very dark and difficult to read. probably a good read for somebody not in my current frame of mind, which may seem unfair for a debut author and i'm sorry.
it's sinister and the description did not make it clear that i would have as much trouble as i do with the content. i can see where it's going and that it's probably objectively good but i just can't read it right now and likely not in the future either.

Thank you to NetGalley and publisher Houghton Mifflin Harcourt for the review copy of a book only due to be published in June next year. I can honestly say this was my only read of 2020 that kept me up until the wee hours, it is that compulsive. I expect it is also going to court quite a bit of controversy for its lurid take on some hot-button gay issues.

With a title like ‘Yes, Daddy’, which makes it seem like a M/M romance novel, combined with that weirdly disturbing cover image, the reader is immediately alerted to the fact that this is one strange fish of a book. Also, you would be hard-pressed to rank Jonathan Parks-Ramage with the likes of Garth Greenwell and Edmund White, two pillars of contemporary gay fiction (the former a wunderkind and the latter the old codger propping up the establishment).

The book is not even out yet, and Amazon Studios has announced an adaptation. Having read it, I can easily see why. Parks-Ramage is a very visual writer and his story has such broad strokes that it is ideal streaming fodder. Not to mention that a large chunk takes place in the Hamptons, which seems to be getting a bad rap for the place to be where privileged people behave badly.

It will be interesting to see exactly how the adaptation deals with some of the racier content, which very much revolves around its shock value. If you skirt around it, you run the risk of diluting it. But if you go balls-to-the-wall, you’ll probably end up with a weird gay hybrid of ‘Mommie Dearest’ and ‘Showgirls’ (please God don’t let Paul Verhoeven anymore near this book).

It is also one of those books the less you know about, the better a reading experience it will be, as it was for me. So I sincerely hope that all the Goodreaders who managed to nab a review copy do not reveal any spoilers. Which is difficult, because as soon as you have finished reading <i>that</i> ending, and you have stopped screaming at the sheer audacity of it, you immediately want to tell everybody about it! So … just read the bloody thing and then we can all argue about it later.

I remember the following line in an article in The Atlantic that caught my eye: “After the Harvey Weinstein news came out, everyone thought Bryan Singer would be next.” That was written in March 2019, and Singer seems to have disappeared from the radar entirely since, despite the fact that ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ was such a massive hit. Well, silence speaks volumes, I suppose.

Anyone who reads ‘Yes, Daddy’ will immediately see the not-too-subtle parallels with the Singer saga. If by any chance you live under a rock (actually, we all do nowadays due to this fucking virus and its lockdowns), Parks-Ramage kindly trowels on the Singer/Weinstein/#MeToo vibes in spades. This is one of the things I really like about the book, and which I think is going to be a big turn-off for a lot of people: The deliriously giddy OTTness of it all.

And just because I am enough of a gay literary snob to declare that Parks-Ramage is no Greenwell or White, from a technical and narrative point of view, it is deviously clever and exceedingly well-written. Despite the broad brushstrokes of the main plot, the thematic doubling is intricate and nuanced. I was worried for a minute near the end that the entire house of cards would fall in on itself, but Parks-Ramage ups the ante and really nails the ending.

Of course, as the title implies, the reader is forced to confront not only the complex dynamic of fathers and mothers in families with gay children, but authority figures in general, especially those in the church (here ‘father’ takes on a rather different meaning). Parks-Ramage goes completely Old Testament here. Being a bit of a reprobate myself, I quite enjoyed his sheer brazenness, but I can equally see how a lot of people are really going to be rubbed up the wrong way. Also, given that diehard evangelicals lack any sense of humour (or testosterone), it is a no-brainer that this will probably cause the most number of people to splutter in indignant outrage.

There is a particular coding in the phrase ‘Yes, Daddy’ that refers to the tendency of the elderly and well-off to prey on the weak and vulnerable. It is certainly not only a gay tendency, especially when you consider the number of young girls exploited by dirty old men. Parks-Ramage makes it abundantly clear from the outset that the young and eminently desirable Jonah Keller is on the prowl, and that Richard Shriver is his perfect target. The tables quickly turn though on who is the hunter and who is the prey. Both men are equally unlikeable, but it is a testament to the skill of Parks-Ramage as a writer that we never lose sight of Jonah’s innate humanity.

Richard and his Hampton gang can’t escape being stock villains, and retain a sense of mystery and allure well up to their inevitable fall from grace. But the attention span of the media, and the gay community itself, invariably seems shorter than that of a goldfish’s memory. One just has to consider how quietly the Singer saga got buried, and how the testimony of key witnesses who came forward was subtly discredited, to realise that there are very dark forces out there hellbent on unravelling the fabric of what we hold most dear and sacred.

Does the author step over the line of good taste? A lot of people are going to say yes, but they will be looking past the very valid questions posed here, specifically in the form of a sordid potboiler that will be quite easy to dismiss and be muttered at for all its craven excesses. I honestly think Parks-Ramage gleefully and deliberately pushes all them damn buttons, simply because they are so darn pretty and inviting!

I enjoyed this book, but I felt like the writing was a bit weak at times. I also would have liked if Richard and Jonah didn't get together so quickly, because I think that have made me understand why Jonah liked Richard. But overall, it was a fun and dark read.

Wanted to like the book, but even the chronology of where the book started was odd and it undermined the main character, Jonah. I ended up not liking him from the start instead of seeing his actions as the result of repeated abuse and responding to emotional/physical pain the way he way he was conditioned. When seen though the eyes of the opening scene Jonah comes off manipulative for the first quarter of the book instead of being a victim.

This book is well written and has good character development I just couldn’t personally get into the story and found it a little bit of a struggle to keep reading. Warning there is a lot of triggers for violence and sexual abuses. Either way it just left a little lacking for me personally. I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

Immediately intrigued by the gorgeous cover and the title, I rapid requested this novel. What I first assumed was a gay domestic-type thriller turned out to infinitely more. This was part life history, part torture story, part letter to a wronged friend, part apology and it was amazing from beginning to end.

Jonah Keller is a young aspiring playwright, who moved from his home in Illinois to make it big in New York City. Dealing with a traumatic past and a meager present, he decides to set his sights on an influential older man, Richard Shriver, a Pulitzer Prize winning playwright and evident lover of younger arm candy. What starts as a whirlwind romance between them turns into something dark, dangerous and devious. Richard has invited Jonah to his summer estate in the Hamptons for the summer to wine, dine and party with Richard's elite group of friends. But that summer will change Jonah's life and ruin parts of him he will never be able to get back.

Through the strange and captivating narrative, we get pieces of time strung together all forming a larger, terrifying story depicting what can happen when you are stripped of your free will, of the differences social class and power afford you, and the intensely different situations that border the line of victim shaming and complicity.

There were many times that Jonah made decisions that you want to shake him for. He is put in impossible situations and all he can do is hold on by his fingernails to try and survive. This story was tragic and at times very, very difficult to read. But stories like this are so important. Powerful people have always preyed on others they see as weaker or lesser than they. There has always been that corruption. This book comes at the age of Harvey Weinstein and Joseph Epstein; in a world where those predators are splashed across the news, brought to light and no longer swept under the rug. And it was epic. This absolutely did not feel like a debut novel at all. Jonathan Parks-Ramage, I look forward to all you have to bring to literature in the future.

This was pretty much unlike any other book I’ve ever read before. Kind of a dark gay coming-of-age story with a little bit of murder mystery in the mix. Jonah is an aspiring playwright who becomes involved with an older man, and as their connection grows things go more and more south. We also get flashbacks about Jonah’s background and why he is attracted to older men which is something I rarely see addressed. A lot of the book is based around sexual abuse and rape, which means it’s definitely not a light or fun read, but an important one.

Yes, Daddy was such an intense and disturbing read. Right from the beginning you feel like it’s going to get really dark and depressing. Even though it starts off pretty tame at first it was always in the back of my mind that bad things are bound to happen and this feeling had me on the edge of my seat.

I absolutely loved the “letter writing” style of this book. This was really unique and like nothing I’ve read before. The pacing was very well done and there wasn’t a minute when I wasn’t completely gripped by this compelling, raw story.
The characters were well developed and I was really invested in their journeys. It broke my heart how some of these stories ended but this was what made it feel even more real. I truly felt for Jonah and his friends and it made me so emotional and distressed to see them so helpless when they hit rock bottom. When it seemed like there won’t be a way out of this misery even if they will escape their current situation. I was absolutely disgusted and horrified by Richard and his abusive circle.

It’s still haunting me how close to reality this book might be. It’s great how it also addressed other important matters such as religion or social media and how these issues can affect your lives when you’re in such a position.

Yes, Daddy is a powerful, riveting thriller which I would definitely recommend but please make sure to check all the trigger warnings before. It’s a really tough book and you shouldn’t go in blind. I’m happy to answer any questions regarding triggering topics if that is any helpful.

Jonah Keller, a lonely young gay man coming from a very scarring and traumatic homophobic background in a desperate search for friendship/partnership/love, is ultimately unlucky enough to end up in the claws of a truly despicably sick man.

Jonah was the one orchestrating the whole encounter with the famous playwright Richard Shriver from the very first moment in the hopes, we wrongly assume at first, of taking advantage of his money, fame and privilege to further his own playwrighting career. In reality Jonah thought he needed Richard’s love; he didn’t know any better, he was young and dumb, in great debt and all alone in NYC.

Jonah gets swept away into Richard’s hellish mansion and at first he tries to sugarcoat what is happening to him. He sees the signs and he purposefully and naively ignores them until the horrors and abuse he experiences do not leave room for questioning albeit the attempts of everyone in that house of horrors to disorient, confuse and gaslight him.

Jonah may have frustrated me at times with the decisions he made and the awful way he treated people but ultimately I understood that the horrific trauma he experienced throughout his life shaped him this way and at times he could not control his narrative.

The only way I could describe the writing is visceral, that’s what it felt like. Purple or flowery is definitely not a great way to characterise it. The author’s narration was immersive and darkly atmospheric and his prose was rich with weighty details that utterly engrossed you into the story. Drenched with poignant descriptions and similes it captivates you and achieves its purpose of making you want to read all the way to the end.

When the main character was intoxicated for instance you felt like you were in a fever dream while reading and that for me is exactly the feeling that writing from someone’s drunk perspective should evoke from the reader.

Going into this book I expected a fast paced thriller and my assumptions were completely wrong. Instead I got a really important story.
At times it was really difficult and uncomfortable to read the explicit and graphic scenes but it is honestly an important book for the portrayal of the LGBTQ+ community and the #MeToo movement. The book explores the complexities and intricacies of being a victim of this kind of abuse and showcases that it is not in fact an easy feat to come forward and tell your side of the story.

I felt despair, anger, frustration and at times nauseous while reading this book; all the emotions these kind of stories should evoke from you because sadly they are part of every day life and deeply rooted in reality.

The only complaint I have is that towards the end there were some things that I cannot go over but really did not sit well with me and felt completely unnecessary. However, this is totally a personal thing and some people may not even notice these things or affect their view of the book in any way.

Heavy trigger warnings for homophobia,drug use, sexual assault and rape.

Thank you to Houghton Mifflin Harcourt and NetGalley for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

"All right, Mr. DeMille, I'm ready for my close-up."

Wow, this book is not an easy lighthearted read. Nope, it's dark, creepy, graphic, heartbreaking and disturbing. Readers with triggers should take notice.

Imagine, a Sunset Boulevard - in my opinion one of the greatest movie about Hollywood- but gay , that's the feel of Yes, Daddy.

But , and that's a big but , where Billy Wilder's Sunset Boulevard is an entertaining combination of noir, black comedy, and character study. Yes, Daddy comes as a creepily entertaining, a bit WTF will happen next, thriller with a hero that ugly , harrowing, distressing happens. At times, felt like I was a voyeur, and not in the good way.

I just reviewed Yes, Daddy by Jonathan Parks-Ramage. #YesDaddy #NetGalley

Thank you NetGalley For an ARC of Yes, Daddy, what to say about this book? I didn’t like., nor connect with any of the characters. That is why my low rating.

Yes, Daddy gave off a lot more of the nightmarish vibe that I want from modern-day thrillers. It's creepy, dark, and also has some interesting stances on current-day topics. So there really is nowhere to go wrong, it sucked me in basically immediately.

Books like this really are a breath of fresh air to read, because while you partly want to turn away you really just can't. While having a social message, that doesn't take the fact away that it is compulsively readable. It really draws on those fears of being trapped, not necessarily in a physical sense but in just a way that feels like all of your escape hatches are being closed off.

If this book sounds even remotely interesting, you should do yourself a favor and pick it up. This is one that I thought about after putting it down and it surely will remain in readers' minds long after flipping past the last page.

This was, by far, one of the most disturbing and darkest books I've ever read. And I'm not saying that in a negative way! I really liked it. Pardon the cliché, but I couldn't put it down.

It starts out so rags-to-riches. Like an interesting, juicy love story. Wealthy famous playwright falls for cute, young up-and-comer. But, then, once it sucks you in to what feels like romance, it quickly turns into Rosemary's Baby.

And when it feels like there is going to be a bit of resolution, it falls into yet another rabbit hole of WTF. I don't want to give away any elements of the plot. That wouldn't be fair to the author. I will say that I will be purchasing this book when it is published.

Thank you, NetGalley, for the advanced copy!

Yes, Daddy is a letter/journal from the perspective of Jonah, an early 20's, gay, struggling writer who waits tables in NYC in order to barely cover his rent. He is alienated from his father and trying to cut ties with his mother, both of whom are evangelicals who put him through a long and traumatizing yet unsuccessful stint of conversion therapy as a teen. Desperate to no longer need to ask his mom for money -- and to escape her accompanying tirades about his sinful lifestyle -- he devises a plan to essentially make a wealthy, prestigious playwright named Richard his sugar daddy.

A once penniless Jonah is whisked away to vacation at Richard's lavish vacation house in the Hamptons, which is nestled among the equally ridiculous homes of his famous queer artist friends -- all in a gated(!) compound. Richard calls it his "little slice of gay heaven," and Jonah thinks he could get used to this, even though it is a bit weird that Richard's ex is among the legion of hunky, gay waitstaff. Don't worry, though: that ex eventually goes missing. Of course, things take a turn for the worse when Jonah abruptly falls from Richard's good graces and -- without a car or a dime to his name -- is unable to get home. Richard proposes an agreement that would allow Jonah to stay indefinitely and get back on his feet by joining the waitstaff as a butler on the compound. This is how he realizes what extremely fucked up shenanigans are going on here, and that it's too late for him to escape.

As a thriller, I love this story. It's a really fresh perspective and it has rich, relevant social commentary about the often forgotten struggle of young boys of the entertainment industry. Structurally, I had some complaints. The letter format didn't really work for me; it's hard to set the scene this way, when the narrator is essentially explaining exactly what happened to someone who was there. It felt like it kept forgetting it was a letter and slipping into a narrative. Also, the pacing was really strange. The third act has so much happen so quickly, and it feels so out of place with the book. It could have been really trimmed down to maintain the tension. Still, good stuff.

I am very fascinated with books that deal with sensitive topics like this one and I must say I was not disappointed by this. The characters were complex. The prose was beautifully written. The message of the story is so important and I feel like everyone should read this book. Full review to come on Goodreads.

Disturbing, discomforting, repulsive, depressing, I can go on for a while. But also powerful, emotional, important, painful, raw. This is a story I’ll never forget and it’s difficult to write down my thoughts. Because it triggers so many of my feelings at once. <b>Trigger warnings are absolutely necessary</b> before reading this book. There are so many that I don’t list them but be careful if you get triggered easily and even if you don’t get triggered that easily. This story is rather graphic and has a lot of disturbing scenes.

So don’t judge a book by its cover. In this case it’s absolutely not a nice, sweet en sexy story, it’s incredibly dark with many, many layers. I didn’t particularly like Jonah but on the other hand I rooted for him at times because he just wanted to belong and to be loved while chasing his dream to become a playwriter and burying his past far, far away. And then Mace, OMG sixteen year old Mace.

The writing is poignant and captivating. Although I cringed many times and got nauseous sometimes, I wanted to read more and more. It doesn’t happen to me often that I like and dislike a story at the same time. Well, to be honest, I think that only happened to me while reading ‘A little life’ by Hanya Yanagihara. And that one I DNF because I couldn’t take it anymore. I never thought about DNF ‘Yes, daddy’ though. Maybe dislike is therefore the wrong word, it’s just because Jonah’s world is so fucked up. Made by his own beliefs, by his parents and a lot of other people in his world.

I liked the reference to ‘The talented Mr. Ripley’ where Jonah calls himself ‘A talentless Mr. Ripley’. I saw the movie a long time ago (in New York as a Dutch small town girl visiting the big Apple for the first time) and I can see the resemblance, the loser who dresses himself well to impress and to get what he wants. This story is so much more though.

Although this story is ugly and upsetting, I want to add there’s also hope in it. I think people will love or hate this book, there’s little in between. For me it could have been a little less graphic and a little less painful but it’s an important one that will be talked about, I’m sure of that. And I just found out that Amazon is currently adapting this book for television. I’m very curious about that because it could turn out in a beautiful and important series or it could be horrible and distasteful. Of course I hope it’ll be the first.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for a copy of this book. To be honest I was interested in the story and read it even with the warnings of rape, violence etc. The book shows two different worlds of poor hard-working guys who fall and are seduced by the life of rich elder men. I'm sure readers will face the same questions I had. Why is a friend of Jonah committing suicide without a given reason? Why was Jonah raped by a friend from church? Why would Jonah seek revenge in burning down his former lover's home? Those parts of the book I had a hard time to understand. Who knows? That might have been Parks-Ramage`s intention. A good read though I finished in no time.

(Spoilers) I liked this book overall. It has some good things to say about homophobia, classism, the church, etc. This is the first book I’ve read that deals with gay Hollywood men using using young men. One of the most important themes or takeaways for me was how the system forces us to blame and get angry at the wrong people when things like this happen. I do, however, think the story gets a bit jumbled at times. Some parts that were especially messy for me were Jonah’s return home to his mom’s house, Jonah’s finding solace in a religious group in NY and getting sexually assaulted again, his burning down of Richard’s house only to save him (again). A handful of situations like these felt a bit unrealistic to me and derailed the movement of the narrative a bit. I’m also sad to see Rashad not brought up again.

First and foremost, I have to say that Jonathan Parks-Ramage is an absolutely incredible writer. His debut novel, Yes, Daddy takes readers in to a dark, nightmarish world that will seem foreign, yet so familiar at the same time. A really good writer is able to connect with readers on a deeper level-- and Parks-Ramage does just that.

I was emotionally bound to this book. It is powerful and haunting. Jonah is such a complex and complicated character in all that life has thrown at him, yet he is able to piece it all together, somehow finding the ability to survive.

This is no light-hearted summer romp in the sun. It is mostly dark and devastating. I should say that it might be too much for some, there are many 'trigger' topics explored, yet I don't feel it is ever too graphic.

Yes, Daddy brings up some interesting thoughts regarding spiritual faith. Especially with regard to how human intervention can undermine it.

I also feel the need to comment on the title and cover. Initially, it feels misleading. After reading the book, it all makes sense. There's so much more than meets the eye. Family, spirituality, sexuality and abuse are the dominant themes running concurrently throughout.

This has to be the most compelling book I've read all year.

I received a copy from the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I almost didn’t make passed the second page but I am glad I did.

The writing is CRINGE WORTHY, LGTBQ do not have to be cheesy, they do not have to force logo down people’s throats and it doesn’t have to be edgy just to get people taking. It can be a normal book and I am so sad that authors resort to cheap writing to try and get a gay point of view. Not everyone is like that.

If you ignore the writing about half way through the book the game lighting and the true terror begins. I honestly hope this opens people’s eyes to see that this happens in the gay community and that it’s not just a straight people problem.