What do you think?
Rate this book
Daydream Girl
Sometimes life can be like a bad movie. You sit through it, hoping it will get better, suspecting that it won't and wondering at what point you can reasonably walk out...Kit Audrey Butler is the manager of the Orange, a dilapidated independent cinema. Estranged from her father, undermined by her boyfriend, and with her third screenplay recently rejected Kit finds herself badly adrift. Her favourite therapy, renting the appropriate video and scrutinizing the footage for clues on how to behave, no longer provides her with all the answers. But when new ownership threatens the Orange, Kit is forced to confront reality and discovers that help and heroes come in the unlikeliest forms...
- GenresChick Lit
310 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2005
61 people want to read
About the author
Bella Pollen
10 books61 followersRaised in New York , Bella Pollen is a writer and journalist who has contributed to a variety of publications, including Uk and American Vogue, The Times, the Sunday Telegraph and the Observer.
Author of five previous novels, including the best selling Hunting Unicorns and critically acclaimed Summer of the Bear, Pollen has tackled a broad spectrum of subjects from Cold War intrigue to decline of the British Aristocracy to the immigration issues of the US/Mexican Border.
With Meet Me in the In-Between, an illustrated memoir, Pollen takes us on her illuminating, funny and often painful quest to keep looking for the extraordinary in an ordinary life.
Pollen divides her time between London and the American mid-west.
Author of five previous novels, including the best selling Hunting Unicorns and critically acclaimed Summer of the Bear, Pollen has tackled a broad spectrum of subjects from Cold War intrigue to decline of the British Aristocracy to the immigration issues of the US/Mexican Border.
With Meet Me in the In-Between, an illustrated memoir, Pollen takes us on her illuminating, funny and often painful quest to keep looking for the extraordinary in an ordinary life.
Pollen divides her time between London and the American mid-west.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 22 of 22 reviews
February 25, 2017
Author of Hunting Unicorns can do a lot better than this. Stop wasting trees. They didn't die for this.
I often wonder, how does this happen. Must talented writers, who have written excellent books before, churn out such books?
March 2, 2012
Very, very standard chick lit fayre with an occasional nice turn of phrase and a bit of a loose moralled heroine.
There really isnt much to say. She works in a cinema but writes scripts. She is going out with a moderately successful actor but gets ditched.
She fucks her best mate (male) whilst drunk and on the rebound from both the actor and a local restauranter.
She needs to protect the local cinema from unscrupelous developers.
Would have been utter rubbish if it was for the occaisional witty comments and providing an insight into the female psyche.
There really isnt much to say. She works in a cinema but writes scripts. She is going out with a moderately successful actor but gets ditched.
She fucks her best mate (male) whilst drunk and on the rebound from both the actor and a local restauranter.
She needs to protect the local cinema from unscrupelous developers.
Would have been utter rubbish if it was for the occaisional witty comments and providing an insight into the female psyche.
August 18, 2021
The main character worked through heartbreak, loss of identity, depression and estranged parents, all felling raw and real but through a light hearted witty storytelling style. We all go through turmoil or hit rock bottom, but this story gives you the optimism their is always a way back up!
I would like to read more from this author as I enjoyed the way she writes in a poetic, expressive way.
I would like to read more from this author as I enjoyed the way she writes in a poetic, expressive way.
July 10, 2013
To be honest, I don't really see why this book is so liked. I thought the story-line and the characters were bland. The plot line is unoriginal as girl has dreams which are shattered then girl realises that she was happy just the way she was. To be honest, the book was badly written and didn't end well. I wouldn't recommend this book.
March 2, 2019
[2.5 stars] A promising premise soon becomes lost in a tangle of unresolved subplots (what, for instance, was the story with the shoplifting colleague?). Proceedings end as well as they could at the penultimate chapter, then there's what feels like a second ending with the final chapter. That's my way [WARNING, small spoiler] of saying I didn't think much of Rufus, not that many of her romantic prospects seemed very like-able.
April 7, 2020
Easy read. Got a bit frustrated with Kit in the middle, but got better towards the end. Not nearly as good as Hunting Unicorns.
August 7, 2016
This book came to me from a recent gathering from Brotherhood Books Online, an excellent resource of cheap secondhand books delivered to your door.
This story is about Kit, who manages a crumbling movie theatre. The promo blurb says she is a girl obsessed with movies, who turns to movies like a good friend to help guide here through her difficult relationships (as you do).
As I worked my way through this book, I found there were very few references to different movies and the answers they may or may not have provided to assist with her relationship issues. The blurb felt misleading.
Looking back, I think there was a bit of a theme of this in this book. A story/idea/theme would start and then it would peter out. For example, she spots one of her colleagues in an expensive boutique apparently shoplifting. This storyline then went absolutely nowhere. Her script emerges, gets caught up in a weird series of events and then nothing is heard of it again.
The boyfriends/lovers too also seemed to stop and start like they were separate stories or chapters in a book. I know this theme has been done before, but it appeared jagged.
For a straight girl who finds men confusing, I was also surprised by her lack of close female friends. Who did she moan to besides Johnny Too-Fat?
Maybe she was bisexual. A lesbian even. This could have been explored.
The style of the novel was also confused. At times it appeared Bridget Jones Diary-esque (which I could have handled), then it would morph into some weird daydream scenario (aka Offspring) before morphing into a movie trailer. I liked the idea but found the hotch potch combinations confusing. Was she dreaming, was it a pretend movie, a real movie, or really happening? I don't like so many questions in a light read.
Pollen also made some uncomfortable ethnic references. 'The Mexican' could possibly be ok if she also said 'the Brit' or 'the Australian', but she didn't. And it wasn't alone, there were references to other ethnic minorities who hung around shopping centres 'post coital'. Wt? Why did she say that, what proof was there? It just made me cringe.
The parent relationships were also strange. The mother had mental health issues and was dead and the father was unreliable/absent. And then after so many years, Kit and her father's relationship reaches a strange conclusion with weird references to holding of faces and putting arms around bodies.
I would have liked to have seen less reference to the parents, more on her interpersonal relationships and throw in a girlfriend or two. God knows she could have done with one!
This story is about Kit, who manages a crumbling movie theatre. The promo blurb says she is a girl obsessed with movies, who turns to movies like a good friend to help guide here through her difficult relationships (as you do).
As I worked my way through this book, I found there were very few references to different movies and the answers they may or may not have provided to assist with her relationship issues. The blurb felt misleading.
Looking back, I think there was a bit of a theme of this in this book. A story/idea/theme would start and then it would peter out. For example, she spots one of her colleagues in an expensive boutique apparently shoplifting. This storyline then went absolutely nowhere. Her script emerges, gets caught up in a weird series of events and then nothing is heard of it again.
The boyfriends/lovers too also seemed to stop and start like they were separate stories or chapters in a book. I know this theme has been done before, but it appeared jagged.
For a straight girl who finds men confusing, I was also surprised by her lack of close female friends. Who did she moan to besides Johnny Too-Fat?
Maybe she was bisexual. A lesbian even. This could have been explored.
The style of the novel was also confused. At times it appeared Bridget Jones Diary-esque (which I could have handled), then it would morph into some weird daydream scenario (aka Offspring) before morphing into a movie trailer. I liked the idea but found the hotch potch combinations confusing. Was she dreaming, was it a pretend movie, a real movie, or really happening? I don't like so many questions in a light read.
Pollen also made some uncomfortable ethnic references. 'The Mexican' could possibly be ok if she also said 'the Brit' or 'the Australian', but she didn't. And it wasn't alone, there were references to other ethnic minorities who hung around shopping centres 'post coital'. Wt? Why did she say that, what proof was there? It just made me cringe.
The parent relationships were also strange. The mother had mental health issues and was dead and the father was unreliable/absent. And then after so many years, Kit and her father's relationship reaches a strange conclusion with weird references to holding of faces and putting arms around bodies.
I would have liked to have seen less reference to the parents, more on her interpersonal relationships and throw in a girlfriend or two. God knows she could have done with one!
October 18, 2013
The first Bella Pollen book I read was the Summer of the Bear which I absolutely loved. So much I wanted to read all her books, and promptly moved on to this one. And it was disappointing to be honest. In fairness, it's all right, within the chick lit genre this is a good book, but for Bella Pollen - not her finest moment.
Set in London it's about Kit - child of dead mother (suicide) and estranged father - who writes screenplays in her free time, dreaming of getting into the film industry; has a boyfriend who is making it as an actor... and she's doing a "dead-end" job to get her through. Dead end? Is the poor thing washing dishes, waiting tables, sitting in a checkout, cleaning offices... no, the poor lamb manages a cinema! She can be a little frustrating in her wallowing, but I suppose this book is also her working through her problems, dealing with life, and learning to become a positive person who gets what she can out of life.
Her boyfriend, Luke, is the typical boyfriend to start us off with a chick lit tale - a bit of a vain, self absorbed type who drops her in a heartless way (gets his chauffeur to drive around all her stuff to her place of work - doesn't actually tell her himself face to face/phone call/ text/ letter... nothing!). Although he does manage to turn up later to sleep with her for a night so that she can get him a second reading for a movie audition. Proper scumbag then.
The writing is good, quirky little comments and such that definately keep the story going. I loved the bit when she's gone to the cinema on a date, but he doesn't show and part way through the ads, she thinks sod it, and goes out for snacks - now she doesn't need to worry about impressions, she can indulge herself. Horay!
Set in London it's about Kit - child of dead mother (suicide) and estranged father - who writes screenplays in her free time, dreaming of getting into the film industry; has a boyfriend who is making it as an actor... and she's doing a "dead-end" job to get her through. Dead end? Is the poor thing washing dishes, waiting tables, sitting in a checkout, cleaning offices... no, the poor lamb manages a cinema! She can be a little frustrating in her wallowing, but I suppose this book is also her working through her problems, dealing with life, and learning to become a positive person who gets what she can out of life.
Her boyfriend, Luke, is the typical boyfriend to start us off with a chick lit tale - a bit of a vain, self absorbed type who drops her in a heartless way (gets his chauffeur to drive around all her stuff to her place of work - doesn't actually tell her himself face to face/phone call/ text/ letter... nothing!). Although he does manage to turn up later to sleep with her for a night so that she can get him a second reading for a movie audition. Proper scumbag then.
The writing is good, quirky little comments and such that definately keep the story going. I loved the bit when she's gone to the cinema on a date, but he doesn't show and part way through the ads, she thinks sod it, and goes out for snacks - now she doesn't need to worry about impressions, she can indulge herself. Horay!
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
September 25, 2011
Yes, you may gag at the title. I don't really need to state that its chick lit, do I? And I hate chick lit. But something about this book made me want to read it despite that - the fact its about an aspiring writer who manages a cinema & lives her life through films just appealed to me. However, it didn't really deliver on that as much as I'd hoped. And while it had a good pace to it, was funny & nicely written, it just fell into too many chick lit pitfalls for me to enjoy it. Arsehole boyfriend who is so transparently arseholey that as a reader you can't be sold that anyone (particularly the supposedly intelligent 30+ female lead) wouldn't see it...check. Horrendous comedy moments a la Bridget Jones...check. Evil bad man boss type...check. Dysfunctional relationship with or loss of a parent...check, check. Perfect new love interest who has always pined for her...check. Happy ending...check. It was all too formulaic, not my type of read, though if I had to recommend a chick lit this would probably be the one I'd pick.
July 29, 2011
My problem with "irredeemable bastard boyfriend" plotlines is twofold: 1) they provide a one-dimensional character who takes up a lot of space, and 2) they eventually dissolve any sympathy you might otherwise have had for the long-suffering main character.
The fact that Kit's sullen bitterness is often acknowledged by herself, and others, doesn't really make it any more palatable. I liked the eventual fate of the cinema though, more for the sake of the dad, who I liked immensely.
The fact that Kit's sullen bitterness is often acknowledged by herself, and others, doesn't really make it any more palatable. I liked the eventual fate of the cinema though, more for the sake of the dad, who I liked immensely.
February 18, 2014
I enjoyed the last half of the book, I found it slow and quite frustrated with the protagonist Kit. There were flashes of Pollens word wizardry but the dismal setting of an old dingy cinema, a run down flat and pain in the neck boyfriend were overloaded on the dismal side for me. I was also frustrated by teh ending re the film script. A good read for film buffs and cinema goers of which I am neither.
August 27, 2009
I wanted to read this because I'd read 'Hunting Unicorns', the reviews on Amazon aren't great but I liked it. There are some really funny bits. Sometimes Kit was annoying but you hoped it works out for her.
August 18, 2009
It was sloppily written with basic mistakes even not very good editors and proof readers should've picked up. The story line also ended up to be just a basic romance although pretending to be something different.
March 10, 2010
I can't understand how the same person that wrote this also wrote Hunting Unicorns. It was like a bad imitation of Bella Pollen. I can only think that as this was an early novel she improved as time went on. I am annoyed that I didn't end this halfway through.
June 29, 2013
Bella Pollen really came into her own with her second book, B Movies and Blue Love, reprinted here as The Daydream Girl. Set around The Gate and Shepherds Bush, this book has a great anticipation through it and witty dialogue and will hook you from page one. A must for all film geeks too.
September 24, 2013
I bought this for two thirds off in Borders which I guess means it was probably around 2002. I was imagining it might be something like the Smallest Show on Earth. It wasn't but a pleasant enough read although I shall not be reading it again.
July 28, 2011
The write up on the back is the best part of this book.
October 4, 2011
A bit more to it than ordinary chick lit, started really well, but didn't fulfil its potential.
November 26, 2013
Feelgood easy reading in the Bridget Jones Diary genre.
August 16, 2014
A young scriptwriter is trying for her big break and in the meantime manages a local independent cinema. This was an ok read but I was glad to finish it!
July 5, 2015
A light, satisfying read, though not the be-all and end-all implied in some of the reviews. Quite amusing in places without being too over the top.
November 20, 2015
Disappointing
Displaying 1 - 22 of 22 reviews