http://icedteadiaries.blogspot.com/2015/09/far-beyond-pale-by-daren-dean.html ( )

Honey Boy Kimbrough, almost never referred to by his given name Nathan, is a thirteen year old boy who lives with his mother when she is available, and any of several other kin folks or friends in and around small town and back-woods Missouri. Honey Boy’s Mother works odd jobs and moves frequently trying to provide for herself and son while taking up with men who abuse her and her son. The young boy is often left for days and longer with a self-righteous, god-fearing aunt who lectures Honey Boy on the wages of sin or with an outright criminal who is one of several possible candidates for an unknown father. Honey Boy is learning life is difficult at best and may actually turn out to be impossible. Cussing, fighting, smoking, and drinking are normal activities in his world. While Honey Boy’s name is Kimbrough, his close kinfolk are the Vaughn’s, one of which is the bully of the county. Elston Vaughn intimidates men, women and lawmen alike while recruiting young boys and women to commit his relentless criminal activities. Elston’s gravity attracts Honey Boy toward a life of crime and sense of fear-induced respect while Aunt Oleta pulls him toward her definition of God’s claims on his life.

In Far Beyond the Pale author Daren Dean tries to capture the essence of the daily trials of a young boy’s chaotic life amidst poverty, crime and seriously reckless adults. Honey Boy’s character is compelling and I found myself feeling for him even though he appears to posses an internal strength which should steer him around most of the potentially disastrous situations in which he regularly finds himself. However, his dysfunctional moral compass carries him in random directions causing his bad-apple reputation to grow precipitously.

The pre-print ebook version I read has several dropped words, misspellings, and other small editorial glitches that should be cleared up before publication. I can recommend this book to those looking for a new voice and edgy read that causes one to think seriously about the plight of young kids continuously subjected to a degenerate environment.

Chris Tusa provided the recommendation to review this book and I have since visited and highly recommend his fictionsoutheast.org website to readers interested in new and known authors. ( )

I was suggested to read this book by Chris Tusa, noted author of the new American South. While I appreciate Dean's discussion of the underprivileged and marginalized I did not really enjoy the book. I had little invested in the characters but rather because I was not interested in the subject matter, not the writing style. I just think I am a biased reviewer. Give it a try! ( )

Far Beyond the Pale, by Daren Dean, introduces readers to Nathan Kimbrough, known to most as "Honey Boy" or "The Kid." He's 13 years old in the mid 1970s, and he and his mother have just returned to Fairmount, Missouri, his mother's birthplace, after drifting for years as his mother falls in love with one bad man after another. Honey Boy doesn't know who his father is because his mother won't tell him, but he soon re-establishes friendships with the Vaughn boys, who are all headed for no good in a hurry. Chief among the Vaughns is Elston, easily the worst man in the County; when, for some reason Elston decides to make Honey Boy his apprentice, it's up to the youngster to figure out whether his future will lead him to heaven or to hell.... There's a lot to like in this novel - the writing is evocative of a place and time, and the story about a youngster struggling to grow up and figure out his place in the world is a universal, and universally compelling, tale. I had some trouble with some of the characters, particularly Elston who is, indeed, far beyond the pale; it's sometimes a struggle to get through a novel with so many unpleasant people in it. But I liked Honey Boy and his friends, and since he's on just about every page of the book, it was helpful to focus specifically on him to offset the wicked characters. This was an e-book advance reader copy, and as I've noticed more and more with e-books, there are a number of dropped words, misspellings and the like (my favourite was a line in which the word was obviously meant to be "face," as in "saving face," but the word used was "faith," pretty funny in a novel that includes a whole lot of religious talk and action!); I hope the publisher can pass it through another proof-reading session because of that problem, but I did find it a good read even with that annoyance. Recommended! ( )