Rating: 
Summary: Getting Past the Prejudice
Review: Dream Boy, written by Jim Grimsley, does an excellent job of giving its readers very controversial issues in a way that is not only palpable but touching. There are some readers that may not fully understand or be able to appreciate the beauty that Grimsley has taken the time to weave together in this book because of personal prejudices. But I think that anyone and everyone should attempt to read this book and find the message that is being put out there by its author.There are so many lessons to be learned from the characters and their stories in this work. To really appreciate this book, the one needs to get past the exterior conflicts and look to what is happening inside the characters. By asking oneself why Grimsley put so much time and effort into these characters, there is a message of adaptation, love, and growth that will begin to surface. This book will appeal to the open minded and insightful reader more than anyone else. It takes moments of intensity and weaves the very aesthetic language to convey them. Grimsley has put together a piece that becomes almost lyrical in some places of the novel, and the descriptions are very detailed and full of emotion. This is a book that tears at the heartstrings. The relationship between two gay boys and the challenges they encounter at such a young age is touching while at the same time very heartbreaking. I would recommend this book. It is an excellent read and gives a lot to consider when thinking about race and gender issues in our present time. The fact that it takes place in the late sixties/ early seventies is trivial when there are still so many prejudices around the world and in society today. It has very deep lessons to be learned, and can help to teach its readers to look farther into a person beyond their exterior.
Rating: 
Summary: The Power of Two
Review: Charting the boundaries between abuse and love, "Dream Boy" tells the story of two boys caught in the terrible drama of excepting themselves and each other. Nathan comes from a family constantly on the move to prevent others from realizing the kind of abuse his father forces on him. Roy comes from a loving home. Both families aspire to devout religious beliefs. In that, they are the same, but the reality for both is much different. What both boys find together in each other outside the lines of oppressive religion is celebrated, even though their relationship is despised by others. In this, the strength of love is shown to be greater than petty religious beliefs. Through uncertainty and doubt the boys learn to love. But, the purity of what they feel for each other is nearly destroyed because Roy cannot find it in him to accept himself as quickly as does Nathan. Their story could be read as a tragedy or a tale of hope depending on how one chooses to view the last few chapters. I personally choose to believe that Nathan survived the attack upon him. However, even for those of the less optimistic turn of mind, the story can be one that excels in hope and confirms the power of true love.
Rating:
Summary: A Dream Song
Review: Those with a fairly narrow concept of what narrative style should be are the ones who dislike this book, sometimes very intensely. And some are confused by the ending. But the title is the key: "Dream Boy". The lyrical, dreamlike style of the book points toward the surreal ending all along. Rather than expecting a traditional narrative, just be ready for the dream to take flight, and you'll do fine. This is Southern writing at its most evocative-- A book to treasure.
Rating:
Summary: true to life and beautiful proportions; not Grimsley's best
Review: This book, like most of Grimsley's, is one you can fall in love with. Appropriately enough, it's a book about love--almost. More than love, it's about being a teenager, and to be a teenager is to not quite fit in. Dream Boy, then, is a beautiful book about not ever quite fitting with the world. The first of Grimsley's novels to openly explore a gay relationship, it stays very close to what one's first same-sex love is often like, and what growing up and life are like. Like almost all I have read by Jim Grimsley, it's a book you can read in one sitting, and its sense of proportions is breathtaking. However, towards the ending (which I liked), Grimsley has too many emotional threads to tie together. While he manages it quite admirably, this is why I don't think Dream Boy is Grimsley's best. Both Winter Birds and My Drowning seem to end at their inevitable stopping points; the novel (not the story, which goes on after we stop watching it) just ends, and that's it, and it's perfect. Dream Boy doesn't quite reach that point. It's lovely, it should be read, but if you want something divinely shattering, read his Winter Birds.
Rating:
Summary: A Haunting, beautiful, disturbing book of love and tragedy
Review: Powerful and truley unforgetable, Dream Boy is like a dream its self with dark haunting elements of nightmares but ultimatly a raw and honest look at first love and the ultimatley tragedy. Grimsley, my favorite author as written a masterful work I will never forget.
Rating:
Summary: A Touching, Unique Novel
Review: This quiet, gripping drama by Jim Grimsley is one of the most powerful novels I've read in recent years. What starts out as a reluctant, adolescent relationship between two boys, Nathan and Roy, blossoms into a story, passionate, love affair.
Nathan and Roy seem polar opposites; Roy is older, more self-assured, cocky, and even has a girlfriend from another school. Nathan is timid, meek, imaginative and hiding something from his past. When Nathan and his family move into a farmhouse on Roy's dad's property, the two boys become fast friends...and more, spending time together studying or just out exploring in the woods most every night.
It's quite clear from the start, that by no means will their relationship be easy, yet one can't help but root for the two young lovers. One (professional) reviewer (erroneously, I might add) claimed that the plot was a prisoner to the "cliched" settings. If anything, the reader experiences almost the exact opposite. The settings work in tandem with the plot, symbiotically producing one amazing tale.
The back of the book describes the time and place as that of "a world of domestic disintegration," and after having read the novel, that description very well sums up the sense of "pit-of-your-stomach dread" that pervades the very pages of this book.
A word of advisement: this book is small. At just under 200 pages, it is by no means an epic, but it is however, a startling, fascinating little novel that will stay with the reader for long days after it has been finished.
Rating:
Summary: Easily one of the best I've read, ever...
Review: I picked this book up, and read the first paragraph, and bought it thinking, "if the rest of the book is as captivating as the first few lines, this'll be pretty good." Dream Boy is easily one of the best books I've ever read. Grimsley tells the tale of Nathan and Roy in a gloriously poetic narrative style with beautiful descriptions and moving, powerful scenes ranging in emotion from sweet to exciting to terrorrous to erotic to romantic to fun and upsetting. I literally finished it three minutes ago, knowing I had to share it with people. A doomed love that flourishes beautifully, though cautiously, breaking through self-acceptance issues and broken homes, Roy and Nathan have something we all want, and the tale of how they get it and lose it is captivating, thrilling, exciting, and moving. A triumph.
Rating: 
Summary: What The?!
Review: This little novel is an undeniably well written failure. Jim Grimsley obviously has a way with words, but what he also has is a plausible (if somewhat thread-bare and depressing) plot that takes a 'huh?'-inspiring turn into the horror genre 9/10ths of the way through the book. Other people obviously feel differently than I do, but I think that if you're going to write a novel, choose a genre and stick to it. Tom Clancy doesn't have elves popping up at the end of his books and Danielle Steele doesn't end books with covert special forces operations. A good book with a similar romantic theme and without the wandering plot is K.M. Soehnlein's "The World Of Normal Boys", which I would recommend.
Rating:
Summary: Awaken Boy
Review: I have just finished reading DREAM BOY and, like so many others, found it to be absolutely haunting. The genius of the book is that its lyrical, poetic style can induce THE READER into a dreamlike state. The much discussed ending for me resembled that "twilight" stage of awaking. Reality is fuzzy. Are we awake or still sleeping? Even perhaps, are we alive or dead? Is this this world or the next?
I resolved the ending by seeing that Nathan was in both this world and the next! Nathan was alive because he sensed his body, his life, and then he CHOSE. ("He is understanding,now. He is choosing.") Ghosts don't choose; that's the business of us poor mortals. But Nathan was also in the next world because, unlike Preacher John Roberts, he understood the Beloved Disciple John, his desire to rest his head on Jesus' chest. To my mind, the Dream Boy truly became the Awaken Boy.
Rating: 
Summary: A good story with a confusing ending
Review: Nathan and his family recently moved into a farm house outside of town -- yet another in a long series of moves. From his window, he sometimes watches the neighbor's son, Roy, who goes to the same school and drives the school bus. One day Roy surprises him sits with him at lunch, beginning an interesting friendship that quickly turns into love. While Nathan is sure of himself, Roy is confused and needs to keep their intimacy hidden from the rest of the school, especially from his girlfriend. The relationship is put to the test through a series of events starting with Nathan's father and his unmentionable past and culminating with a violent display at an abandoned house in the Kenicutt Woods. "Dream Boy" is a well-written story about the two young boys dealing with their growing love for one another. Grimsley manages to get the emotions of both characters just right, from Roy's need for secrecy to Nathan's painful memories of his father. The scenes involving the abandoned house were especially effective, with the dark and eerie atmosphere paralleling the mindset of Roy, Nathan and the other two boys, Randy and Burke, who are with them. The only fault I find is with the last 10 chapters. They created a very confusing ending for me, and the novel lost some of its believability. I found myself re-reading the (short) chapters again just to make sure what I read was correct. Still, Grimsley's characters are very strong and fleshed out, and the story of a painful first love is worth reading.
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