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.

As for the audiobook version of this novel, Jason Culp’s narration is believable and spot-on. I felt like I was listening to Gerry Andersen himself. Culp does a fine job of fleshing out Andersen in all of his idiosyncrasies and machinations.

I made it to about 25% in this book before deciding not to finish. The story just wasn’t compelling enough. Going back and forth between current time and the past was too difficult to follow in audiobook format - I didn’t feel like there was a clear distinction when moving back into the present. And I found that I really just didn’t care if this guy was hallucinating these things or if it was someone somehow messing with him in real life.

I also want to say that I don’t like that NetGalley is making me give this book a star rating when I didn’t finish, but if I don’t rate it, I get penalized with a lower percentage in my profile.

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
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Pages: 320
Publisher: William Morrow
Publication Date: 6/22/2021
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Thank you to NetGalley for the book in exchange for a review.

Gerry Andersen is a best selling author of Dream Girl. As he recovers from an accident in his apartment, with help from a night nurse, he starts receiving phone calls from a person who claims to be Aubrey. She is the lead character in his book. Who is this person? Is she one of his three ex wives? A fan of his book?

The book has chapters that go back in time as well as present day that details his earlier life. A good psychological thriller.

(3.5)This was a book that was slower paced which allowed the reader to get a deeper look into the protagonists brain than we are usually able to with books that are much faster paced. I think that this was a plus and a minus as while it added layers to the story, in all honesty I think the protagonist's thoughts a lot times were hard to like and arguably deeply disturbing. I also think that Gerry as a character wasn't as interesting as he could be, at times he sort of took a backseat to the other characters in the book.

I will say that this genre didn't really feel like horror to me, but instead read more along the lines of dramatic thriller. I think that this was overall a slow burn and psychologically unravelled as the time went on.

I thought the premise of the book was truly clever, and the idea of a character from an authors own work coming to life was something I hadn't experienced in any other book thus far. I will say that the time jumps were a little hard to follow at times, and I wish it way made a little bit more clear as to what time period we were in. I think overall the writing was really brilliant and while as a whole I think I was a little underwhelmed with the main character and then ending of the story, when you break it apart the writing itself is really well done. This made me want to read more by the author.

The narrator added greatly to the ability of this thriller to captivate the listener. This Misery-esque thriller maintains an ominous feel throughout and keeps the reader guessing until the very end.

I thought this book was FANTASTIC. I realized I hadn’t read (or listened to) enough books with a make voice lately, and was drawn to hearing Gerry’s story. Many books this year are told through the lens of the Me Too movement, but not like this. Listening to Gerry reflect on his behaviors, reveal his incredible ego and lack of self-awareness, while still somehow being a charming narrator is fantastic. Laura Lippmann did an excellent job with this book. Twisty and with a mystery to unfold, what I loved about this was the characters much more so that the plot. Great on audi.o.

The narrator of the audio, Jason Culp, does a fantastic job with the piece and kept me listening and hoping it would take a turn into the unforgettable but I’m pretty certain if I were reading this in a paper version I would’ve DNF’d it at the halfway mark because it didn't work for me and I found Gerry terribly dull.

I don’t want to say too much because this is a thriller and things can be easily spoiled. I’ll only say that it takes a long while for something murderous to happen and when it does things start to get a little confusing and the jumping timelines didn’t help matters out. Just when I was getting excited about a turn it would take, I was thrust back into some random time in the past and often forced to listen to Gerry explain away his sexual inappropriateness or other missteps.

I guess what I’m saying here in this very long-winded way, is that this book wasn’t meant for me but maybe it’ll be meant for you? The mystery/thriller/horror-adjacent bits were interesting and the book was well written if you like a dreamy, off-kilter feeling but it needed some oomph, or a shared POV featuring one of his many women friends who “adored” him but that’s not what we get and I am disappointed in ol’ Gerry.

I liked this story. I listened to the audiobook and it kept me interested. Gerry Anderson was quite the character! He was a main character that you didn't want to like. Overall, I was happy with the ending.

I was interested in this one because of the premise and I have always been a fan of Laura Lippman's work but unfortunately, this one didn't work well for me. The main character was incredibly unlikeable and the other characters were never really developed. The jumping back and forth in time also didn't really seem to work here. It just made things confusing.

I have always enjoyed Laura Lippman's books. I am sure that I could have liked this book better in book format, as the narrator was not ideal for this type of book. The story was interesting but not as in depth with detail and intrigue as most of her novels are.

This is the story of an author that, due to a freak accident, is stuck in a hospital bed at home. Gerry must primarily rely on his assistant and a night nurse to help him recover. The novel jumps between past and present where we see that Gerry has been married three times and really isn't very good at understanding any of the women in his life, including the two women he is currently depending on. He begins to question his nurses abilities and becomes annoyed with his assistant. To make matters worse, Gerry begins to receive messages from the character in his most successful book. All of this leads Gerry down a path in which he is questioning his own sanity.
This book was a unique read. Gerry was not likeable and at times he seemed just clueless about his poor behavior. This story was very character driven, beginning with Gerry and including all of the women in his life. This story pays homage to Misery but make no mistake it tells a very different story.

The audiobook was narrated very well and added to the story.

Thank you to Netgalley for proving me an audio copy in exchange for an honest review.
#NetGalley #DreamGirl

Dark, psychological, suspenseful, wicked, dreamlike..... Alfred Hitchcock would have loved to turn this movie into a turn of the century film. What Gaslight (1940) and Rear Window (1954) depicted with paranoid mentality and delusions, this book would have blended well with this narrator. We witness only what he sees so this book exploited my own anxieties for the main character when his fears were so vulnerable.

Gerry Anderson experienced illusions induced with pain meds and ambien and questioned his own state of mind. He is taken care of by his assistant Victoria and night nurse Aileen due to his incapacitated state caused by a freak accident. As a wealthy author, he is able to live in the finest high rise overlooking Baltimore after his successful book Dream Girl was written about a fictional character Aubrey. Trying to grasp reality, he receives mysterious phone calls from a lady posing as Aubrey, with no record of these calls, missing letters and cruel tweets he becomes motivated by his own personal psychotic behavior.

It took me a few chapters to realize what was going on, but his dry humor and orchestration of his life over a few decades of his life kept me entertained and laughing out loud. With the details of 3 ex-wives, former students and several female co-workers, his sexual encounters were numerous whether forbidden or welcomed.... you may find him vile and morally wicked. Getting past his flaws, I think you will find the book well-worth your time. Overall for me...Yes! Yes! and Yes! That twist at the end puts it in a different perspective.

Thank you NetGalley and Harper Audio for this ARC in exchange for my honest review. I can't wait to read the book instead of listen to it.

Let me be perfectly clear. I did not like the main character, Gerry Anderson. And that is the point, Lippman made him unlikeable for a reason. Jason Culp’s narrators voice does not make him any more likeable. He makes the supporting characters just as unlikeable. Laura Lippman’s wonderful private investigator shows up in the book and turns down his request for help. I do not blame her. And yet, the reader will get caught up in this story and even the last chapter will come as a surprise. Gerry Anderson, is a famous author, stuck in his penthouse apartment because a freak accident has made him immobile and he is dependent on help from his personal assistant, a physical therapist, and a night nurse. And to make it worse, he gets phantom phone calls from Dream Girl, the girl in his most famous novel. Its driving him crazy because he cannot make people believe him. It gets worse when his praying mantis, a former fiancé, shows up demanding he let her live with her. He gets her to leave only to wake up the next morning to find her dead beside his hospital bed. And then the book really starts getting creepy. He lets his night nurse dispose of the body and from then on his life spirals quickly into a nightmare. I’m not going to give the story away but let me say, I am glad Gerry Anderson won’t be appearing in any more books by Lippman.

This is a different spin on the book Misery by Stephen King. Taking place in the heart of the city and yet being completely isolated in a modern time with all the electronic devices to access the authorities, this deceptive and engaging story keeps the reader enthralled to the very end where justice is served cold.

So good as an audiobook! I really enjoyed this narrator. An interesting tale in the time of "Me, Too", giving insight into the mind of a dirtball and how he justifies his actions. And yet you can't help but like him, and the suspense keeps you listening when you should be doing other things. Perfect!

I have actually never read her Tess Monaghan series, but I have read a few of Laura Lippman's stand alone titles and I have liked them all. Good character development, good plots - all you want in a book like this. I plan on going back to her series. This is a good thriller.

A twisted and twisting story. At times hard to follow. You get slightly lost in the story/storyteller realm though that was the intent. An ok book but not a favorite. The narrator was good.

I really enjoyed dream girl. I kept wondering if Gerry was in a drug haze or if this was really all happening to him. You do find out and glad you do! I am still laughing at Gerry talking about how many times is to many to be married. I had just had a conversation with my friends about this. In all I enjoyed this book and didn't expect the twists and turns.

Gerry Andersen is a white man of a certain age, a successful novelist that has an unfortunate accident and is confined to a hospital bed in his Baltimore apartment. The only people he sees are his assistant and his nurse and he is existing in a haze of memories and and random bits of day to day interactions. He thinks he has been a 'good' man but with all the changes of what is acceptable he does not know what he can or can not say or do now. And now there are calls and visits that have him questioning his very sanity. What is real and what is a dream?

The narrator does a good job bringing the listener into Gerry's world.