As acknowledged by the author herself, she categorises her book as her first foray into horror( and I would absolutely agree, it is a very modern, existential horror threaded through 'Dream Girl') and directly references Stephen King's 'Misery' and the works of Philip Roth.

Here, she creates a deeply creepy and disturbing living tomb for writer Gerry Andersen who has returned to Baltimore to attend his dying mother. He is a narcissistic individual whose writing has been epitomised by his hit novel, 'Dream Girl', all of his work is now categorised as before and after.

His mother's decline from an aggressive and hereditary form of dementia and yet, he manages to make her death about him and his concerns that his occasional episodes of blankness, and forgetfulness , could be a pre-cursor to his own diagnosis.

Having moved from his impoverished childhood in Baltimore, with a single parent, burdened with the same name as his father, his drive to succeed has taken him to New York, a fellowship at a prestigious university, and now, back home again.

Telling himself it is a temporary move, he is also hoping to have fled hanger on/succubus Margot, who he has been seeing for a year and won't take no for an answer-even selling his apartment that she moved herself into has not got the message across-and restart his writing career.

As the story goes back and forth from the now to the past, we explore the way in which Gerry has collected, and abandoned women , including 3 ex-wives, work colleagues, casual pick ups and so forth. He blames first wife, Lucy's, constant suspicion of infidelity for him eventually being unfaithful. He blames second wife, Sarah, for being a trophy wife and third wife Gretchen, for losing interest, none of his divorces are his responsibility. His drive to dissociate himself from having the same name as his constantly disappearing father, has ended up with him coming full circle in the way he has treated the women in his life-not his fault.

An unexpected accident leaves him bed bound, dependent on the ministrations of his night nurse, Aileen, and his assistant, Victoria. He has time, and space, to explore his life and really evaluate it, yet this opportunity to stay still and make proper changes to the way he nehaves comes back to bite him in the form of letters, emails and a disappearing tweet, all regarding 'Dream Girl'.

The main character, Aubrey, is on the phone. Details about his genitalia are tweeted, and then vanish. A letter with a postmark from the fictional address he gave to Aubrey is glimpsed and disappears.

Is he going insane? Is it the beginnings of dementia? Is it something else altogether? And then , there is the matter of the dead body...

I am going to try really, really hard not to spoil this blisteringly fantastic and supremely clever novel, it will make you gasp, think, think again, put the book down, walk around the house, make notes, make footnotes, and start reading again.

The commentary on the way that men look at, appropriate and don't acknowledge the input of women in their creativity is spot on-the constant asking Gerry who Aubrey is, and his vehement denial is both blackly funny and accurate. He has the finances with which he has been able to maintain his lifestyle, even after 3 divorces, and hire personal staff, yet this fortune is based on the one woman he wrote so very well that the public think it wasn't him.

There are so many excellent motifs to enjoy, the creation of this gilded cage in which Gerry is trapped is wonderful, he has this view but it's not one he wants to 'see', the layout is confusing with the bedrooms downstairs, and linked by a floating staircase-at once both completely necessary to link up and down, head and penis, yet not actually attached it a meaningful way. It's structure is sound but the artifice in which it creates an illusion of not being secure is immediately relatable to Gerry and his talent.

This is a bit of a stretch, but 'Dream Girl' might possibly be seen in the terms of a Dickensian moral tale, if Gerry is seen as Scrooge, and the three most visible women in his life as the ghosts who visit him -Aileen, as the past, Victoria, as the present, and Margot, as the future-yet he resolutely does not acknowledge the place in his life that these women have, leading to the cyclic creation of a novel within a novel and an ending that made me clap my hands in utter delight.

There is no more exquisite pleasure, to my mind, than being played by a writer at the top of her game like Laura is, she snaps the trap shut around readers and characters alike and baits and switches like no one else. The dark humour which runs through it is brilliant, there is an appearance by another of Laura's characters, Tess Monaghan, which bought to mind Agatha Christie's 'Murder On The Orient Express', the scene where American philanthropist Ratchett tried to hire Poirot(and fails)

Witty, timely, prescient and skewering the reception of the #MeToo movement, and the lack of recognition of how, and why this has happened, 'Dream Girl' is a noir-ish horror, a literary feat, an exploration of the writing process and a love letter to the city of Baltimore. I loved every last bit of it.

Dream Girl has the most simplistic plot you could imagine; the majority of the book is set in a single room and from one man's point of view. Lippman's excellent storytelling keeps you hooked from the onset and the character of Gerry is, in my opinion, the most well-developed and complex characters in Lippman's repertoire. The story is shocking without being far-fetched, intriguing without being based on the supernatural, and excellently paced. You actually feel as though you are on a journey with Gerry Andersen (the protagonist). I felt physically exhausted after reading each installment of his ordeal and came to care about what happens to him very much by the end of the book.

I would recommend this book to everyone. Its powerful writing at it's best. Ms. Lippman puts you right there in the room where the action is, you feel the pain, fear and sheer determination of the characters. Once you start reading it you don't want to stop. One of the best books I have read this year. Keeps you in suspense and that ending was brilliant.

This is a twisty thriller with an unreliable narrator, told with humour and a nod to a lot of other writers and novels, particularly Misery. Gerry Anderson is the narrator. He’s a successful writer, although he’s most known for one novel called Dream Girl. After an accident he’s bedridden and he only sees his assistant Victoria by day and nurse Aileen by night. The story jumps between current events and memories of Gerry’s life and as the book progresses it’s clear that his opinion of himself is far from truthful. Is he delusional, affected by pain medication? Is he suffering from dementia like his mother or is he really being stalked by a woman who claims to be Aubrey, the Dream Girl of his novel?
The nonlinear structure certainly fits with Gerry’s state of mind and while he’s totally unlikeable the story is very readable. An enjoyable and clever read.

Dream Girl by Laura Lippman is a highly entertaining novel of psychological suspense, with a generous dose of wicked dark humor and murder, and a dash of horror, thrown in. The story follows Gerry Andersen, a 61 year old famous novelist, whose writing has “stalled” and who is confined to a hospital bed in his apartment while he recovers from a freak accident. He is completely dependent on a small number of eclectic characters: secretary Victoria, agent Thiru, overnight caregiver Aileeen, and ex-fiance Margot. As he seesaws between clarity and a pain killer-induced dreamlike state, he has nothing but time to review his past triumphs and transgressions.
The story is told in Gerry’s present, with lots of flashbacks which reveal to the reader his complicated childhood, marriage drama, and professional career. While Gerry is an unlikeable character, these accounts did imbue him with a bit of pathos and fragility, a counterpoint to his selfish, sexist persona. Some of his philosophical musings are quite humorous. I liked the present vs. flashbacks writing construct, as bits of the puzzle of Gerry were scattered through the story in seemingly haphazard fashion, but all the pieces contributed to a very satisfying whole by the end of the book.
The present time “action” by necessity takes place entirely in the great room of his apartment where his hospital bed is located, ala Rear Window. The suspense builds relentlessly, and there are some terrific twists on the way to the deliciously twisty conclusion!
The writing is stylish and clever, with incisive humor and good use of irony. I particularly enjoyed the many references to works of literature and poetry throughout the book, which added intelligence and depth to the novel. I look forward to Laura Lippman’s next novel in this horror/suspense genre!

4.5 stars

Thank you to William Morrow/Harper Collins and NetGalley for the ARC. This is my unbiased review.

First of all, many thanks to NetGalley for trusting me with an ARC of this book and giving me the chance of reading it first and commenting it, the following is an honest review spoiler free.

I would like to start saying that this is the first book I have read of the author, but after reading this one I am planning to read more, she has a very unique writing style, and I think this is a hard book to write given the narrator conditions and she excels at it. It's a very quick read, perfect for the upcoming summer that I'm sure many will enjoy.

It has an intriguing premise, a writer gets mysterius calls from one of his characters, so there is this point of mystery in the novel, because you don't know if it is someone impersonatting "Dream Girl" protagonists of his best selling book or if he is losing his mind, so you get in a journey to find this.

If you are a beginner on reading in English this is a good book to start with, as it is very clear doesn't use complicate terms, and easy to follow.

Thanks again to NetGalley

Gerry Andersen is a writer who was injured in an accident. He is now forced to spend his days in a hospital bed in his apartment with an assistant and a night shift nurse caring for him. Gerry begins to question his sanity when he has random visits from his ex-girlfriend and strange phone calls from someone claiming to be a character from his novel. Next he wakes up beside a dead body! Is this a nightmare or real?

I really enjoyed this book. It would be a great summer read. Laura Lippman has a real knack for developing characters that you love to hate! I appreciated some witty comedy thrown in as well. I look forward to reading more of Laura Lippman’s books in the future.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Faber and Faber Ltd for my ARC in exchange for my honest review.

This review will be posted to my Instagram Blog (@coffee.break.book.reviews) on June 21, 2021.

This book surprised me, in a really good way. I hovered between giving it just 3 stars 80% through, but that changed to 4.5 stars after that ending. I really enjoy it when books turn out better than expected.

The book is also so meta but at the same time feels like a tribute to the "author vs caretaker" trope. There's also a bit of back and forth between timelines, with no particular trajectory which makes it seem as if the author has gone loopy with his memories, but it works in this case so readers can know a bit more about the protagonist, Gerry.

The writing is also pretty good, and I enjoyed it!

Many thanks to the publisher, NetGalley, and the author for the ARC. I enjoyed the book!

This is a story about a sixty-one year old author (Gerry) who is bedridden following an accident.  While stuck in bed and under the influence of a lot of pain medication Gerry begins to receive strange telephone calls in the middle of the night from a woman claiming to be a character from one of his books, and Gerry even starts to see apparitions of a veiled woman in his apartment.  With only an assistant and a hired night nurse for company Gerry begins to wonder if he is losing his mind.  His characters are all fictitious so who can his woman be?  As the book progresses Gerry goes back over his past, remembering the women in his life, many of whom he has treated badly.  Is one of these women 'Aubrey' or is he imagining the whole thing?
This is a book about books, writing books and words in general really.  Plus there is a fair bit of pop culture in the form of novel and movie references, with obvious little winks to Misery by Stephen King.  Gerry isn't a very likeable character, nor are the majority of the characters in the book, in my opinion.  But I really enjoyed the story and the wry humour made me smile to myself at times and I liked the book and movie references throughout. The story is daft, even verging on facial at times, but it is hugely entertaining and I would certainly recommend it.

I am always excited for a new book by Laura Lippman. I found the title intriguing and the "blurbs" about this book had me eager to read it. Unfortunately, I found, this book did not live up to the hype. It starts out slow and things don't begin to pick up until about a third into the story.

Dream Girl centers on famous novelist Gerry Anderson. He is recovering from an accident in his Baltimore apartment, interacting only with his assistant and his nurse—that is, unless you believe the calls he’s getting from a character in his latest book are real. Is Gerry hallucinating, his character, Aubrey? Aubrey is the character from his book, Dream Girl. She is purely fictional, but, yet, she claims that he has treated her poorly. There are no records that these calls exist. Is he taking too much Ambien? We are treated to a cameo by my favorite Lippman character, Tess Monaghan.

Gerry is an unlikeable character. He is sexist, selfish, full of himself, and cannot believe that anyone would want to hurt him. The book jumps timelines as Gerry looks back. They took a little getting used.

Thank you to NetGalley for an ARC of this novel. The review is my own.

Gerry lives in his beautiful apartment in Baltimore, bed-bound when he begins to receive telephone calls from a woman claiming to be Aubrey, the name of the character in his bestselling novel. She claims she exists and he has done her wrong.

As Gerry is clearly on high doses of pain relief, the assumption is that he is experiencing delusions, or is this some crank caller. His mother had suffered from dementia and was he suffering from the same disease. As the danger escalates, there is nothing he can realistically do in any event.



This is definitely a slow-burn psychological thriller and there were times that I did think this was such a weird concept and I certainly felt there was a parody to the novel Misery.

On the downside, the book did tend to jump all over the place and I found it difficult to work out which timeline I was in, but it didn’t take long to get used to it and get into the story despite being a slow burner. There’s certainly no shortage of suspects or possible outcomes.

What put me off a little was I didn’t much care for Gerry. He was completely selfish and it was clear why he had gone through three wives.

I found the ending a little disappointing and didn’t feel as though it had ended properly as I still had some threads I needed pulling together.

Okay, let me start by saying that I love Laura Lippman books, so thank you for the eARC!

This one, though, just missed the mark for me. I was SO INTERESTED in this whole being harassed by a fictional character situation, but I feel like we didn’t get enough of that. So much of the book was spent in Gerry’s memory and let me tell you that was not a place I really wanted to hang out. Then there was so many things that weren’t really followed through on. I still have so many questions about how things played out and why.

Basically, too much being in Gerry’s various past relationships and not even close to enough weird “is this fictional character real and coming to get me” vibes and being in the present day problem.

A 3-star read for me.

A bit slow to start, but soon got involved. How well do you know those around you ? For someone of a similar age to Gerry, I chuckled at the resistance to the digital world / social media. In G's case, big consequences ensued. A great read.

<i> “Can you have lived a life of consequence if you don’t have people who really, really hate you?"</i>

This one is definitely a case of this just wasn't for me. I found the main character insufferable. He was painful to read and the beginning half of the book took me way too long to get through. From there, the story kind of - fell off into this realm I didn't even know. It almost seemed like two different books. I think if the middle action and information had happened at maybe the 15 or 20% mark and then slowly, more terrifyingly built up, I would have liked this more.

But this is all purely personal and I know many others will love this. If the synopsis sounds like something you'd love, give it a try! I bet you'll love it.

<i>A huge thank you to the author and publisher for providing an e-ARC via Netgalley. This does not affect my opinion regarding the book.</i>

Unfortunately, I was not that impressed by this book. The storyline sounded good but it never grabbed my attention.

Dream Girl by Laura Lippman is characteristic of her other books, with typically morally ambigious characters trapped in a depressing situation. It feels like we are trapped in the medicated dream with the isolated main character Gerry, so it won’t be for everyone. I would recommend Sunburn for new readers, but her loyal fans will really enjoy this read.

Laura Lippman fans beware- this is not what you've come to expect from her. Yes, Baltimoreans of a certain age and status will be pleased to see the Morgue, Grauls, and Alonso's mentioned. And yes, the plot as the novel starts, is gripping. It's only in the last quarter of the book that things went off the rails, at least for me. Gerry Anderson is a successful author who moved back to Baltimore to care for his mother, now deceased, leaving behind Margot in New York. He falls in his apartment and suffers an injury that confines him to bed, seen to by his assistant Victoria and night nurse Aileen. Then the gaslighting starts- a woman who claims to be the real Aubrey- the character in his best selling novel- calls repeatedly. And Margot shows up. Gerry's history is told in a back and forth in time fashion (and know that it jumps around a lot). His father was absent, he was married four times, he was indiscriminate in his relationships until now. It's not a spoiler that someone ends up dead in his apartment but this is where things go awry, at least for me. It's not fair, I know, to expect an author to remain in a lane but this foray into horror felt wrong to me. I'm a huge Lippman fan and very much enjoyed most of this but the end left me, a veteran thriller and mystery reader, a tad confused. Thanks to the publisher for the ARC. Just be forewarned that this takes a very dark turn.

“Anyone could be a novelist.”

Dream Girl is a slow-burn psychological thriller about a famous author who believes that a character from his fictional novel is out for revenge. Is he losing his mind, or is there something more sinister at play?

Meet Gerry-acclaimed novelist, divorcee, and all-around asshole. Gerry recently moved from New York City to his hometown of Baltimore to be near his dying mother. Living alone in a million-dollar condo, Gerry begins reminiscing on his life: his novels, the courses he taught, his former students, his childhood, his friendships, his various wives, romantic relationships, and sexual encounters. When he receives a letter from one of his fictional characters, Gerry has an accident leaving him unable to walk. Now dependent on his assistant and night nurse, Gerry soon finds himself entwined in a strange series of events, leading to a very twisted ending.

Told almost primarily from Gerry’s point of view, the reader develops an intimate relationship with Gerry. The non-linear timeline switches back and forth between the past and the present, allowing the reader to view the defining moments in Gerry’s life. Since these events are not told in order, how they fit together is a little puzzling, but they all fit in the end.

This is a slow-paced read, and there isn’t much action. Being trapped in Gerry's mind is not always pleasant. Gerry is vile, but he has a few redeeming qualities. He comes off as very flawed, but he is also very human. His character felt quite realistic. He is intelligent but isn’t very good at reading people, especially women. Ironically, Gerry relishes the memories of his good moments, especially when they concern the women in his life.

I found the premise clever, and I loved the ending; however, at times, I struggled due to my disgust over Gerry’s actions. Readers are going to love or hate this book due to the slow pace and Gerry’s character. There were times when I was grappling between love and hate, but there is something so intriguing about Gerry’s story that kept me coming back for more. In the end, Dream Girl was a win for me.

I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

Wow, what a unique, fast paced, well written read! Kept me hooked from beginning to end. With flawless character development and an intriguing plot. A bit on the artistic side when it comes to the writing, which some may love but others may hate. Thought there was some great twisty turns, thrilling thrills, chilling chills, and gasp worthy shocks! Would definitely recommend to my fellow thriller lovers, as I think it’ll definitely provide what you seek in an intriguing and fascinating manner!

Will buzz around platforms and use top Amazon reviewer number on release!

Bedridden author Gerry Andersen starts to receive phone calls from a character in his book. It will cause him to look at the women in his life currently and those in his past. Someone seems to targetting him unless his mind is dragging him into dementia? Cleverly constructed and gripping thriller. Shades of Misery as the tension builds and you struggle to see his way out of the mess. Careful to allow Gerry to be revealed slowly through the book and expand on his upbringing and family background this is a very entertaining read.

An interesting concept and the second half of the book was definitely more engaging, but I found it a real struggle to get to that point as the first half is much more slow. The plot twist at the end was not much of a surprise ( think Misery) but still a highlight of this book. Not for me really, but others may love it!