Dream Girl

by Joy Holley

Alice wants a heart-shaped bed. Mary, Genevieve and Angelica want to know the future. June says she wants Lena to rescue her from a rat, but really she wants Lena to make out with her. Eve wants to get Wallace alone at the strawberry farm. Olivia just wants to leave the haunted boarding school and go home.

Bittersweet and intimate, comic and gothic, Dream Girl is a collection of stories about young women navigating desire in all its manifestations. In stories of romance and bad driving, ghosts and ghosting, playlists and competitive pet ownership, love never fails to leave its mark.

‘Dream Girl is a winning concoction – sweet, heady, funny, tight, sharp – wittily charting the lightweight antics of “unattainably hot” girls, wearing its love-bites saucily and watching its crushes play out with wry sidelong glances. Its stories start as they mean to go on – with charm, chic, laughter, skill and sting.’ —Tracey Slaughter

‘These funny, original stories are the new cool girls of fiction. You’ll want to sit next to them.’ —Emily Perkins

Genres: Short Stories, Queer, Lesbian, LGBT

252 pages, Paperback

Published May 11, 2023

About the author

Joy Holley lives in Pōneke. Her debut collection of short fiction Dream Girl was recently published by Te Herenga Waka University Press. She completed her MA in Creative Writing at the International Institute of Modern Letters in 2020. Her writing can be found in journals and anthologies in Aotearoa and overseas, including Starling, The Pantograph Punch and Sweet Mammalian.

Reviews

[Bridgo · Rating 5 out of 5]

So lush and vibrant 🍊 It’s such a delight to know Joy, and these stories resonate so strongly with the shared dream girl/young and femme/gay and silly in welly experience. Love the gothic undercurrents, love this collection!!!

[Tessa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Okay I might be biased but this book is so great! The specific details in every story are so cool, and Joy can pack so much into a sentence. Not only does this book surprise you when you least expect it, it rewards you with complex and honest characters in familiar Wellington settings. I love every story, but especially the book’s opening and closing stories. I’ve read it multiple times and each time I get something new out of it. Love Dream Girl!

[Sophie Dixon · Rating 5 out of 5]

ok so this book began my review pause because I simply could not find the words and life is chaos! BUT: DREAM GIRL is a DREAM oh my god. I read this book in four very distinct time periods. 1) in the Island Bay Lighthouse with a delectable cheese platter because Dream Girl is all about sensual aesthetics 2) to distract me from the Dunedin - Auckland plane ride that was winging me away from my best friend and it was SO IMMERSIVE that it did occupy my mind from our aborted takeoff/Bridgo's imminent departure 3) in a lavender and tonka bath because I am committed to the Dream Girl lifestyle and 4) in bed - not heart shaped :( Dream Girl and I made our joint debut at book club in August, and she wasn't even the only copy - Wellington gays you are missing out if you don't have your hands on this yet. my Notion notes ranged from i laughed out loud!! to inquiring minds need to know what happens NEXT to I agree with Meg and Saffron re Pisces (2020 heartbreak era) to how many beeps is acceptable in the Mount Vic tunnel to how good are the references to Heavenly Creatures or Jeanette Winterson or Mazengarb. My favourite story was Rat Trap - I loved June and Lena sooo much! This book is for the delulu girlies, it's a love letter to your early 20s, it's the Modern Love article https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/13/st..., it's so evocatively present in Wellington, it's Claire's red wine spritzers and Tessa and Joy's kmart illuminated heart projector

[sunburnbabey · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am an absolute fiend for a short story and i read this in a single very enjoyable day …. love love love

[Sophie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am incredibly fussy when it comes to short stories. Usually I am not that keen on them as a whole but I knew Dream Girl would change my tune. Ethereal, romantic, spooky, sexy. This collection leaves you wanting more with each turn of the page. I love how descriptive and evocative Joy’s prose is. An excellent debut. One for the Florence Welch and Lana Del Rey girlies.

[Simone B · Rating 5 out of 5]

So dreamy and fresh and messed up and queer and perfect.

[Patrick Boudreau · Rating 5 out of 5]

Perfect level of absurdity, love, and erotica based in the culture of New Zealand

[mags the bags · Rating 5 out of 5]

SO SO GOOD. have never felt so seen. truly one of the best representations of what it is like to be a sapphic teenager in the modern day. also just loved reading something by a new zealand author

[Josephine Draper · Rating 5 out of 5]

This intimate collection of short stories feels like a window into an adjacent world. Many stories feature acutely observed depictions of yearning, and that hinging moment where you take a leap into the unknown with a new crush. It opens with the cracker "Mission Strawberry" with Eve and her friends heading out berry picking. Most of the action in this story takes place in the car on the way to the farm, relating an interchange which mounts in tension as the story progresses.

To demonstrate the author's range: while most of the stories centre around the bang-up-to-date lifestyle of the characters in the story, there are also a number which explore other ideas, cleverly weaving in historical events or themes like lifestyles in fifties NZ, and historical events such as the death of a teenager in the building of the Mount Victoria tunnel.

Several stories have unusual approaches. For example, many of the stories are written in second person which is both unusual and leaves the reader hovering between the narrator and the subject, and wondering who the story is really about. There are also a number of stories with a central motif. I enjoyed "Fruit" and "Pets" - stories where the eponymous titles form the thematic backdrop to incipient romance. Extract here from "Fruit":

We huddled over the drinks menu-our thighs occasionally brushing against each other. Ada ordered a cocktail with Cointreau and orange syrup in it.
I teased her for being so predictable. 'Oranges are not the only fruit, Ada!'
We laughed and lost our balance, nearly falling off our stools. This made us laugh harder.

An impressive collection, beautifully written. I look forward to seeing what Joy Holley does next.

[Cadence · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is awesome. New Zealand house party gothic. powdery and pink and punctuated with all the right emojis all while something vaguely sickening lurks around underneath... like wearing the most beautiful outfit you've ever owned and feeling nauseous the entire time?? loved it. Had to put it down a couple times mid story because it was too relatable (positive) 💌

[Tracey · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book. It reminded me of when I was in my early 20s. She really captured the complex inner emotional life.

[Piper · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really liked this! Like most short story collections I think it had better and worse moments but I got more and more into it as it went on. Enjoyed how cohesive the themes were

[Rebecca · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this so so much, with all my heart!! . I wish I had this book when I was at uni in Wellington and friends from home asked me what it was like. This captured life in welly/life as a girly in your late teens/20s so well ❤️‍🩹 can't wait to buy a million copies to give me my friends

[Jacqueline · Rating 4 out of 5]

I can't give this an unbiased review since the author is Wellington based, I read Hataitai tunnel and blacked out

[Rosa Martelletti · Rating 5 out of 5]

soooooooo gooooooddddd 🤩🤩💗💗❤️☀️💃🕺

[Emma · Rating 5 out of 5]

I never publish reviews on here but I had to for this collection! This has easily become my favourite book. I think the writing is so beautiful and the imagery is vivid. Living in Wellington, I love that additional familiarity element when reading. Some of my faves would include the story in the Mount Vic Tunnel, the one structured entirely through zodiac signs, the ghosts in old Erskine College, Blood Magic!!! This collection is so romantic, youthful, sapphic and beautiful. I’m obsessed and I could not rate this highly enough, will be recommending to everyone I know.

[alexis · Rating 2 out of 5]

it started off strong and had me hopeful of the variety of stories that would be told… but as more time went by it became the same sort of repetitive content. i think if it were to extend some of the stories it would have made for more interest to be held throughout the book. i was hoping for a lot of good representation as someone who doesn’t love based on gender but the wlw stories were all the same sort of stereotypes and there was no genuine authentic love. additionally, the heterosexual relationship were toxic compared to the wlw ones. i know it’s common within queer communities to make a mockery of straight relationships, but i would’ve loved to have seen a queer girl / guy love a straight girl / guy in a very beautiful way. it all felt so surface level and not in-depth for what love truly is.

[Finola Donohue · Rating 4 out of 5]

For the girls, it's truly a delight x the writing style is so immersive for such short snippets!

[Devon Webb · Rating 4 out of 5]

It’s not that the book is bad. I’m giving it four stars, it’s objectively speaking a solid book. However, I had a personal experience of… struggling a bit… like when you meet a person who’s nice & cool & talented but something about them just pisses off you specifically, like the tone of their voice or a little habit they have, & you know it’s a you problem more than a them problem.

I think there were a few main issues I had, the main one being that I found a majority of the characters insufferable, without much in the way of variety. They all feel a bit… superficial & performative… as if they care more about how they look on Instagram than actually connecting with people. & a flawed character is always interesting, & there’s certainly social commentary to be explored here, but there were… too many of them… without any kind of satisfying thematic exploration.

Maybe this is a short story issue, but I would’ve loved to see a bit more reflection & evolution for the characters, so there’s something to be gained for both the protagonists & the reader. Some of the stories I found got really interesting just before they ended, & I would’ve loved for a continuation of that twisty little moment, especially Blood Magic (I think it was called?). As it was I felt a little unsatisfied, like someone gave up just when you were about to climax.

I did love the Moral Delinquency one though! The historical setting was very rich & engrossing, & really well-executed. Perhaps the variation from the other stories made it particuarly exciting.

I also found the prose a bit bland, but again, a personal gripe because I’m such a thot for run-on sentences. This was a lot more simple-sentence orientated, & I found it ultimately a bit boring to read even when an interesting atmosphere was being conveyed.

I think the best metaphor I have to describe my experience reading this book is that it’s like a hot lesbian in lingerie force-feeding you Cosmpolitan cocktails. The vibes are enticing, you love lesbians in lingerie, you love Cosmopolitan cocktails, but in the end it’s all a bit too sweet & sickly & you’ve probably reached your limit, thank you. I may have enjoyed these better in single servings.

[Breanna Mackenzie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Five Stars 🌟 This is definitely the kind of book you wanna keep reading again and again. Every time you’ll pick up on a new funny line or detail. I didn’t think this book would make me laugh so much but it did! There are so many little ideas and quotes Joy weaves into the book that made me realise my specific experiences around friendship/women/love/growing up are more universal than I thought! This book is pure magic and has been approved by Florence Welsh herself mid concert. Virgo written and virgo approved quality assurance 🐀🐀🐀

[Jack Gormley · Rating 5 out of 5]

Books like this are why I'll always be coming back to NZ fiction... Joy is able to say so much with such depth and nuance while keeping her prose so casual and thoroughly readable. It's unique to find books that make reading feel so effortless, but still make a well thought out statement and leave an impact. I absolutely loved this lush, hardcore Wellingtonian gem of a read.

[Janel Atlas · Rating 5 out of 5]

A stellar collection of short stories based in and around Wellington. Recommended to me by a friend, I absolutely loved it and have passed the title on to others who are interested in relationships, queer identity, and slice of life vignettes.

[teddybearbrown · Rating 5 out of 5]

Such pretty writing, I love every short story and it makes me happy to read stories that feel so much like real life. when i’m reading them i’m transported into my own memories of different feelings. super happy to have in my bookcase !!

[Kate Seager · Rating 5 out of 5]

I always love it when books are set in Aotearoa and can recognise when places and people are mentioned. Dream Girl book had this in bucketfuls. Holley’s debut is delightful, deeply queer, and disturbingly accurate to the girlhood agenda. Especially in Pōneke.

[Kat Cooper · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have quite mixed feelings about this book. Ultimately I enjoyed it, it's beautifully written and aesthetically lovely, but I also felt that a lot of the stories lacked endings and were quite similar. It probably didn't help that I read it very quickly. Overall however it was very pretty.

[Francis Cooke · Rating 5 out of 5]

🌷🐈‍⬛👻🥀🧛‍♀️🎶🪽

[Hannah Cook · Rating 4 out of 5]

Kids today. Horny, witchy and on instagram. Never felt so old 😂 A writing talent for sure.

[Kaitlin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fun n frivolous!

[Josiah Morgan]

DNF

[Paige Walker · Rating 4 out of 5]

the plot twist in that one story had me SCREAMING (go read it to find out)