal of the struggle to reconcile faith, family, and immigrant identity.

STARRED REVIEWS

VOYA MAGAZINE – “Compelling and informational”

KIRKUS – “Powerful and courageous.”

PUBLISHERS WEEKLY – “Passionately and fearlessly, Ribay (After the Shot Drops) delves into matters of justice, grief, and identity in this glimpse into the life and death of a fictional victim of President Duterte’s war on drugs in the Philippines.”

SCHOOL LIBRARY JOURNAL – “Part mystery, part elegy, part coming of age, this novel is a perfect convergence of authentic voice and an emphasis on inner dialogue around equity, purpose, and reclaiming one’s lost cultural identity.”

BOOKLIST – “Ribay provides a much-needed window for young people of the West to better understand the Filipino history of colonization, occupation, and revolution.”

ACCOLADES