This was a DNF. I couldn’t get into it and I truly didn’t care what happened. I’m usually a big fan of her books but this one was not for me.

Dream Girl opens with author Gerry Andersen moving from New York City to his new $1.75 million high-rise apartment in Baltimore. It's "a topsy-turvy affair -- living room on the second floor, bedrooms below" connected by a floating staircase. The building is called the Vue at Locust Point, with twelfth-story views of the harbor that divides the city. His literary agent of forty years, Thiru Vignarajah, is impressed with the industrial-looking space, but not the fact that it is not in New York City. Gerry moved to be close to his ailing mother, who wanted to die in her home, where Gerry grew up. Sadly, she died three days after escrow closed but before Gerry actually relocated. Now Gerry plans to stay for a couple of years before returning to New York in order to avoid losing money on the resale.

Although Gerry has successfully written during prior difficult periods in his life, he hasn't written a word in months. He rebuffs Thiru's urging to pen a memoir and will not accept an advance on a book he still hasn't drafted. He's fearful that he can't write anymore and worried that, like his mother, his mind might ultimately be ravaged by dementia.

Divorced three times, he has recently broken things off with Margot, the woman who managed to ingratiate herself into his life and apartment back in New York. He's fairly certain she will move on to another man who can support her in the manner she has come to enjoy, and will not be interested in traveling to Baltimore for a visit. If she does, he will assure her that his new apartment has no guest room -- just a pullout sofa bed in his study.

Gerry's most successful novel was Dream Girl, centered around a girl who lives on Fait Avenue in Baltimore. It "changed his life" and "launched a thousand guessing games about his inspiration, endless wonderment about how a man like Gerry had uncannily channeled this woman." The characters were fifteen years apart in age, and Gerry describes the story as “enchanting young woman seduces a slightly older man.” He has always maintained that the character of Aubrey and story were purely products of his imagination. "I stole a moment and created a life," he says.

But before Thiru leaves, he hands Gerry a letter with a vaguely familiar return address: Fait Avenue. As Gerry thinks more about it and starts to retrieve the letter to study it, he trips over the rowing machine, loses his balance on the floating staircase, and lands in a broken heap at the bottom. There he remains until the following morning when his assistant, Victoria, arrives. Soon Gerry finds himself confined to his bed, cared for by Victoria and a night nurse named Aileen. He finds her slow and dumb. She has no interest in books or literature, and plans to pass the hours Gerry spends sleeping in his study, knitting and using her iPad.

Soon Gerry begins receiving calls in the night from a woman who claims to be Aubrey. But that can't be possible, because Aubrey never existed. Aileen seems never to hear the telephone ring and there is no evidence of incoming calls in the call history. Gerry, medicated and completely incapacitated, begins to wonder if he is losing his mind or, as he feared, succumbing to dementia. Is he hallucinating due to the pain medication that Aileen keeps insisting he take? Perhaps someone is trying to drive him insane. But why? Through Gerry's inner dialogue, Lippman conveys his confusion and panic believably and effectively, ratcheting up the story's tension and keepers readings guessing along with Gerry.

Gerry recalls his life -- his childhood in Baltimore with a mother who made up stories and a father who was a pathological liar, his three marriages, his writing career, the time he spent teaching a graduate-level writing course, and his ill-fated quasi-relationship with Margot who arrives hurling accusations and threats. His memories, related through flashbacks interspersed with Lippman's third-person narration describing current events from his point of view, provide context and insight into who Gerry is . . . and who his enemies are.

One morning he awakes to find a dead body next to his bed. Gerry is suddenly not only debilitated and completely dependent on Victoria and Aileen, but terrified. Could he have committed murder and not remember doing it, either because of the pain medication he has been taking or because he was in some sort of dream-state? And why is Aileen, a "cheerful Lady Macbeth, humming as she works," so insistent that they not involve the police and willing to help him by eradicating all evidence of a crime.

Gerry is a largely unlikable, self-obsessed cad who, trapped, isolated from everyone but his caregivers, and totally at their mercy, wracks his brain in an effort to figure out who might be trying to gaslight him and frame him for murder. And why. There are plenty of people he has had fractious relationships with over the years, including the various women he been involved with romantically and professionally. There are those three ex-wives, of course. And most of his students were women whose work he gave short shrift, instead focusing his attention on the writing of his male students and two "distractingly beautiful" female pupils. At one point, he even attempts to enlist the help of Tess Monaghan, who refuses the job, telling Gerry that for a man sixty-one years old, he's "not very self-aware" and she can't help a client who "is lying to himself" about the number of potential enemies he might have.

Dream Girl is witty and frequently hilarious, replete with references to pop culture and the narcissism and misogyny that have brought Gerry to his current predicament. It is a deftly-plotted homage, as noted, to Misery and readers cannot be faulted for picturing Kathy Bates portraying the not-so-dim-witted Aileen. It is also a wry commentary on men like Gerry who never seem to really see the women in their lives. "Unbeautiful women have never interested him very much" and late in life he gradually begins to realize just how unobservant and dismissive he has been. Is it too late for Gerry to learn from his past mistakes and become a better man?

Lippman keeps the book moving at a fast pace with surprising plot developments. She provides a shocking and ingenious final twist that she acknowledges is "straight-up stolen in a sense" from A Novel Called Heritage by Margaret Mitchell Dukore. And completely satisfying.

I can’t get into this book. Some of the writing is pretty witty but couldn’t keep my interest. Loved the author’s previous book. Maybe next time!

I would like to thank NetGalley, the publisher, and the author for giving me the opportunity to read this book in exchange for my honest review.

I unfortunately did not finish this book. I got about 28% through and I still didn't know anything about the plot and what was happening. This doesn't happen to me very often so maybe it was just my mood. I loved the writing though and thought the author portrayed Jerry very well. The real issue for me that there seemed to be little direction, or plot to keep me entertained. My apologies for not being able to finish it! I may pick it up again in the future and give it another go.

Thank you so much for this copy.

This Misery-esque thriller was a fascinating, twisty-turny ride. The ominous feel of this novel flowed throughout, until the very end. Great addition to Lippman's work!

An Interesting Departure for Lippman

Unlike many of Laura Lippman’s novels, which are reminiscent of hard-boiled detective novels, Dream Girl has much more of a Hitchcock/Stephen King vibe.

Although Gerry Anderson has written a number of books, he owes his comfortable lifestyle and fame to one book, Dream Girl. This best selling novel had been written years earlier and Gerry is now struggling with writer’s block as pressure mounts from his publisher.

Gerry’s comfortable life takes an unexpected turn when he takes a horrific fall down an open staircase and is confined to a bed for several months. He is completely dependent on his secretary and nurse.

The pace is a bit too slow for the first two-thirds of the book. With the main character, Gerry, confined to bed with limited movement, the book focuses on him reflecting on his life and rationalizing his actions. Even after he started receiving communication from the fictitious Dream Girl, it takes such a long time for the drama to build that the suspense is minimized throughout much of the book.

I was pleasantly surprised by the cameo of one of Lippman’s best known characters—Tess Monaghan. I expected her to reappear after her introduction into the story, and was disappointed it didn’t happen. I suppose had Tess become actively involved, she would have quickly caught on to the scheme being perpetrated against Gerry and events would have had to play out much differently.

I would advise readers to stay patient. The revelations and drama that play out in the last few chapters are well worth the effort it took to get there.

I am a big fan of Laura Lippman, and this novel did not disappoint. The plot has several surprising twists, as is the case with so many novels these days, but it is the actual writing style that turned this into a real treat. There are many details about the world of publishing, some delicious snark, and several mentions of authors and books that are favorites of mine; the combination of all this was very much to my liking. The basic bones of the plot resemble a certain Stephen King book which I shall not name, but Lippman's own distinctive voice turns this novel into something quite unlike anything else I've read. It is on the edge of comedy at several points, and then something shocking happens, and one begins to sense that this is not a train ride, but a roller coaster, and the need to see where it is going is secondary to the enjoyment and exhilaration of the ride itself. If you love Laura Lippman, this is a dream fulfilled. If you are not familiar with Laura Lippman, this is a great place to start. But hold on tightly; there are some sharp turns ahead.

I enjoyed this one while I was listening to it, but honestly it’s been only two days and not much of it has stuck with me. This happens a lot with these middle-of-the-road books that are good, but not mind-blowing.

I know I liked the twist and the ending, and thought it all came together in a clever way. But honestly all I remember is the very end, maybe the last 15%. That goes to show the beginning was somewhat slow with a lot of filler. I also remember chuckling at some of Gerry’s inner monologue--the not-so-politically-correct things that everyone is thinking but can’t say out loud.

The ending is worth it if you make it there, but I didn’t like a lot of the characters and the flashbacks made the beginning somewhat slow without having a clear purpose.

An outstanding homage to -- and extremely creative variation on -- the theme of popular writers being (perhaps justly) hoisted on the petards of their own work. Lippman calls this her first horror novel, but you would not know it from the immense confidence with which she dives into these genre waters. She also has a great deal to say about the immense foolishness of a certain type of man. And with a Less Monaghan cameo for good measure! Great stuff.

Gerry Andersen is a novelist recovering from a fall. He's confined in a hospital bed in his own high-rise apartment, cared for by two women he really doesn't know well.

BOOK BLURB: 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?

But no one believes that these calls have even happened.

Is the medication warping his mind? Has he lost his grip on reality? Is this the start of dementia? Or is there something more malevolent happening?

You be the judge!

A blend of psychological suspense with a touch of horror, the characters are deftly drawn. I do confess to not like the main character at all ... his drivel, narcissism, got a little tiring. I did have to flip through the pages every so often looking for something that would draw me in. The concept was a good one, but the story line failed for me. I have read this author before and been completely satisfied ... here's hoping this is an anomaly and her next book will be what I've come to expect.

Many thanks to the author / William Morrow Books / Faber & Faber Ltd / Netgalley for the digital copy of this psychological thriller. Read and reviewed voluntarily, opinions expressed here are unbiased and entirely my own.

Dream Girl is my first time reading Laura Lippman and it did not disappoint! I went back and forth with what I wanted to rate this and ended up at a solid 4/5 since it has really stuck with me in the days since I've read it. Gerry was not the most likable character in the world, but it sure was interesting being in his head and seeing the world from his eyes. I thought that overall this was a fairly slow burn, so I am happy I decided to listen to the audiobook since I tend to like slower reads much better that way. The audio is narrated by Jason Culp and while he has narrated a lot of books, it isn't any that I have listened to, so he was a new-to-me narrator. I really enjoyed him as Gerry and thought he did a wonderful job voicing this book and bringing the characters to life for the reader.

There were so many great lines in Dream Girl, and Gerry really struggles with saying the right things. Sometimes his thoughts were so ridiculous that I would laugh out loud, and he is not the most politically correct person either so keep that in mind. I really enjoyed the mystery surrounding the phone calls and whether this is something to do with Gerry or simply someone pulling a prank. I liked Lippman's writing style a lot, and there are so many references in the book that I loved as well. We even have a mention of The Wire which for some reason always makes me happy to see in books. There are also flashbacks to Gerry's past, and I loved having those to better understand his character. I don't even know what I think about the ending, but I can tell you I didn't see it coming! I can't wait to read more books by Lippman now and I am hoping to move the ones I have up my TBR.

I received a complimentary digital copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

Thank you for letting me read this book. I enjoyed its twists and turns and will recommend it to friends that I think will also enjoy it. Unfortunately, I do not think most of my followers are in that category so I will not blog about it.

With nods to Stephen King’s MISERY, and to the #MeToo movement, Laura Lippman has delivered a dark, twisty, psychological novel that will definitely be on 2021’s best books list. Highly recommended.

DREAM GIRL is Laura Lippman's first stab at writing horror, and, in doing so, she gives a reverential nod to Stephen King's great MISERY. As in King's novel, Lippman's protagonist, Gerry Anderson, is an award-winning novelist temporarily confined to his bed after an accident. In Anderson's case, it's almost like the floating stairway in his new luxury penthouse in Baltimore reached out and tripped him. Left dependent on an inscrutable assistant and an irritating night nurse with poor culinary skills and only two hours of solitude per day, Anderson thinks a lot. He thinks about his three failed marriages, his absent father, his recently-deceased mother, and his utter lack of literary inspiration, then falls into deep sedative-induced sleeps, wakes up and repeats. Then the gaslighting begins, or maybe he's losing his mind the way his mother did.

As always, Lippman infuses her story with the essence of Baltimore, an added delight for this Baltimore-born and bred reader. I enjoyed the DREAM GIRL ride, but I'm giving the book four stars instead of five because it lacked the artful twists and moments of surprise of Lippman's crime fiction. Simply put, I got ahead of the characters in this one. A good read, nonetheless. Lippman always is.

Laura Lippman does it again! Yes, there are comparisons to be made to Misery, but Dream Girl stands above it imo, not just in the thrill/terror it builds but how and why it is created. Thriling and thought-provoking, Dream Girl is a fantastic thriller.

Dream Girl is a slow-burn thriller that asks the question; "Is the call coming from inside the house?"

A quick overview: After a "freak accident" the novelist Gerry Andersen is confined to a bed in his apartment. From his vantage point, he can't see much, most of his knowledge from the world outside the apartment comes from his nurse (who he doesn't fully trust) and his assistant. As the story progresses, Gerry begins to wonder if he is losing his own mind, as he begins to live in a haze of memories turned dreams and visits from his ex-girlfriend. He is most distressed by his belief that he's receiving random telephone calls from the leading character, only known as "Dream Girl." In these calls, she promises him that she will see him soon. Any time he tries to broach the subject with those around him, it is quickly and decisively brushed off. When Gerry wakes up next to a dead body, he realizes that his distress is really just starting.

My thoughts: Initially, I was really excited about this book. The premise seemed exceptionally Hitchcockian and I couldn't wait to dive in. I was expecting a slow burn, but this felt almost molasses-like. Gerry as a protagonist is not especially likable, he has no real viable connection to the audience, and his actions and monologues made me uncomfortable a lot of the time. He is very selfish and has no real aim as far as the audience can tell. I continued to read this book because of my initial intrigue and excitement. The tension in the plotline along with the time jumps between the present day and the past caused me a little bit of discomfort, but it also pushed me to keep reading so I could find the ending. I can see how this would be an extremely enjoyable book, but I couldn't get lost in it like I wanted to. I found this book very readable, but the ending was only satisfying, not fulfilling. I wanted to leave this book with my thoughts tied up in a bow, but that didn't happen. This is for sure something to read if you like Hitchcock films and intrigue, and ideas of the horror coming from within the house.

Overall rating: 3.5/5 (rounded to 4)

Dream Girl is available for purchase now. Be sure to add it to your Goodreads shelf. Also, be sure to check out Laura Lippman’s website!

I was lucky enough to be able to read this Advanced Reader's Copy through my partnership with NetGalley. All opinions are my own.

Compulsive read - I could not stop reading this.

While I thought it closely resembled Kings "Misery" a bit too much at first - I did not see the students coming!

Gerry is not such a likeable person - no one in this book is particularly likeable - but the characters work!

Great book - definitely will be a bestseller!

Well I honestly thought when I saw that this was written by Laura Lippman that I would instantly like it because I've loved everything else that she's written.

Um, I didn't love the book. I didn't like it at all. The best part of the book is the cover because that's eye catching but the actual book was a total letdown :(

Laura Lippman’s latest outing, Dream Girl, is rich with allusions to classic literature and theater. It also contains refences to the current age, thereby illustrating some enduring connections in themes and character arcs. In Lippman’s version, Gerry Anderson is an author who is riding a wave of popularity based on his titular third book. When he needs to move to be closer to his ailing mother, he sees this as an opportunity for a fresh start—and a convenient exit for a stale relationship. As soon as he transplants to Baltimore, Gerry is harassed by his agent looking for the next bestseller that he hasn’t yet started. As he is grappling with all these major life changes when he takes a tumble on the stairs that forces him to be bedridden for a few months. His sole visitors are an assistant and nurse providing full-time care, and the unwelcome woman he tried to leave behind. In his drug-assisted recollections Gerry remembers why he had had his accident. He had been startled by a note he had received from a person claiming to be Aubrey, the fictitious protagonist of Dream Girls. The note disappears and phone conversations show no trace of that the communications took place. The author is also unsure of their reality, given his increasing use of medications. He remains helpless as he mentally scours his memories to resolve the mystery. As Gerry’s flashbacks arise, it becomes clear to the reader that Gerry has done some terrible things in the past and is unrepentant. Dream Girls moves along at a nice pace and has some interesting, if implausible twists. This book would suit fans of Stephen King’s Misery or the Lincoln Rhyme collection by Jeffrey Deaver.
Thanks to the author, William Morrow and Edelweiss for an ARC in exchange for an unbiased review.

Laura Lippman’s new novel is an irresistibly satisfying read, her best yet in an increasingly ambitious oeuvre spanning 24 years. Shot through with sly ironies, Dream Girl returns a double dividend: It’s a precisely paced whodunit dropped with a splat onto today’s hype-driven literary culture.

Dream Girl’s protagonist is 60ish writer Gerry Andersen. Once lionized as a hotshot for his debut novel, Andersen today is a rich, thrice-married celebrity litterateur. Sadly, he has never quite lived up to the acclaim heaped upon his first book. You may recognize the type.

Because his mother is dying, Gerry has traded the Parnassus of Manhattan for his dreary hometown of Baltimore. Within days of her passing, a freak domestic accident has him sidelined in his newly acquired luxury penthouse. The doctors have fitted him out with a traction-enforcing hospital bed. He faces months in isolation, pinioned above the homely cityscape of his youth, attended only by a demure personal assistant and a sullen nurse caregiver.

Lippman has always distinguished herself with well-tuned interior monologues. That’s the key here — used to marvelous effect — as Dream Girl’s plot casually tumbles along a beat or two behind in the headlong surge of Gerry’s ruminations. Framing chapters fill in some gaps, revealing seemingly random moments in his earlier life.

Gerry rumbles on, as self-absorbed as Philip Roth’s Nathan Zuckerman, though a good deal more comically sententious and inclined to self-dramatizing bon mots:

“[He] always felt more in step with the writers of the previous generation. They were the little pigs who built their houses of brick, whereas Gerry’s peers tended more to straw and wood.”

All the while, a little mystery germinates. Gerry is troubled by messages — and a creepy midnight visit — from an unknown person purporting to be the real-life model for the love object in his famous first book, his own dream girl. He has always insisted that he invented the character whole, despite the incessant probing of reviewers and lit-media groupies after her “real” identity.

To unmask the impostor, he calls in a prominent Baltimore private eye, introduced with an authorial wink as Tess Monaghan, whom Lippman fans will recognize as the protagonist in her early series of detective novels. Tess interviews Gerry, then politely declines the case as unworthy of her time. We get it, but he seems blithely oblivious to the irony.

His suspicions fasten onto his slinky former live-in (“Only the best men could afford a Margot.”). But Margot soon ends up dead, and at last we have ourselves a proper mystery, stocked with the first of several trailing corpses to come. Plus, there’s a corker of a surprise ending that puts the riddle to eternal rest.

As a novelist, Lippman may labor under what some see as the limiting burden of “genre author.” Early in Dream Girl, she has Gerry opine on the subject:

“By college he was mildly embarrassed by his affection for the private detective genre…although he recognizes there are a few outstanding practitioners working within crime fiction, albeit almost accidentally.”

No accident has triggered this writer’s growing range. Her ambition, depth, and skill have been impressively apparent in her last several novels, notably Wilde Lake (2016) and Lady in the Lake (2019). Looking back, it’s clear that Laura Lippman has labored hard to expand her creative reach beyond the bare scaffolding of story-driven whodunits. Dream Girl’s subtle, allusive brilliance would appear to promise much, much more to come.