So many triggers in this one but if you can stomach it I say it’s worth it for sure. A dark look at a toxic and disturbing relationship that I couldn’t put down

I was amused, excited and laughed again so much with this story. It's to entertain yourself, to get out of the boredom of everyday life and to long to say "Yes, Daddy. PLEASE" hahaha.

I heard the best things about this book and jumped for joy when i seen i could read it. This book i wanted to love only made it 3 chapters in and gave up.

I have to say I requested this because it was all over social media. It didn’t disappoint.

Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for the eGalley. All opinions are my own.

2-3 stars. i need to sit on this to decide.

First, this was a NetGalley earc I got, but my review is not being biased by that.

At the core, this feels like a thriller that exploits traumatic experiences as a lazy attempt to evoke emotion in the reader. I'm left asking, what's the point? What are you trying to accomplish? More broadly, I wonder if that is fair. I love a good dark horror book that just goes deep into trauma, with little support provided to the reader, so is it fair for me to hold this book to a different standard? I think so.

A horror book is its own type of reflection on the world, through a very dark lens. This book touches on very dark topics, but I think the authors intent is one of hope and support. It is about the pain people can feel and the ways they try to recover from it. It's there, in that intent, that I think he fails.

Let's take a step back before I dig deep into the problems of this book. Overall, the book was easy enough to read. The narrator, Kevin R. Free who many likely know from Murderbot. The narration was solid. The structure of the story was more flimsy. It felt like we fixated on the pain and abuse, and when the time to heal eventually came, the story speeds through it, going from phase to phase of recovery. I don't doubt the author intended to tackle how one recovers from pain, but it's a tough topic to do right.

As things first got dark, my instinct was to ask if it was a story that needed to be told. It all felt so extreme and hard to believe. Then I think of the pain real men in power have caused, like R Kelly or Bryan Singer. I don't know a lot about the details of Kelly's abuse, but I suppose it isn't hard to believe the story in this book based off the little I do know.

It then becomes very important that the author has a good reason to fixate on this pain beyond just for the thrill of it (or the financial gain therein). While he touches these areas, it all feels too shallow. So much toxicity is presented in this book, and the reflection and growth our protagonist experiences feels like it's just enough to propel the plot. In the end, it is that failure to truly reflect on the pain that makes this book feel like it does more harm than good.

It's easy to see how people would like this book; it doesn't fail to make you feel. But does it make you reflect? No, I don't think it does.

I didn't hate this book, but I just don't feel comfortable giving it a 3 stars. So I think I am landing on 2-2.5 star (that is 2.5 rounding down).

Just catching up on my netgalley ARCs!

Boy did this not work for me on a visceral level. The writing was stilted, the characters full of cliches and not the incisive look at queerness I was promised. It could hardly be called a gothic (and I wish publishers would stop slapping that label on everything that occurs in a vaguely isolated setting, because that is not all a gothic makes). Might be a book for someone else but overall read like a New Yorker response to a #MeToo prompt that got way over extended.

This was not what I was expecting when I picked up this book but ended up packing a way bigger punch.. It's fast-paced but also very very raw and visceral. Our narrator is very flawed and unlikable, but Parks-Ramage writes him with the full spectrum of his humanity.

I thought the first two thirds of this book was really compelling and disturbing; though I appreciated the novel's efforts to connect/respond to the MeToo movement, I ultimately found the last third of the book choppy and sloppy, which was a bit frustrating. Overall, a good read--I am glad I read it.

3.5/5

I, temporarily, DNF'ed this one. I enjoyed some of the discussions here, and I am interested in continuing, but it was a really difficult book to read with many triggers, so I'm taking a break from it.

If #MeToo actually had a gay man's perspective after a power-imbalanced relationship went south but I'm still very confused by how it's supposed to be the types of novel that it claims to be. Good but not gothic like it claims.

I flew through this book and couldn’t put it down. It was deeply disturbing but also couldn’t stop/look away. I THOUGHT it was going to lose me in the mid-20 chapter with the religious themes, but so glad I kept going because it shocked me again. I wish it was longer I wanted more from the main character. Very unique and different and would cautiously recommend while wary of trigger warnings

Thank you for the advanced copy of this book! I will be posting my review on social media, to include Instagram, Amazon, Goodreads, and Instagram!

It takes a great author can make an unlikeable or unreliable character compelling and impossible to walk away from. As someone who has been privileged to have not had to survive such abuse as the main character of Yes, Daddy, it was hard to get past the opening when our narrator made a decision I found unacceptable only . . . only . . . of course this was decision. This book is hard to put down even when frustrated or distraught by what is happening, because the story is so compelling. This book opened my eyes to better empathizing with the action a survivor may take that others without the lived experience and trauma wouldn't immediately understand.

This book surprised me. I really felt for the main character and I also really contemplated how people with less power and agency in this world can be manipulated and abused in such a horrific way. I found myself both tearing up at some of the heartbreaking and horrific moments but, also reveling in the author's storytelling capabilities. Simply put, I couldn't put it down.

Thanks to NetGalley for a digital review copy. This book was everywhere on Instagram and I knew I needed to read it. It doesn’t disappoint. It was a great read. I couldn’t put it down.

50 pages in and I can’t do it. I’m getting Call Me By Your Name vibes and I know everyone loved that book, but the tone was off for me. I’m not in a headspace where I want to be left ragey and depressed so I’m going to let this one go for now. Thank you for the opportunity to review and this was definitely a “it’s me, not you” situation.

Fast-paced, witty. Like a delicious cocktail on a balcony overlooking the Seine on a warm summer’s night.

Thank you to net galley for giving me an advanced reading copy of this book. This was a struggle for me. Very graphic and opened my eyes to some very horrible experiences that homosexual young men experience that cause lifelong emotional trauma/damage. My previous naive beliefs were families alienating them or even basic friends/society. I had no idea the lengths our society has taken to destroy humans based on their sexual orientation or the horrible physical and emotional abuse they experience. A really eye opener and we as humans should put a stop to this disgusting behavior. No one should ever have to live this way. I have 4 ⭐️ due to the graphic nature of the book which was hard to take in some areas. Excellent author and a book everyone should read.

I cannot figure out where the buzz about this novel comes from. The first half of the book is a taut, suspenseful fable about a poor man who makes a figurative deal with the devil and the consequences of that decision. It pushed many emotional buttons for me, but there was an archness to the writing that kept me just above the content that could have delved into the traumatic.
Midway through the book, the narrative takes a turn and that's where I was lost. I don't want to spoil anything, but I will just say that the overt moralizing and even proselytizing turned me off completely.
That being said, the writing itself is riveting. Even when I disconnected from the narrative, Mr. Parks-Ramage's command of the written word kept me turning pages. I will definitely pick up his inevitable second novel and hope for a more concise and consistent tone and storyline.

I've been sitting on this book review for a while because "Yes, Daddy" is a walking list of trigger warnings. Please please please read them before picking this one up.

We follow the story of Jonah, am ambitious playwright in his twenties who has moved from Illinois to New York City to follow his dreams. When he finds himself barely scraping by with rent each month, he seeks out Pulitzer Prize–winning playwright Richard Shriver to help him get a foot in the door and make a name for himself in the industry.

They soon forge a romantic relationship, but as summer heats up and the two take a trip to the Hamptons where a handful of Richard's other successful friends gather, it takes a sinister twist.

This book is almost split into three parts: before the Hamptons, at the Hamptons, and after the Hamptons. The first part is a steep buildup toward the climax as we see the relationship with Jonah and Richard progress. The time at the Hamptons is the most brutal part of the story and was very, very hard to read at times because the content was so explicit and gruesome. The third part of the book is a relief, as everything becomes pieced together.

Themes such as abuse, power, homophobia, rape, trauma, grooming, manipulation, sexual exploitation and violence are only a few among many others explored over the course of this book. Although the content was triggering, the writing itself was done extremely well. Jonathan Parks-Ramage's writing had me hooked from the very first page and continued onward through this very intense reading experience.

Thank you Net Galley and Mariner Books for the digital advanced readers copy.