Dream Boy
DREAM BOY confirms the immense promise of Jim Grimsley's award-winning debut, WINTER BIRDS. In his electrifying novel, adolescent gay love, violence, and the spirituality of old-time religion are combined through the alchemy of Grimsley's vision into a powerfully suspenseful story of escape and redemption.
"I've never read a novel remot
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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...more
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...more
I am highly disturbed by the whole plot because the writing gets to you. It seems to be clinical,...more
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...more
In the end of the book Nathan and the boy of his dreams, Roy ( the savi...more
The writing stays with you after you finish the book .. I kept thinking about the book and the events that happened in the book for the rest of the day. Its a great love story between Nathan and Roy, althoug...more
I found the abuse the main chara...more
Dream boy tells the story of two young boys who fall in love. It's set in the south and the two are very much in the closet. Roy says frequently, "you can't tell anyone about this." and Nathan replies, "I won't." The romance between the boys is well developed and very believable and accessible. Even if you are not gay and don't read gay romances, this is a well written story that anyone can enjoy.
Nath...more
I had no clue what I was left with when this story drew to a close. It seemed as if that elaborately, subtly constructed castle of prose a...more
Overall:
While this is a beautifully written story with several positive points, the ending really sours the entire story for me.
What I liked
Writing. The style is unique and moving, feeling abstract and distant in many cases, which works to illustrate how the main character has become closed off (although the writing style doesn't change as he opens up.
Abuse. The main character's relationship with his father is handled well. The fear is palpable without showing any actual abuse being...more
The "falling in love" part is very well done: the little looks, the shortness of breath, the redness of cheeks and neck and the first touches. There are sex scenes, but they are not gratuitous and not very explicit anyway. There is a rape scene though that made me want to throw up, so be warned.
The climax felt rushed to me but the beauty of the prose makes up for t...more
Still, I will add one more.
A tiny one.
I read this book as if it had been a horror, with my fingers in front of my eyes
for most of the second part of the novel. I felt as if I knew what would happen, the outline of
what would happen, from the first pages, and that's what made it hard to go along, but I had to.
The prose was beautiful, sparse, not one word was wasted.
The characters were simple, but deep--I knew them. I understoo...more
This is the first time in a long time that I've had to actually stop a book before I've finished, so I'm not even sure why I'm putting this review up here, but mostly to clear up some things that I feel are important. I tried very hard to just keep charging through the book until it was done, but this book was just that bad. I don't understand how this won an award at all.
First of all, everything about this novel is repetitive and boring. After the first time they meet, Nathan and Roy basically
...more

I'm giving this a 3 because the ending was lost on me and wasn't completely clear. While the haunted house seemed symbolic for everything haunting the 2 main characters, it was odd. Far too much emphasis on t...more
Up until the last 1/5th or so this is a great book, sometimes sweet, sometimes very dark and always humming with suppressed menace. This is one of those books that, from the first page, hints that something terrible might happen and thereby keeps you on the edge of your seat worried sick about the two main characters Roy and Nathan. The problem is t...more
I remember feeling how great it would feel to be able to just run away and leave it all behind.
But now... 10 years later... I watched the movie. And I gotta say... I sure hope authors are writing uplifting stories about gay youth these days. Like where the main character breaks ou...more
The story deals with, among other things: first loves, homosexuality in a small town, and sexual abuse.
The boys' relationship is typical of teenagers: hot and cold, subject to the influence of their peers. It feels real.
The conclusion is a bit of a surprise, taking a somewhat obvious a...more
| topics | posts | views | last activity | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| A good beginning | 1 | 25 | 16 feb. 04:46 |
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02 sett. 07:53