The first 2/3 of the book was the story of Jonah’s descent into sexual slavery. His escape, i would have thought was the climax but the book continued on, as he sought redemption, revenge, and healing. While I personally had issues with the concept of salvation through religion, what did ring true was the need for connection. In the end, Jonah had three daddies — and really, only one that mattered.

Best read for me of 2020. I read this book towards the end of the year and I was not ready for it. It was an emotional read and I highly recommend it. Will be recommending it to everyone who wants to read a book as personal and touching and strong as this book. I can’t stop thinking about this book, it was deep.

What a fantastic book. I couldn’t put it down and flew through it in one day. I don’t know what I was expecting when I picked this up but it wasn’t this- this was so much better. 5/5 stars. What a great story to end 2020.

This book caught my eye because of the title, I am such a predictable gay. after appreciating the cover for a couple of seconds, because it is one of my favorites of 2021, I decided to read the synopsis and the minute I read it I clicked on the request button. and it was the best decision I made.

When I started the book I was not enjoying my experience meeting our main character because of how vain and problematic he was being, I didnt enjoy the image he painted of homeless people and the rude way he treated essential workers. To this day I am completely sure if he was supposed to be unlikable but that is definitely what I felt. As the book progressed I did start feeling for our main character because of the truly horrible events that he has to live through.

This book grabs your heart, rips it out of your chest, puts it in a blender and flushes it down the toilet. Are you weirded out by this expression? Then you are not ready to read this book. Incredibly fucked up, your stomach needs to be prepared. I was not expecting this book to hit me in my feelings so hard but it did and the conversation around sugar daddys in the gay community taking advantage of these young guys is of extreme importance. *trigger warning for rape/sexual assault*

I thought I was getting a light thriller-type book here with a gay-NYC twist. I was wrong - there is so much more than meets the eye with Yes, Daddy. I was fooled by the cover!

Yes, Daddy is the story of Jonah who moves to NYC to become a writer. He meets an older, very successful and rich, playwright, Richard, who he begins to date with the hopes of opening doors for Jonah. But this takes a dark turn (no spoilers!) and doesn't quite work out that way.

I was really surprised that this book explores trauma in so many forms - gay conversion therapy, familial issues, and physical/sexual abuse. There is a lot here that you do not expect from the description.

I recommend this for anyone looking for gay fiction. It is suspenseful while exploring tough topics, which I enjoyed.

Jonah is a young man holding onto the dream of becoming a playwright. When he orchestrates a meeting with the much older Pulitzer Prize winner Richard Shriver and enters into a passionate affair, he enters into a world the he desperately desires. Accepting an invitation to Shriver’s Hampton estate, Jonah is surrounded by wealth, luxurious dinners and the excesses of drugs and alcohol. The employed staff are beautiful young men, several with noticeable bruises. This glorious world that Jonah envisioned will soon turn dark when Richard ends their relationship and Jonah learns why he was invited to the estate. The severing of their romantic connection sets Jonah on the path of revenge in this toxic world.
This is a compulsive read. It is very detailed and descriptive making it at times emotionally difficult to absorb. This does not detract from the storyline but enhances the raw terror of certain aspects and experiences within Jonah’s nightmare.
Thank you to NetGalley and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt for an ARC in exchange for an honest book review.

Yes, Daddy was a gripping thriller that began with a very eerie scenario and then threw you right into a completely dark and horrendous loop. The situation the main character finds himself in is a story we all know too well, but the author has managed to give the reader a new insight into how we find ourselves as victims in abusive relationships, and how predators find our weak spots just to exploit them. This novel did a spectacular job of telling the story of a victim of abuse and how they struggled with telling their own story.

I loved the writing style in this book, it felt very real and it took on a ‘movie-like’ quality. Jonah, the main character, is relatable in more ways than you can imagine and his development felt real, Jonah wasn’t the best person and he wasn’t trying to be, he was just trying to survive. The emotional duress Jonah experienced was felt with every word of this book and the story was a never ending cycle of ‘what the hell just happened’ and ‘what the hell is going to happen’.

The ending of this book was unexpected, I will say that. There was this underlying feeling I had throughout reading it, a feeling that the ending would be semi infuriating and it absolutely was. But I guess not all stories end happily, for all parties.

Overall, this book was a really great read and I found myself enjoying the story and its characters. It never felt like a gruesome tale I was trudging through, but it was a very dark read.

Trigger warnings for : rape, sexual assault, abuse, explicit sex scenes, drug abuse.

TW: This book has graphic depictions of sexual assault, rape, drug use, and suicide

Wow. This book contains way more than what meets the eye. From reading the description, you would think this book to be some sort of horror/thriller-type book. I was expecting it to be sort of like Mexican Gothic by Sylvia Moreno-Garcia, but it was quite different. It has the suspense, mystery, and overtone of dread, but I found Yes, Daddy more terrifying, heart-wrenching, and REAL.

The novel follows Jonah Keller, a young, gay, white, 20-something transplant to New York City. Estranged from his evangelical parents and fresh from grad school with few prospects and a terrible restaurant job, he decides to try to seduce Richard Shriver, an older and extremely successful playwright. Jonah hopes this will help kickstart his career as a writer as well as save him from his “real life.” Jonah and Richard start seeing each other and develop a relationship, and some things about their early relationship don’t seem right. A summer in the Hamptons turns into a traumatizing nightmare for Jonah and other young men trapped in Richard’s compound. Jonah escapes, but his life (and the lives of his cohorts) are forever changed. I hesitate to write too much of the plot because I want to avoid giving too much away. Suffice it to say there is a LOT more going on this book than a simple escape/survival story.

I was unable to put this book down. Though it was horrifying at times, I had to see what happened next. How would Jonah survive, or would he survive these insurmountable events happening in his life? I honestly thought that the book would end as a suicide letter, but I’m glad it didn’t. Jonah did some awful things, but he was coming from a place of massive trauma deeply imbedded in his psyche. Though I can’t sympathize with the protagonist in his lived experience, some of the emotions, events, and actions in this book still resonate with me deeply. I found myself highlighting several quotes and passages that reminded me of something that had happened in my own life. That is what made this book feel so real. Jonah was so human—his story was more than about being trapped in a compound and escaping.

I also liked the book’s reflections on the #MeToo movement and internet news in general. Things move so quickly on the internet. One hour Jonah was reviled, later that day he was a sympathetic character, later still he was forgotten as Twitter moved onto another crisis. Evangelical Christianity was also the culprit of some of Jonah’s trauma. I appreciate Jonathan Parks-Ramage’s realistic writing of the evangelical movement and the snake-like way they ensnare people in their grasp.

Overall, this was an engaging book and I devoured it quickly. It was different than I expected, but more poignant and filled me with real emotion. I wanted everything to be okay for Jonah in the end. This book is Jonathan Parks-Ramage’s debut novel. If his debut is this good, I can’t want to see what comes next.

So I have extremely mixed feelings about this book. I really enjoyed the first abt 75% of the book, then it just made me angry. The first 3 quarters of the book had me really captivated and wanting to know where the story was going to go and I did not want to put it down. The author did a really good job on creating a story where you want to know what happens. I do feel this a good look into abuse and how it can effect someone long after they have escaped the situation they are in, and that abuse in the industry is not just aimed at women. The reason I got so angry is I feel like it was sending a message that there is only one way to be a good gay Christian, plus how a minor character in the book acted infuriated me. I am very aware that the message I got, is not necessarily the message the author is trying to portray, but that is what I got from it. I would probably recommend this book to someone, but I would also let them know my thoughts about the last quarter of the book.

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.