The Book:
Dream Girl by Laura Lippman, 2021
Published August 10th, 2021 by Gallery Books
Date read: August 9, 2021
The Characters:
Gerry
His assistant Victoria
His nurse Aileen
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The Plot (from Goodreads):
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…
The Twist:
Gerry’s assistant and his nurse were friends and former students of his. They were conspiring to blackmail him. The nurse killed Margot and then the assistant, leading Gerry to believe he had killed Margot and was therefore indebted to her.
The Ending:
Gerry’s half-niece, the child of his father’s second family, showed up wanting her inheritance that the father left fully to Gerry’s mother. Gerry got her to help him kill the nurse, but Gerry died of a fatal head wound in the altercation. The niece stole the nurse’s manuscript and published it as her own.
The Review:
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.
