Dream Girl by Laura Lippman (2021)......follows the twisting murderous tribulations of bestelling author Gerry Anderson, bedridden and recovering from falling down the long staircase in his plush Baltimore high rise apartment.......
Gerry isn't a particularly likable kind of guy......his history includes a host of unpleasant experiences with the women in his life - multiple ex-wives, a controlling leech of an ex-girlfriend who lives off of famous celebrities, and various female creative writing students whose work he's bluntly criticized......or with whom he slept.
And he chafes under the care of the current women in his life, his home care nurse Aileen and his assistant Victoria......
All of this prepares us for Gerry to undergo and endure more mysterious misery than......well, that other best selling novelist from Stephen King's "Misery"......( this book seems to exist as a witty homage to King's riveting tale of a famous writer trapped, tormented and tortured by a rabid fan.
Gerry's troubles commence when he starts receiving a letter and middle of the night phone calls from a woman claiming to be "Aubrey", the completely fictional character Gerry created for his most wildly successful novel, "Dream Girl".
Phone Call Aubrey always sounds vaguely threatening, as if she's looking to settle a score and angling for payback......but for what? And if, as Gerry keeps insisting, there no such person as Dream Girl Aubrey, then who's the stalking caller claiming to be her? And what does she really want?
For readers to choose from a list of possible suspects, author Lippman intersperses the here-and-now chapters with a wearying series of flashbacks to various times in Gerry's life......and all those previously mentioned women in his checkered past. These chapters wear out their welcome pretty fast and reduce the book's pace to slowwwwwww............
We gather this book aspired to dabble in Stephen King-like horror when it detonates its Big Reveal ,but the twists struck us as more darkly comical, bordering on absurd......with the bodies piling up one after the other and everybody involved getting what they deserve......more or less.
Still, "Dream Lover" does finally end up as an entertaining read, liberally sprinkled with dozens upon dozens of witty pop culture book and movie references. Just don't skim through the flashbacks, even though you may be tempted to......there's clues in them thar hills, especially relating to the final capping-off twist. 3 stars (***).
No comments:
Post a Comment