Dream Girl audiobook

Gerry Anderson is an author who had a bad little incident. While recovering, he keeps encountering his "Dream Girl", the girl that he wrote about in his famous novel. Is Gerry going mad or does this Dream Girl actually exist?Dream Girl definitely had some of my signature trademarks: it had imperfect characters who were trying their best, the storytelling was rather advanced (clearly a very talented author), and it even had a bit of steam. The book has very good character development where the MC, Gerry, is portrayed as a horrible human being, but (of course) he doesn't view himself that way. Gerry does offer the book a bit of high-brow humor, and I thought that the book was very funny and entertaining. Also, I did enjoy the mystery of finding out what was going on. None of the characters were doing silly things and ignoring perfectly obvious clues. We also see little flashbacks of Gerry's life which were also very entertaining. Overall, this is one of the more well-written thrillers that I have picked up recently. I look forward to reading future works by Lippman.*Thank you, NetGalley, for providing me a free copy of this book in exchange for my fair and honest opinion.2023 Reading ScheduleJan Alice in WonderlandFeb Notes from a Small IslandMar Cloud AtlasApr On the RoadMay The Color PurpleJun Bleak HouseJul Bridget Jones’s DiaryAug Anna KareninaSep The Secret HistoryOct Brave New WorldNov A Confederacy of DuncesDec The Count of Monte CristoConnect With Me!Blog Twitter BookTube Facebook Insta

What sly wicked fun this was!Novelist Gerry Anderson has a double tear in his quadricep and is bound to his bed in his beautiful new apartment in Baltimore. Having recently moved from NYC to be near his mother, who has since passed away from Alzheimer’s, he knows no one and must depend on his recently hired assistant and night nurse for everything.Gerry begins to receive vaguely threatening telephone calls from a woman claiming to be Aubrey, the name of the character in his bestselling novel, Dream Girl. Aubrey claims she exists and he has done her wrong. Although it‘s a matter of speculation in the literary world, Gerry claims Aubrey is completely fictitious. On heavy doses of pain medication and Ambien is he experiencing drug-induced delusions? Is he the victim of a prank? Is he suffering from dementia like his mother? The latter seems likely as there is no record of the calls that become increasingly threatening. As the danger escalates, he lies helpless as a baby in his bed.If this is really happening could there be a woman he has wronged? No. His conscience is clear. Well…Clearish. If only the culture wasn’t moving so fast. Jokes that were fine a few years ago are now deemed offensive. And all of the many women he slept with practically demanded it. HE was the victim here, not them. Of course he’s blameless. Right?Gerry’s thoughts are hilarious and made me laugh out loud more than once. Other times…well, as we move back in time to certain incidents in his life we begin to suspect Gerry may lack self-awareness. This was an uncorrected ARC so keep that in mind, but some of my favorite lines:Regarding the tablet cover that belongs to his non-reading, tv watching assistant: “the case is covered with a pattern featuring cats doing human things. Cooking, riding bicycles, knitting. Reading. So cats read, but she doesn’t.”-“It is a smart phone. It is smarter than anyone who works for him, that’s for sure.”-“Yet soft, tactical lies, so-called white lies—is it okay to call them white or is that now racist?”-“She has joined a book club in the building, although it seems like more of a drinking club to Gerry.”-“…an all-black outfit with a “statement” necklace, only what is the statement? “Hello, I am confident enough to wear this very large, ugly necklace.”-“although she never eats, she does her not-eating in the very best restaurants, wearing beautiful clothes.”-“She always insisted that she had not had “work” done, a turn of phrase that amuses Gerry, as it implies that tightening and plumping the body is a job in a way that other surgery is not. No one speaks of heart work.”The author in the epilogue considers this her first work of horror inspired in part by a few of her favorite novelists. Certainly, as the events transpire the story gets very dark indeed but I would call it more of a literary thriller. Some things that occur are horrific but they happen off the page. I absolutely loved it. The writing is sharp and smart and the slow build-up of tension and suspense was pitch perfect. I loved Gerry’s witty observations, I loved the flashbacks that give us a clearer picture of who he really was, I loved the references to book titles, authors, and movies, the publishing world and academia, and I loved the satirical humor. And the ending….well, it was a fitting end! Unputdownable and highly recommended! “In a world that was speeding up, novelists were obligated to make people slow down."So true, but this was such a page-turner it was difficult to slow down.• I received a digital copy of the book via NetGalley. All opinions are my own• Pub date 6/22/21 by William Morrow

“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.

A wild ride, a runaway train that spun around in every direction until .... THUDThe suspense and satire along the way kept me riveted. Gerry's thoughts and actions were truly riotous.Gerry is a famous novelist laid up in bed while he recovers from a fall. He is asleep more than he's awake. He is often not quite asleep and not quite awake. His nurse, Aileen (enter Drama!) looms over him serving pills with his dinner. She is a "cheerful Lady Macbeth, humming as she works." He wonders if he is having delusions or hallucinations.A mystery caller, missing letters , a fictional tweeter. Gerry asks repeatedly, "Do I know you, who are you?"This train was off the rails, someone truly does steal the show and I loved every minute of reading about it!Thanks to NG/ and the publishers for my early review copy. HIGHLY RECOMMENDOUT JUNE 22, 2021

Gerry Andersen is a successful writer with Dream Girl being his magnus opus. Following an unfortunate accident he is bedridden in his Baltimore apartment until his recovery and he has hired Victoria to oversee his affairs during the day and Aileen as a night nurse. Is Gerry being haunted by a character in his book, is he suffering the beginning of dementia, is it his pain medication causing hallucinatory dreams or is someone messing with his head? I really enjoy the conundrum of trying to work out which of these, if any, is the truth. This is a sort of homage to ‘Misery’ and I really like how there is such effective use of books and films to highlight what is going on in Gerry’s life. This is a well written slow burner mix of dark incisive humour spiced with tension and suspense. It has several really good twists and at least one jaw dropper which makes you wince. The fact that for about half the book we’re inside Gerry’s head allows for a sharply focused insight into his relationships and his personality. The truth is that Gerry is not very nice, his thoughts are not always pleasant and I think it’s fair to say that he lies a long way down the misogyny spectrum. Very few of the characters are likeable but they are most certainly interesting. The ending is excellent, it’s certainly dramatic and doles out just desserts. It’s probably fair to say it’s unlikely but it is extremely visually creative. I have to admit, I like it!!! My only issue with the book is the timelines for Gerry’s thoughts are all over the place, they’re random which takes some getting used to. Conversely, it’s actually clever because it mirrors Gerry’s rambling and uncertain state of mind. In fact who looks back on their life in linear fashion, I sure don’t!! Overall, this is another book by Laura Lippman that I’ve enjoyed. I really like her wit, precision and incisiveness. With thanks to NetGalley and especially to Faber and Faber for the much appreciated arc in return for an honest review.

Gerry Anderson is a well-known novelist who is doing quite well for himself but has never quite managed to recapture the spark of his first big hit, Dream Girl. The literary world has long speculated that the titular character Aubrey must have been based on a real woman. Men struggle to write women so well and so nuanced they say, and certainly Gerry never had before, and never did again. Gerry however insists she is complete fiction, which makes it all the more alarming when he begins to get phone calls from a woman claiming she is Aubrey. Bedridden from an injury and on pain medication, Gerry wonders if the calls are a figment of his imagination, but they persist and soon he can’t help but wonder if he’s being tormented by a woman he has wronged in the past. Who is she? What does she want? Is she even there at all...?With a wink and a nod to Hitchcock and Stephen King’s Misery, how could I not want to gobble this up as soon as possible? This was one of my more anticipated books of 2021. You know the kind of book where you read early reviews and you’re both intrigued and terrified? That was this book for me. Could I deal with Gerry, when I normally have real trouble with misogynistic men in books (and life)? What about enjoying an unreliable narrator who may be imagining things because he’s hopped up on meds, a trope I have come to loathe due to its overuse for female thriller protagonists? Turns out yes, yes I can when the writing is smart and the satire is on point. I’m a Lippman newbie; this is only the second work I’ve read by her, the first being a collection of shorts. But I can tell you already that I’m a huge fan. Her humor hits just the right spots for me. It’s rare to find someone able to sneak social commentary into their character’s musings without it coming across as preachy, inauthentic, or just plain unpalatable. Lippman manages to keep things self-aware and tongue-in-cheek enough to avoid those traps. One of the more interesting characters in her Seasonal Work short stories collection was a sexist writer with laughably bad takes, so perhaps men lamenting the world changing around them is her forte? Or maybe once I get the chance to read her Tess Monaghan series, I’ll be equally impressed with her journalist turned private-eye, who is also balancing being a mom. I can’t wait to find out. This was close to 5 stars for me, but will end up being a 4.5 rounded down because in the end, the reveal and the motivations simply didn’t quite work for me. The actual ending, however, was perfection. Which is a rarity.

Laura Lippman, you’ve done it again! I loved this biting satirical mystery about an aging writer with a warped sense of self-perception and entitlement, especially where women are concerned.Many agree that Laura Lippman is one of the best writers working in the mystery genre today, and her prose really shone here. “Dream Girl” is the name of the book, and is also the name of the novel our irascible and unlikable protagonist (?) Gerry wrote back in 2001. Dream Girl was Gerry’s one shining success that made him a literary wunderkind at the time, And accordingly, Gerry appears to still be living in some version of the past, but maybe more like the 1980s, when popular male writers were treated like rock stars and revered for bad behavior. Gerry still thinks that’s how life is, as evidenced also by things like his old-timer’s proclivity for handwritten checks in lieu of EFTs and his even more ancient belief that all women are best and most fulfilled while serving him. Lippman really does a masterful job of showing how myopic Gerry is about himself. When Gerry begins to get cryptic letters from a woman in his past, he simply can’t IMAGINE who they might be from. He can’t think of any woman he’s ever wronged! Despite the fact that he has three ex-wives, some 30 “one night stands,” and numerous female students he clearly objectified. In fact, it becomes clear that Gerry objectified all women, from the “nurse” who helps him while he’s confined to bed with an injury, to his ex-girlfriend, to his former wives and students. It takes awhile for the murders to start happening, but the reader will be less shocked that Gerry about them.I’m not sure how Lippman makes this awful man so much fun to read about. But I think much is due to her deadpan wit, superior writing, and self-awareness (while Gerry has none). In addition to being a very fun read, this book also has some things to say about how Gerry’s sort of men view women and how their views have stayed static as society changes. On a deeper level, the book asks interesting questions about an author’s relationship to his or her subjects and inspirations. So I loved this book as both a feminist and a fan of fiction.The book starts off a little slow establishing characters and plot, but I didn’t mind at all because the writing was so wonderful. I think readers will find the beginning either slow or engrossing depending on their enjoyment of her writing style, particularly the satirical edge, which I loved. When I got to the fantastic end, I was extremely impressed at how Lippman was able to pull off something so clever, so symbolic, and so entertaining on its face.“Dream Girl” solidifies Laura Lippman’s place as one of our most literary modern mystery writers. I really look forward to delving more deeply into my unread books in her backlist, because this book reminded me why I love her writing so much. 4.5⭐️Thanks to Faber and Faber, NetGalley, and the author for this wonderful ARC.ETA: I was today years old when I learned Laura Lippman is married to David Simon. How do I get invited to THAT dinner party?

As an aging man, there’s few things that can scare me more than the idea of falling down the stairs. So this one was keeping me up nights in a cold sweat.Gerry Anderson is a writer whose biggest success, a novel called Dream Girl, is the source of endless speculation about if the lead character was inspired by a real person despite Gerry’s absolute insistence that it wasn’t based on anybody. Gerry has moved back to his hometown of Baltimore to care for his ailing mother, but she dies soon after he buys a swanky new apartment. After receiving a mysterious piece of mail, Gerry takes a tumble down the stairs and breaks his hip.Bedridden in his fancy apartment, Gerry has to rely on his assistant and a gruff night nurse for his care. That’s when he starts receiving phone calls from a woman claiming to be the actual inspiration for Dream Girl. An unnerved Gerry continues to insist that isn’t possible since the character was entirely fictional, but he finds it hard to prove his claims of being contacted. As he tries to sort out his confused state of mind, Gerry begins reflecting on his life, and while he would be the first to tell you that he’s always been a man who did his best to stay out of trouble, it becomes apparent that he’s left a string of women who might have grudges in his wake. Is it a disgruntled former lover tormenting him? Is it all just something he invented in a haze of pain killers and sleeping meds? Or is the dementia that his mother suffered from hitting him at an earlier age? I’ve only started reading Laura Lippmann in the last few years, but I’ve absolutely loved her writing. This is another example of why because it was an exceptionally tricky thing to pull off. On one level, it’s a story about a man trapped in a bed for most of the book, and it all hinges on putting the reader into his perspective. That means not just relying on the flashbacks scenes that eventually tell us who Gerry is, but also providing a steady stream of consciousness as his mind wanders. Not only does Lippmann makes this interesting, she makes all of it necessary.The character work done on Gerry is excellent because when we’re introduced to him, he seems like a pretty decent guy. A writer who came from a humble background, and the kind of guy who would leave his beloved New York lifestyle to care for his aging mother. Gradually, we start to understand that even when Gerry seems like he’s doing something for somebody else that there’s usually a selfish motive behind it even if he’s lying to himself about it. The mystery of who is claiming to be the actual Dream Girl starts to take a back seat to the holes in the history that Gerry has invented for himself, and in the end he’ll have to confront who he actually is and what he’s done. While I was able to guess a few things, there were still revelations made that made my jaw drop. There’s a few other works of fiction that seem similar, as if Lippman drew inspiration from a few sources, but it all comes together in a first rate work that feels original and unique.

This book was a pleasant surprise. The main character made the book interesting. I liked his strange way of thinking and how he tried to figure out the peculiar things that happened to him.

I read this in ONE day. I meant to read 15 minutes while eating, and I never got off my reading chair. This book is pure delicious fun! MISERY meets GASLIGHT, on top of Laura Lippman's usual stellar writing, psychological insight, witty humor (laugh out loud at times), and nailbiting suspense. I loved Tess Monaghan's cameo, the real-life publishing gossip (nice naming names there, Ms. Lippman!), and the slow building of dread and horror. As much as I find comfort in my favorite authors sticking to what has always worked for them, I love even more (not to mention respect and admire) when they branch out and try new things I haven't quite seen before.

Did I enjoy reading from Gerry’s perspective? No. Was this a good book? Yes. That about sums up my feelings about this book. Gerry is a deplorable man who thinks quite well of himself and that his enemies are few. He is a semi-successful author who earns plenty of royalties from his hit book Dream Girl to live comfortably. When Gerry suffers a serious injury from an accident, he ends up on bed rest in his luxurious apartment and in the care of his assistant and nurse. While under a haze of pain medication, Gerry starts receiving phone calls from someone claiming to be the inspiration for the main character in Dream Girl. Which is impossible because he completely invented that character. Constantly in a dreamlike state and on his cocktail of pain meds Gerry begins to lose touch with reality thus becoming an unreliable narrator. I did not enjoy being in Gerry’s head, but I also could not stop reading. He is a misogynist who believes he has almost no possible enemies except for, maybe, his three ex-wives and one recent ex-girlfriend. He has no idea who could possibly be impersonating his fictionalized heroine. This book jumps around from the present time to key moments throughout Gerry’s life. The sections on his past may seem random, but by the end they all fit together to reveal a nauseating truth. The comparison to King’s Misery is definitely apt in this novel.CW: sexual assault. This is my first Laura Lippman book, but it will certainly not be my last! Thanks to Faber and Faber and Netgalley for the digital ARC.

I’d definitely recommend the audiobook version. The narrator did a great job capturing the main characters attitude & just overall nature. Really good.

I absolutely devoured this literary delight from Laura Lippman, the story is incredibly haunting, a little creepy which really added to the ambience of the read.It's a twisted tale told in a noir horror style, the characters pop and it is beautifully unpredictable with a thought provoking kick ass ending.Easily one of the best books I've read this year.