Wow, I don't know what to make of this. I heard about it on NPR; the commentator, a gay man, said he wished he had had this book when he was a teenager, because it would have told him he was not alone. That seemed a good reason to read it.Dream Boy follows Nathan, a bright, delicate 15-year-old-boy, as he falls into a dreamlike courtship with Roy, an older, popular boy at Nathan's new school. Though the sex never feels prurient, the novel is unrelentingly sexual. I started to wonder if there was...

Such a beautiful, deeply emotional, poignant and touching piece of prose!.. Jim Grimsley's writing. is magical. No more words, let the book talk to you. *** Smith nailed it.

I have mixed feelings on this one, at the start it appealed to me. The story is told from Nathan’s perspective, he just moved to a new town and meets his neighbor Roy. I believe it’s around 1950’s and the story does a nice job of recapturing the time, setting and mindset during that period. Nathan and Roy are a bit different but become good friends instantly, it’s not really explained how but the meet and they become super close. Nathan’s struggles with a difficult family life throughout the sto...

Dream Boy is a tender love story that is also sensual and violent. It is the story of two high school boys who fall in love. Roy and Nathan are neighbors and the attraction is immediate and profound. They are secretive and tentative about their relationship but it is intense and astonishing in its power.Roy and Nathan attend the same high school where Roy is a senior and Nathan is a sophomore. Nathan has just moved to the area. His family moves often because his father can't keep a job and drink...

Many thanks to Sofia for buddy reading this with me. I certainly wouldn't have wanted to read it on my own.This is a melancholy story, poignant, beautifully written but very disturbing. Even the teen gay romance within its pages could not redeem it from the darkness and the violence within it. Everything shimmered with the fragility of first love but shattered into pieces with the violence.And then the open endedness of the story did not allow for resolution and peace. Although I suppose we can

I am still under impression of this book. Since the moment I read the last page I have thought about it all the time. You will find a lot of reviews on this book here, both negative and positive. And I agree with both. As for me, I liked this book. Really liked. And you shouldn't believe reviewers that the book is worth of reading or it isn't. Just read it yourself and decide.(view spoiler)[ The only thing in this book that left me uncertain if I liked this part or if I didn't is the ending. I k...

Such a brilliant gay fiction book. This was my first gay romance book or gay fiction book, whichever you prefer to call it. I fell in love with it the second I started reading it. It didn't take me very long to read it, because I couldn't put it down, but partly because it was very short, too. It was a very quick read. And I also read it on my 15th birthday, which isn't really relevant... but anyway.Jim Grimsley did an amazing job with Nathan. He was a shy boy, but he had something inside. It w

A quiet determined voice blew me away..narrating this painful..emotionally moving story.

There is something that renders me in awe, sometimes: there will be, occasionally, a book I will stumble upon, that will hit me with such strength that will threaten to shake everything that makes me. This book is one of those cases. I didn't really expect it to affect me so much; I guess I never imagined it would matter that much, it was supposed to be just another book I had been meaning to read for some time and only now I was getting myself to do it. I wish I had the words to explain in ful...

This was my third or fourth read of this magnificent book by Jim Grimsley. This is the book I return to when I want to be inspired to write better. This was my first reaction to Dream boy, in 2010, when I first read it:Dream Boy by Jim Grimsley. I read it in an hour and a half. The apartment could have been engulfed in fire. I couldn't care less. I only wanted his words. Only needed to turn the pages.It has been a very very long and lonely time since I've come across such a kindred soul. His wri...

A short book which made me think about things and left me feeling conflicted.It's beautifully written and drew me right in. In all honesty, my biggest issue is one scene in the last quarter (if you read the book, you know which one), which I honestly believe should have done without the sexual abuse. The... other awful events would have been enough. I'm going to also say that this book is also clearly a product of its times and even place (small town in the Bible Belt), and I would like to think...

Very captivating book. Really could not put it down. I'm not a great fan of the ending, but it is key to setting this book apart from others.

A beautiful, haunting narrative. Sad and hopeful at the same time. At one point, after closely following the characters, the narrative jumps forward a few months — and that abrupt jump could have been communicated better to the readers.Beautiful and brutal. Ugly and beautiful. It is a mess of contradictions, this book. Why did they leave the other towns? That story is only hinted at.

Dream Boy is haunting, in a "I have to re-read it or else it'll drive me crazy" way. But I'm pretty sure that rereading will not give me answers.It's also haunting because of the subject matter, the constant foreboding feeling and scenes that always stay on this side of gratifying and keep you pushing through the story./I'm not even sure if I liked it. The ending flipped my rating upside down. Because I suck at understanding surrealism and symbolism. I have so many ideas on this ending, but if I...

Powerful silent imagery..... Grimsley uses the third person present to tell us this story. So even though we are getting Nathan's point of view, a distance is still created between us and him and him and his world. This distance mirrors the same distance that Nathan needs to be able to survive what he has been through. So with this writing tool Grimsley puts us in the picture by making us feel the distance, the silence, the invisibility, the loneliness, the wariness. The distrust Nathan feel...

Beautiful, lyrical writing; first love in a rural Southern town in the 60s; family drama that's not too overwhelming if somewhat stereotypical and icky; and a complete non-sensical ending that felt like the author lit up a doobie and couldn't figure out how to end it and went way too metaphorical.The first time I read this in my late teens, I was bowled away by the setting, the quality of the writing and the emotional pull of these two young boys desperate for love and approval, finally finding

There's so much tenderness to this story, but also violence, and the third person present tense really made sense to me by the end, as perhaps it was the only logical choice for Grimsley to make. This is the kind of book I hope to write someday. Told with such brevity but maintaining a thematic power that really hits home with the final sentences of the novel. Incredibly well done. "By now the pond and cemetery are familiar landmarks, and Nathan knows by certain signs--the particular twist of a

Some books don't deserve ratings. Not because they're just that bad, but because a number cannot encapsulate everything found within their bindings. Dream Boy, for me, is one of those books - what I liked about it is also what prevented me from loving it fully.First published over ten years ago at a succinct 195 pages, Dream Boy revolves around Nathan, a sophomore in high school who falls into a complex relationship with Roy, a senior. Nathan comes from a troubled home. His alcoholic father exem...

Jim Grimsley's wonderful book is conceived of facts and dreams.Its facts are disturbing and painful - Nathan's abusive father, Burke's violent acts, the brutality of the very environment surrounding Nathan and Roy - conjure up a setting where even the cracking of a floorboard or a light under a door could indicate the onset of violence and abuse. But there are also dreams in Nathan's small world: his encounters with Roy (despite Roy's demand that they remain a secret) are infused with tendernes

Dream Boy is a good beginnng for a novel. It's a decent outline. But aside from an intriguing writing style, this book fails if only because there is no ending. Actually, I felt extremely cheated and angry that the author would do such a thing. First he manipulates us ruthlessly and plays on our emotions and for what? To give us a book with no ending? Either suggested ending is an unbelieveably trite. The author should be ashamed of himself. Worn out plot, brutal enough to make reading difficul