EXCERPT: When the phone rings in the middle of the night, that very night, and Aileen, who tends to doze, does not answer it within three rings, Gerry fumbles for the landline next to his bed, a midcentury Swedish design with a button on the bottom. His head feels cloudy, yet he is alert enough to assume the call will be from Margot, full of recriminations for being booked in business class, which means she has to fetch her own cheese plate from the snack bar.

'Hello?'

'Gerry? I'm coming to see you soon.'

'Who is this?' Because one thing he is sure of is that it's not Margot. The voice is too sweet, too high, with a hint of a Southern accent. Also too nice.

'Oh, Gerry, you're so funny. It's Aubrey, Gerry. We need to talk. About my story, about what really happened between us, that mess with your wife. I think it's time the world knows I'm a real person.'

ABOUT 'DREAM GIRL': After being injured in a freak accident, novelist Gerry Andersen lies in a hospital bed in his glamorous but sterile apartment, isolated from the busy world he can see through his windows, utterly dependent on two women he barely knows: his young assistant and a night nurse whose competency he questions.

But Gerry is also beginning to question his own competency. As he moves in and out of dreamlike memories and seemingly random appearances of a persistent ex-girlfriend at his bedside, he fears he may be losing his grip on reality, much like his mother who recently passed away from dementia.

Most distressing, he believes he’s being plagued by strange telephone calls, in which a woman claiming to be the titular character of his hit novel Dream Girl swears she will be coming to see him soon. The character is completely fictitious, but no one has ever believed Gerry when he makes that claim. Is he the victim of a cruel prank—or is he actually losing his mind★ There is no record of the calls according to the log on his phone. Could there be someone he has wronged★ Is someone coming to do him harm as he lies helplessly in bed★

Then comes the morning he wakes up next to a dead body—and realizes his nightmare is just beginning...

MY THOUGHTS: In her author's notes, Laura Lippman writes, 'This is a book about what goes on inside a writer's mind and it is, by my lights, my first work of horror.' And while I wouldn't go quite so far as to call Dream Girl a work of horror, it definitely is an enjoyable romp on the darker side. Lippman pays homage to Stephen King's 'Misery', Roth's 'Zuckerman Unbound', and Dukore's 'A Novel Called Heritage', saying that she 'wanted to further the conversations they began in her head.' I know exactly what she means.

Lippman's writing is distinctive. She does a lot of the things I hate and slam other authors for doing. She waffles on in long sentences. She writes stream of consciousness. And I love it. It works - brilliantly. I read Dream Girl in twenty-four hours and Lippman has left me wanting to read Gerry Anderson's 'Dream Girl'. I want to read about Aubrey, this elusive figment of Anderson's (and therefore Lippman's) imagination - the character that nobody will believe wasn't real.

Lippman's characters are extraordinary, and the cast is quite small. Women feature hugely in Gerry's life. He's been married three times, and Margot lived with him in New York for several years. He has a female assistant, Victoria, who has the annoying tic of never being able to make a declarative statement, and whose duties expand following his accident to include being his daytime carer. Aileen is employed as his somewhat incompetent and constantly knitting night nurse. Gerry doesn't appear to have friends, and there's a dearth of males in his life with the exception of his literary agent. We learn Gerry's backstory through a dual timeline that is interspersed with his 'now' story. We meet his wives and his lovers, but disappointingly learn almost nothing about the writing of his bestseller, 'Dream Girl.' Yes, I think I have an obsession with Audrey.

As you may have noticed, I had a hard time putting Dream Girl down, and when I wasn't reading it, I was thinking about it. I honestly had no idea where Lippman was heading with the plot, who was behind the mystery calls, if they were even real, or merely a product of Gerry's opioid addled brain.

A few people appear to have been disappointed in the ending. I loved it. It seemed strangely fitting. A little comedic. I would love to see Dream Girl made into a movie. I would definitely go to see it.

⭐⭐⭐⭐.5

#DreamGirl #NetGalley

I: @lauramlippman @faberbooks

T: @LauraMLippman @FaberBooks

THE AUTHOR: Laura lives in Baltimore with her husband, David Simon, and their daughter.

DISCLOSURE: Thank you to Faber and Faber Ltd via Netgalley for providing a digital ARC of Dream Girl by Laura Lippman for review. All opinions expressed in this review are entirely my own personal opinions.

For an explanation of my rating system please refer to my Goodreads.com profile page or the about page on sandysbookaday.wordpress.com

This review and others are also published on Twitter, Amazon, and my webpage

I was provided a free copy of this text by Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. This was a story with a good premise that just could not follow-through with it successfully. Lippman is a good author so I will definitely check out her next one though.

Not my favorite book by Lippman, as the protagonist wasn't believable nor likable at all. I had difficulty feeling any sorrow for what he went through in the story!

“I stole a moment and created a life.” Dream Girl by Laura Lippman

3 stars. I don’t get to read this author as often. And this one was…just ok with me. It moved too slowly in some places and didn’t hold my attention very well. Kept putting it down. So on to the book:

Author Gerry Andersen is bedridden after an accident. His regular companions are his personal assistant, Victoria and his (rather grumpy) nurse, Aileen. Then, things start to happen that made him doubt his sanity. Someone was pretending to be Dream Girl Audrey, the lead character to his most popular book. What was going on?

The story alternates between the present and Gerry’s past, both on them moving, though the past were flashbacks to move or set the present.

And for me, it was hard to avoid the overreaching feeling of Misery-ish vibes. Especially when Aileen started taking over things more and more. Then the bodies started piling up.

Gerry wasn’t that interesting a character either and his letting Aileen take control made him look weak. Though he does redeem himself in the end, though probably not in the way he was thinking.

And the ending…was a beginning. For the person I least expected to be around.

Thank you NetGalley and William Morrow books for this arc. Sorry I’m late posting it. Really did finish this before pub date.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the e-arc of Dream Girl by Laura Lippman.

I'm not sure if I enjoyed this book or if I finished it because I simply had to. The beginning of this story seemed to drag for me, it took until about 30% of the way into the book for me to actually want to pick it back up and continue. After a certain point I continued only out of morbid curiosity of where this story was going.

Gerry Anderson is a novelist who takes a fall at the beginning of this story rendering him bedbound for a long time while he heals from a head first tumble down a flight of stairs. This is when the mystery starts as Gerry's 'Dream Girl' from the same titled novel starts to contact him, except Dream Girl doesn't really exist.

I enjoyed the actually present time part of this mystery and I think I might have been more willing to read this if this was all that there was for the novel. The book jumps around from present to past for Gerry detailing his childhood, multiple failed marriages, as well as what is currently happening to him, I found the jumps in time boring and for the most part not integral to the story telling (maybe that's just me) except to decide I really didn't like Gerry.

As for the mystery I will say that Lippman wrote some twists and turns that I truly did not expect that jumped out at me as I read.

Slow and Steady wins the race. An author has a terrible fall and breaks his leg and is laid up in his Baltimore apartment. The story flashes back to significant moments in his life while the current story is packed with the suspense that something is going to happen while he is helplessly injured. I love the many literary and cinematic references that peg the time and place down vividly. Twists and turns I didn't see coming, a brief appearance by a favorite Lippman character and a metoo event keep the pages turning.

copy provided by the publisher and NetGalley

Gerry Anderson is an author trying to step out from his first bestselling novel, Dream Girls. He recently purchased a condo in Baltimore to be closer to his mother. A misstep on the floating staircase leads Gerry to spend the next several weeks confined to a hospital bed on the main floor of his condo. During his time healing, his assistant and night nurses keep him company. A series of events leads to learning more about Gerry and his past. Who inspired his novel? Are there secrets in his past that he should be concerned with? What is real? It was definitely a whirlwind and I had no idea how it would end. This was my first Laura Lippman fiction read and it was fantastic! I'll be checking out her backlist soon.

Thank you to Faber and Faber and NetGalley for an advance copy for an honest review.

Thank you NetGalley for the copy in exchange for an honest review. 3.5 Stars
I liked Dream Girl. This was a novel that I wasn’t quite sure what was happening in some chapters. It kept my attention though and a few times I did say “what!?” out loud.

‘How can a woman who never existed come back to haunt you?’ - cover tag line.

My thanks to Faber & Faber for an eARC via NetGalley of ‘Dream Girl’ by Laura Lippman in exchange for an honest review. I also bought its unabridged audiobook edition, narrated by Jason Culp, to allow for an immersive reading experience.

This literary mystery was fantastic. Its protagonist is Gerry Andersen, a successful novelist currently laid up in his luxury Baltimore penthouse recovering from a serious fall. He is on heavy pain medication and is bed bound with his leg suspended. His personal assistant, Victoria, sees to his needs such as meals and running errands during the day and at night there is Aileen, a sober and rather humourless nurse.

Just before his accident Gerry had received a letter with the return address that he had given to Aubrey, the woman in his most celebrated novel, ‘Dream Girl’. Now no one can find the letter. Then he starts receiving phone calls from a woman claiming to be Aubrey demanding that he acknowledges her role in the novel’s success. Yet there are no record of the calls. Are these hallucinations caused by his medication or might he have the beginnings of dementia? Gerry is adamant that despite a great deal of speculation in literary circles that Aubrey was purely a creation of his imagination.

I won’t say more in order to avoid spoilers but I thought this was a very clever novel. Gerry is not a likeable person at all, definitely a narcissistic personality, though despite this he has a certain charm and a ready wit. His inner dialogues and comebacks to others were brilliant.

Lippman clearly had a great deal of fun with the loathsome Gerry. Through him she also referenced various authors and their works as well as films and television shows. There was a degree of satire running through the narrative with respect to 21st Century culture with a few barbs aimed at the fickleness of the publishing industry.

In her Author’s Note Lippman cites Stephen King’s ‘Misery’ as an influence and ‘Dream Girl’ definitely has the feel of classic King. I was also reminded of Helen Oyeyemi’s ‘Mr. Fox’, where an author is confronted by one of his creations.

I loved ‘Dream Girl’, finding it intelligent and highly engaging. It also addresses relevant issues such as the #MeToo movement. While this was my first experience of Laura Lippman’s work, I am now keen to read more of her novels.

Highly recommended.

“It’s Aubrey, Gerry. We need to talk” says the voice. And Gerry Anderson replies “WHO IS THIS?” But he knows who is on the other end of the phone. Aubrey from Fait Avenue. Aubrey, who he made up. A character in Dream Girl, his bestselling novel. And how could an imaginary woman contact him? It can’t be real, can it? Maybe not but the truth is far worse.

Bedridden because of a fall in his new Baltimore apartment, Gerry is cared for by his assistant Victoria and night nurse Aileen. While his condition might make the reader sympathetic, his personality does not. As he thinks about his three ex wives and many girlfriends, we see the real Gerry - a self centered, perhaps narcissistic man who personalizes the need for the me too movement. The reckoning that is coming for Gerry is too late but it is perfect.

Dream Girl is Laura Lippman at her best! She makes an unlikeable man the center of Dream Girl and it works perfectly. To emphasize fictional Aubrey, the dream girl, she add Tess Monaghan from her mystery series as Gerry’s chosen P.I. There’s a plot twist from Stephen King’s Misery. This is a standout psychological thriller! 5 stars.

Thank you to NetGalley, Faber and Faber Ltd and Laura Lippman for this ARC.

Gerry, an author is housebound following an accident. With only his assistant and nurse for support he feels isolated. His mother died from Alzheimer's and he begins to wonder if he has dementia when he starts thinking that a character from one of his books is haunting him. We experience an in depth look into his personality. It took me a while to get into the plot but it was worth the wait.

I really struggled to read this book although the premise was really appealing. I found it was slow in pace and the main character was unlikeable.
It did have a good twist at the end.
Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC.

This book was just not my cup of tea. I found the first 50% of the book to be rather random and confusing with a string of irrelevant rants from the protagonist. Furthermore, for the psychological thriller that I was expecting, there was so much inaction. At the midway point, it becomes a bit more interesting, but still left a bit to be desired in that respect. The story was hard for me to follow and I really had to push myself to finish this one. 2 stars ⭐️ for this one.

This is one of those stories that begins slow but takes off after awhile. Laura Lippman is new to me, so I had no expectations going in to the book. It's the story of Gerry Andersen, a novelist most famous for his best seller Dream Girl and this continues to pay his bills. He hasn't achieved the same level of fame from his other works. He thinks quite highly of himself and is a misogynist.
After a freak accident leaves him unable to care for himself, Gerry finds himself bedridden in his apartment with his assistant and night nurse. He begins receiving disturbing phone calls from "Aubrey," the main character from his famous novel, Dream Girl. Is he a reliable narrator? Is he in a drug-induced haze? Or could it be one of his many and various exes?
The timeline jumps around to important times in Gerry's life. There are many moving pieces involved. Once I was able to fully understand what was happening, the story sped up. It's reminiscent of "Misery" with a twist of "Me Too." Buckle up for a wicked and astonishing ride on this one! I will most likely be on the look out for more of Lippman's work! 3.5 Stars

When a dream girl becomes a nightmare.

This had a very slo-o-o-w pace. It never fully gelled for me, but I finished it and found some parts enjoyable.

I received an eARC from Faber and Faber Ltd through NetGalley in exchange for my review. All opinions shared are mine and are influenced by nothing other than my own reading experience.

4.5 stars

Disconcerting in all of the best ways, Dream Girl is a twisted exploration of the #MeToo movement through the eyes of a man being forced to confront the women of his past.

Set almost exclusively in a Baltimore penthouse apartment, Lippman's prose is reminiscent of Agatha Christie and Stephen King at their finest. Its nonlinear structure works to simultaneously build up and break down our main character Gerry as the book hurtles towards a crazy ending. I did knock off half a star because I ended up guessing the big twist pretty early on, which ended up lessening the mystique a bit.

However, in a year where standout books have been few and far between, Dream Girl comes as a welcome breath of fresh air.

Thank you to NetGalley as well as Faber and Faber Ltd for an ARC of this book in exchange for a fair and honest review!

A really freaky story!. A definite page turner and a jaw dropping ending. There aren't a lot of likeable characters in this book.= and you can't really define the line between villain and hero. The main characters development is done via flashbacks and the present time seems a bit foggy. Probably the wat Gerry feels!

Dream Girl is the first book of its kind that I have read by this author. I have liked Laura Lippman's past books revolving around Tess and her PI work. I love horrors, thrillers, and mysteries, so I thought this would be right upon my alley. Dream Girl has a good plot. Yes, the author being held hostage with a leg injury is familiar. The author herself makes the connection in the story, but when you do that you have to know that the comparisons will be made. While Dream Girl had some moments of tension, it was mostly sitting through the internal thoughts of a horrible person who is surrounded by mostly horrible people. I see the ending as an attempt to save that a little, but the fact is the story was really good with a lot of minutia and detail to slog through that really added very little except to make me look up words and add a few to my vocabulary.

Hmmm...struggled with a rating for this one. HUGE Lippman fan, first of all. I have read all of her books. This one has a GREAT, not to be missed twist. The problem is, it takes FOREVER to get there. This is not all bad, though. Gerry is bedridden due to a bad fall, weird things happen and we get to figure out if they are real or imagined. Now Gerry is sort of a jerk and some of his thoughts are pretty funny. Yes, obvious shades of Misery, but still a different story, especially about halfway through. Overall, I did mostly like it, just not the usual lightening-speed read of most Laura Lippman novels.

Thank you to #NetGalley, Laura Lippman and Faber and Faber Ltd for this ARC!

I've not read anything by Laura Lippman before so i wasn't sure what to expect from her latest novel,"Dream Girl".

Gerry Anderson is a famous author,best known for his massively popular novel "Dream Girl" . Several years later he finds himself immobile in his exclusive Baltimore Apartment after an accident,with his personal assistant and a night nurse catering for his needs, and on strong painkillers.
Part of the success of Dream Girl was down to Gerry "capturing" the lead character,a young woman called Aubrey,that many readers insisted she must be based someone he knew very well in real life. Tired of constantly telling them that she's a totally fictional character he's more than a bit surprised to receive a phone call from her one night while in a medicated daze.

As Gerry wonders who the caller might be and what they want we learn about his background,not least with the women in his life and a slightly comical and sympathetic figure is seen in a new light,Gerry is really not a nice person at all. Who could want revenge on this harmless old gentleman? Quite a few people it turns out and with justification and it seems Gerry's former life is coming back to ,literally,haunt him.

This is very much a slow burn read, much more of a psychological thriller than action-packed,even some quite dramatic events are almost mentioned in passing, cleverly tying in with Gerry's state of mind as he drifts along not quite sure of what is real and what is drug-induced. I really enjoyed it, being a fan of the William Wisting series and similar books that amble along to a satisfactory conclusion ,others might find it frustrating.

A subtle and clever book that I enjoyed far more than I expected to, it's intelligent ,very funny in places and things like Gerry's observations on some well-known film adaptions of books are welcome additional snippets. There's a very neat twist as well .
The most obvious influence,as Ms Lippman acknowledges,is Stephen King's "Misery" but there's a lot more to it than that and it's well-worth a read .