Reviews with content warning for Body shaming - Yes, Daddy

This book was extremely depressing. Jonah simply wanted to have a roof over his hand, and what happened to him was truly awful to read.

Parks-Ramage managed to write realistic characters who go through SO much trauma, with a bittersweet ending that left me feeling… complicated.

My only critique would be that the book felt so depressing and hopeless that at times it was very hard to return to the story.

Other than that, the book is a grim cautionary tale about abusive relationships and sexual assault. It was very emotional and well written. I hope that Jonah is able to live happily after the books ends. That is all.

Content Warnings

forrestalexander's review against another edition

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dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

Warning: SPOILERS

I have mixed feelings about this book. I didn't know what to expect and I like the concept, but in my opinion, it didn't follow through.

As someone else said, the book is too short to properly address the multitude of issues it presented.

The book touches on:

a gay main character with unaccepting parents
religious trauma
conversion therapy and the resulting trauma
domestic abuse, toxic and abusive relationships
manipulation and general abuse
rape, sexual assault, and casual sexual harassment
drug abuse
suicide, suicidal thoughts

& more. There aren't enough pages in the book to have us become invested in the characters and touch on all of the above topics and do them justice - instead, it half touches on all of them and is just busy and feels cluttered. It is trying to do too much at once.

Because it was trying to cram so much into each page, I wasn't invested in the characters and it made me care less about the story overall.

Also, coming from a queer man living in bushwick from somewhat similar circumstances, I hated the main character. He relied on everyone else and did nothing but pity and feel bad for himself instead of trying to do anything to change his life. He was selfish and self-centered, and how he acted in court destroyed the lives of others to the point of no return. How I am supposed to feel any level of empathy for him, or happiness when he finally sort of gets his shit together at the end, is beyond me.

The religious trauma was a bit trite for a gay character, and I understand the second half was supposed to set it apart from other stories with similar themes - but the second half felt forced, strange, and left me weirded out. I am still not sure what the message was supposed to be, it didn't translate.

With all of that being said, I think if a few of the themes were left out and the author focused on one or two things, it could have been great. For that reason, I have no doubt the author has potential - but I hope in his next book, it feels less crammed.

Content Warnings

averyarnold's review

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adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

This book was a -lot- y’all.

With a title like Yes, Daddy you’d probably expect a steamy, smut filled, gay book. However, only one of those adjectives apply to this book.

I’m having a hard time deciding if I liked it and what to rate it.

Parts of the book were quick, and suspenseful, and sucked you in. But other parts were the exact opposite. It felt like I was both reading a work of fiction about the world of wealth, class, and the darkness that lies (literally) beneath those things. But also at the same time reading the journal of the author as he worked out his past and his trauma. It felt like two books in one, and only one of those were a book I should have been reading.

The scenes at the Hamptons, which was maybe 1/3 of the book?, had a nice steady descent into darkness and misery. It felt well paced, even if it was deeply uncomfortable to read, which was obviously the point. However, the way in which the MC was able to escape felt very unlikely. Not that really anything up to that point felt super realistic, but if these men were going to such lengths to keep these boys on the property….one of them would have at least followed the two to the hospital.

It was the last half of the book that…is where I’m struggling to nail down my feelings. The last half, or maybe 1/3rd of the book was dedicated to Jonah’s healing and overcoming his trauma. Which is good and necessary, obviously. And from the POV of the writer, I understand that it’s important to bring the reader back down to a somewhat neutral level after slowing building up the tension and discomfort. Plot structure and all of that, I get it.

But my problems are really with two things:
1- We took a very hard left into religion. Which I understand, as someone who grew up southern baptist, I understand the trauma of being gay in that scenario and the going back to God when times get really bad. I truly understand. And especially someone with the trauma inflicted on him by Christianity, I understand the longing to reconcile that and how, sometimes, reworking your relationship with all aspects of Christianity can help. However, I guess it was just because the book is called Yes, Daddy that I wasn’t expecting such a hard shift into religion. And then, well, the r*pe scene that ended Jonah’s new found religious healing felt very unnecessary, and then negated the entire chapter or two. The book could have been just fine without it, especially because when he starts mending his relationship with his father at the end, he also starts mending his relationship with Christianity and it could have been saved for that. But also, that moment with Matt (I think was his name) is never brought up again, at least to my memory. So it just felt like a “aha! See, Christians are bad and don’t want to help you!” sort of a thing that the author wanted to put in there.

And 2- It didn’t feel like I was reading a book. It felt, quite literally, that I was reading the inner workings of a journalists perspective of the role that social media played during the #MeToo movement. The writing just felt very different, at least to me, during the chapters involving Jonah’s new Twitter infamy. Knowing that the author was/is still a journalist/writer for media networks really added to the sense that he just needed to vent and decided to use the book as a way to do that and just forgot to make it fit into the story. Not that I think anything said during those chapters and moments wasn’t important and didn’t need to be said, the opposite, really. But it just didn’t feel like it connected to the book.

And I guess, maybe I have a third thing: I wished that the other boys that were there with Jonah were given as big of roles in the ending as Mace was. Because, those boys experienced worse pains then either Jonah or Mace (Not that trauma is a game…but they, ya know, didn’t escape and didn’t have the freedom to come and go.) I don’t remember if we were ever told how/when they got out. Nor, did the plot ever really seem to care about them after they did. The story also never seemed to care about finding out what happened to Evan. And, I get it, Jonah is working through a lot of trauma, he probably wouldn’t. I understand, but a lot of the story just -happened- to him so, it could have just been a passing headline that a body of a young man was found on the compound, or something. I wanted more closure with those boys then the author wanted to give. I understand why Mace was singled out, because of what happened at the trial and everything, so I understood that. But I just wanted Jonah to, somehow, find the emails of the other boys and reach out to them. I wanted the story to show them the same kindness and compassion Jonah and Mace were given. I know, I know: The World doesn’t always work that way. Sometimes one person is given more compassion then someone else. I know. But this is fiction. The world can be anything you want it to be. And I just wanted it to be kinder to the boys who had to endure the Hampton’s for months, and didn’t have the freedom that Mace had to come and go, or the opportunity to escape that Jonah had. I wanted them to, at least, be sent on their way somewhat happy and mended. They are in my head, so, that’s nice.

((I’m also not going to sit here and say that a lot of the ending didn’t give me major ending of Gerald’s Game vibes because…it did. Now that’s a story about sexual trauma and healing that really is 10/10 Grade A Eggland’s Best.)

And yes, some people do have a problem with the way the entire book does feel like a letter, but I didn’t mind it. In fact, I actually thought it worked well during the scenes at the Hampton’s because it added a nice level to the trauma we were reading, knowing that it was only temporary.

I know I said that the book felt very much like the author was using it to work out his feelings on certain subjects. Which is very much what I’m doing.
And while, at the end, I think we understood what the authors feelings were about certain things….this author is still very much undecided about his feelings.

Did I enjoy it? Yes.
Did it make me feel the things it wanted me to feel when it wanted me to feel them? Yes.
Did I like the characters I was supposed to like? Yes.
Did I hate the characters I was supposed to hate? Yes.
Did I like the book?

Content Warnings

perfect_leaves's review

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challenging dark emotional sad tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

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