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A review by reuben___
Daddy Boy by Emerson Whitney
slow-paced
2.0
Daddy Boy by Emerson Whitney is a work of auto fiction that follows a narrator who is in the process of divorcing their wife who they have had a dominant/submissive relationship with for the last 10 years. To understand themself as a child, an adult, a submissive, and perhaps a dom, Whitney decides to go storm chasing across America with a group of strangers. On this journey Whitney interrogates gender and sexuality, childhood trauma and what it means to age against gender - understanding gender as constructing a frame work for how we should “grow up”.
This is the third time I’ve been drawn in by and subsequently disappointed by the blurb of a Cipher Press book… so shout out to who ever writes the blurbs for Cipher.
Reading this book felt slow and drawling, like I too was stuck on a stuffy minibus going no where with a companion I didn’t enjoy. The writing it’s self was dull, neither moving, nor engrossing, challenging or funny, it was simply flat for me.
I found the over interrogation of bottoming and subbing a bit self indulgent, and annoying because it could have been interesting!! In the words of a review I read on Goodreads “unpacking one’s bottomhood on the page is easy to phone in and hard to do really well. as for me i just don’t care. go get railed its not that deep.“
I also found the storm chasing and the storm metaphors so irritatingly heavy handed regarding trauma and masculinity! Like wow what could this mean 🧐 I spent all of this book waiting for something to happen, not necessarily in the book but with in me, but I just spent it all feeling unmoved and a increasingly frustrated.
I know this book is for someone, but it is not for me. Any way I’m going to go and read something 19th century and horrifically heterosexual now 🫡
This is the third time I’ve been drawn in by and subsequently disappointed by the blurb of a Cipher Press book… so shout out to who ever writes the blurbs for Cipher.
Reading this book felt slow and drawling, like I too was stuck on a stuffy minibus going no where with a companion I didn’t enjoy. The writing it’s self was dull, neither moving, nor engrossing, challenging or funny, it was simply flat for me.
I found the over interrogation of bottoming and subbing a bit self indulgent, and annoying because it could have been interesting!! In the words of a review I read on Goodreads “unpacking one’s bottomhood on the page is easy to phone in and hard to do really well. as for me i just don’t care. go get railed its not that deep.“
I also found the storm chasing and the storm metaphors so irritatingly heavy handed regarding trauma and masculinity! Like wow what could this mean 🧐 I spent all of this book waiting for something to happen, not necessarily in the book but with in me, but I just spent it all feeling unmoved and a increasingly frustrated.
I know this book is for someone, but it is not for me. Any way I’m going to go and read something 19th century and horrifically heterosexual now 🫡