Yes, Daddy has all the elements that I had been hoping from Docile last year. The story is complex and messy and great commentary on the ironies of abuse and the power of the #metoo movement. Religious trauma and healing was not an aspect I was expecting from the story, but one I certainly enjoyed. Will definitely be rereading.

3.5 stars. I was definitely expecting something different - I heard it described as a thriller and this definitely was not that. It was more of a traumatic coming of age story - if it was written by a woman about a woman it would be called women’s fiction.

This was a powerful story about a toxic older/younger m/m relationship, driven and influenced by past trauma from parental and evangelical homophobia. The complicated relationship with the MC and the church was one of the most interesting things about this story, and normally heavy religious themes are a turn off for me. I thought it was presented well in this book.

My biggest issue was that the plot was all over the place. It took me forever to get into, and then I couldn’t put it down and then things just started to get truly nuts. Sometimes it was a narrative, sometimes it was a letter, sometimes it was a journal. Towards the end there’s a time jump and the rest of the story is told in broken pieces and it wasn’t as good of a read. There was just no consistency, it affected the flow and tone of the book, otherwise this could easily have been a 4+ star read. The plot and characters were excellent but a more cohesive style would have worked better.

Thank you NetGalley, author and publisher for the arc in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

This was a dark, manipulative, psychological thriller following Jonah, a young queer man in NYC. Jonah is an aspiring play writer and meets Richard Shriver, a highly successful Broadway playwrite. They begin a whirlwind relationship, culminating in a summer in the Hamptons where their relationship dynamics change significantly.

This is a well written novel, with excellent character development. It is steamy and dark. Trigger warning for sexual assault, rape, and verbal abuse.

This was a really scorching debut from a promising new writer. I was drawn in from the beginning. It is a very dark drama with many underlying themes - rape, abuse, PTSD, etc.

Jonah is a young, gay man struggling to survive in NYC by waiting tables. He meets wealthy writer Richard and they soon start dating. Richard brings him to his compound in the Hamptons and disturbing and dark events ensue.

This was a very well-written book and I hope to see more to come from this author.

This was everything I wanted in a book! I had high expectations and was not let down! I’m so happy I could get my hands on this book.

4.5 STARS

Wow. What an incredible story! it took me some time to collect my thoughts on this one. An absolutely riveting debut novel.

The summery, pastel book cover hides the dark, gothic story within. Once I started reading this book, I knew I would not be able to stop until I reached the conclusion. Jonah's story was heartbreaking, brutal, tragic but ultimately, redemptive.

"This is how I survive, I thought. By withholding my story."

This book also offers a surprising take on being gay within the Christian church, a perspective that I have not read about until now. Jonah has grown up as the son of a pastor and has a strained relationship with his mother. His relationship with his father is non-existent, based mainly on the fact that Jonah was forced to undergo "conversion therapy" as a teen. He left home after college and never looked back. New York City offered a place to be himself and hopefully succeed as a playwright.

Jonah is broke, waiting tables and unable to pay the rent on his awful sublet apartment. He meets the dynamic and well-known Richard, a famous writer known to have much younger boyfriends. They begin a very dark and unbalanced affair. The Hamptons, tables at the best restaurants, exciting friends...Richard seems to have it all. He is wealthy and the power imbalance in their relationship is glaring.

"I wanted to believe that my place in his world was rightful, that no one was getting anything out of this. I wanted Richard to love me."

Soon things take a turn for the nightmarish and Jonah's world turns upside down. Although he had been warned, he did not want to see what was basically right in front of him. The predatory behavior of Richard and his friends had gone unchecked for years. They were untouchables.

"It was clear that this moment represented a threshold; our lives would be forever changed once we passed through."

Some parts of this book were a little overwrought for me but nonetheless this book is compulsively readable and the themes are vitally important. Forgiveness, acceptable and honesty all come to Jonah in the end and I applaud the author for writing this incredible story! Highly recommend.

"Finally, today, I realized what this document is, what it has always been. A letter to you."

(Thank you to the publisher for providing a copy via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.)

I went into this story thinking it would be dark, but the result was twisted in a way that I hadn't predicted. I wanted a twist, but the novel was straightforward about its villains and what they brought to the table. Where books like MY DARK VANESSA introduce you to evil and show it to you plainly while still managing to dive into what made the villain alluring to the main character, this book never pointed you away from anything but the thought that these men were disgusting. In some ways this is good, but it made every turn in the plot feel predicted when I expected a little more mystery. Overall, this book makes a great conversation around the MeToo movement and the danger of predatory relationships, but it let me down in terms of plotting and atmosphere.

MAJOR tw for sexual violence and assualt.

I’m having a hard time processing what I thought about this because it’s such a viciously unpleasant read – and I think sometimes we can overstate the value of something that was just hard to get through.

I do, however, think there’s genuinely something here, although I’m not sure its billing as a gay gothic really works for me. Yes, there are modern takes on gothic elements: an socially isolated protagonist without means of his own, a geographically isolated house where bad things happen, a retributive fire, to say nothing of explicit references to du Maurier’s Rebecca. Except most of the modern gothic books I’ve read recently (Mexican Gothic for example) have used the tropes of the genre to illuminate their own themes. Whereas I felt the notion of gothicness was a distraction here: a way to elide some of the more disjointed plot elements. And to mind, Yes Daddy was at its most powerful when it was straightforwardly occupying similar ground to that of My Dark Vanessa: a book about trauma, abuse, power and complicity from an explicitly queer perspective.

The story here revolves around Jonah Keller, the estranged gay son of an evangelical pastor. He moves to New York, hoping to be playwright, but soon falls in with Richard Shriver—an old, and much more successful writer. Needless to say, bedroom games soon become a lot darker, and a summer with Richard friends at The Hamptons turns out to be … about as fucked up as you’d imagine from a book with this title, this premise, and these themes. I think what’s especially effective here is that The Terrible Things That Happen At The Hamptons, for all its narrative impact, is actually a relatively minor part of the book: before and after are as significant as during.

Essentially, Yes Daddy presents abuse not an isolated incident, but part of a broader social context. For all Richard and his friends are appalling people, who use their status, money and power to abuse the most vulnerable members of their own community, we cannot escape the fact that this is power they have been given. When we reject our queer children, when we teach them shame and self-loathing, we create the system that not only permits their abuse, but tells them it is all they deserve. So, err, that gave me some major feelings.

In some ways, more harrowing that Terrible Things At The Hamptons are the chapters of the book given over to Jonah’s experience of conversion therapy, not least because they are non-sensationalised (especially compared to the extremity of the scenes of sexual abuse). Obviously, I’m not saying that scenes of sexual slavery, group sex and non-consensual BDSM are unrealistic but I will say they felt traumatic-by-numbers compared to these sections, which had a specificity and a clarity to them that was absolutely devastating. Not least because nobody involved has any notion of their own profound cruelty. There are few things more horrific than cruelty committed in the name of love, and the book is absolutely merciless in its exploration of the harm caused when someone has been repeatedly forced to conflate the two.

Needless to say, the #MeToo movement features heavily in the second half of the book. While I felt the psychological explorations of complicity were very moving, I felt the more political aspects of the topic were less successful. I felt there was a bluntness here and a lack of nuance, similar to that which I’d felt in the portrayal of Richard, his friends, and Terrible Things At The Hamptons. For example, there’s a journalist who is determined to make the narrator a villain for, you know, clicks and content while the “in” topic is sexual abuse and sexual abuse survivors and I feel the choice to make her a woman touched upon some complex intersectionalities. I definitely think there’s a lot of ground to be covered when it comes to queer men (as survivors and abusers) and #MeToo but I’m not sure turning a woman into a figurehead villain for the more negative aspects of the movement isn’t playing into problematic propaganda. I don’t know, though. This is out of my lane.

In terms of Richard and his friends, I think what’s difficult is that they are stereotypes, without depth or subtlety, and villainous to the point of being cartoons. And while I think it’s important that queer people are permitted to be as fictionally awful as straight people, especially in books by queer writers, I am aware that if I’d encountered this presentation in a different book by a different author I would likely be complaining about homophobic cliches right now (I mean Richard, even has a troubled relationship with his mother, for God’s sake, what is the 1950s?).

I also occasionally found the book kind of … it’s hard to describe. You know those 19th century novels where people behave out of step with the values of their time, but it’s totally okay because in the end they are returned to the fold of normative society? Either through death or marriage or God? Eventually, our narrator reconciles with his father and, indeed, with God (because the book is called Yes Daddy, do you see?) on account of his father now being involved with a progressive, LGBTQ+ friendly church. On the one hand, I was kind of relieved some kind of meaningfully … happy isn’t the right word … but meaningfully hopeful ending could be found for Jonah Keller. On the other hand, I did feel kind of God-jumped by it. Although that might just be a me-thing (since my rift with religion of any kind is irreconcilable). Plus, there’s no way getting away from the fact the book is unavoidably shamey on the whole kink thing: I mean, yes, obviously Jonah is seeking sex as punishment because of the entire clusterfuck that his life, and that’s a totally personal thing, but the fact that Richard et al are into it as a kind of “we are bad people” default left me feeling mildly awkward. I mean, once you’ve got into Terrible Things At The Hamptoms territory, being into whips and chains as well feels kind of superfluous.

All of which said, while I did struggle with the cavalcade of queer misery that was this book, I did think it was a cavalcade of queer misery with important things to say. And I came out, on balance, thought-provoked, to some degree spoken to, and glad I read it. This line in particular will stay with me (although ironically it does not come from the narrator, but from a character who does not deem himself eloquent):

Trauma is like a gift. The shittiest fucking gift in the world. Coal in your motherfucking stocking. But the minute you receive it, it becomes yours. And it’s your responsibility, what you do with it. And you can use it as an excuse to destroy life and destroy the lives of people around you, but you shouldn’t.

Anyway, all the trigger warnings for basically everything, particularly homophobia (internal and external), parental rejection, and sex abuse out the wazoo.

13% in and I don't believe I'm the target audience for this book. Oof.

Many thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for the ARC. Just not for me!

I’m judging the L.A. Times 2020 and 2021 fiction contest. It’d be generous to call what I’m doing upon my first cursory glance—reading. I also don’t take this task lightly. As a fellow writer and lover of words and books, I took this position—in hopes of being a good literary citizen. My heart aches for all the writers who have a debut at this time. What I can share now is the thing that held my attention and got this book from the perspective pile into the read further pile.

For this novel, all I can say is it stuck out and I’m intrigued, I haven’t read a novel like it yet—which says a lot considering this is my second year reading for this award. I want to read on.

While I really enjoyed this book and the story of Jonah, I definitely felt that I needed more. I needed more story, I needed more closure, and I needed more time of Jonah at his boyfriends estate in the Hamptons, especially after you find out what is actually going on there. Even as I write this review, I find myself hardly remembering anything about the story. While the book was no means bad, I still think it was a very good book, I just was expecting more. I am disappointed that I didn’t enjoy this book as much I was hoping that I would.

Powerful, thought-provoking, disturbing, gut-wrenching, and horrifying to read

TW/CW: gaslighting, drug use, rape, suicide, homophobia, fetishization of a religious figure, depression, cyberbullying, victim-blaming, trauma

I thought this would be the perfect summer read, but there are so much more that it meets the eyes in this one. The synopsis did not prepare me for what Yes, Daddy has in store. When the pitch said things take a nightmarish turn, ohhh, it really did.

Yes, Daddy is the story of Jonah, an aspiring writer who's trying to make ends meet in NYC until he stumbled in an event hosted by Richard Shriver, a famous playwright. Jonah being ambitious, immediately devised a plan to ensnare Richard's attention to further his career. The two instantly hit it off, and here comes the unforgettable summer in the Hamptons.

Yes, Daddy was an uncomfortable read yet it was so compelling that I read it in one sitting. It opened with a devastating scene in the courtroom and continuously gets crushing as the story progresses. It took me on a rollercoaster ride of emotion and it just broke my heart. It did not make me sleep peacefully that night.

It's a well-written debut novel. Jonathan Park-Ramage's writing style was captivating and descriptive. Emotions spill on every page. He also did a great job exploring the #MeToo movement and cancel culture.

Thank you so much, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt/Mariner Books and Netgalley for the DRC. All thoughts and opinions are mine.

This reality of the content of this book and the blurbs for it didn't quite match up, so I ended up reading something much darker than anticipate, with dub- and non-con sex. It could've benefited from trigger warnings, for sure, and I hope they're included in the final version of the book. Some very difficult topics are dealt with in this book in a way that felt authentic and well-written. Just make sure you're prepared and in a good place mentally going into this read. 4/5 stars.

⭐️ ⭐️⭐️MAJOR TRIGGER WARNING⭐️⭐️⭐️

I’m not sure what I was expecting from a book titled “Yes,” but is sure as hell wasn’t what I got. I expected a thriller based off of the blurb. I got a much much darker book then I was expecting, and really that I think i wanted to read.

“Yes, Daddy” follows Jonah, an early 20s gay man who sets out to win the affection of successful playwright Richard. After doing so, Jonah is invited to Richard’s Hamptons estate, where he’s introduced to Richard’s wealthy friends, his waitstaff of attractive young gay men that wear next to nothing, and a young Hollywood star that is in a relationship with one of the other men. Quickly, the relationship takes a dark turn, and Jonah finds himself in a hotbed of evil with little hope of escaping.

Yeah, I don’t think I wanted to read this book. I don’t think enough clarification of what this book is is presented in the blurb. There is a lot…and I mean ALOT… if non consensual sex. Which in and off itself is awful, but when it’s revealed the Hollywood star is younger than acceptable, it makes those scenes even more uncomfortable to sit through. Jonah is an aspiring writer, and most of this book he is reflecting back on the events of the summer he spent on Richards compound, addressing a “you”. It’s revealed that the “you” is the Hollywood star Mace, who he feels he betrayed.

This book also handles mental health, trauma, suic*de, conversion therapy, and homophobia in a way that’s so painful to read. It also handles the #metoo movement, and it’s relation to men that have been abused. That said, this author had a way of telling this story that made me unable to turn away. I needed to find out if Jonah and Mace would be ok. I needed to know Richard got his comeuppance. The subject matter is hard. The closest thing I can liken it to is “My Dark Vanessa” in terms of storyline and plot. Is this a book I would of read if the blurb was more forthcoming with the contents? Probably not. In this age, a content warning would do this book a lot of good.

**I received an Advanced Readers Copy thanks to NetGalley**

👱‍♂️ Book Review 👱‍♂️

👱‍♂️ Yes Daddy by Jonathan Parks-Ramage

👱‍♂️ Publication Date - May 18th 2021

👱‍♂️ Jonah Keller moved to New York City with dreams of becoming a successful playwright, but, for the time being, lives in a rundown sublet in Bushwick, working extra hours at a restaurant only to barely make rent. When he stumbles upon a photo of Richard Shriver—the glamorous Pulitzer Prize–winning playwright and quite possibly the stepping stone to the fame he craves—Jonah orchestrates their meeting. The two begin a hungry, passionate affair.

👱‍♂️ Yes Daddy, begins with a terse, traumatic, devastating four-page courtroom scene set in 2011 before the young man giving testimony, Jonah, backs up and gives the readers an account beginning in 2009 which leads up to the opening trial scene.

👱‍♂️ Jonah is a deliberately difficult person to like. He's vain, shallow and selfish. Yes, Daddy forces a reaction to a victim who isn't likeable, who doesn't react like victim narratives say they should.

👱‍♂️ Yes Daddy was not an easy read. Yet it was compelling enough that I had to keep reading to find out what would happen next!

👱‍♂️ If you can handle very dark, very triggering books, then I highly suggest Yes, Daddy.

Thank you to NetGalley and publisher Houghton Mifflin Harcourt for the Arc, this is probably the best book I've read all year. This was a very intense roller-coaster read that packs a serious emotional punch, and I have no idea how to write about the book without spoiling it for other readers. Let me just say that there are overtones of Rebecca visiting Manderley and that the atmosphere is dark and the plot is thought-provoking.

The hero Jonah is a waiter and an aspiring playwriter who is dazzled by the attention lavished by an older well established playwriter, who seems at first like your typical sugar daddy. What starts of as a May December romance with mutual benefits, shows some cracks and sinister overtones with a power imbalance that makes our hero desperately grasping at straws. There are warning signs that Jonah blissfully ignores, and they intensify once Jonah joins Richard and his cronies in the enclosed compound in the Hamptons. I cannot divulge more without major spoilers. so I'll just say that it delves into some very contemporary issues of a moral and social nature.

First of all,let me start by saying that this is the most disturbing and stressful book I've everrrr read!!!!!
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I've read this two days ago for the #pridemonth but couldn't sort out my thoughts so here we are now.
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The story was so f*up that I bet one couldn't read it comfortably without taking a break also it was so damn intriguing which made this unputdownable! It's kind of like a #meetoo moment of gay community?!
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The story was narrated by jonah who was raised in a religious family where homosexuality is considered as a sin!! The backstory about his childhood being in a conversion therapy and all is haunting..
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The subject of the story is kind of similar to My Dark Vanessa with a total different storyline. We could sense something bad is going to happen from the first chapter itself as the book starts with a court trail but it just gets more and more worse through every chapter..
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There is this massive devastating twist in the middle of the story where you'll find no hope for the main character. And just when you breathe a sigh of relief there's the author, giving you strike after strike!
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Apart from Mace I hated every character in this book including jonah..I do have a soft spot for him as he struggled throughout his whole life but well he acted like a coward even in the end. Mainly he betrayed Mace and for me that's what matters the most..
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Lastly after all this rant I would like to say this is one of those books you should read if you want to know the struggles lgbtq people face to come out of their closet and to face the society.. A dark and strong read instead of a cute one?!
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Definitely a must read if you want to explore more of lgbt genre and surely a striking debut novel by the author
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My rating : 4.5/5

I had a couple of expectations for ‘Yes, Daddy’; I knew that it dealt with themes of abuse and so expected it to be a difficult read at times but I did find this a very uncomfortable book to finish. I appreciate the focus on a gay age-gap relationship in a #metoo world because as with any good story I think this will raise a lot of conversation around difficult topics like homophobia and conversion therapy.
However the main characters of Jonah and Richard read as quite awful people and perhaps that is the point? That both are selfish and only see what others can provide for them so it’s far more complicated in the beginning of their relationship as to who is at fault? However once the story moves on to Richard and his friends openly acting out violent abuse it all became a bit too much for me personally. Towards the end of the book I did see the shift towards the media attention and outside reaction and what it added to Jonah’s story but I still didn’t feel like it had reached its full potential as to where the trial could have gone.
Great premise but warnings for graphic abuse.

Yes, Daddy follows Jonah, a gay man who's struggling in New York City as he attempts to seduce a rich older man, Richard Shriver. However, things take a turn for the worst as he spends the summer with Richard and his famous, rich friends.

This book is dark, really dark. There's so many trigger warnings like sexual assault, rape, gang rape, drugging, victim blaming, gaslighting, conversion therapy, LGBTQ+ religious trauma, and more that I can't even remember. It was a hard read and at times was very painful. Unfortunately it's pretty dark and doesn't really lighten up, so keep that in mind.

While this book was really well-written, such a dark book is hard to read. Thankfully it's short, so it's not like reading trauma porn for 500+ pages. That being said, Jonah is not the most understandable of main characters. I felt a disconnection from him the whole time and that may both work and not work. It works because you don't have to deeply feel the trauma he goes through, but it doesn't work because you're left feeling very removed from the story.

I can't say I enjoyed this but I appreciated what it has to say. Although I'm queer, I haven't had the trauma present in this book. For those who have, this may be cathartic but I also think it would be too difficult to read. So I'm not sure who to recommend this book to. But, it really is telling a fantastic story.

Note: This book contains graphic content relating to physical, emotional, and sexual abuse. This review contains spoilers.

Thanks to NetGalley I had the opportunity to read the ARC of Yes, Daddy. I jumped at the chance with the assumption that it would be a good read during Pride Month. However, I found this book to be overflowing with stereotypes of the gay community that just felt wrong. There wasn’t a single prominent character in this book that wasn’t a victim of childhood trauma. Several were depicted as sexually depraved. All were depicted as lost and in need of religion to save them.

I wanted to quit this book at several points but was hoping that the author would turn this story around. The ending did not satisfy me.

As a professional in the fields of education and mental health, I warn against reading this book. It is my professional opinion that it could inflict damage, especially if read by someone feeling vulnerable about their sexuality.

The opinions in this review are entirely my own.

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#NetGalley
#YesDaddy