Daddy

by Kristin Garth

DADDY is a 183 pages of dark short stories and a novella all sharing the collective theme of a dark father figure absent or present, sometimes multiple characters. The stories and novella present characters struggling against and giving into their daddy issues. It was an extremely therapeutic book for a girl like me, with daddy issues she wears on her sleeves and kneesocks for the world to see, to write and bask in the extremes of where this pain can take you. The stories are set against the backdrop of a Christian university, strip clubs, roller skating rinks, suburban neighborhoods, Pensacon, Florida’s electric chair, a small town cable access station late night, a Parisian fashion show after party, a candy coated dream/nightmare, a kitty themed coffee shop, the rural woods of Northwest Florida, an elementary school bathroom stall and a child’s ornate playhouse among other locales.

183 pages, Paperback

Published October 1, 2023

Reviews

[Neil Willcox · Rating 5 out of 5]

Some of these stories are about girlhood, in that they are about (narrated by) girls. They have the vital importance of these events for children. If I were to over-generalise these are about the breaking of an innocence. In Stall, the girl goes to the toilet in school, because she has thoughts she does understand and is not allowed privacy at home. Yet even here she is watched. In Quaintrelle the girl is barred from seeing another girl, as it has been reported their was a middle school orgy. In Spiderling the girl joins a club, the We Love Roman Everly Club. This leads her to disobey the rules and visit the house of a female murderer, the Black Widow.

Some of them are about girlhood less directly. The women in these stories are often looking for father figures. Sometimes they’ve found them and they hold them up to our gaze. They see the flaws in them, the terrible horrible people they are. They feel an attraction. In I Can Not Help It That I Have This Face he is beautiful, and she looks innocent. And so he feels the need to punish her, and she, she feels the need to submit, to be tied and beaten in a cable access studio in the mall.

The games of dominance and control are inevitably sexual, whether directly or peripherally.

In Florida Drakaina the woman lives alone in the woods. She has been abandoned by her Daddy, her lover, and the long, long drive is falling into disrepair. The neighbour, a retired builder, wants to buy it, to improve it. He needs something to do, but the woman needs her privacy. Needs her secrets.

Known for her sonnets, Kristin writes with deliberate rhythm. Her most distinctive lines tend towards the imperative/descriptive, telegraphic style that fits a meter. “Forgot your own name some months ago.” “No cellphones when you’re in middle school, so this story has no receipts.” “Rub against strangers in a thong for money – but not only money.”

A sonnet is the prologue to the novella at the end of the book, and another, unfinished sonnet plays a part in it. Another story is formatted as prose, though it maintains a Shakespearean sonnet form.

The final novella Plaything both stands alone and seems to sum up the book. At the Itty Bitty Kitty Coffee Shop Doria, the Stray, a waitress, has fucked a man in the alleyway. He’s a regular for a while. He picks up another woman, Melinda. He takes her away from all this, puts her in his mansion. There she becomes the Plaything and he becomes the Daddy. There she is safe, in her round of ballet lessons and true crime on parental controlled iPad and serving Daddy. She does not have to face the world. She does not have to make decisions.

The only one who knows she’s there is the Stray, the one who Daddy did not want. The one who hides her contact details with the Plaything. Why would the Plaything want to leave. There is nothing for her outside, only crime and stress. She is safe inside.

Until she learns what is within, the secrets her Daddy keeps from her.

Read This: A journey through a more-or-less dreamlike Florida in search of childhood and fathers
Don’t Read This: Too many explorations of intertwining girlhood and abuse, violence and control
Disclosure: I have been published by Kristin Garth’s website Pink Plastic House

[Miss December · Rating 5 out of 5]

Outstanding prose from what we normally see from an extremely talented poet- and it's no wonder. This is a candy-coated offering of some of Garth's darkest tales yet, but covered in rainbow colors that you won't see it coming until it's too late.

The novella Plaything is a standout and a treat to read, even amongst this candy box. It's so on-pulse and blends current times with a dark, twisted fairy tale only Garth could tell. I lapped it up like a kitten with a saucer of milk.

[Nick Stika · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoy Kristin Garth's writing. It's a window into a world seldom seen. It's a combination of, hey I want to visit there and gee, I feel sorry for these people.

[Jesse Hilson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Pitch black stories of pain and desire as women fall victim to the “kryptonite” of men who inflame their Daddy issues. Recommended if you can stand the terrifying dark secrets and fantasies that Garth is so expert at dreaming up and weaving.