Yes, Daddy is a 2021 literary psychological horror by Jonathan Parks Ramage. It revolves around Jonah, a struggling and aspiring playwright who briefly dates his hero, the multi-millionaire playwright Richard. However, when he arrives at Richard's summer house, events take a violent turn.
Tropes
- 20 Minutes into the Past: The book is set in two time periods, 2009 and 2018 (2019 at the latest), and was released in 2021.
- Be Careful What You Wish For: Jonah yearns to be in a relationship with Richard, both because of his prestige and because he's very lonely. He gets it...for a while.
- Bondage Is Bad: In so far that Richard is very into it, and he's also a depraved serial rapist and likely a murderer.
- Bunker Woman:
- A Rare Male Example. Jonah is trapped in Richard's remote "compound" in rural New York, drugged, plied with alcohol, and repeatedly raped, his cell phone broken when Rashad tries to reach him so that he has no way out.
- And then a twist reveals that rather, it's several. It's revealed that the handsome young men who look after Richard's house (and those of his friends) are "exes" of which Richard tired and forced them into essentially indentured servitude to "repay" their debts, which he had initially played off as gifts and rewards. They also all sleep in a shed where they're repeatedly raped and sexually abused.
- Cure Your Gays: Jonah receives conversion therapy at the behest of his deeply religious parents.
- Expy: Mace is one for Brad Renfro (among others).
- False Rape Accusation: Jonah falsely accused his father of molesting him after being subjected to a great deal of conversion therapy and hypnotism by his family's church, who are believers in Rape and Switch.
- Heroic Sacrifice: Evan tries to stand up for Jonah and gets murdered as a result. Possibly.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: Jonah's parents think they're helping him when they send him to conversion therapy (as they believe being gay is a mortal sin). When it "fails", they subject him to hypnotism and more "therapy" until he falsely accuses his father of molesting him, as he had no physically intimate memories to use except that.
- Implied Rape: It's explicitly confirmed that Richard and his friends rape and molest guys. However, it's implied that The Chain of Harm might have begun with Richard's mother, Patricia, who may have molested him, since he told Jonah that his play about Parental Incest was autobiographical, and she is infuriated by it.
- Most Writers Are Writers: Jonah and Richard are both playwrights, and Jonah later takes a job in journalism.
- The New '10s: The latter half of the book (from Mace's trial to the ending) is set between 2011 and late 2018, possibly early 2019.
- Rape and Switch: Jonah's deeply Christian family believes that the only way he would've "turned" out gay if he was molested by another man. They subject him to conversion therapy until he (falsely) accuses his father under a great deal of pressure and hypnotism.
- Shallow News Site Satire: The website Jonah works for is essentially Buzzfeed by another name, though it has a more mixed reputation (possibly since he's supposed to work for the arm of what would be Buzzfeed News).
- Shout-Out: Richard calls Evan "Mrs Danvers" and "Mrs DeWinter", while Evan refers to burning the house down. It's also Fauxshadowing because while Mrs Danvers was heavily implied to be a lesbian spinster, Evan is not there by choice, and actually tries to help Jonah - which results in his likely death.
- Turn of the Millennium: The first half of the book is set in 2009.
- Very Loosely Based on a True Story:
The author has described the book as being closely inspired by the controversy surrounding Bryan Singer and the numerous allegations of rape and sexual abuse that has follow him for years. - "The Villain Knows" Moment: Jonah's relationship to Richard goes horrifically sour after he writes a dramatic scene where a fictional Expy of Jonah confronts "Richard" for sexually assaulting him. Jonah falls asleep and leaves the laptop open, causing Richard to read the scene on the laptop. For a while it appears that things might be okay, but it soon becomes clear to Jonah that it won't and Richard will make him suffer.
