Bad news my friends! It seems like semi- unpopular reviewer stuck in the book traffic! There are so many good things I can tell for this book and there are also a few things I didn’t quite enjoy. When I sum up my pros and cons, they seem like equal. I can give this book 3.25 stars but it is still a little under my expectations when I compare the other books of the author with this!

I absolutely like the idea of the author to be bold enough to try different genre, choosing to write horror. But actually this book isn’t a horror! It’s mostly slow burn psychological thriller inspired by Misery and Gaslighting ( maybe just a little Rear Window with #metoomovement vibes) But the similarities with Misery was a little too much ( especially at the second half of the book)

The premise was the best thing I truly enjoyed about the book: 61 years old bedridden bestseller author of famous Dream Girl, Gerry Andersen living at his gorgeous Baltimore apartment located at 25th stairs ( even writing about it makes me suffer from vertigo)

A designated strange nurse and his assistant help him to get through his caring and daily errands. Instead of his demanding ex Margot’s uninvited intrusions, his days seem uneventful till strange things start happening like a letter disappears as soon as he sees addressed to the place he used at his dream girl books and later the fiction character he created starts calling him to tell people will learn she’s for real and she is demanding his share to use her identity in his books.

Yes, his dream girl Aubrey which still funds him at his rainy days seem like finding a way to come to life for an ulterior motive.

Interestingly there is no trace of the phone calls. And his drug induced state makes him think he might have dreamed the entire situation. Could the woman on the phone be the product of his imagination or could he start showing symptoms of amnesia just like his mother has endured till she’s dead?

I’m sold! This is good storyline but I have a few problems about the execution starting with rotation between back and forth. The imminent time jumps were never problematic for me necessarily if they gave enough clues to complete the entire puzzle but I felt like some of the flashbacks were not related to the main story.

Don’t get me wrong: the short and well developed chapters were interesting but it also distracted the slow burn high tension about mysterious woman story and finding out possibilities about her identity.

I also never liked or cared about Gerry a little bit. The women in his life were far more interesting characters than him including three ex wives and his ultra irritating, tenacious ex Margot.

I find him so selfish, so aimless, so flat and hardly connectable.

I also found the ending a little semi satisfying. It was fair but it seems like there are still some unfinished things about the entire story. It left me puzzled. I absolutely couldn’t decide how made me felt but I’m so sure:,I wasn’t completely happy with the result.

It was still well written story with extremely great potential but it isn’t completely my cup of Chardonnay. I think I enjoyed Tess Monaghan series so much more. I couldn’t get the same taste from that story!

Special thanks to NetGalley and Faber and Faber Ltd for sharing this digital reviewer copy with me in exchange my honest thoughts.

#DreamGirl #NetGalley
An excellent novel of this year.
Novelist Gerry Andersen is confined to a hospital bed in his glamorous high-rise apartment, dependent on two women he barely knows: his incurious young assistant, and a dull, slow-witted night nurse.Then late one night, the phone rings. The caller claims to be the “real” Aubrey, the alluring title character from his most successful novel, Dream Girl.  But there is no real Aubrey. She’s a figment born of a writer’s imagination, despite what many believe or claim to know. Could the cryptic caller be one of his three ex-wives playing a vindictive trick after all these years? Or is she Margot, an ex-girlfriend who keeps trying to insinuate her way back into Gerry’s life?
And why does no one believe that the call even happened?
Thanks to NetGalley and Faber and Faber for giving me an advance copy.

It’s hard to read PDF sorry. I am sure it’s a lovely book and will get it when it’s out to buy. I am going to check out other books from the author..

Dream girl looks and sounds very creepy. It’s like a twilight zone premise or black mirror episode.