Wow, very dark, very lucrative, very moody, and VERY entertaining. I couldn't stop reading this one, especially because it's a world that remains somewhat untapped outside of reality television and it's a dynamic rarely explored. I need more.

This book. Wow...The experiences, the emotions...I’m still reeling from this gorgeously traumatic yet optimistic story of how powerful individuals prey on those they deem weaker or disposable and the impact it has on those unfortunate souls both mentally and physically. The torment they endured and the shame that came with it cannot be understated. But yet there’s hope. This book...I’m telling you. Grab it.

This story sparked such anger and outrage in me because I felt so connected to Jonah and all the others this one story represents. We can’t discount parental acceptance of who we are nor can we discount the agony that many LGBTQ people have dealt with and continue to go through just to be themselves freely and openly. Heartbreaking read, beautifully executed.

Thank you for the opportunity to read this amazing story.

Read about 25% and stopped. The endless stereotypes and troupes representing gay men as mercenary and predatory did me in.

When I first started reading this, I'll be honest, I was kicking myself and asking why I would grab a story that is really not in my wheelhouse. I'm not super fond of Daddy stories whether in MF or MM, but something about the blurb must have intrigued me so I pushed on and I'm really happy I did because this was WAY more than just a Daddy book. Is it beautifully written? That's hard to say because the subject matter is so gritty, so difficult, so much darker than you'd expect. Jonah is a preacher's son and gay. Take that where you can imagine it would go. He also has dreams and perhaps some Daddy issues that propel him into a life that he never could even imagine existed beneath the façade of the rich and famous in NY. Along the way, Jonah takes us through the script of his life, his play, his reality. It isn't easy and there is a lot of pain along the way. Does he have a happy ending? Well we learn that happy is all relative and finding peace can sometimes be the best we can hope for.

Thank you to Net Galley for the digital ARC of this book.
Whew! Okay, here goes. Yes, Daddy is a heart-breaking exploration of power dynamics, manipulation, and intimidation within the evangelical church and a terrifyingly imbalanced sexual relationship. I read this page-turner with my heart in my throat, a pain in my gut, absolute disgust, and a serious side-eye. It reads like a cautionary tale, a therapeutic release, or a guilt purge. It has many victims and many aggressors. It is a #MeToo story and an indictment of society and the evangelical church. This debut-novel was hard to read and hard to put down. It requires an emotional commitment and may not be appropriate for all readers. PLEASE NOTE that there are scenes of rape, aggressive sexual assault, human trafficking, gay conversion therapy, and suicide.

What an incredibly dark, powerful debut. While this was one of the more horrific books I’ve ever read in terms of content, the writing was incredible and kept me so engaged from the first page to the last.

Jonah is a struggling gay recent grad of a Christian college who has recently moved to New York City to pursue his dream of playwriting. He’s behind on his rent, working a dead end job as a waiter, and feeling like he’s ready to give up and return home to the family that forced him into conversion therapy. His last chance to be successful is to seduce a rich playwright he’s seen in the tabloids, always with a younger man on his arm. He researches Richard’s life, his likes and dislikes, and orchestrates a meeting that he’s sure will lead to them falling in love. From there everything goes sideways in a tale about power, control, consent, the #metoo movement, trauma, and healing.

Every time I though I had a handle on where this story was going it would take a hard left turn and head somewhere different. After the 40% mark I absolutely couldn’t put it down because I just had to know what would become of this cast of characters. The story careens off the rails, ping-ponging back and forth, teasing justice, horrible consequences, poor choices, and hopeless situations.

This is probably one of the most difficult reviews I’ve ever written because there is no way to describe this book without giving things away. Overall I definitely enjoyed it, but I was also angry for like 85% of the book. I would recommend this to fans of My Dark Vanessa and Docile, with a big recommendation to read the trigger warnings.

Overall this was a four star read for me that left me emotionally spent. I cannot wait to see what else this author writes because this doesn’t read like a debut author.

This powerful debut novel pulls no emotional punches as it explores the life of a troubled, vulnerable gay man trying to hold body and soul together as he searches for healing and acceptance. Jonah Keller is a broke waiter in New York City, clinging to his dream of becoming a famous playwright in the face of mounting bills and an increasing sense of isolation from his peers. So when he discovers an opportunity to meet and hopefully seduce the successful, accomplished older playwright Richard Shriver, he throws himself as fully into the pursuit as a Gilded Age fortune hunter a century earlier would have.

Their first encounter goes even better than Jonah imagined, as their film festival meet-cute turns into dinner and conversation, with Jonah asking:

QUOTE
“Why is it that rich people love to complain about being poor?”

“Would you rather we complained about the precocious twenty-five-year-olds who clamor for our affection?”

I laughed harder than his quip warranted. Our jokes were little pressure valves, each laugh releasing tension as we danced around the obvious: he was too old for me, too famous, too rich. By couching our circumstance in wry humor, we were able to dismiss May-December stereotypes and make space for something genuine to blossom. However calculated my efforts to ensnare Richard may have been, I <i>did</i> want something genuine to blossom.

I wanted love.
END QUOTE

Soon, Richard is squiring Jonah to opening nights and glamorous parties where they rub shoulders with famous actors and wealthy investors. Jonah is dazzled and head over heels in love even before Richard invites him up to his Hamptons compound for a summer weekend getaway. With Richard paying the bills, Jonah is only too happy to escape the city’s oppressive heat, but soon finds that the compound isn’t exactly what he imagined.

For starters, Richard’s butler is an ex he jokingly calls Mrs Danvers. More disturbingly, the walled compound -- home to Richard and four other members of his glittering artistic circle, who are waited on by a team of handsome, dead-eyed young men -- has only one point of exit, an electronic gate that Jonah doesn’t have the code for. When Jonah and Richard’s relationship begins to go awry, Jonah becomes trapped in a nightmare, his hellish circumstances echoed by the howling pain in his own psyche.

Years later, Jonah has escaped the compound but not his demons. When given a chance for justice, he wavers:

QUOTE
<i>Come forward</i>. I hate that term. When you tell your story, you don’t <i>come forward</i> -- you <i>let people in</i>. Into the dark place you’ve occupied for years. And what happens when the public enters? Maybe they rush to you with open arms, tell you the things you’ve longed to hear.

Or maybe those people stomp inside with their muddy boots, accusing you of crimes, confirming your worst fears about yourself.

But how to know which future awaits? Maybe it’s time to tell my story, our story. Pray we both survive.
END QUOTE

At once sensitive and brutal, Yes, Daddy is a graphic, gripping examination of the harms done to friendless young men who’ve been taught that love and acceptance are conditional on denying their homosexuality, and whose instilled shame erodes their ability to fight back against predators and abusers. It underscores the responsibilities of parents to protect and nurture their children, and highlights the ways that Evangelical Christian churches especially fail their congregations. But most of all, it centers the flawed, seeking soul of a man who desperately wants to be believed, and how he realistically deals with years of trauma and guilt as he looks for healing and wholeness.

This is not a book for the faint of heart, but it is deeply worthwhile. Part Sunset Boulevard, part Gothic nightmare, this wholly modern examination of life and faith and what we owe to ourselves and to the flawed human beings around us leaves an indelible mark on the soul, asking us to be kinder, to take consent seriously and to love as we would want to be loved.

“𝑾𝒊𝒕𝒉 𝒂 𝒍𝒊𝒕𝒕𝒍𝒆 𝒇𝒊𝒏𝒆𝒔𝒔𝒊𝒏𝒈, 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒄𝒐𝒖𝒍𝒅 𝒔𝒂𝒚 𝒔𝒐𝒎𝒆𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒗𝒆𝒓𝒚 𝒑𝒐𝒘𝒆𝒓𝒇𝒖𝒍 𝒂𝒃𝒐𝒖𝒕 𝒅𝒆𝒔𝒊𝒓𝒆. 𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒈𝒔 𝒘𝒆 𝒘𝒐𝒓𝒔𝒉𝒊𝒑 𝒆𝒂𝒕 𝒖𝒔 𝒂𝒍𝒊𝒗𝒆. 𝑫𝒆𝒔𝒊𝒓𝒆 𝒑𝒍𝒂𝒄𝒆𝒔 𝒑𝒆𝒐𝒑𝒍𝒆 𝒊𝒏 𝒅𝒂𝒏𝒈𝒆𝒓𝒐𝒖𝒔 𝒑𝒐𝒔𝒊𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏𝒔.”

My first book club read! Thanks to Dennis for the recommendation. I didn’t fully know what to expect from Yes, Daddy; what I thought was going to be a gothic thriller ended up to be WAY different. Instead it is a coming-of-age, dark, sad, and thought provoking read.

Jonah is an aspiring playwright who moves to New York with big dreams, but dreams don’t pay bills. Lured by the promise of a new, more successful life, he meets Richard, an older playwright. However it becomes clear as they embark on their relationship that behind the wealth and perfection of Richard’s home in the Hamptons, something more sinister and violent resides…

I loved many things about Yes, Daddy. It was incredibly readable; I read it in less than 24 hours! The format of first person narration from Jonah that reads like a letter or a memoir really captured my attention. It is a very dark and sad story; there is no fully happy ending. There is a LOT to absorb: from seeing Jonah being rejected by his family and the church, following his traumatic relationship with Richard and the violent fallout after, and through his search for healing. There were moments where I was extremely frustrated with Jonah and his decisions, and others where I just wanted to give him a hug. Jonathan Park-Ramage’s writing is both heartbreaking and emotionally complex, and shows another side to the #MeToo era. I hope this book sparks uncomfortable conversations, especially from a LGBTQ context. It is both painful and cathartic.

Already picked up for an adaptation from Amazon, I wait with anticipation to see this coming-of-age, chilling, uncomfortable story come to life. Yes, Daddy will stick with me for a long time to come. Thanks to Houghton Mifflin Harcourt and NetGalley for the ARC!

Disturbing, painful and raw. But it a good way because the book will suck you into the world created by the author. I recommend this book, and I'm so happy I was approved for an early copy of it. It's going to be released soon, so there's enough time to preorder it!

A bumpy, raunchy, poignant ride through a previously uncharted #MeToo landscape. Buckle up. More resolution would balance from the intensity of Southampton’s gravity.

📆 Release Date: May 18 (Digital ARC provided by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt and Netgalley)

📖 Jonah Keller is a fresh out of his MFA writer struggling to make rent in New York City. When he orchestrates a meeting with award-winning playwright, Richard Schriver, he gets drawn into the glamorous and torrid affair of his dreams. But as quickly as Jonah finds himself adapting to his new life, it is ripped away from him. Yes, Daddy juxtaposes the sinister world that something so idyllic can cover up. Jonah is forced to confront his past trauma with a fresh batch of trauma that he can’t seem to escape from. Parks-Ramage touches on everything from predators with money and power to conversion therapy to the modern-day internet outrage machine.

👍 I thought a lot about First Become Ashes when I read this and how there is so much done right in this book that is wrong in FBA. There is never a question in Yes, Daddy about what is happening to Jonah and the other men who have found themselves in the clutches of these wealthy and charismatic predators. The scenes in which they are being abused are not presented as something meant to arouse and titillate the reader. Parks-Ramage is very deliberate about what is happening. One thing that I loved about this one is the use of first person narration. I tend to not love first person, as it comes off feeling very YA and gives writers an excuse to tell instead of show. But here, Parks-Ramage uses it to great affect to add to the disorientation of a lot of the more traumatic scenes. It creates something visceral that is difficult to remove yourself from in the way that Jonah is also unable to remove himself from his own cyclical trauma.

👎 My only real criticism is that there are definitely some pacing issues. The beginning of the book is set in the late 00s and feels very controlled and well crafted. The second half of the book jumps to modern day with Jonah having escaped Schriver’s clutches and forged his own career. But once that starts to unravel, Jonah jumps around from location to location in a way that felt less cohesive than the beginning. Also, fair warning that this does contain a lot of very specific queer trauma. And about halfway through reading I wondered if this was the type of media I wanted to consume. Ultimately, it is incredibly well written and a story worth telling. But I do recommend going into it with that in mind.

📚 A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara & 100 Boyfriends by Brontez Purnell

Wow, this book was so powerful I was really loved by it.

Richard Shriver is on trial for rape and sexual assault. Jonah is a key witness to his demise until everything foes completely unplanned.

Jonah is trying to make it big in NYC. As a waiter at a restaurant known for it’s gay clients, Jonah has $56 to his name and is no where close to being the playwright he wishes to be. When Jonah finds famous playwright Richard Shriver online, he knows he has found his way to the top and the love of his life.

When Jonah finally inserts himself into Richard’s life, things seem incredible until they aren’t. Is Richard really the man Jonah fell for or is there something else going on? Follow the story that leads up to the trial in Yes Daddy.

The book was super slow but the writing was incredible so I think it is a 3.5/5⭐️

This dark and often unsettling novel is certainly very different from the usual romantic LGBTQ fare that I tend towards.

But I’ll definitely be recommending it to all my friends!

It was absolutely riveting from cover to cover, and I couldn’t put it down, wondering just where debut author Jonathan Parks-Ramage would take us next.

What starts as a “Fifty Shades of Grey” BDSM-style romance, quickly devolves into a “Get Out” inspired depiction of abuse and deprivation, and ends with a story of personal redemption in the context of the #MeToo era.

What. A. Ride.

Not to mention that Jonathan Parks-Ramage writes with such NO-BS conviction that it’s easy to get lost for hours in his effortless prose.

My only complaint would be that I initially found protagonist Jonah to be incredibly unlikable. But by the end of the text, his flaws come to be fundamental to his journey.

Everything comes full-circle.

I can’t wait to see how this story will translate to the small screen, having already been optioned by HBO.

This book turned out to be way more than I thought it would be, but I was relieved that it didn't go as far as it could've. I must admit, I was surprised by the Jesus turn at the end, but it worked well for the character, so I'm not mad about it.

TRIGGER WARNINGS: rape, sexual abuse, physical abuse, emotional abuse, suicide, gaslighting, drug use, homophobia, conversion therapy

Jonah Keller is an impoverished young man who moves to New York for the wealth, fame, and illustrious career as a playwright that it could afford him. Instead he finds himself renting a boxy apartment and struggling to get as many shifts as possible in his waitressing job just to cover the rent. If hard work can't alleviate his position then he has another plan.

He uses the last of his cash on expensive clothing and stages a chance meeting with the infamous playwright, Richard Shriver. The pair begin a whirlwind romance but Jonah quickly realises that he is not the one in charge of their interactions and just as he played Richard during their first encounters, now Richard is playing with him.

This was a devastatingly painful read. The trauma was depicted from the very first page and the author spared the reader no ounce of emotion or scrupulous detail as the events unfolded. I had anticipated this to be a dark and thrilling book and yet it proved largely to be a tender and sorrowful one, instead. The trigger warnings above cover just some of the topics that featured and these dark, inflicted deeds continued to form the primary focus, with any sign of goodness or hope in increasingly short supply.

This one is a hard one to review. This reminded me of the movie Get Out only more gross. It’s dark, dark, dark. I like dark but this may have been a little much for me. I kind of lost interest in the last half. The first half moved swiftly but the second half was a bit of a slog.
I don’t usually do trigger warnings but this book needs them for gay conversion therapy, gang rape and violent sexual content. I’m glad I read it but it made me very uncomfortable. Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

I was expecting Yes, Daddy to be an erotic thriller - it's actually more a coming-of-age confessional.

Jonathan Parks-Ramage's debut novel is, at times, gripping, and it does a beautiful job of giving a heartbreaking glimpse into the other side of the #metoo movement - the blatant abuse of young, gay men.

Jonah was a difficult character for me to get fully behind. While he's definitely sympathetic, I also found him to be not terribly likeable... though I think that was intentional on the author's part, as we learn so much more about Jonah's mindset in the final third of the book.

I did feel this story frequently became too preachy. There were untold pages of God and religion and scripture. I also felt some sections ran too long; they became repetitive and mildly boring. Overall, though, a strong debut offering.

**Rape plays a key role in this story, so if that happens to be a trigger for you, I'd suggest skipping this one.

Available May 18, 2021.

My sincere thanks to NetGalley and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt for my review copy.

Thank you to NetGalley and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt for the ARC of this book!

Yes, Daddy is a tough read, full of abuse and trauma and finding the will to go on.

I think there are some incredibly important elements to this story. We see our main character, Jonah, deal with trauma from the time he's a young child and he's forced into conversion therapy. We see him deal with it at the hands of a man he'd convinced himself he loved and love him in return. We see it in so many different other ways in this story, and I don't want to spoil it, but here's the take: the way our society deals with victims of trauma and abuse is a direct link to why that trauma and abuse puts some on a path to self-destruction. We see that with Jonah in this story. It's so incredibly hard to root for him at times, but it really begs the question - can you blame him?

I really enjoyed this story for the first part of the book. It was riveting and infuriating, and I do actually think what happens in this book is something that happens more than we're privy to. It's an important conversation that not enough people are having on 1) - how do we support LGBTQ youth who are struggling and make the perfect prey for predators? and 2) - how do we teach all youth to recognize the sign of those predators in older men and women and to offer the appropriate support if and when they're captured by them? Like I said, a lot of important elements here.

Unfortunately, the last part of the book took a bit of a left turn for me. There's a lot here about religion and God and while that's fine in general, I do not like the thought that religion and God can cure the suffering of the abused or that God's love and forgiveness are all you need. I don't think that was the point here, but it swerved awful close to that territory and I just was not a fan of the end. There are a number of other things I wish had happened, but alas. I am not the author and I think the author wrote the story he wanted, which is what an author should do.

If you decide to pick this book up, please note the trigger warnings of rape, physical and mental abuse, rape of a minor child, suicidal ideation, suicide, homophobia, conversion therapy.

Thank you Netgalley and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt for this EARC in return for an honest review.
Jonah is an aspiring playwriter who is down on his luck when he decides to form a plan to become a part of Richard's life. Richard is a successful playwriter and if Jonah could just connect with him he knows he can warm his way into Richard's heart, bank account, and lavish lifestyle. Jonah's plan worked but Richard has other and more sinister plans for Jonah.
This book is told in first person and in multiple timelines throughout Jonah's sad and tragic life. This book is heavy! There is a lot to unpack. Take breaks from it if you need to but finish the book! Thanks to the author for writing such a powerful book. I look forward to reading more of your work.

So I'll preface this review by saying that this book contains depictions of rape and sexual assault. If that's something that is triggering to you, I would avoid this book. Once the plot got moving, I finished this book in a 2 hr plane ride because I had to see how it ended. In this time of #metoo, it's interesting to read a book written from the POV of a gay man and the power dynamics at play when he starts dating an older, more famous man. What happens when he starts relying on his partner for money? My only complaint would be to have a more succinct ending. I felt like it just ended.