I guess the #MeToo reckoning has now caught up to the literary publication cycle. In fact, this was the 2nd book I read this week in which a college professor who teaches writing is held up as being "slightly" rape-y? Love those shades of gray I guess. By the last third of this book I was just DONE and TIRED of the narrator's inner monologue recounting all these past sexual conquests. And his knee-jerk "Can I even say that?" internal dialogue responses to his damn self when broaching any topic related to identity politics or gendered norms or sexual stratification. The book is fine enough. But there's my review of it, for better or worse.

With shades of "Misery" and "Rear Window", this novel wasn't quite what I expected from the description. I expected more of a thriller as novelist Gerry Anderson is stalked by phone calls claiming to be from his most famous character. That mystery is solved mid-way through the books and it gets bogged down for a bit. But there is an interesting twist at the end that is worth continuing through the rest of the novel.. Intriguing, but not outstanding.

Laura Lippman’s classifies her latest novel Dream Girl, as horror and credits her favorite authors as inspiration. This story will immediately have Stephen King fans recalling Misery. In the # MeToo era, we are presented with a popular author, Gerry Anderson, severely injured, helpless in his apartment and dependent on two young women for his care. I could see where the story was going from the beginning, so 3 stars. The ending almost redeemed the novel for me, but I’m sure will irritate other readers. I just could not buy Gerry’s stupidity, even with the explanation that he was being drugged.
Recommended for all of Lippman’s many fans,

Dream Girl by Laura Lippman is quite a twisted tale that will keep you reading and wondering what will come next and then when it does you say, "Wow! I didn't see that coming." It is a mind-bending mystery with softly hidden clues .

Dream Girl by Laura Lippman seems like a real departure from her previous books that I have read (Lady in the Lake, for example). The protagonist is not at all likable and very self-indulgent not to mention totally unreliable with added help from Ambien and oxycodone. The timeline that jumps all over the place I found to be disconcerting.

Gerry Andersen is a novelist who wrote the best seller Dream Girl, about which he says is not modeled on any one person. He is in both a writing slump and a physical slump having fallen down the stairs of his new digs. He has just come off his third divorce and the death of his mother, whose illness caused him to move from New York to Baltimore so he could take care of her. Worse, he has a crazy ex-girlfriend who isn’t yet ready to give up on his supporting her as he did in New York. He thought he got rid of her when he sold his property there, but she is on his trail.

When he starts receiving strange phone calls and visits in the middle of the night from a woman claiming to be the “dream girl,” he is wondering if he is falling into dementia like his mother or if the drugs are now in control of his world. His life has become a nightmare, and he does not know if it is the sleep-time variety or real.
Laura Lippman is an Edgar Award-winning novelist. She has written 21 novels, a novella, a children’s book, and a collection of short stories. She lives with her family in Baltimore.

My review will be posted on Goodreads starting April 6, 2021.

I would like to thank William Morrow, an imprint of HarperCollins, and Custom House for providing me with an ARC in return for an objective review.

Laura Lippman has outdone herself with this twisty thriller. II would recommend every lover of a good psychological noir, to run and pre-order this book. The writing is tight, the characters interesting and multi-dimensional and the plot riveting.
Gerry Anderson is a successful, but not stratospherically so, author. He has had several well received novels, but none so much as "Dream Girl" which even still draws queries on whom the protagonist is based. When Gerry is catastrophically injured in a freak accident he is utterly and totally dependent on his assistant, Victoria, and his dull-witted night nurse. Numerous flashbacks provide a counterpoint to Gerry's grandiose opinion of himself and the addition of strange, anonymous phone calls and letters, which cause Gerry to question his sanity add another layer to the suspense.
Again, I highly recommend that all readers who enjoy a good psychological thriller, put this book on their "must read" spring book list.

The first chapter is so unique and intriguing. This is a strange book but sometimes it pays to go outside of your comfort zone. Don’t read a lot of mysteries, especially ones where the main character is male. It keeps on getting creepier and creepier the more you get into it. Didn’t know who was bad, if things were real or imagined. Lots of little messages and life lessons throughout. Should be required reading for every male out there who thinks their words and actions are no big deal.

Although I’m a big fan of Laura Lippman, I didn’t enjoy Dream Girl as much as other titles by her. I do like that the setting takes place in Baltimore. The storyline seemed confusing and bizarre at times. Not what I was expecting.at all.

What sly wicked fun this was!

Novelist Gerry Anderson has a double tear in his quadricep and is bound to his bed in his beautiful new apartment in Baltimore. Having recently moved from NYC to be near his mother, who has since passed away from Alzheimer’s/dementia, he knows no one in and must depend on his recently hired assistant and night nurse for everything.

Gerry begins to receive vaguely threatening telephone calls from a woman claiming to be Aubrey, the name of the character in his bestseller novel Dream Girl. Aubrey claims she exists and he has done her wrong. Although it‘s a matter of speculation in the literary world, Gerry claims Aubrey is completely fictitious.

On heavy doses of pain medication and Ambien is he experiencing drug-induced delusions? Is he the victim of a prank? Is he suffering from dementia like his mother? The latter seems likely as there is no record of the calls that become increasingly threatening.

If this is really happening could there be a woman he has wronged? No. His conscience is clear. Well…Clearish. If only the culture wasn’t moving so fast. Jokes that were fine a few years ago are now deemed offensive. And all of the many women he slept with practically demanded it. HE was the victim here, not them. Of course he’s blameless. Right?

Gerry’s thoughts are hilarious and made me laugh out loud more than once. Other times…well, as we move back in time to certain incidents in his life we begin to suspect Gerry may lack self-awareness.

The author in the epilogue considers this her first work of horror inspired in part by a few of her favorite novelists. Certainly, as the events transpire the story gets very dark indeed but I would call it more of a literary thriller. Some things that occur are horrific but they happen off the page.

I absolutely loved it. The writing is sharp and smart and the slow build-up of tension and suspense was pitch perfect. I loved Gerry’s witty observations, I loved the flashbacks that give us a clearer picture of who he really was, I loved the references to book titles, authors, and movies, the publishing world and academia, and I loved the satirical humor.

And the ending….well, it was a fitting end! Unputdownable and highly recommended!

This book was very suspenseful but also very bizarre. It jumps timelines and is somewhat confusing at first. It took me awhile to get into it but all in all it was an enjoyable read.

I know many readers adore Lippman, but I have never jived with her work. I keep trying, but alas this wasn't an exception. Maybe someday I will find a Lippman novel that I enjoy!

Thanks to NetGalley and William Morrow for ARC copy of this novel in exchange for my honest review.

I have followed Laura Lippman for years and eagerly await each of her books. This book was quite different than her others. Many have mentioned the obvious similarity to Misery by Stephen King, and this is indeed true. I was not a fan of that book either, so perhaps that is why I struggled with this one. The other main difficulty for me was the fact that the protagonist is an extremely unlikeable man. Gerry is a writer who has been injured and is now reliant on 2 caregivers for his day to day care and rehabilitation. He has been several times divorced, has no real friends and has recently lost his mother. Having bought an expensive penthouse in Baltimore to be near his mother, who then died more quickly than expected, he is depressed and unhappy. He is struggling with writer's block and spends time reflecting on his past success. He begins to receive letters, phone calls and even in person visits from someone who claims to be the living embodiment of one of his fictional characters. The story was a bit slow and dull for me. Much time is spent exploring Gerry's character and how his life has shaped him to be the man he is today. That said, he is self centered, mysogynistic, and lacks personality. Why do we want to know this man? I kept with this book and overall appreciated the writing and the slow simmer of mystery, but it was not my favorite and I was glad when it was over.

While I liked this book and from Baltimore area so always a huge fan of Laura Lippman books I just didn't like all the literary references. It made me think she was trying to prove that she is an author to respect and not just a crime fiction writer.

I read this in ONE day. I meant to read 15 minutes while eating, and I never got off my reading chair. This book is pure delicious fun! MISERY meets GASLIGHT, on top of Laura Lippman's usual stellar writing, psychological insight, witty humor (laugh out loud at times), and nailbiting suspense. I loved Tess Monaghan's cameo, the real-life publishing gossip (nice naming names there, Ms. Lippman!), and the slow building of dread and horror. As much as I find comfort in my favorite authors sticking to what has always worked for them, I love even more (not to mention respect and admire) when they branch out and try new things I haven't quite seen before.

I'm slightly shocked by the lukewarm reviews that have shown up so far - this is one of my favorites (for the year) already. The main character is hopelessly introspective yet suffers from a glaring lack of self awareness, so he's a really neat read. A couple of the ancillary characters probably wouldn't hold up well, but that's only if you're holding them to a standard of "not psychopathic," which I'm absolutely not. Most importantly, I enjoyed every second of this clever read.

Gerry Andersen is a novelist whose best-selling novel, Dream Girl, continues to provide him with funds. He’s written other books since then, but they haven’t quite achieved the same level of acclaim. After a freak accident, Gerry finds himself confined to a hospital bed in his beautiful 25th floor apartment.

While trying to heal and write a new novel in between visits from his assistant and night nurse, Gerry starts receiving disturbing phone calls from “Aubrey”, the main character in Dream Girl. How is that possible? Aubrey is a character he completely made up. Could the source be one of his ex-wives, playing tricks on him? Are the calls really happening? Could he be imagining them in his medicinal haze?

The thought that kept recurring in my head while reading this book was: “This is so bizarre.” It truly is. The timeline jumps all over the place, through several decades. It was a bit jarring at first. Once I got used to it and picked up what was being thrown down, I sat back and enjoyed the ride.

This is a psychological thriller with many moving pieces and nuanced scenes that don’t seem like they will connect to Gerry’s current predicament, but they do...most of them, at least. Gerry may be an unreliable narrator, and it’s interesting to see how he perceives himself with what we learn about him in his past.

With flavors of Misery and the #MeToo Movement, there is no shortage of suspects or possible scenarios. It takes a wicked and unexpectedly delicious turn towards the end.

Although this took me awhile to get into, I enjoyed it overall. This is the second Laura Lippman book I’ve read, and I’m looking forward to more.

3.5 stars.

Thank you to William Morrow and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review. This book is set to be published on 6/22/21.

Review also posted at: https://bonkersforthebooks.wordpress.com

Thanks to NetGalley and William Morrow for a Ebook advance copy of this novel.

Dream Girl by Laura Lippman was both different for Ms. Lippman and yet familiar in the Stephen King Misery sense. Which would be fine, but the characters in this novel just all seem completely implausible. The main character is pretentious and unlikable, ok but so is everyone else. Their motivations nebulous and the violence in the book just seems to ratchet up and up, but without a real reason why or a payoff. The various flashbacks just keep going and clogging the narrative, and I found myself skipping along without really absorbing what was happening.

Gerry Andersen is a successful author, his most popular book, Dream Girl. Although people always want to know who Dream Girl herself is, Gerry insists that she is a figment of his imagination. Which make the fact that he is receiving letters, calls and visits from a woman claiming to be Aubrey, the dream girl, a bit out of the ordinary. Gerry, recently hurt and bedridden, doesn’t know if any of this is real, the effects of his painkillers or, his worst fear, dementia. When a body turns up, Gerry must figure out what is going on before he ends up dead too.
As always, Laura Lippman is spectacular.
Her seamless transition between the time periods kept me wanting more and let us get to know Gerry, little by little. The creepy atmosphere was its own character and you were never quite sure what to think of the situation. Suspenseful and exciting, Dream Girl is pure enjoyment.

I must confess that I just was not interested in the plot of this story. I couldn’t get into the character or the flashbacks used to move the story along. I will not post to Goodreads because I did not finish the novel.

Another amazing book by Laura Lippman. Is he going crazy or is he in more deep than he knew? Is he that bad of a person or just misunderstood in life? I could not put this book down, great story and great mystery. Absolutely will be recommending this to others and people who just want a great story.