aely's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
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.
Graphic: Alcohol, Child abuse, Cursing, Gaslighting, Religious bigotry, Sexual content, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Homophobia, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Toxic relationship, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Adult/minor relationship, Drug abuse, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Classism, Bullying, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Violence, Addiction, Death, Murder, Domestic abuse, Panic attacks/disorders, and Self harm
Minor: Body shaming, Fatphobia, Infidelity, Stalking, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Animal cruelty, Blood, Trafficking, Dementia, and Abortion
veggitorian's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Graphic: Suicide attempt, Trafficking, Adult/minor relationship, Gaslighting, Grief, Physical abuse, Rape, Slavery, Domestic abuse, Sexual assault, Addiction, Alcoholism, Child abuse, Homophobia, Misogyny, Sexual harassment, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Emotional abuse, Self harm, and Sexual violence
freddybingsu's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Graphic: Drug use, Suicidal thoughts, Sexual assault, Physical abuse, Emotional abuse, Sexual violence, Homophobia, and Rape
Moderate: Gaslighting, Alcohol, Suicide attempt, and Adult/minor relationship
Minor: Addiction and Fire/Fire injury
foxmulders's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.75
Graphic: Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Homophobia, Religious bigotry, Suicide attempt, Physical abuse, Adult/minor relationship, Torture, Gaslighting, Confinement, and Emotional abuse
Moderate: Fire/Fire injury, Addiction, Alcohol, Drug abuse, Animal death, and Animal cruelty
Minor: Incest
typewriterworries's review against another edition
- 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? It's complicated
2.5
I was intrigued by the concept of a suspenseful thriller that centered around the lifestyle of a young man who's trying his best to live the luxurious, coquettish lifestyle he pictured himself having. In theory, it had so much promise.
At the start, the book had my attention. I was interested in learning more about the relationship between Jonah and the famed playwright, Richard. There's something about Richard that doesn't seem quite right and it doesn't take long for both Jonah and the reader to realize this. We're soon taken through a tale of trauma, deception and tragedy.
While the book is gripping and I found myself breezing through it; the amount of just overtly dark themes and dark scenes became too much. At some point I found myself outright skipping through some of the darker passages because it wasn't adding anything to the story. Every time the book provided some type of hopeful progression, it was undercut by something dark and sinister.
I think the author has a knack for writing a character you want to learn more about and I hope that he does that with future work but has much less misery.
Graphic: Sexual violence, Adult/minor relationship, Sexual assault, Violence, and Rape
Moderate: Addiction, Child abuse, and Domestic abuse
soljovis's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.5
Graphic: Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Physical abuse, Gaslighting, Emotional abuse, Drug use, Domestic abuse, and Religious bigotry
Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Homophobia, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, and Suicide attempt
Minor: Addiction, Alcohol, and Fire/Fire injury
zookie_b's review against another edition
- 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? It's complicated
4.25
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Emotional abuse, Grief, Homophobia, Physical abuse, Rape, Religious bigotry, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Torture, and Toxic relationship
Moderate: Abandonment, Addiction, Alcohol, Blood, Confinement, Fire/Fire injury, Incest, and Panic attacks/disorders
camille_catterpillar's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Dark, emotional, and genre-bending. At times my pulse quickened; I thought "perhaps this more of a thriller than I thought", the darker end of the domestic suspense genre.
It had a little bit of the "offer that's too good to be true" thriller trope at first, then it had a little bit of Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf twisted love games, it's got the compound and the vile rich and famous, then it veers to outright horror [CW: the book contains some graphic sexual assault, drug use, and mental health themes].
And then, it simmered into lit fic territory, introspective, observational, culminating into a series of emotional gut-punches.
Personally, I was moved by the religious commentary, the self-loathing narrative, and the unlikely, bittersweet redemption story at its heart.
Graphic: Homophobia, Rape, and Suicidal thoughts
Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, and Suicide
deezy's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.75
Graphic: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Bullying, Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Religious bigotry, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Sexual harassment, Stalking, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Torture, Toxic relationship, and Trafficking
averyarnold's review against another edition
- 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
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.
Spoiler
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?
Graphic: Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Homophobia, Adult/minor relationship, Religious bigotry, Torture, Toxic relationship, Body shaming, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Kidnapping, Grief, Gaslighting, Emotional abuse, Bullying, Addiction, Alcohol, Alcoholism, and Abandonment