Daisy in the Doghouse - Book Review

Joe Barrett's latest book "Daisy in the doghouse" is another literary gem where he eviscerates societal ills with a comedic flair that is refreshing and surprisingly on point. Daisy Sullivan, is the delightful young daughter of ex-serial entrepreneur and new stay home dad, John Sullivan. He has a desire to write a stinging expose on the ills of corporate America during his hiatus from the corporate world.

John feels like he has an important message to share with the world but not being a well-known author, it is unlikely that his book would be read by many.  However through a series of unexpected and humorous events John discovers that his twelve-year-old daughter, Daisy Peanut Sullivan, has been running social "experiments" on their family and posting the often comical results on her blog... gaining her a substantial following on social media.  Well, the jig is up; she is outed, and her source for content appears to have evaporated.  However, Daisy’s dad is sympathetic to her need for more content and realizes her large following just might be used to propagate his messages about the ills of corporate practices, its greed and the poor treatment of its minions.  He discovers his daughter is so popular that other kids want her autograph.

John is a great Dad to his two children Daisy and her younger brother Sam. An interesting situation occurs when a weird rich neighbor tags their home with a misspelling of the word communist. Sam records the action on his IPad and plays it for Dad leading to a hilarious confrontation with John’s epitome of a greedy corporate type.  A part of John’s diatribe follows: “You’re just a little speck of dust in a universe of filth. Other than a few dry heaves when I drive by your absurd McMansion, our family doesn’t even know you exist. That’s the problem with you money-people. There is a universe of distance between how important you think you are and how pathetically small you actually are to everyone else in the world. The only reason I’m even having a conversation with you right now is that you vandalized my house. Twice.”

With new content supplied by her dad, Daisy’s blog viewership snowballs from 37k to over 400k viewers, and that is just the start of the upward spiral. 

Daisy rants on how many of the high paying jobs in the world do nothing to give back to the communities that they take from.  
Daisy’s blog and its messages snowball into a movement rivaling and or maybe even eclipsing "Occupy Wall Street." How does she cope with her success? How does she live up to her mantra of giving back to society?

Barrett centers his novels around contemporary issues. His work raises awareness of social ills that often remain in the shadows because they are too complicated or difficult to confront head-on. With his compelling story populated with rich characters in settings readers can relate to, and a plot that moves along with page-turning action, and sprinkled with a large dose of humor, Barrett is able to shine a light on hard issues in a way that’s non-threatening or preachy. If his goal is to create an entertaining story while bringing these ripped-from-the-headlines issues into fiction, he has succeeded. Hidden behind the actions and thoughts of Barrett’s characters is his own agenda of making the world a better place to live. He gave his characters a platform to espouse critical views, and Barrett does it entertainingly elegant.