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Dear Girls Above Me: Inspired by a True Story
Based on the wildly popular Twitter feed Dear Girls Above Me, a roman à clef about how thinking like a couple of girls turned one single guy into a better man.
When Charlie McDowell began sharing his open letters to his noisy upstairs neighbors—two impossibly ditzy female roommates in their mid-twenties—on Twitter, his feed quickly went viral. His followers multiplied and he got the attention of everyone from celebrities to production studios to major media outlets such as Time and Glamour. Now Dear Girls breaks out of the 140-character limit as Charlie imagines what would happen if he put the wisdom of the girls to the test.
After being unceremoniously dumped by the girl he was certain was “the one,” Charlie realized his neighbors’ conversations were not only amusing, but also offered him access to a completely uncensored woman’s perspective on the world. From the importance of effectively Facebook-stalking potential girlfriends and effortlessly pulling off pastel, to learning when in the early stages of dating is too presumptuous to bring a condom and how to turn food poisoning into a dieting advantage, the girls get Charlie into trouble, but they also get him out of it—without ever having a clue of their impact on him.
When Charlie McDowell began sharing his open letters to his noisy upstairs neighbors—two impossibly ditzy female roommates in their mid-twenties—on Twitter, his feed quickly went viral. His followers multiplied and he got the attention of everyone from celebrities to production studios to major media outlets such as Time and Glamour. Now Dear Girls breaks out of the 140-character limit as Charlie imagines what would happen if he put the wisdom of the girls to the test.
After being unceremoniously dumped by the girl he was certain was “the one,” Charlie realized his neighbors’ conversations were not only amusing, but also offered him access to a completely uncensored woman’s perspective on the world. From the importance of effectively Facebook-stalking potential girlfriends and effortlessly pulling off pastel, to learning when in the early stages of dating is too presumptuous to bring a condom and how to turn food poisoning into a dieting advantage, the girls get Charlie into trouble, but they also get him out of it—without ever having a clue of their impact on him.
288 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2013
111 people are currently reading
4051 people want to read
About the author
Charlie McDowell
1 book29 followersCharlie McDowell is an author, blogger, actor and director. McDowell is most know for The One I Love (2014) and Bye Bye Benjamin (2006) as well as his blog, which he then adapted into the book Dear Girls Above Me.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 499 reviews
January 2, 2018
Dear Girls Above Me is about Charlie McDowell’s time living beneath a loud group of gossiping young women (names have been changed to protect the innocent). He claims to have learned much about love, life and himself through his eavesdropping.
From the description, I thought this book was going to be cute. Instead, I found it very creepy.
"I most definitely did not expect to be the unwilling audience of a twenty-four-hour slumber party between the Winston Churchill and Benjamin Franklin of the 90210 generation." pg 6, ebook.
But, shortly after professing his irritation for the girls, he spends an inordinate amount of time wandering around his apartment, looking for the location with the best “reception” of their voices.
"…I’m living underneath a couple of Kardashian wannabes who spend their time gossiping, starving themselves, and throwing noisy parties." pg 21, ebook.
Instead of ignoring them or moving to a new apartment, Charlie creates a Twitter account where he mercilessly mocks the snippets of conversation he overhears. It seemed very passive-aggressive to me.
"As my Dear Girls Above Me Twitter following grew, so did my guilt and anxiety. Each day, more and more people were discovering my ‘letters’ to the girls, and I felt as if it was only a matter of time before they stumbled across it." pg 113, ebook.
But not guilty enough to stop tweeting about it.
Charlie does try to build reader sympathy by sharing some fairly embarrassing stories about his own personal life, but it didn’t really work. I found myself feeling embarrassed for everyone in this book rather than amused.
The low point of this tale was this: Dear Girls Above Me, ‘The psychic said I have a serious stalker in my life!’ I much prefer ‘a friend who always listens,’ thank you very much. pg 194, ebook.
No, stalker is more appropriate. Sorry.
I don’t recommend this book.
From the description, I thought this book was going to be cute. Instead, I found it very creepy.
"I most definitely did not expect to be the unwilling audience of a twenty-four-hour slumber party between the Winston Churchill and Benjamin Franklin of the 90210 generation." pg 6, ebook.
But, shortly after professing his irritation for the girls, he spends an inordinate amount of time wandering around his apartment, looking for the location with the best “reception” of their voices.
"…I’m living underneath a couple of Kardashian wannabes who spend their time gossiping, starving themselves, and throwing noisy parties." pg 21, ebook.
Instead of ignoring them or moving to a new apartment, Charlie creates a Twitter account where he mercilessly mocks the snippets of conversation he overhears. It seemed very passive-aggressive to me.
"As my Dear Girls Above Me Twitter following grew, so did my guilt and anxiety. Each day, more and more people were discovering my ‘letters’ to the girls, and I felt as if it was only a matter of time before they stumbled across it." pg 113, ebook.
But not guilty enough to stop tweeting about it.
Charlie does try to build reader sympathy by sharing some fairly embarrassing stories about his own personal life, but it didn’t really work. I found myself feeling embarrassed for everyone in this book rather than amused.
The low point of this tale was this: Dear Girls Above Me, ‘The psychic said I have a serious stalker in my life!’ I much prefer ‘a friend who always listens,’ thank you very much. pg 194, ebook.
No, stalker is more appropriate. Sorry.
I don’t recommend this book.
June 18, 2013
Look, I started out reading the Dear GAM tweets and laughing at them like the rest of Twitter. But reading this book just made it so much clearer how CREEPY Charlie is in his eavesdropping. These are two girls who have no idea they have an army of people on the internet making fun of them. Can we please put ourselves in those shoes for just one moment? It's bullying and it's humiliating. Add to it the fact that these are women being mocked by a man in a society where women are already seen as "lesser" and it's just gross on every level. The book addresses a few cutesy moments where Charlie bonds with the girls, but that doesn't make up for the fact that he is using them. I get that the girls say things he finds laughable from his spot of educated privilege, but he could easily talk to them face to face like human beings or let them learn from their mistakes instead of mocking them on the internet. It's easy to dehumanize the girls with out of context eavesdropped quotations. It's more difficult but ultimately more worthwhile to realize that they are people, too.
August 3, 2015
★★★½
Dear Girls Above Me: Inspired by a True Story is a memoir of sorts written by actor/ director/ writer/ producer/ cinematographer Charlie McDowell. This book was inspired by the popularity of Charlie's Twitter feed titled Dear Girls Above Me where he shares his open letters to his loud upstairs neighbors.
I liked Dear Girls Above Me overall. I have to admit that I didn't laugh at all, but I definitely found myself smiling during the sections where Charlie quoted these girls. I find "air-headed" conversations immensely entertaining, so if nothing else, this book introduced me to years worth of tweets sure to lift my mood :)
Note: The ½ star is a nod to the audiobook. Although Charlie himself did not narrate it personally, I ended up loving the voice of the narrator: Kirby Heyborne. It was extra funny when he tried to mimic the girly, "Oh my God! Really?" voices of the neighbors. If you are interested in this book and enjoy listening to written material, then consider the audio version.
My favorite tweet:
“If that bitch talks shit about me one more time, I’m gonna wear a white dress to her wedding.”
Men use fists, women use fabric.
Dear Girls Above Me: Inspired by a True Story is a memoir of sorts written by actor/ director/ writer/ producer/ cinematographer Charlie McDowell. This book was inspired by the popularity of Charlie's Twitter feed titled Dear Girls Above Me where he shares his open letters to his loud upstairs neighbors.
"Sometimes I feel bad for the girls because they aren’t exactly the sharpest tools in the shed. In fact, they’re more like a couple of dull butter knives that were left in the grass outside of the shed. Of course, it’s unfair for me to judge, considering the fact that I’m privileged enough to get insight into their uncensored conversations, but at the same time some things aren’t meant to be said aloud. . . .Before reading this book, I had no idea Charlie's Twitter feed existed. Apparently I was not on the viral bandwagon. I loved the tweets that were inserted here and there throughout the book - those were my favorite parts likely because this material was brand new to me. Overall, I enjoyed the story too, I just didn't find it that funny as a whole. Charlie wrote about his relationships and how his neighbors' conversations provided a surprising new perspective that worked to his advantage as he started to think about situations outside of his rational, male-minded box.
"This might be a stupid question, but do fish, like, drink water?”
“Oh my God, the power just went out! The power just went out! Turn on the lights, I can’t see!”
“I know we got bin Laden, but my question is, did we ever get the bastards who flew the planes?”
“Have you ever realized that you can’t become a grandma without having kids?”
I liked Dear Girls Above Me overall. I have to admit that I didn't laugh at all, but I definitely found myself smiling during the sections where Charlie quoted these girls. I find "air-headed" conversations immensely entertaining, so if nothing else, this book introduced me to years worth of tweets sure to lift my mood :)
Note: The ½ star is a nod to the audiobook. Although Charlie himself did not narrate it personally, I ended up loving the voice of the narrator: Kirby Heyborne. It was extra funny when he tried to mimic the girly, "Oh my God! Really?" voices of the neighbors. If you are interested in this book and enjoy listening to written material, then consider the audio version.
My favorite tweet:
“If that bitch talks shit about me one more time, I’m gonna wear a white dress to her wedding.”
Men use fists, women use fabric.
June 7, 2013
Charlie sits in his room and listens in on the lives of the two rich, obnoxious, twenty-something females in the apartment above his, aided by his building's poor ventilation system. He creates a Twitter account called, "Dear Girls Above Me" where he responds to the girls' most pressing life questions. ("How much did that gluten stuff in food cost before they made it free??")
He decides it would be a good idea to write a book based on this Twitter account, and his time spent eavesdropping.
It was a bad idea.
I kept waiting for this "true story" to get funny, and it never did. Not only were these"girls"so unbelievably stupid they had me cringing for twenty-something women everywhere, I found Charlie increasingly unappealing as the book progressed. Charlie becomes a stalker, and I become creeped out. Lose-lose.
He decides it would be a good idea to write a book based on this Twitter account, and his time spent eavesdropping.
It was a bad idea.
I kept waiting for this "true story" to get funny, and it never did. Not only were these"girls"so unbelievably stupid they had me cringing for twenty-something women everywhere, I found Charlie increasingly unappealing as the book progressed. Charlie becomes a stalker, and I become creeped out. Lose-lose.
July 6, 2013
This book is, by far, the funniest book I have read in a long time! I literally was laughing out loud so hard, I had tears in my eyes, during the entire book! I haven't laughed so hard because of a book, since Stupid and Contagious by Caprice Crane. McDowell certainly has a gift of comedic timing, as well as a great story-telling ability that captures the reader and refuses to let go until the book comes to a glorious end. There is not one bad thing I have to say about this book...and I am a picky reader, and even proclaim to dislike non-fiction/biographical books. I would recommend this book to anyone who is in desperate need of a great laugh and a few hours to kill. I finished this book in a half a day...non-stop...I couldn't put it down. I found myself wishing I lived in McDowell's apartment complex, just so I could be entertained by the magnitude of ridiculousness that is Claire and Cathy. Bravo to Charles McDowell on his debut book and I can honestly say that I will, from this day forward, be a follower of Dear Girls Above Me! I can only imagine what will come out of their mouths next!
March 21, 2014
This is a far less witty "Sh*t My Dad Says" to the tune of "My sorority girl neighbors are a little, okay, very stupid."
It was funny, until it was just plain redundant. It was by no means a coherent story. The plot is non-existent. The ending was cobbled together with baling twine and bubble gum.
And Charlie is a bit of a weirdo. My gross nosy neighbor just comes out to the porch EVERY time I pull up to ask me how my day was, and I find him to be a creepy psycho with boundary issues. Charlie eavesdrops on two neighbors and then tells the world about it. About half way through the book I realized that is not funny, that is disturbing.
Let's turn this a bit shall we and the two ditzy neighbor girls are Tweeting about their eavesdropping neighbor who heard they were going to cook a green bean casserole, followed them to the same supermarket, watched them in the supermarket, followed them home, made the casserole, sat in his kitchen sink listening to them, then went to save them when they didn't hear the timer, and then left them his casserole outside their door. Keep in mind; they have no idea who he is. He is a complete stranger to them.
Am I the only one who finds Charlie’s behavior alarming, and not in a funny way, but in a, “You may want a restraining order.” way?
This is a very long (not in length, just in time I wish I had back) story that should have remained a blog and twitter feed. One commenter said, "It read like one long dumb blonde joke." I agree. I wish I would have just stayed with the free Twitter feed. I feel 14 bucks worth of not happy about this book.
It was funny, until it was just plain redundant. It was by no means a coherent story. The plot is non-existent. The ending was cobbled together with baling twine and bubble gum.
And Charlie is a bit of a weirdo. My gross nosy neighbor just comes out to the porch EVERY time I pull up to ask me how my day was, and I find him to be a creepy psycho with boundary issues. Charlie eavesdrops on two neighbors and then tells the world about it. About half way through the book I realized that is not funny, that is disturbing.
Let's turn this a bit shall we and the two ditzy neighbor girls are Tweeting about their eavesdropping neighbor who heard they were going to cook a green bean casserole, followed them to the same supermarket, watched them in the supermarket, followed them home, made the casserole, sat in his kitchen sink listening to them, then went to save them when they didn't hear the timer, and then left them his casserole outside their door. Keep in mind; they have no idea who he is. He is a complete stranger to them.
Am I the only one who finds Charlie’s behavior alarming, and not in a funny way, but in a, “You may want a restraining order.” way?
This is a very long (not in length, just in time I wish I had back) story that should have remained a blog and twitter feed. One commenter said, "It read like one long dumb blonde joke." I agree. I wish I would have just stayed with the free Twitter feed. I feel 14 bucks worth of not happy about this book.
June 29, 2014
Full disclosure: Did not get past chapter 4.
Who could get past chapter 4? I'll admit that, age-wise, I fit int he category of Millennial, so no one can be offended when I say that the first few pages contain nothing more than the the typical millennial-ish entitled, whiny, lazy, full-o-shit crap that older generations hate us for. Complaints about having to talk to a neighbor, complaints about forgetting to pay his rent, complaints about having to go to meetings, complaints about not being able to sleep, and a complaint about how unfair it is that adults do not get gold stars. Mix that with references to popular culture that do nothing but date the novel and a slew of beat-to-death cliche characters that have appeared in every summer comedy film since 1965, and you have a pretty good idea of where the rest of the book will go.
The next 3 chapters are creeperish and not funny. The author literally writes (not in a good way) in 25-year-old vernacular (Only a millennial would end a sentence in Damn it), Damn it, and uses more (unnecessary and poorly-used) parenthesis (on each page) than an annotated bibliography. The situation has great comedic potential, but his rambling lack of plot and annexation of quotes are tiresome (uninteresting).
I put the book down with the impression that this is a self-entitled rich kid with no idea how the world works and no need to make anything of himself beyond a complaining brat. I know that I should give the guy more of a chance than 4 chapters, but I just cant waste any more of my time. The same goes for this review.
Who could get past chapter 4? I'll admit that, age-wise, I fit int he category of Millennial, so no one can be offended when I say that the first few pages contain nothing more than the the typical millennial-ish entitled, whiny, lazy, full-o-shit crap that older generations hate us for. Complaints about having to talk to a neighbor, complaints about forgetting to pay his rent, complaints about having to go to meetings, complaints about not being able to sleep, and a complaint about how unfair it is that adults do not get gold stars. Mix that with references to popular culture that do nothing but date the novel and a slew of beat-to-death cliche characters that have appeared in every summer comedy film since 1965, and you have a pretty good idea of where the rest of the book will go.
The next 3 chapters are creeperish and not funny. The author literally writes (not in a good way) in 25-year-old vernacular (Only a millennial would end a sentence in Damn it), Damn it, and uses more (unnecessary and poorly-used) parenthesis (on each page) than an annotated bibliography. The situation has great comedic potential, but his rambling lack of plot and annexation of quotes are tiresome (uninteresting).
I put the book down with the impression that this is a self-entitled rich kid with no idea how the world works and no need to make anything of himself beyond a complaining brat. I know that I should give the guy more of a chance than 4 chapters, but I just cant waste any more of my time. The same goes for this review.
July 31, 2013
This book was only okay for me. I feel like a lot of the "quotes" he was using of the girls above him were fake, and if you're going to make them up.. make it funnier. I enjoyed the actual story parts of the book rather than the sections of tweets to the girls .. I just wasn't buying some of the stuff he was saying.
February 1, 2021
3.5 stars and a few chuckles
August 12, 2015
This is one of those books that I picked up accidentally. I actually never heard of the "wildly famous" twitter account so all my knowledge comes solely from this book.
At first, I thought it was humorous. The girls say some funny ridiculous things. The writing itself is also pretty funny. I like how he describes situations, despite how unrealistic it seems.
Then I thought about it more. How horrible would it be to wake up and discover your neighbor has been eavesdropping to you. Literally planning his life around your conversations. And that he's been posting it online and wrote a freaking book. I can't imagine how that would feel. That would be such an invasion of privacy. It would make me feel unsafe everywhere, like someone could be mocking me at any moment and posting it. I can't condone this. I feel horrible for Cathy and Claire. I really hope by now they know and have punched Charlie and moved away.
The subplot with his gay friend was also annoying. Look, you know what makes a person gay? If he's attracted to guys. That's it. Not how fabulous he is or the music he likes or the clothes he wears or anything else. You can't assume your friend is gay because of shit like that. To attempt to pressure him to leave the closet is disgusting. Maybe he's bisexual, just because he was with a guy doesn't mean he's gay.
Anyway, I read this book because it is one of my best procrastination tricks. I should be writing my holocaust art paper or learning for drivers theory. Instead, I read stuff like this. I convince myself that I need it for my challenge when in reality, this book contributes nothing to me apart from wasting my time. That was harsh and I am sorry. It's nice entertainment, if I could get over the fact it feels like bullying, like a giant joke behind someone's back.
At first, I thought it was humorous. The girls say some funny ridiculous things. The writing itself is also pretty funny. I like how he describes situations, despite how unrealistic it seems.
Then I thought about it more. How horrible would it be to wake up and discover your neighbor has been eavesdropping to you. Literally planning his life around your conversations. And that he's been posting it online and wrote a freaking book. I can't imagine how that would feel. That would be such an invasion of privacy. It would make me feel unsafe everywhere, like someone could be mocking me at any moment and posting it. I can't condone this. I feel horrible for Cathy and Claire. I really hope by now they know and have punched Charlie and moved away.
The subplot with his gay friend was also annoying. Look, you know what makes a person gay? If he's attracted to guys. That's it. Not how fabulous he is or the music he likes or the clothes he wears or anything else. You can't assume your friend is gay because of shit like that. To attempt to pressure him to leave the closet is disgusting. Maybe he's bisexual, just because he was with a guy doesn't mean he's gay.
Anyway, I read this book because it is one of my best procrastination tricks. I should be writing my holocaust art paper or learning for drivers theory. Instead, I read stuff like this. I convince myself that I need it for my challenge when in reality, this book contributes nothing to me apart from wasting my time. That was harsh and I am sorry. It's nice entertainment, if I could get over the fact it feels like bullying, like a giant joke behind someone's back.
April 28, 2021
If half stars were an option, I would have given 1.5 stars. Being funny on Twitter shouldn't translate to being asked to write an entire book, but here we are. Although not well written and very cringey in spots, there were times when it was amusing and generated a chuckle to move it beyond 1 star.
December 31, 2013
This book kept me laughing all the way through. I'm sure that most parts of it were embellished, so while it may have seemed mean spirited at times, I didn't waste time worrying about how anyone would feel knowing this book had been written. In truth, every single one of us says stupid things on occasion. I just thought of his "neighbors" as amalgams of every person he's ever heard say something unintelligent (this could even include himself).
While the book may be titled "Dear Girls Above Me", I found myself far more entertained by the self-deprecating style of humor the author used when describing the events of his own life. His relationship/dating failures weren't only hilarious, but also completely relatable. And while some of the mentions about his childhood may not be relatable for many people, it was still laugh out loud funny.
If you're not easily offended, you should get a good laugh out of this book. However, much of the book does center around the author making fun of two dingy valley-girls that live above him and if you might see this as being sexist or unflattering to women in general, you'll probably want to skip this one.
While the book may be titled "Dear Girls Above Me", I found myself far more entertained by the self-deprecating style of humor the author used when describing the events of his own life. His relationship/dating failures weren't only hilarious, but also completely relatable. And while some of the mentions about his childhood may not be relatable for many people, it was still laugh out loud funny.
If you're not easily offended, you should get a good laugh out of this book. However, much of the book does center around the author making fun of two dingy valley-girls that live above him and if you might see this as being sexist or unflattering to women in general, you'll probably want to skip this one.
June 25, 2019
I started reading this without knowing who the author was. When he was talking about his parents at the beginning, I just kind of shrugged it off. Eventually, when he was talking about the movie his mom was in, I looked it up. At that point, I didn't go back to reread the beginning, knowing who his parents were. I did start questioning how much was fact and how much was fiction, based on this knowledge.
I laughed out loud at much of this book. I went in with the thought that it was entertaining fiction, with bits of the truth in it. I know several people like the girls upstairs, and totally believed that they said a lot of what was documented in the book. I loved the book!
I laughed out loud at much of this book. I went in with the thought that it was entertaining fiction, with bits of the truth in it. I know several people like the girls upstairs, and totally believed that they said a lot of what was documented in the book. I loved the book!
July 20, 2022
I have to say that this was a very entertaining and refreshing book, especially if you're parked a little on the sarcastic side, LOL.
Charlie and his roommate live below 2 very ditzy girls, which are loud...meaning: Charlie is able to hear their conversations through the ceiling.
Believe it or not - those conversations would not be as funny, without the comments of Charlie - which he is steadily publishing on social media and wins a small following...
I liked the book, and laughed quiet a lot.
Would recommend !
September 5, 2022
I started out liking this book, then I hated this book, and finally I am confused as to why I even read it.
January 24, 2014
Dear Girls Above Me is by far one of the funniest books I've ever read. Inspired by true events, Charlie McDowell, a depressed almost 30-something writer, is dismayed when he discovers he can hear every word his new upstairs neighbors say. One night he can't take it anymore and, in true 21st century passive aggressiveness, starts tweeting the comedic gold that comes out of their mouths. Gems like:
Dear Girls Above Me,
"Oh, I get it. It's called
string cheese cause it comes
off all stringy." Next week, we'll
tackle Push-pops.
"Claire! I just met an Asian
guy with a British accent. How
is that even possible?!" Let
me ask my white South African friend.
"So I guess they found
Osama Bin Laden pretty
much dead in a house
in Iraq." Literally nothing about that sentence is correct.
McDowell also paints a vivid picture of his life. From stories of his childhood with two famous parents, his possibly gay roommate (is he gay or simply fabulous?), the time his tits were bigger then his sisters, not to mention the various awkward social situations he finds himself in. It's a great book and McDowell's sense of humor is fantastic. It's almost worth joining Twitter for, just to follow him. Almost.
Dear Girls Above Me,
"Oh, I get it. It's called
string cheese cause it comes
off all stringy." Next week, we'll
tackle Push-pops.
"Claire! I just met an Asian
guy with a British accent. How
is that even possible?!" Let
me ask my white South African friend.
"So I guess they found
Osama Bin Laden pretty
much dead in a house
in Iraq." Literally nothing about that sentence is correct.
McDowell also paints a vivid picture of his life. From stories of his childhood with two famous parents, his possibly gay roommate (is he gay or simply fabulous?), the time his tits were bigger then his sisters, not to mention the various awkward social situations he finds himself in. It's a great book and McDowell's sense of humor is fantastic. It's almost worth joining Twitter for, just to follow him. Almost.
June 6, 2013
3.5/5 stars is my actual subjective rating (since we can't use half stars). I started following Dear Girls Above Me (Charlie McDowell) on Twitter after I heard about it from a friend, and have had a good laugh ever since. He lives in the apartment below two promiscuous and fairly vapid women, everything they say within clear earshot due to what he calls a "black hole" situation where he can hear them but not vice versa. The book, although only partly based on his real life, is written in such a funny, sarcastic, and endearing tone that it's easy to like book Charlie. He often breaks the format with amusing lists, and there are tweets of the girls' conversations at the end of each chapter. Warning: Lots of inappropriate content due to the girls' lifestyles and, well, the book being written by a guy. I liked the flashbacks to his childhood (the anecdote about his father telling him Disneyland burned down was hilarious and sad at the same time) as well as his relationship with his stuck-in-the-closet roommate. I'd also really like to know his 'magical' green bean casserole recipe.
July 28, 2017
It started out funny-ish, I guess. I liked the quirky, sarcastic humor. But after the first few chapters every time I picked the book back up I felt drastically less sympathetic for Charlie. He whines and whines and it eventually became so annoying that I stopped reading altogether after we spent pages and pages about his condom preference. The other thing I began to realize as I continued to read is that this is only, as the title says, a story "inspired" by reality. I got the sense that Charlie thought to himself, "So this is what happened but you know what would be even better? If I got into a pretend banging competition." It comes off as ridiculous after a while. This is just a written fantasy of a boring, desperate, creepy guy. He should stick to Twitter.
April 1, 2018
Almost everybody who lives in an apartment can relate to the story, where there might be one or more bizarre type of neighbours that just can't stop annoy you and make you feel miserable to be in the same building with them, while they don't give a sh*t what other people suffers from what they've done. Yep.
Well, this one was not so bad. Yes, Charlie's upstairs neighbours were loud and talked about nonsense all the time, but there were a lot of worse neighbours out there, so bad that they can make Cathy and Claire win the title of being the best neighbours of the year!
I will not lie, I almost did not finish reading this book. It started off good and I laughed a lot, however after reading around 50% of it, I had this very strong urge to quit. But I just didn't have a heart to do that as somehow this book gives me a somehow positive vibe, so I kept going, skip some paragraphs or more, and got it done. So, get this book if you want something light and positive and fun to spend you time with. It may be good for you after all! It's quite entertaining to see someone else's life issues from a humour perspective.
Well, this one was not so bad. Yes, Charlie's upstairs neighbours were loud and talked about nonsense all the time, but there were a lot of worse neighbours out there, so bad that they can make Cathy and Claire win the title of being the best neighbours of the year!
I will not lie, I almost did not finish reading this book. It started off good and I laughed a lot, however after reading around 50% of it, I had this very strong urge to quit. But I just didn't have a heart to do that as somehow this book gives me a somehow positive vibe, so I kept going, skip some paragraphs or more, and got it done. So, get this book if you want something light and positive and fun to spend you time with. It may be good for you after all! It's quite entertaining to see someone else's life issues from a humour perspective.
January 1, 2018
When is Goodreads going to let is give something 3.5 stars?
Read
October 19, 2019I don't think I'm the target audience for this book. Not sure how it landed in my pile.
June 9, 2018
A cute, albeit slightly stalker -ish book. A bit too fluffy and LA for my tastes.
March 8, 2024
I listened to the audiobook. Did I learn anything new, yes I guess I learned the author is the son of two famous actors both of whom I’m aware of and familiar with. Did I learn anything else, no I didn’t and upon thinking about writing this review I realized this is why I read mostly nonfiction.
I did chuckle and laugh throughout most of the book and I believe Charlie is a gifted writer and a pretty good comedic writer and the story about Disneyland was hysterical. I wonder if this book would be published today as being on the wrong side of Wokism and for that reason I gave it 3 stars instead of 2.
I can recommend this book.
I did chuckle and laugh throughout most of the book and I believe Charlie is a gifted writer and a pretty good comedic writer and the story about Disneyland was hysterical. I wonder if this book would be published today as being on the wrong side of Wokism and for that reason I gave it 3 stars instead of 2.
I can recommend this book.
February 28, 2014
Inspired by a true story.
What does that even mean?
True as in it sort of happened, but I changed a bunch of stuff?
True as in it could have happened, I mean, anything can happen, right?
True as in this is the way I think it happened, at least my version of the truth and there could have been some intervening factors?
I know the Twitter part is true, but my inner child who’s sometimes a cranky 90-year-old cynic keeps saying, the authors’ parents are in show business (the son of actor Malcolm McDowell and actress, Mary Steenburgen), so he made up the tweets to lead to a book deal, money, fame, followers, and eventually a movie. And so what? It’s entertaining.
Hmmm, I wonder who would play him in the movie?
Ryan Gosling? Too hot.
Andrew Garfield? Too associated with the web.
Robert Pattison? Too sparkly.
Kit Harington? Too snow-y.
Kellan Lutz? Too buff.
Joseph Gordon-Levitt? Too busy.
Someone from Duck Dynasty? Too camouflaged.
Seth Rogan?
Zach Galifianakis?
OK, now I’m just randomly thinking of actors with beards.
But I digress.
This book is funny, start to finish. Each page brings a different I weep for the future moment as we hear Cathy and Claire trundle through life on their clueless train to airhead land.
But the best moments come from Charlie McDowell’s reactions to the two girls as they overshare their narcissistic netherworld through the ceiling of his apartment.
I don’t know if this book gives insight or just laugh after laugh after huh after laugh after what the what after laugh.
Here’s some samples of the tweets to get you ready.
Dear Girls Above Me, “I’m so jittery from this 5-Hour Energy drink! How long is this thing supposed to last?!” 300 minutes.
Dear Girls Above Me, I changed my wireless internet name to “JohnStamosCondo” in hopes that it might confuse & excite you. It did.
Dear GAM, (upset) “And on top of that Fergie was wrong, big girls do cry.” Please stop living your life to the words of The Black Eyed Peas.
Dear Girls Above Me, “What are the chances of me becoming the next Pope of England?” Honestly? Pretty good.
Dear Girls Above Me, “How does The Blind Side guy play W/O his blind stick thingy?” Sometimes I wanna cradle u & say it’ll all be ok.
Dear GAM, “I was away from my phone 5 whole minutes and no missed calls or texts!” Ahh! Gather the women and children and run for the hills!
I could go on, but it’s funnier to read the book,
or Follow on Twitter @charliemcdowell
or check out the website www.deargirlsaboveme.com
Or all of the above or none…or whatever.
What does that even mean?
True as in it sort of happened, but I changed a bunch of stuff?
True as in it could have happened, I mean, anything can happen, right?
True as in this is the way I think it happened, at least my version of the truth and there could have been some intervening factors?
I know the Twitter part is true, but my inner child who’s sometimes a cranky 90-year-old cynic keeps saying, the authors’ parents are in show business (the son of actor Malcolm McDowell and actress, Mary Steenburgen), so he made up the tweets to lead to a book deal, money, fame, followers, and eventually a movie. And so what? It’s entertaining.
Hmmm, I wonder who would play him in the movie?
Ryan Gosling? Too hot.
Andrew Garfield? Too associated with the web.
Robert Pattison? Too sparkly.
Kit Harington? Too snow-y.
Kellan Lutz? Too buff.
Joseph Gordon-Levitt? Too busy.
Someone from Duck Dynasty? Too camouflaged.
Seth Rogan?
Zach Galifianakis?
OK, now I’m just randomly thinking of actors with beards.
But I digress.
This book is funny, start to finish. Each page brings a different I weep for the future moment as we hear Cathy and Claire trundle through life on their clueless train to airhead land.
But the best moments come from Charlie McDowell’s reactions to the two girls as they overshare their narcissistic netherworld through the ceiling of his apartment.
I don’t know if this book gives insight or just laugh after laugh after huh after laugh after what the what after laugh.
Here’s some samples of the tweets to get you ready.
Dear Girls Above Me, “I’m so jittery from this 5-Hour Energy drink! How long is this thing supposed to last?!” 300 minutes.
Dear Girls Above Me, I changed my wireless internet name to “JohnStamosCondo” in hopes that it might confuse & excite you. It did.
Dear GAM, (upset) “And on top of that Fergie was wrong, big girls do cry.” Please stop living your life to the words of The Black Eyed Peas.
Dear Girls Above Me, “What are the chances of me becoming the next Pope of England?” Honestly? Pretty good.
Dear Girls Above Me, “How does The Blind Side guy play W/O his blind stick thingy?” Sometimes I wanna cradle u & say it’ll all be ok.
Dear GAM, “I was away from my phone 5 whole minutes and no missed calls or texts!” Ahh! Gather the women and children and run for the hills!
I could go on, but it’s funnier to read the book,
or Follow on Twitter @charliemcdowell
or check out the website www.deargirlsaboveme.com
Or all of the above or none…or whatever.
June 29, 2013
Charlie lives in the apartment below two unfortunately clueless girls. on the day they moved in, he discovered that he had the ability to hear every word they said in their apartment. He also discovered that he could become immensely popular by quoting them directly on Twitter, and "answering" them.
Example: "Mom, how are you not hearing me?! I forgot to send Dad flowers because THERE'S A NEW KARDASHIAN!!" Happy Father's Day, Kanye.
Or: “I’ve totally decided to follow the Pope’s footsteps and retire.” Technically, don’t you need a job to do that?
Okay, so they're pretty funny. But here's the catch: the girls don't know that they're the "dear girls" above Charlie. This guy has thousands of Twitters followers and has sold tons of copies of his book and it's all mocking these poor girls who have NO CLUE.
On top of that slight ick factor, the bits of the book that are not quotes from the girls are pretty horrible. Charlie is a totally unloveable weirdo who definitely toes the creepy line. The whole relationship that he has built with these girls in his head is something they could get a restraining order on. And for all the time he spends mocking the girls, I didn't get the impression that he was doing anything at all productive with his life either.
I read rumors that this whole set-up is a sham; that "Charlie" isn't actually living beneath anyone. That Claire and Cathy are fictional. I kind of hope so.
Example: "Mom, how are you not hearing me?! I forgot to send Dad flowers because THERE'S A NEW KARDASHIAN!!" Happy Father's Day, Kanye.
Or: “I’ve totally decided to follow the Pope’s footsteps and retire.” Technically, don’t you need a job to do that?
Okay, so they're pretty funny. But here's the catch: the girls don't know that they're the "dear girls" above Charlie. This guy has thousands of Twitters followers and has sold tons of copies of his book and it's all mocking these poor girls who have NO CLUE.
On top of that slight ick factor, the bits of the book that are not quotes from the girls are pretty horrible. Charlie is a totally unloveable weirdo who definitely toes the creepy line. The whole relationship that he has built with these girls in his head is something they could get a restraining order on. And for all the time he spends mocking the girls, I didn't get the impression that he was doing anything at all productive with his life either.
I read rumors that this whole set-up is a sham; that "Charlie" isn't actually living beneath anyone. That Claire and Cathy are fictional. I kind of hope so.
April 30, 2013
I received this from a friend.
This is a tale of Charlie who vents about his loud "airhead" upstairs neighbors via Twitter.
*warning there is some language and sexual content
This book was pretty good. I read some pretty heavy stuff so this was just what my brain needed to reboot! There was plenty of LOL moments. Lots of moments where I scream outloud I cannot believe they just said that! I personally would have liked more of the Girls Above Me stuff and less about his own life. There are some parts of the book that were drawn out and boring.
Chapter Nineteen was my favorits. Charlie tells of how the girls sing songs with the wrong wording (we all know people who do it and are prob guilty ourselves)
"FireWork" "Cause baby you're a firework" Girls Above Me "Cause baby you love firewood!
Things like that! This book is an easy, quick fun read
This is a tale of Charlie who vents about his loud "airhead" upstairs neighbors via Twitter.
*warning there is some language and sexual content
This book was pretty good. I read some pretty heavy stuff so this was just what my brain needed to reboot! There was plenty of LOL moments. Lots of moments where I scream outloud I cannot believe they just said that! I personally would have liked more of the Girls Above Me stuff and less about his own life. There are some parts of the book that were drawn out and boring.
Chapter Nineteen was my favorits. Charlie tells of how the girls sing songs with the wrong wording (we all know people who do it and are prob guilty ourselves)
"FireWork" "Cause baby you're a firework" Girls Above Me "Cause baby you love firewood!
Things like that! This book is an easy, quick fun read
June 26, 2013
Desperate for a funny book. This is it.
A story of eavesdropping two noisy girls
Some funny quotes:
(Watching the Hunger Games Trailer)
" i play very different hunger games"yes, but anorexia doesn't make for good cinema.
You don't watch a Gaga concert, you experience it. ( huahaha how majestic is Gaga)
Just picturing a girl in the uncomfortable position of wandering how to say no to me is enough motivation for me to be single the rest of my life.
Even prison inmates get hot water. They may get gang-raped while trying to wash their hair, but the water raining on their violated bodies when it's over is always nice and warm.
"We have a major situation on our hands: he's ungoogleable! İ don't date anyone i can't stalk first". Thank God we're not dating.
A story of eavesdropping two noisy girls
Some funny quotes:
(Watching the Hunger Games Trailer)
" i play very different hunger games"yes, but anorexia doesn't make for good cinema.
You don't watch a Gaga concert, you experience it. ( huahaha how majestic is Gaga)
Just picturing a girl in the uncomfortable position of wandering how to say no to me is enough motivation for me to be single the rest of my life.
Even prison inmates get hot water. They may get gang-raped while trying to wash their hair, but the water raining on their violated bodies when it's over is always nice and warm.
"We have a major situation on our hands: he's ungoogleable! İ don't date anyone i can't stalk first". Thank God we're not dating.
May 7, 2015
The idea for this book is clever but the idea that he can hear everything that the girls upstairs say and yet they can't hear him is rather unbelievable. Also, it is creepy that this young man wants to spend so much time at home listening to others rather than making a life for himself. Although the girls might be "valley girl" types it is also unbelievable that they would never recognize someone that they have met five times already.
That being said, there were some lines that were funny as the girls mixed up ideas and words but it was not as fun as I expected it to be. You might possibly squeeze a 2.5 star rating for the book. Maybe the author will hit his stride in his next book.
That being said, there were some lines that were funny as the girls mixed up ideas and words but it was not as fun as I expected it to be. You might possibly squeeze a 2.5 star rating for the book. Maybe the author will hit his stride in his next book.
May 2, 2015
Cheap humor in the voice of a narrator who thinks he is much funnier and more sophisticated than he is. The people around him are unknowing victims of his self-centered and unsympathetic eye, their traits exaggerated in unbelievable, hackneyed ways. Within the first 7 pages, he takes shots at a little person and assigns an African-American female voice to his dog--besides sounding entitled, he simply sounds ignorant, insulting not only everyone around him but the reader's intelligence as well.
I didn't follow the writer's original tweets and know little about the story that inspired this book. But at best it is mean-spirited and a failed attempt at humor.
I didn't follow the writer's original tweets and know little about the story that inspired this book. But at best it is mean-spirited and a failed attempt at humor.
December 16, 2015
Witty insights from the observer of morons
If it weren't for the skill of the writer and his inner growth, I think I would have tired of this subject matter (2 shockingly ignorant spoiled young women) by chapter 3. But I found this book hard to put down, and that was because the writer humbly and deftly tied his own life crisis with what these girls were doing, but mostly saying. The free bean casserole incident moved me! I walk away from this book willing to learn life lessons from the annoying around me. Perhaps I'm a bit smug too, ("is a 10% chance of rain high?") and immensely grateful that this girls marry and bear children on an opposite coast as me. Fun book.
If it weren't for the skill of the writer and his inner growth, I think I would have tired of this subject matter (2 shockingly ignorant spoiled young women) by chapter 3. But I found this book hard to put down, and that was because the writer humbly and deftly tied his own life crisis with what these girls were doing, but mostly saying. The free bean casserole incident moved me! I walk away from this book willing to learn life lessons from the annoying around me. Perhaps I'm a bit smug too, ("is a 10% chance of rain high?") and immensely grateful that this girls marry and bear children on an opposite coast as me. Fun book.
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