Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for providing an advance copy in exchange for honest feedback.

I liked the premise of this book -- it centers around an author who descends into paranoia once he starts receiving letters and calls from a fictional character, the lead character of his best-selling novel Dream Girl. But she isn't real or is she? Is this all in his head or is someone messing with him?

This was slow for me to get through because you're inside the head of a very unreliable narrator and one that is hard to sympathize with. His inner thoughts on women are just icky and I hate being privy to them.

The ending makes sense but ultimately wasn't that satisfying

I have discovered through reading Laura Lippman’s more recent books that she is fast becoming a favorite author of mine. I love her observant style of writing and how she so uncannily and casually uncovers truths about people and society. Her novel Dream Girl almost reads more like a novella, throwing the reader into the midst of a situation and letting them discover what may.

In this case, the reader is introduced to Gerry Andersen, a best-selling author who finds himself laid up in a hospital bed in his home in Baltimore after an accident. The story is told in both the present and past, with the reader learning more and more about Gerry’s unsavory, predator-esque personality, while also revealing how Gerry has come to find himself in his current situation. Readers will soon discover that not all is as it seems because Gerry is receiving phone calls, letters, and visions about a character in his most popular book - his “dream girl,” Aubrey. Just who is Aubrey, and what does she want? It’s a race against the clock to find out …

The ratings for Dream Girl are a mixed bag, and.I generally feel the same, although I find myself viewing the novel more favorably than many. However, I am sticking with 3 stars because when compared with other 4 star novels that I have read and reviewed lately, I find that Dream Girl doesn’t quite hit as high of a mark. Dream Girl’s storyline is certainly intriguing; its characters despicable; its twists and turns outlandish. It just feels a bit all over the place in its storytelling, and I had to suspend disbelief several times throughout the novel to continue forward. In all, it is a worthy read if you are a fan of Laura Lippman, but if you have not read any of her other books, give one of those a try before this one.

I enjoyed listening to this book a great deal. The setup of a character from a famous novel plaguing her author was interesting. The resolution, albeit somewhat convoluted, worked well. There seemed to be an arched eyebrow through much of the novel, which tickled me. I am going to see if I can find Red Barber.

Thanks to NetGalley, Laura Lippman and William Morrow for granting me advance access to this book.

This slow reader started the book on a Saturday morning and stayed up to finish it Saturday night! Could not have enjoyed this more. Will be recommending it for years to come.

Laura Lippman killed it, as always. Her thrillers are always fresh and interesting and keep me turning the pages even though I don't read many thrillers these days!

I always love Laura Lippman books, and chose for this to be my first read of 2022. I loved the format, and I truly felt like I was spiraling into madness alongside Gerry. I can definitely see why it was often compared to Stephen King, the story had a similar feel. I loved it!

I love Lippman and her writing style but some things missed the mark for me in this one. I liked the premise of this book but there were a few plot holes that left me scratching my head. I also wasn’t sure if it was a case of the author intentionally writing a character as so out there and unlikeable or if it was just because they were unfamiliar with writing a main character of the opposite sex. All in all not my favorite by her, but I will continue to read her books. It was still enjoyable.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the digital ARC to preview for our library!

How can you go wrong with Laura Lippman? Always a great tale whenever she puts pen to paper....or more than likely fingers to keypad! Lippman is a Baltimore treasure & a book club favorite!

I am always intrigued by books that include a main character who is a writer because I find it interesting to read how authors portray and describe writers and how it varies in each book. This book includes an unreliable narrator as we follow Gerry's story and perspective as he questions his mental health and what is actually reality. The plot was interesting and I think the inclusion of a variety of time periods was an interesting way to keep the plot moving forward and set the scene for the current day events. While I wanted to love this book and it was well written, I did have trouble connecting with the main character and focusing on the book. This was my first Laura Lippman novel, but I am still interested to read other novels by her because I enjoyed the writing style I just didn't enjoy the content of this story as much. This is a good read for readers who enjoy psychological thrillers and the unreliable narrator.

Gerry Andersen is a brilliant author who has been confined to his luxurious apartment after a freak accident. His world has shrunk to his nurse, his assistant, and his agent. Gerry's world is rocked when he receives a phone call from somebody claiming to be Aubrey, the main character of his best-selling novel. Gerry knows that there is no real Aubrey that could call him and assumes it is one of his exes trying to exact some sort of revenge. When the calls start to increase in frequency, he doesn't know what to do or who to turn to for help. Is he losing his mind or is someone out to get him?

Let me be clear, Gerry Andersen is a horrible human being. I wanted to compare Dream Girl to the Stephen King classic, Misery, but beyond the recovering author, there are no similarities. Dream Girl has a real noir kind of feeling to it, mostly because of Gerry's personality, I think. As Gerry reflects on his life to figure out why somebody would do this, the reader uncovers his major personality flaws. He is a horrible human being, but as we start to recognize his flaws, Gerry never does. Which is perhaps his worst flaw. There was no figuring it out for me. There were so many paths the author could have taken in Gerry's story. The ending really did surprise me. CLICK HERE FOR SPOILERS.

Bottom Line - As much as I loathed Gerry Andersen, I couldn't stop reading to find out what was going to happen to him. And those are the kind of books that I love!


Details:
Dream Girl by Laura Lippman
On Twitter
Pages: 320
Publisher: William Morrow
Publication Date: 6/22/2021
Buy it Here!
Thank you to NetGalley for the book in exchange for a review.

DNF
This was my first book by this author and having read reviews comparing it to Misery, I was excited to read it. I unfortunately couldn't get into it.

Dream Girl by Laura Lippman is a tale of psychological suspense revolving around a writer who is currently laid up with an injury and relying on the aid of others to help him heal. However, his helpers may not be exactly who he thought they were. This leads to more questions than answers for a man who is used to being in control of his life. Plenty of action keeps the reader intrigued right up to the end. Read and enjoy!

My Highly Caffeinated Thought: A darkly intricate tale weaving together deception, mind-games, and murder all the while having a strong feminist point of view throughout.

DREAM GIRL is a psychological thriller that takes the mind of an author and allows him to become a twisted mass of fear and confusion. Oh, how wonderful it is the way the author plays with the idea of the male ego and the way certain individuals look at others while silently passing judgment on some level. It is no secret that Lippman is masterful at her craft, but with this story, she managed to layer the twists so her readers are given a highly suspenseful, smart, and at times humorous tale.

In books such as this one, the tension all lies within the way the author reveals the entire picture. There are questions, misdirections, and of course, flat-out lies told by the characters. However, having Gerry confined to his bed with mostly his own thoughts to keep him company brings a whole new level of suspense. As the reader you get a picture of what is happening, only to question everything entirely in the next chapter.

What I liked about this book is the way the author brings a feminist point of view within the pages but does not overtly beat you over the head with it. She delicately adds comments and situations which will plant a seed of what is to come later. There is an acute understanding of how people with power and privilege can act in ways that they see nothing wrong, but in reality, they are inflicting pain on those they interact with.

All in all, this is a dark, timely, witty, and extremely well-crafted novel filled with duplicity and mind-bending suspense.

Novelist Gerry Andersen had an accident and is bedridden while he recuperates from his inquiries. He lives alone in an apartment and relies on his assistant and a night nurse for his care. He starts to question his mental health as he starts to receive late night phone calls from a character in his popular novel. Are these calls and texts real or imagined? Can he trust the people around him? There are lots of twist in this novel as you try and determine the real from the imagined. It's an enjoyable read!

Laura Lippman has done it again with brand new standalone Dream Girl. The story finds novelist Gerry Andersen injured and bed-ridden in a high-rise after a freak fall, and at the mercy of two women he barely knows. Sounds very Misery, right? Then he receives a call from someone claiming to be Aubrey, the main character from his hit novel. Is someone playing a trick on him or is he imagining it entirely? The story is eerie, atmospheric, and really draws readers in. If you enjoyed Stephen King's Misery, you'll likely enjoy Dream Girl. Highly recommended!

Since I’m a huge fan of Lippman’s novels, the standalones as well as the series featuring the PI, Tess Monaghan, I really looked forward to reading this book. For the most part, I wasn’t disappointed. When the story started I thought of it as a spoof of King’s classic Misery, and it certainly was panning out to be a pretty good spoof, but Gerry is not the sympathetic character that Paul Sheldon is. Gerry is a self-absorbed man, probably a narcissist’s, and I really didn’t like him.

Normally, I have to like the central character to continue reading a story, and had this been from an author I wasn’t familiar with, I might have moved on to another novel. But this is Laura Lippman, one of my favorites authors, and surely she wouldn’t disappoint me.

She didn’t. As the story progressed, she added layers to the plot that drew me in, and I went along for the rest of the ride with the story just to see what was going to happen next.

The question of who was making the late-night calls to Gerry, pretending to be the fictional woman in his book, Dream Girl, was compelling as suspects were introduced through his trips back in time to explore old relationships. Going back and forth to different time periods was a good technique and the references to pop culture of each period was spot on.

Each reminiscence of someone who might hold a grudge for some past mistake made me wonder, “Is this the one,” reminding me that keeping a reader wondering and guessing is one of Lippman’s strengths as a writer.

Aileen, the nurse who is hired to take care of Gerry at night as he recovers from the injuries is a well-drawn character even though she is not a sharply menacing as Annie Wilkes in Misery. Still, she’s menacing enough, and when her true identity, and connection to his assistant, Victoria, is revealed, it was a nice twist and one that took me by surprise. When I first met Aileen in the story, I saw her as an eccentric, yet harmless, person.

The climax is another huge surprise, as is the denouement, and I won’t say much about either to give anything away. Let’s just say I didn’t see it coming, and it took me a while of thinking about them to finally realize I liked the ending. And I liked the book.

(3.5)
This book tells a tale of an injured man, a successful novelist, who finds himself being cared for and at the mercy of two women he barely knows. What could possibly go wrong?
Gerry Andersen has lived a pretty decent adult life. He’s written a novel or two in his time, with his most successful being Dream Girl. One night, he gets a call from a girl claiming to be the “real” Aubrey, the thing is, there is no Aubrey. She’s a fabricated woman. A simple figment of a creative writer's imagination. So, who is this woman? One of his three ex-wives or perhaps one of his lovers such as his ex-girlfriend Margot who has a bit of a letting-go issue? Also, why is it that not a single person believes him about the phone call?
Since he’s alone and kept from the world due to his injuries and his pain medications keep him quite drowsy he’s also been flipping back and forth through time in his mind (and for the benefit of the readers, that’s us!) where he has been facing his own past with his father, his devoted mother and her death, and all the women he loved in many ways.
Now, he’s faced with a woman from his book, a woman he knows doesn’t exist who says she is owed something but is she really a threat or is this all a sign of a great illness? Gerry is confused, alone, and absolutely terrified.
This book has an incredible premise and it sucked me in by the description immediately. The problem is, I found myself drifting out in the beginning a lot. Then it would pick up and I’d get into the groove of the book again and then I’d find myself drifting out again only to get sucked back in.
This book is very well written and there are so many great ideas in the story but, for me, it just missed the mark here and there. I liked the end but I didn’t love the build up. There are a few reveals in this story and while some are strong, some aren’t so much and some (at least one) are just plain icky.
All in all though, I thought it was a decent enough story. I would definitely read more from this author in the future, I just think this one wasn’t quite what I was hoping for. I do encourage you to give it a shot though. It may be just what you are looking for (and I have to give a woohoo to the shout out to Sealtest ice cream! I didn’t remember it until it was mentioned in this book but once I read it it brought back so many childhood memories!). Give it a go and see what you think for yourself. If nothing else, you still will be reading a very well written story.


Thank you so much to Netgalley, the publisher, and the author for the advanced copy of this story. I appreciate it so much! Thank you!!

This was a confusing story with the flashbacks and too many unnecessary characters. I have enjoyed her other books but this one was not for me. Also didn’t enjoy the ending, as it seemed to just be too easy of a resolution.

Laura Lippman pays homage to Stephen King’s book Misery in her novel, Dream Girl. Gerry Andersen is an author who has yet to match the mega-success of his first novel, “Dream Girl”. When Gerry takes a serious fall in his Baltimore apartment, he is bedridden and dependent on the care of his young assistant and the nurses who come to his apartment.


One night Gerry receives a disturbing phone call from a woman who claims she is the real person he based his novel on. He knows this cannot be true, the character was a figment of his imagination.

When the phone calls continue, neither his overnight nurse nor his assistant hears the phone ringing. When he sees a woman in his room late at night and calls out, the nurse comes running but no one is there, and the security cameras for the building show that no one came into his apartment.



Is Gerry losing his mind or is someone messing with him? Could it be one of his ex-wives? The book goes back and forth in time, and we get a real feel for the character of Gerry, who he is and where he comes from. Fans of Lippman’s Tess Monaghan PI series will enjoy the cameo by Tess as Gerry looks for help to find answers.



I read Dream Girl in one day, I could not put this one down.