Laura Lippman. (2021). Dream Girl: A Novel. Unabridged HarperAudio.

Laura Lippman. 2021. Dream Girl: A Novel. HarperAudio.

Laura Lippman, Dream Girl: A Novel. HarperAudio, 2021.

Laura Lippman. Dream Girl: A Novel. Unabridged HarperAudio, 2021.

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     Since Laura Lippman's debut, she has been recognized as a distinctive voice in mystery fiction and named one of the "essential" crime writers of the last 100 years. Stephen King called her "special, even extraordinary," and Gillian Flynn wrote, "She is simply a brilliant novelist." Her books have won most of the major awards in her field and been translated into more than twenty-five languages. She lives in Baltimore and New Orleans with her teenager.

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Dream Girl

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"My dream novel. I devoured this in three days. The sharpest, clearest-eyed take on our #MeToo reckoning yet. Plus: enthralling."" —Megan Abbott, Edgar Award-winning author of Dare Me and The Fever

Following up on her acclaimed and wildly successful New York Times bestseller Lady in the Lake, Laura Lippman returns with a dark, complex tale of psychological suspense with echoes of Misery involving a novelist, incapacitated by injury, who is plagued by mysterious phone calls.

In the end, has anyone really led a blameless life?

Injured in a freak fall, 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?

Isolated from the world, drowsy from medication, Gerry slips between reality and a dreamlike state in which he is haunted by his own past: his faithless father, his devoted mother; the women who loved him, the women he loved.

And now here is Aubrey, threatening to visit him, suggesting that she is owed something. Is the threat real or is it a sign of dementia? Which scenario would he prefer? Gerry has never been so alone, so confused – and so terrified.

Chilling and compulsively readable, touching on timely issues that include power, agency, appropriation, and creation, Dream Girl is a superb blend of psychological suspense and horror that reveals the mind and soul of a writer.

reviews

1. • premium: True
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   • content:

     Starred review from April 19, 2021
     Successful novelist Gerry Andersen, the protagonist of this delicious literary thriller from Edgar winner Lippman (Lady in the Lake), has moved to Baltimore from New York to be near his ailing mother. He has barely settled into his duplex penthouse when his mother dies. While mulling over his agent’s suggestion that he write a memoir and trying to overcome the rising fear that he’ll never write again, Gerry slips and falls down his dangerous (but artistically designed) staircase. His injuries are severe, and he’s confined to bed and cared for by round-the-clock nurses. Befuddled by painkillers, Gerry’s mind drifts back over episodes in his life: his childhood, the highs and lows of his three marriages, his book tours and teaching jobs. One night, he receives a phone call from a woman claiming to be Aubrey, a character in his first—and still royalty-producing—novel, Dream Girl. The calls persist, as do shadowy nighttime appearances of a woman. He scrambles to separate truth from possible hallucinations until the morning he awakes to find a woman undeniably dead in his bed. Perceptive, often amusing insights into a writer’s mind make this a standout. Lippman is in top form for this enticingly witty, multilayered guessing game. Agent: Vicky Bijur, Vicky Bijur Literary.

2. • premium: True
   • source:
   • content: Lippman's ingenious, allusive, and daring new thriller makes for a massively entertaining audiobook. It nods to REAR WINDOW, MISERY, and a host of other iconic suspense fictions, even including a brief appearance by Lippman's own trademark PI Tess Monaghan, but Lippman spins them all. Narrator Jason Culp creates vivid characters and delivers emotion, color, humor, and momentum with skill and verve. The setup: Famous (if fading) novelist Gerry Anderson, confined to bed by an injury, starts getting threatening calls from a nonexistent person, a character from his long ago breakout novel, DREAM GIRL. (Monaghan declines to take his case.) Lippman pulls off a whiz-bang plot on top of a deliciously accurate portrait of the good, bad, and ugly of a being a brand-name 21st-century writer. B.G. © AudioFile 2021, Portland, Maine
3. • premium: True
   • source:
   • content:

     April 15, 2021
     An injured literary lion is held captive in his waterfront Baltimore condo. There's a moment in Lippman's latest novel when her delightful series detective, Tess Monaghan, walks into the room and, for a moment, it seems everything could be all right. Unfortunately, it's just a cameo, and we're soon back with our uninspiring cast of three: novelist Gerry Andersen, who's had a debilitating fall, and the two women taking care of him, personal assistant Victoria and night nurse Aileen. At 61, Andersen has never repeated the success of his prizewinning bestseller, Dream Girl, and it's been quite a while since he wrote anything at all. He moved to Baltimore to take care of his mother in her last days, but even after her unexpectedly speedy death, he didn't return to New York, where the last of his many bad decisions involving women is waiting to shake him down for whatever she can get. This ploy doesn't work, and the woman shows up in Baltimore. Even more distressing, Gerry gets a phone call from a woman claiming to be the inspiration for Dream Girl, only, as he's told everyone for years, there is no real person who played that role. All the while, no matter what happens, Andersen's mind generates a literary or cultural connection, from Pete Townshend's solo album to Ben Jonson's plays to The Rocky Horror Picture Show. Some are explained, some aren't, so the reader sometimes feels as stupid as Gerry thinks everyone is. It's too bad this book has to be compared to Misery, because despite similarities in setup, it's no Misery. All the reveals come after you have figured them out; the murders are played for camp. The most gaspworthy moment in the book comes in the author's note: "If you want to play the game of figuring out who Gerry Andersen is, check out the author photo on this book." No! It can't be. In her 25th novel, Lippman messes up a near-perfect batting average.

     COPYRIGHT(2021) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

4. • premium: True
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     Starred review from May 1, 2021
     Just as Lippman's Sunburn (2018) offered a kind of homage to James M. Cain's The Postman Always Rings Twice, so her latest stand-alone pays respect to Stephen King's Misery. Gerry Andersen, a best-selling novelist, is bedridden in his Baltimore penthouse after a freakish fall, tended by an assistant and a night nurse. Then the phone calls and letters start, purportedly from a fictional character, Aubrey, the heroine of Gerry's breakthrough novel, Dream Girl, who claims she will expose how he stole her story without attribution. Knowing that Aubrey was a product of his imagination, Gerry is first baffled then panicked by this intrusion into his life, especially as there are no records of the phone calls. Has Gerry imagined the whole thing? Lippman brilliantly moves back and forth in time, gradually building the narcissistic Gerry into a confoundingly complex character, both repellent and vulnerable, a man whose ill treatment of the multiple women in his life suggests numerous possibilities for the person behind the newly arisen Aubrey. But don't expect to figure this one out; Lippman never stops twisting the plot into a deliciously intricate pretzel, right up to the jaw-dropping finale. This is both a beguiling look at the mysteries of authorship and a powerful #MeToo novel, but that's only the tip of a devilishly jagged iceberg that asks us to look very deeply into the hearts of its multidimensional characters. HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: Expect Lippman's latest to be among this summer's biggest novels, aided by massive social-media outreach.

     COPYRIGHT(2021) Booklist, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

5. • premium: True
   • source:
   • content:

     September 1, 2021
     

     Gerry Andersen, a successful novelist, is laid up in his Baltimore condo following a nearly fatal fall from his floating staircase. Gerry's only contacts are his nurse/caregiver, his personal assistant, and a most unwelcome recent girlfriend who gains access by claiming to be Gerry's wife. The doctor who is monitoring his progress in transitioning to a wheelchair is Gerry's only other occasional visitor. Gerry has a cordless phone though, and, out of the blue, gets a call from someone claiming to be Aubrey, the fictitious "Dream Girl" from his award-winning novel. Later, there's no trace of the call in his landline's memory. Did he actually get the call or did he imagine it? Repeated untraceable calls begin to make Gerry question his sanity. What if his character somehow came to life to settle her differences with her author? Jason Culp's narration effectively conveys Gerry's inner turmoil and characterizes folks in flashbacks from Gerry's despicable past. VERDICT Lippman's (Lady in the Lake) fans will want to have this audio alternative. Is it a great psychological mystery, or a long, contrived journey to Gerry's demise? Lots of humorous literary allusions make it a writer's book. Recommended.--Cliff Glaviano, formerly at Bowling Green State Univ. Libs., OH

     Copyright 2021 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

6. • premium: True
   • source:
   • content:

     Starred review from June 1, 2021
     

     Gerry Andersen is a writer with three ex-wives, no kids, and a successful early novel, Dream Girl, that still makes him money. He's hit a slow patch after moving back to Baltimore to care for his mother, who dies not long after his relocation. When Gerry breaks his leg in his cold and fabulous condo, he's cared for by his assistant Victoria and by stolid night nurse Aileen. Stuck in a hospital bed, he drifts in a haze of painkillers. Things get weird when his clingy (almost)-ex-girlfriend Margot drops in from New York and threatens to blackmail him, and weirder when he receives phone calls from a woman claiming to be Aubrey, the "dream girl" of his novel. There is no Aubrey--Gerry made her up. He's pretty sure Margot is bluffing, too. Then a dead body appears on his bedroom floor. Is he a killer? Who is calling him? VERDICT Lippman (Lady in the Lake) nods at Stephen King and Alfred Hitchcock in this hair-raising tale, but makes it wholly hers and completely riveting. She conveys the horror of being housebound and reliant on strangers, as well as the fear of losing one's mind. It's a page-turning, plot-twisting masterpiece.--Liz French, Library Journal

     Copyright 2021 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

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"My dream novel. I devoured this in three days. The sharpest, clearest-eyed take on our #MeToo reckoning yet. Plus: enthralling."" —Megan Abbott, Edgar Award-winning author of Dare Me and The Fever

Following up on her acclaimed and wildly successful New York Times bestseller Lady in the Lake, Laura Lippman returns with a dark, complex tale of psychological suspense with echoes of Misery involving a novelist, incapacitated by injury, who is plagued by mysterious phone calls.

In the end, has anyone really led a blameless life?

Injured in a freak fall, 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...

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   • description: Fiction / Thrillers / Psychological