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The Dream Hotel
A novel about one woman’s fight for freedom, set in a near future where even dreams are under surveillance.
Sara has just landed at LAX, returning home from a conference abroad, when agents from the Risk Assessment Administration pull her aside and inform her that she will soon commit a crime. Using data from her dreams, the RAA’s algorithm has determined that she is at imminent risk of harming the person she loves most: her husband. For his safety, she must be kept under observation for twenty-one days.
The agents transfer Sara to a retention center, where she is held with other dreamers, all of them women trying to prove their innocence from different crimes. With every deviation from the strict and ever-shifting rules of the facility, their stay is extended. Months pass and Sara seems no closer to release. Then one day, a new resident arrives, disrupting the order of the facility and leading Sara on a collision course with the very companies that have deprived her of her freedom.
Eerie, urgent, and ceaselessly clear-eyed, The Dream Hotel artfully explores the seductive nature of technology, which puts us in shackles even as it makes our lives easier. Lalami asks how much of ourselves must remain private if we are to remain free, and whether even the most invasive forms of surveillance can ever capture who we really are.
Sara has just landed at LAX, returning home from a conference abroad, when agents from the Risk Assessment Administration pull her aside and inform her that she will soon commit a crime. Using data from her dreams, the RAA’s algorithm has determined that she is at imminent risk of harming the person she loves most: her husband. For his safety, she must be kept under observation for twenty-one days.
The agents transfer Sara to a retention center, where she is held with other dreamers, all of them women trying to prove their innocence from different crimes. With every deviation from the strict and ever-shifting rules of the facility, their stay is extended. Months pass and Sara seems no closer to release. Then one day, a new resident arrives, disrupting the order of the facility and leading Sara on a collision course with the very companies that have deprived her of her freedom.
Eerie, urgent, and ceaselessly clear-eyed, The Dream Hotel artfully explores the seductive nature of technology, which puts us in shackles even as it makes our lives easier. Lalami asks how much of ourselves must remain private if we are to remain free, and whether even the most invasive forms of surveillance can ever capture who we really are.
336 pages, Hardcover
First published March 4, 2025
1,894 people are currently reading
76.5k people want to read
About the author
Laila Lalami
19 books1,718 followersLaila Lalami is the author of five books, including The Moor’s Account, which won the American Book Award, the Arab-American Book Award, and the Hurston Wright Legacy Award. It was on the longlist for the Booker Prize and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in Fiction. Her most recent novel, The Other Americans, was a national bestseller, won the Joyce Carol Oates Prize, and was a finalist for the National Book Award in Fiction. Her books have been translated into twenty languages. She has been awarded fellowships from the British Council, the Fulbright Program, the Guggenheim Foundation, and the Radcliffe Institute at Harvard University. She lives in Los Angeles.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 1,185 reviews
February 12, 2025
“The data doesn’t lie.”
“It doesn’t tell the truth, either.”
You know those dreams, the ones where you have to get somewhere, desperately need to get somewhere or pursue something, but things keep happening, keep getting in your way and holding you back? The panic that keeps increasing as time— or whatever you’re chasing —slips away from you?
That's what this book is like.
It's set in a future that feels just around the corner-- one where companies mine data from all our devices, social media and, in this case, dreams, and allow the government to profile us. In an effort to combat crime before it's even occurred, those considered 'high risk' by the algorithm can be legally detained.
It starts with a period of 21 days, but every tiny infraction recorded can extend the detention period without question or trial, no matter how unfair. This is the situation Sara finds herself in when an algorithm deems she is a threat to her husband, trapped in an institution as her baby twins grow up without her. I felt every bit of her frustration and suffocation.
Entire generations have never known life without surveillance. Watched from the womb to the grave, they take corporate ownership of their personal data to be a fact of life, as natural as leaves growing on trees.
Sara grows increasingly disillusioned with the system that would put an innocent woman in what is essentially a prison. Along with the other women in the centre, she tries to reclaim some freedom in any way she can.
The more I thought about it, the easier it was to suspend disbelief for this premise. Obviously the data mining is not difficult to believe at all, but I at first questioned whether people would really consider it a good idea to detain innocent people... but then, profiling is already occurring, and has been for a long time. And, from a strictly utilitarian perspective, one could argue that the technology in the book has done more good than harm. A minority suffer so that the majority can live in safe communities, free from crime. Scarily, I don't even think it'd be a tough sell.
I loved the concept and enjoyed Sara as a protagonist. I thought some of the secondary characters could have been better developed. I also thought it went on a bit too long. These reasons are why it's a 4-star instead of a 5. But I would still highly recommend it.
She wants to be free, and what is freedom if not the wresting of the self from the gaze of others, including her own?
March 18, 2025
i'm ready to check in!
update: never mind. please do not check me in.
(review to come / thanks to the publisher for the e-arc)
update: never mind. please do not check me in.
(review to come / thanks to the publisher for the e-arc)
April 4, 2025
In The Dream Hotel, Laila Lalami crafts a compelling narrative about surveillance, technology, and human resilience. The novel centers on Sara Hussein, a scientist unexpectedly detained at LAX when an algorithm flags her as a potential threat to her husband, thrusting her into a nightmarish detention system that criminalizes dreams.
Lalami creates a disturbingly plausible near-future world where advanced technology transforms personal subconscious into potential evidence. Unlike speculative fiction that feels distant, this story grounds its dystopian premise in current technological capabilities, making the narrative feel uncomfortably real.
The novel's strength lies in its nuanced exploration of systemic injustice. Sara's personal struggle becomes a broader examination of how technological surveillance disproportionately impacts marginalized communities. Her fight to maintain dignity and identity within a dehumanizing system reflects contemporary concerns about privacy, racial profiling, and algorithmic judgment.
Lalami's prose is precise and evocative, capturing the psychological claustrophobia of unjust detention. The narrative moves between Sara's immediate experience and wider societal critiques, creating a multi-layered exploration of power, technology, and individual agency.
While the middle sections occasionally slow, this pacing effectively mirrors the oppressive nature of institutional confinement. The story's tension builds gradually, drawing readers into a world where personal thoughts become potential weapons against individual freedom.
The Dream Hotel is more than a dystopian thriller; it's a thoughtful meditation on the erosion of privacy and personal autonomy in an increasingly algorithmic world. Lalami challenges readers to consider the human cost of technological surveillance, creating a narrative that is both intellectually rigorous and deeply empathetic.
Many thanks to NetGalley and Knopf, Pantheon, Vintage, and Anchor | Pantheon for sharing this unique dystopian thriller's digital reviewer copy with me in exchange for my honest thoughts.
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Lalami creates a disturbingly plausible near-future world where advanced technology transforms personal subconscious into potential evidence. Unlike speculative fiction that feels distant, this story grounds its dystopian premise in current technological capabilities, making the narrative feel uncomfortably real.
The novel's strength lies in its nuanced exploration of systemic injustice. Sara's personal struggle becomes a broader examination of how technological surveillance disproportionately impacts marginalized communities. Her fight to maintain dignity and identity within a dehumanizing system reflects contemporary concerns about privacy, racial profiling, and algorithmic judgment.
Lalami's prose is precise and evocative, capturing the psychological claustrophobia of unjust detention. The narrative moves between Sara's immediate experience and wider societal critiques, creating a multi-layered exploration of power, technology, and individual agency.
While the middle sections occasionally slow, this pacing effectively mirrors the oppressive nature of institutional confinement. The story's tension builds gradually, drawing readers into a world where personal thoughts become potential weapons against individual freedom.
The Dream Hotel is more than a dystopian thriller; it's a thoughtful meditation on the erosion of privacy and personal autonomy in an increasingly algorithmic world. Lalami challenges readers to consider the human cost of technological surveillance, creating a narrative that is both intellectually rigorous and deeply empathetic.
Many thanks to NetGalley and Knopf, Pantheon, Vintage, and Anchor | Pantheon for sharing this unique dystopian thriller's digital reviewer copy with me in exchange for my honest thoughts.
medium.com
April 4, 2025
How much of our lives and ourselves must we keep private in order to maintain our freedom in this post-internet world?
Centering around a terrifyingly plausible near-future premise, The Dream Hotel just might be the most thought-provoking book that I’ve read in a while. Given the state of our world, data-mining, and technology in general, the idea that this storyline is exceedingly far-fetched makes you wonder: Is it really? For that reason alone, it’s a nightmare-triggering plot that will likely have me turning over the words long into the night. Alongside of that, though, was the important underlying message: Only together—and through dissent—can we disrupt things that may seem entirely out of our hands.
As for the plot and the characters, I would classify it as a mix of literary and speculative fiction. With evocative prose that gave a claustrophobic feel to the setting and the conditions, the critique lying just under the words came more alive with each page. But it was the short-lived dual timelines and dual POVs that made me sit up and take notice. Through them, it gave a mild thriller edge which kept the slow pace from bogging me down. But don’t fret, the last third of this novel deftly picked up speed and pulled me in with a ratcheting level of intrigue until the provocative last scene that kept me engaged.
The only small hiccup could be a personal issue. Thanks to moments that felt somewhat repetitive and internal monologues that went on a bit too long in regard to Sara’s love of history and the WPA, I found myself skimming a bit here and there. You see, other than some broad strokes for character development, it just didn’t seem to have any bearing to the plot or the premise. Just the same, I ate up every word as I flew through this book in just one single sitting, so definitely take my mild critique with a large grain of salt.
All in all, despite a slower pace than my normal kind of read, I was wholly riveted by this Black Mirror-esque world. Warning us of what could happen if we don’t pay attention to what damage is being done to our privacy and freedoms, it was like a siren’s song to society at large. And thanks to a well-developed protagonist, intense topics, and some rather profound observations, I was utterly moved by these eye-opening words. I, for one, will be checking every terms of service before I sign on the dotted line in the future. After all, what aren’t we seeing in the grand scheme of things? Rating of 4.5 stars.
SYNOPSIS:
Sara has just landed at LAX, returning home from a conference abroad, when agents from the Risk Assessment Administration pull her aside and inform her that she will soon commit a crime. Using data from her dreams, the RAA’s algorithm has determined that she is at imminent risk of harming the person she loves most: her husband. For his safety, she must be kept under observation for twenty-one days.
The agents transfer Sara to a retention center, where she is held with other dreamers, all of them women trying to prove their innocence from different crimes. With every deviation from the strict and ever-shifting rules of the facility, their stay is extended. Months pass and Sara seems no closer to release. Then one day, a new resident arrives, disrupting the order of the facility and leading Sara on a collision course with the very companies that have deprived her of her freedom.
Thank you to Paula Lalami and Pantheon Books for my complimentary copy. All opinions are my own.
PUB DATE: March 4, 2025
Content warning: imprisonment, bullying, wildfire
Centering around a terrifyingly plausible near-future premise, The Dream Hotel just might be the most thought-provoking book that I’ve read in a while. Given the state of our world, data-mining, and technology in general, the idea that this storyline is exceedingly far-fetched makes you wonder: Is it really? For that reason alone, it’s a nightmare-triggering plot that will likely have me turning over the words long into the night. Alongside of that, though, was the important underlying message: Only together—and through dissent—can we disrupt things that may seem entirely out of our hands.
As for the plot and the characters, I would classify it as a mix of literary and speculative fiction. With evocative prose that gave a claustrophobic feel to the setting and the conditions, the critique lying just under the words came more alive with each page. But it was the short-lived dual timelines and dual POVs that made me sit up and take notice. Through them, it gave a mild thriller edge which kept the slow pace from bogging me down. But don’t fret, the last third of this novel deftly picked up speed and pulled me in with a ratcheting level of intrigue until the provocative last scene that kept me engaged.
The only small hiccup could be a personal issue. Thanks to moments that felt somewhat repetitive and internal monologues that went on a bit too long in regard to Sara’s love of history and the WPA, I found myself skimming a bit here and there. You see, other than some broad strokes for character development, it just didn’t seem to have any bearing to the plot or the premise. Just the same, I ate up every word as I flew through this book in just one single sitting, so definitely take my mild critique with a large grain of salt.
All in all, despite a slower pace than my normal kind of read, I was wholly riveted by this Black Mirror-esque world. Warning us of what could happen if we don’t pay attention to what damage is being done to our privacy and freedoms, it was like a siren’s song to society at large. And thanks to a well-developed protagonist, intense topics, and some rather profound observations, I was utterly moved by these eye-opening words. I, for one, will be checking every terms of service before I sign on the dotted line in the future. After all, what aren’t we seeing in the grand scheme of things? Rating of 4.5 stars.
SYNOPSIS:
Sara has just landed at LAX, returning home from a conference abroad, when agents from the Risk Assessment Administration pull her aside and inform her that she will soon commit a crime. Using data from her dreams, the RAA’s algorithm has determined that she is at imminent risk of harming the person she loves most: her husband. For his safety, she must be kept under observation for twenty-one days.
The agents transfer Sara to a retention center, where she is held with other dreamers, all of them women trying to prove their innocence from different crimes. With every deviation from the strict and ever-shifting rules of the facility, their stay is extended. Months pass and Sara seems no closer to release. Then one day, a new resident arrives, disrupting the order of the facility and leading Sara on a collision course with the very companies that have deprived her of her freedom.
Thank you to Paula Lalami and Pantheon Books for my complimentary copy. All opinions are my own.
PUB DATE: March 4, 2025
Content warning: imprisonment, bullying, wildfire
February 18, 2025
I’ll start off declaring that novels about dreams, dreams written in novels, manifesting in novels, and dreams engulfing novels (and typically written in italics) tend to bore me, and then I skim. I lose interest with the writer for idly using dreams as metaphors, and subjecting the reader to eye-rolling symbolism. And “Dream” in the title? I nearly passed this one by. But it’s Laila Lalami, and she’s incapable of writing a bad book.
Lalami killed it! In this, dreams are not used as a plot or character device. Rather, dreams are monitored by a corporation that supplies the buyer with a voluntary implant to regulate their sleep cycle, and used to prosecute for future behaviors and potential retention in a facility. Shades of Minority Report, but I’ll stop there. TDH is entirely Lalami. She’s exceptional at balancing a large cast of characters and complex plot.
Sara lives with her husband and twin babies. Sleep disturbance is a common side effect of new motherhood—she has a job, too-- and the sleep deprivation makes it impossible for her to stay refreshed in her waking life. Exhaustion has taken over. She agrees to an implant from a technology firm, and, not unusually, Sara scans the terms of service agreement rather than focusing on where the devil is.
Shit happens, and Sara ends up being “retained,” as they say—"not imprisoned” as they say, in a facility she can’t leave freely. Bad food, low water, and strict rules heighten feelings of confinement, and random petty violations ensure extended stays.
Profits for the facilities grow. And the reader is taken behind the scenes for a short but consequential chunk of pages. Senior staff and talking heads meet and discuss achievements, ambitions, numbers, fault lines, data, inmates, and accountability. It makes us think, and fill in some of the blanks ourselves. The reader isn’t babied with info dumps and exposition.
Cruel guards and maximum monitoring ensue; cameras, hearing devices, and gadgets are the norm. The State keeps records of our risk scores; above 500, you’re headed for trouble. Our algorithms determine our autonomy. If you already have an implant, you’re under closer scrutiny, and your dreams reach their full attention—or, actually, their software’s attention.
A lively tempo and a mix of interior thoughts and exterior action provides a pacey and chilling suspense story. You will madly turn the pages. A hot friction between inmates and guards (and it’s not lame) had me trembling at intervals, almost panicked.
How Lalami does it, I don’t know, but she rocks the narrative. This class of blockbuster book is infrequent and appeals to readers who like to think, not be fed with exposition. Lalami intuitively knows this and avoids TV-in-a-book. The encounters are realistic, and not interrupted with station identification.
TDH explores humanity through inequality and — one side has the power and the good guys have only their wits. They endure intense surveillance, nutritional deprivation, and frightening vulnerability. The friends Sara makes in the facility become allies—except the ones that aren’t. But nothing in this novel is clichéd or cut-out plot boiler. But boil over it does!
If you like eerie surveillance novels--stories of how technology has intruded on our lives—you will sign on to its technical smarts and emotional truth. Psychologically driven and far-reaching, The Dream Hotel is a futuristic nail-biter, but we know it is already here. It renders us at the mercy of things we can’t control, moment by moment. Just the tools used at the retention facility are frightening.
What if every petty law we bend or break or arbitrary rule we ignore escalated into losing the privileges we take for granted? America is already headed toward a fascist government, so Lalami’s story is a horrifying showcase of what we are facing in the present. The Dream Hotel is something that nightmares are made of! Brilliant, confident, Lalami got the "ris."
“If only she could have something to eat or a glass of water, she would feel revived. Had she run a red light…neglected to pay for a parking violation…left the grocery store without scanning all her items? Had her phone pinged near a political protest or some kid of public disturbance?” There were also childhood tragedies and secrets in her family.
Yeah, Ms. Lalami has the ‘ris.
Thank you to Book Browse and Pantheon Books for an arc copy.
Lalami killed it! In this, dreams are not used as a plot or character device. Rather, dreams are monitored by a corporation that supplies the buyer with a voluntary implant to regulate their sleep cycle, and used to prosecute for future behaviors and potential retention in a facility. Shades of Minority Report, but I’ll stop there. TDH is entirely Lalami. She’s exceptional at balancing a large cast of characters and complex plot.
Sara lives with her husband and twin babies. Sleep disturbance is a common side effect of new motherhood—she has a job, too-- and the sleep deprivation makes it impossible for her to stay refreshed in her waking life. Exhaustion has taken over. She agrees to an implant from a technology firm, and, not unusually, Sara scans the terms of service agreement rather than focusing on where the devil is.
Shit happens, and Sara ends up being “retained,” as they say—"not imprisoned” as they say, in a facility she can’t leave freely. Bad food, low water, and strict rules heighten feelings of confinement, and random petty violations ensure extended stays.
Profits for the facilities grow. And the reader is taken behind the scenes for a short but consequential chunk of pages. Senior staff and talking heads meet and discuss achievements, ambitions, numbers, fault lines, data, inmates, and accountability. It makes us think, and fill in some of the blanks ourselves. The reader isn’t babied with info dumps and exposition.
Cruel guards and maximum monitoring ensue; cameras, hearing devices, and gadgets are the norm. The State keeps records of our risk scores; above 500, you’re headed for trouble. Our algorithms determine our autonomy. If you already have an implant, you’re under closer scrutiny, and your dreams reach their full attention—or, actually, their software’s attention.
A lively tempo and a mix of interior thoughts and exterior action provides a pacey and chilling suspense story. You will madly turn the pages. A hot friction between inmates and guards (and it’s not lame) had me trembling at intervals, almost panicked.
How Lalami does it, I don’t know, but she rocks the narrative. This class of blockbuster book is infrequent and appeals to readers who like to think, not be fed with exposition. Lalami intuitively knows this and avoids TV-in-a-book. The encounters are realistic, and not interrupted with station identification.
TDH explores humanity through inequality and — one side has the power and the good guys have only their wits. They endure intense surveillance, nutritional deprivation, and frightening vulnerability. The friends Sara makes in the facility become allies—except the ones that aren’t. But nothing in this novel is clichéd or cut-out plot boiler. But boil over it does!
If you like eerie surveillance novels--stories of how technology has intruded on our lives—you will sign on to its technical smarts and emotional truth. Psychologically driven and far-reaching, The Dream Hotel is a futuristic nail-biter, but we know it is already here. It renders us at the mercy of things we can’t control, moment by moment. Just the tools used at the retention facility are frightening.
What if every petty law we bend or break or arbitrary rule we ignore escalated into losing the privileges we take for granted? America is already headed toward a fascist government, so Lalami’s story is a horrifying showcase of what we are facing in the present. The Dream Hotel is something that nightmares are made of! Brilliant, confident, Lalami got the "ris."
“If only she could have something to eat or a glass of water, she would feel revived. Had she run a red light…neglected to pay for a parking violation…left the grocery store without scanning all her items? Had her phone pinged near a political protest or some kid of public disturbance?” There were also childhood tragedies and secrets in her family.
Yeah, Ms. Lalami has the ‘ris.
Thank you to Book Browse and Pantheon Books for an arc copy.
March 6, 2025
Longlisted for Women's Prize for Fiction 2025 - This novel is about a woman who is placed in a retention center (a prison that is not called a prison) because an algorithm determined that she might commit a crime. It explores issues that are already happening around us. It’s strange how a Minority Report premise—once considered science fiction and dystopian 20 years ago—now feels not just like a possibility, but something that might already be a reality somewhere. The tone of the book is conventional, but this almost works in its favor. It critiques things so familiar that witnessing the injustice becomes unbearable, yet the fight against a rotten system feels all the more satisfying.
March 2, 2025
The Dream Hotel begins with a terrifying situation.
A working mom just left her flight and is on her way home to her husband and children. Government agents pull her aside and detain her because she’s at risk of committing a crime. Months pass and she’s still in confinement. Needless to say The Dream Hotel pulled me in from the start.
This dystopian tale portrays a realistic and terrifying possible future. At several points I found myself on the edge of my seat, white knuckled, dying to know what was going to happen next.
The Dream Hotel is a genre bending mix of science fiction, thriller, and literary fiction. The author seamlessly blends the genres crafting vivid imagery and dimensional characters. The book details the possible dangers of AI when there’s no humanity and how technology can negatively impact marginalized people.
The Dream Hotel is my first read by Pulitzer Prize winner Laila Lalami and I cannot wait to read her backlist! This would make a great book club read with plenty of discussion opportunities!
The Dream Hotel by Laila Lalami will be available on March 4. Many thanks to Pantheon Books for the gifted copy!
A working mom just left her flight and is on her way home to her husband and children. Government agents pull her aside and detain her because she’s at risk of committing a crime. Months pass and she’s still in confinement. Needless to say The Dream Hotel pulled me in from the start.
This dystopian tale portrays a realistic and terrifying possible future. At several points I found myself on the edge of my seat, white knuckled, dying to know what was going to happen next.
The Dream Hotel is a genre bending mix of science fiction, thriller, and literary fiction. The author seamlessly blends the genres crafting vivid imagery and dimensional characters. The book details the possible dangers of AI when there’s no humanity and how technology can negatively impact marginalized people.
The Dream Hotel is my first read by Pulitzer Prize winner Laila Lalami and I cannot wait to read her backlist! This would make a great book club read with plenty of discussion opportunities!
The Dream Hotel by Laila Lalami will be available on March 4. Many thanks to Pantheon Books for the gifted copy!
March 25, 2025
The Dream Hotel is set in the near-future where the lines between technology, security, and liberty are blurred...
Sara Hussein was detained by the Risk Assessment Administration at LAX when returning home from a business trip in London. The RAA officer tells Sara that, using data from her dreams, the algorithm flagged her as a potential threat, specifically to her husband. For his safety, Sara must remain under observation at a retention center for twenty-one days.
After spending months in the retention center with other dreamers, all of whom are women trying to prove their innocence, Sara wonders if she will ever be free...
The Dream Hotel is a speculative fiction novel, and like most dystopian stories, this book is disturbing. It is thought-provoking and shocking enough that I couldn't stop thinking about it. With the jump in direction our technology is headed, this is a cautionary tale that feels frighteningly real.
This is also a character study of Sara, who is present or referenced in every chapter. Her plethora of emotions resonated with me, and I feel confident I would emulate her behavior under the same circumstances. Lalami's evocative writing leads you to believe that what is happening to Sara could easily happen to you. As an emotional reader, this book was an intense experience.
This was an immersion read with the gifted DRC and the Audible audiobook narrated mainly by Frankie Corzo, who recounts the story and whose voicing skills effectively capture the diversity of the characters. Barton Caplan's narration is limited to the reading of various reports and communications.
The Dream Hotel is an all-too-real and frightening glimpse into what the future of technology could hold. Key themes of predicted behavior versus fact, reality versus uncertainty, and unchecked monitoring versus personal privacy are explored. It's a perspective I enjoyed reading that nearly caused my brain to explode!
4.5⭐
Thank you to Pantheon Books and Laila Lalami for the DRC via NetGalley. This is my honest and voluntary review.
Sara Hussein was detained by the Risk Assessment Administration at LAX when returning home from a business trip in London. The RAA officer tells Sara that, using data from her dreams, the algorithm flagged her as a potential threat, specifically to her husband. For his safety, Sara must remain under observation at a retention center for twenty-one days.
After spending months in the retention center with other dreamers, all of whom are women trying to prove their innocence, Sara wonders if she will ever be free...
The Dream Hotel is a speculative fiction novel, and like most dystopian stories, this book is disturbing. It is thought-provoking and shocking enough that I couldn't stop thinking about it. With the jump in direction our technology is headed, this is a cautionary tale that feels frighteningly real.
This is also a character study of Sara, who is present or referenced in every chapter. Her plethora of emotions resonated with me, and I feel confident I would emulate her behavior under the same circumstances. Lalami's evocative writing leads you to believe that what is happening to Sara could easily happen to you. As an emotional reader, this book was an intense experience.
This was an immersion read with the gifted DRC and the Audible audiobook narrated mainly by Frankie Corzo, who recounts the story and whose voicing skills effectively capture the diversity of the characters. Barton Caplan's narration is limited to the reading of various reports and communications.
The Dream Hotel is an all-too-real and frightening glimpse into what the future of technology could hold. Key themes of predicted behavior versus fact, reality versus uncertainty, and unchecked monitoring versus personal privacy are explored. It's a perspective I enjoyed reading that nearly caused my brain to explode!
4.5⭐
Thank you to Pantheon Books and Laila Lalami for the DRC via NetGalley. This is my honest and voluntary review.
March 4, 2025
HAPPY PUBLICATION DAY!
What would you be willing to risk in order to sleep well?
In the near future, the American government creates the Crime Prevention Act in order to prevent future crimes and murders. The Risk Assessment Administration has been monitoring citizens for twenty years, determining if they are at risk to cause harm to others. With the help of the new Dreamsaver device, not only will people be able to be well rested in a short period of time, but the government will be able to track their dreams.
When new mom of twins Sara Hussein is returning home from a work trip abroad, she is flagged at the airport as a risk by government agents. Her risk assessment score has risen above 500 and therefore deemed a threat. She learns that her new Dreamsaver device has elevated her score due to her violent behavior in her dreams and is considered a high risk to kill her own husband! She purchased a Dreamsaver because she wanted to be able to sleep less and be more productive during the day as a working new mom. She is retained at Madison, a forensic observation facility for 21 days.
When 21 days turn into almost a year, Sara must figure out how to break free from a system that is stacked against her.
The premise of this book reminds me of Minority Report…only minus Tom Cruise and ALL of the action! It is labeled as a thriller on Goodreads, but is definitely lacking all thrills! The theme of the human cost of technical surveillance is explored as well as racism and immigration. I found the book to be repetitive, extremely slow, and better suited to the literary fiction genre.
The plot is very intriguing, but I was expecting way more from the ending. I feel like I’ve been duped and am very disappointed in this Pulitzer Prize finalist.
2.5/5 stars rounded up
Expected publication date: 3/4/25
Thank you to NetGalley and Pantheon publishing for the ARC of The Dream Hotel in exchange for an honest review.
What would you be willing to risk in order to sleep well?
In the near future, the American government creates the Crime Prevention Act in order to prevent future crimes and murders. The Risk Assessment Administration has been monitoring citizens for twenty years, determining if they are at risk to cause harm to others. With the help of the new Dreamsaver device, not only will people be able to be well rested in a short period of time, but the government will be able to track their dreams.
When new mom of twins Sara Hussein is returning home from a work trip abroad, she is flagged at the airport as a risk by government agents. Her risk assessment score has risen above 500 and therefore deemed a threat. She learns that her new Dreamsaver device has elevated her score due to her violent behavior in her dreams and is considered a high risk to kill her own husband! She purchased a Dreamsaver because she wanted to be able to sleep less and be more productive during the day as a working new mom. She is retained at Madison, a forensic observation facility for 21 days.
When 21 days turn into almost a year, Sara must figure out how to break free from a system that is stacked against her.
The premise of this book reminds me of Minority Report…only minus Tom Cruise and ALL of the action! It is labeled as a thriller on Goodreads, but is definitely lacking all thrills! The theme of the human cost of technical surveillance is explored as well as racism and immigration. I found the book to be repetitive, extremely slow, and better suited to the literary fiction genre.
The plot is very intriguing, but I was expecting way more from the ending. I feel like I’ve been duped and am very disappointed in this Pulitzer Prize finalist.
2.5/5 stars rounded up
Expected publication date: 3/4/25
Thank you to NetGalley and Pantheon publishing for the ARC of The Dream Hotel in exchange for an honest review.
March 2, 2025
3.5 stars! 🌟 Huge thanks to Knopf, Pantheon, Vintage, and Anchor & NetGalley for the ARC! 💌
Welcome to a future where your dreams can get you arrested. ☁️🚔
Sara lands at LAX, expecting to see her husband and baby twins—NOT to be told that she's a future criminal. 🤯 The Risk Assessment Administration (RAA) has analyzed her dreams, and the algorithm decided she's a threat to her husband. Guilty before proven innocent.
She’s taken to The Dream Hotel—aka a high-tech prison disguised as a retention center—where women are locked up for potential crimes. Every step, every word, every breath is monitored, and the rules? Always changing. 😵💫 A 21-day stay turns into months, with no way out.
Dystopian nightmares? Try dystopian reality. 🔥
This book had me suffocating alongside Sara. Every time she thought she was getting closer to freedom, BAM—another rule, another punishment, another reason to keep her trapped. It’s slow, but that’s the point. The system is designed to break you, and Laila makes you feel every moment of that helplessness.
⏳ Dystopian Future
🔒 Big Brother/Surveillance State
⏳ Wrongfully Accused
🔒 Trapped with No Escape
⏳ Psychological Thriller
🔒 Morality & Ethics of Technology
The scariest part? It felt TOO real. 😨 We already live in a world where data is collected from every device, every social media post, every click. Would people really protest a system that "prevents" crime? Or would they let it happen, convincing themselves it’s for safety?
This book is a psychological thriller, a dystopian drama, and a terrifying look at our tech-driven future all rolled into one. Sara’s desperation, the hopelessness of fighting a faceless system, and the moral questions it raises?? CHEF’S KISS. 🤌✨
LOVED:
✔ The concept. It’s haunting, realistic, and forces you to question EVERYTHING about privacy, freedom, and justice.
✔ Sara’s fight for her identity. She’s NOT a hero. She’s just a woman trying to survive a system that’s crushing her. And that makes her SO real.
✔ The eerie, slow-burn tension. It’s not a fast-paced action thriller—it’s psychological. The dread builds, every rule change feels like a punch, and you start feeling trapped with Sara.
MEH:
❌ Some parts felt too long—the middle dragged a bit.
❌ I wanted deeper connections between Sara and other characters. The friendships in the center? SO interesting, but not fleshed out enough!
❌ The ending… I’m still processing. 😵💫 Not bad, but I expected more of a punch after ALL that build-up.
"The data doesn’t lie."
"It doesn’t tell the truth, either."
This book is a warning. A terrifying, unputdownable, too-close-to-reality warning. 🚨 If you love speculative fiction, dystopian thrillers, or books that make you question EVERYTHING—this one's for you.
Welcome to a future where your dreams can get you arrested. ☁️🚔
Sara lands at LAX, expecting to see her husband and baby twins—NOT to be told that she's a future criminal. 🤯 The Risk Assessment Administration (RAA) has analyzed her dreams, and the algorithm decided she's a threat to her husband. Guilty before proven innocent.
She’s taken to The Dream Hotel—aka a high-tech prison disguised as a retention center—where women are locked up for potential crimes. Every step, every word, every breath is monitored, and the rules? Always changing. 😵💫 A 21-day stay turns into months, with no way out.
Dystopian nightmares? Try dystopian reality. 🔥
This book had me suffocating alongside Sara. Every time she thought she was getting closer to freedom, BAM—another rule, another punishment, another reason to keep her trapped. It’s slow, but that’s the point. The system is designed to break you, and Laila makes you feel every moment of that helplessness.
⏳ Dystopian Future
🔒 Big Brother/Surveillance State
⏳ Wrongfully Accused
🔒 Trapped with No Escape
⏳ Psychological Thriller
🔒 Morality & Ethics of Technology
The scariest part? It felt TOO real. 😨 We already live in a world where data is collected from every device, every social media post, every click. Would people really protest a system that "prevents" crime? Or would they let it happen, convincing themselves it’s for safety?
This book is a psychological thriller, a dystopian drama, and a terrifying look at our tech-driven future all rolled into one. Sara’s desperation, the hopelessness of fighting a faceless system, and the moral questions it raises?? CHEF’S KISS. 🤌✨
LOVED:
✔ The concept. It’s haunting, realistic, and forces you to question EVERYTHING about privacy, freedom, and justice.
✔ Sara’s fight for her identity. She’s NOT a hero. She’s just a woman trying to survive a system that’s crushing her. And that makes her SO real.
✔ The eerie, slow-burn tension. It’s not a fast-paced action thriller—it’s psychological. The dread builds, every rule change feels like a punch, and you start feeling trapped with Sara.
MEH:
❌ Some parts felt too long—the middle dragged a bit.
❌ I wanted deeper connections between Sara and other characters. The friendships in the center? SO interesting, but not fleshed out enough!
❌ The ending… I’m still processing. 😵💫 Not bad, but I expected more of a punch after ALL that build-up.
"The data doesn’t lie."
"It doesn’t tell the truth, either."
This book is a warning. A terrifying, unputdownable, too-close-to-reality warning. 🚨 If you love speculative fiction, dystopian thrillers, or books that make you question EVERYTHING—this one's for you.
March 13, 2025
Jarring, enraging, pulsating and brilliant!
You know those books you finish reading and you look up hoping someone is around that just experienced what you’ve read, and they are not so you feel utterly alone? This is how I felt after finishing DREAM HOTEL
The book open with Sara landing at LAX after coming from a conference in Europe. This is a conference she’s attended for the last seven years as a museum archivist. Upon arriving at the airport she is told they need additional information from her as she may be a risk to her husband. Using data from her dreams, the RAA’s algorithm has determined that she is at imminent risk and she must be kept under observation for twenty-one days.
At the retention center Sara meets numerous women who are being held for observation based soley on their dreams. They must defend themselves against what they dream nightly. The facility makes sure to let them know it is not a prison but it feels exactly like one. What Sara thought would be a 21 day retention turns into over 300 days and she is slowly losing her patience.
Sara decided to sign up to the Dream programme having just delivered twins and was not able to sleep at nights and function in the day. Little did she know the data collected from her dreams would be used against her.
In this book the author, Lalami asks “how much of ourselves must remain private if we are to remain free, and whether even the most invasive forms of surveillance can ever capture who we really are.”
If I had to sum this book up, I would call it “URGENT” and “TIMELY”. It felt deeply imminent that something like this could happen, especially on Trump’s America.
You know those books you finish reading and you look up hoping someone is around that just experienced what you’ve read, and they are not so you feel utterly alone? This is how I felt after finishing DREAM HOTEL
The book open with Sara landing at LAX after coming from a conference in Europe. This is a conference she’s attended for the last seven years as a museum archivist. Upon arriving at the airport she is told they need additional information from her as she may be a risk to her husband. Using data from her dreams, the RAA’s algorithm has determined that she is at imminent risk and she must be kept under observation for twenty-one days.
At the retention center Sara meets numerous women who are being held for observation based soley on their dreams. They must defend themselves against what they dream nightly. The facility makes sure to let them know it is not a prison but it feels exactly like one. What Sara thought would be a 21 day retention turns into over 300 days and she is slowly losing her patience.
Sara decided to sign up to the Dream programme having just delivered twins and was not able to sleep at nights and function in the day. Little did she know the data collected from her dreams would be used against her.
In this book the author, Lalami asks “how much of ourselves must remain private if we are to remain free, and whether even the most invasive forms of surveillance can ever capture who we really are.”
If I had to sum this book up, I would call it “URGENT” and “TIMELY”. It felt deeply imminent that something like this could happen, especially on Trump’s America.
December 3, 2024
I wanted to like this book more than I did. It explored a lot of really interesting ideas around the surveillance state, the prison industrial complex, and the limits to ai/algorithms.
Some elements were a bit too on the nose/didactic like the explanation of how crime is constructed by people in power. At the same time I couldn't really suspend my disbelief around people's dreams being used as evidence of future wrongdoing. And while it touched on racial profiling Sara's family experienced and how algorithms are biased, it almost didn't go far enough into how race intersects with the prison system.
I think the biggest issue I had was how flat the characters felt. I didn't get the relationship between Sara and her husband, and the side characters didn't leave much of an impression. I'm not sure why there was one chapter from a woman at the dream tech company? Ultimately it just failed to resonate on a deeper level.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the eARC
Some elements were a bit too on the nose/didactic like the explanation of how crime is constructed by people in power. At the same time I couldn't really suspend my disbelief around people's dreams being used as evidence of future wrongdoing. And while it touched on racial profiling Sara's family experienced and how algorithms are biased, it almost didn't go far enough into how race intersects with the prison system.
I think the biggest issue I had was how flat the characters felt. I didn't get the relationship between Sara and her husband, and the side characters didn't leave much of an impression. I'm not sure why there was one chapter from a woman at the dream tech company? Ultimately it just failed to resonate on a deeper level.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the eARC
December 22, 2024
Imagine this: you’re a working mother of young twins, and as you teeter on exhaustion, you turn to the latest technological breakthrough. It’s called Dreamcatcher, a simple implant that stores your dreams, allowing you to gain a few hours of restful sleep and wake up revitalized.
But you’re living in today’s America, so when you return from an overseas conference, you are retained by the Risk Assessment Administration – a federal agency that analyzes predictive advanced biometric data to assess whether a citizen is prone to commit a crime in the future. Your score indicates you are an imminent danger, and you’re sent to a retention firm for three weeks. You are guilty of nothing except an overactive dream life, which quickly becomes your nightmare.
I’m reading this on the eve of the murder of the UnitedHealthcare CEO who, as it turns out, used AI to deny one-third of claimants the life-transforming or life-saving care they needed – even though the AI had a 90% error rate. Laila Lalami’s vision of an intrusive breakthrough technology that steals the lives of innocent people is gripping.
Once I started reading it, I was so riveted I could barely tear myself away. The author writes, “…it’s the parasitic logic of profit, which has wormed its way so deeply into the collective mind that to deny lucre it to make oneself a radical or a criminal, or a lunatic…Detaining someone because of their dreams doesn’t exactly trouble Americans, most of whom think the R.A.A.’s methods are necessary.”
Our protagonist, Sara Hussein, attempts to restore logic in a Kafka-esque world where dreams are regarded as a window into the most private parts of ourselves and are used to identify patterns and make predictions. But in the retention facility, where rules shift at the whim of the attendants and any deviation adds more time to a resident’s stay, Sara cannot make strides in reversing the belief in her presumptive guilt. Sara has never been a "follow the rules" person, and she slowly begins to realize that regaining her freedom cannot be achieved on her own.
The Dream Hotel is an extraordinary, prescient book. It is well-plotted, masterfully written, and filled with the questions that matter: In our quest to embrace the latest sophisticated technology to make us safer, are we losing that very element that makes us most human? Can true freedom only be written in the company of others, those courageous enough to fight back and say “no?”
I cannot recommend this book highly enough, particularly during our present times and the dangers to come. Thank you to BookBrowse and Pantheon for giving me the privilege of being an early reader in exchange for an honest review. This novel deserves every award it will likely get.
But you’re living in today’s America, so when you return from an overseas conference, you are retained by the Risk Assessment Administration – a federal agency that analyzes predictive advanced biometric data to assess whether a citizen is prone to commit a crime in the future. Your score indicates you are an imminent danger, and you’re sent to a retention firm for three weeks. You are guilty of nothing except an overactive dream life, which quickly becomes your nightmare.
I’m reading this on the eve of the murder of the UnitedHealthcare CEO who, as it turns out, used AI to deny one-third of claimants the life-transforming or life-saving care they needed – even though the AI had a 90% error rate. Laila Lalami’s vision of an intrusive breakthrough technology that steals the lives of innocent people is gripping.
Once I started reading it, I was so riveted I could barely tear myself away. The author writes, “…it’s the parasitic logic of profit, which has wormed its way so deeply into the collective mind that to deny lucre it to make oneself a radical or a criminal, or a lunatic…Detaining someone because of their dreams doesn’t exactly trouble Americans, most of whom think the R.A.A.’s methods are necessary.”
Our protagonist, Sara Hussein, attempts to restore logic in a Kafka-esque world where dreams are regarded as a window into the most private parts of ourselves and are used to identify patterns and make predictions. But in the retention facility, where rules shift at the whim of the attendants and any deviation adds more time to a resident’s stay, Sara cannot make strides in reversing the belief in her presumptive guilt. Sara has never been a "follow the rules" person, and she slowly begins to realize that regaining her freedom cannot be achieved on her own.
The Dream Hotel is an extraordinary, prescient book. It is well-plotted, masterfully written, and filled with the questions that matter: In our quest to embrace the latest sophisticated technology to make us safer, are we losing that very element that makes us most human? Can true freedom only be written in the company of others, those courageous enough to fight back and say “no?”
I cannot recommend this book highly enough, particularly during our present times and the dangers to come. Thank you to BookBrowse and Pantheon for giving me the privilege of being an early reader in exchange for an honest review. This novel deserves every award it will likely get.
December 31, 2024
Laila Lalami the writer you are! My first sit down with her as an authour and while this is my favourite genre, my bias typically works against me with the highest of hopes and the biggest let downs. Fortunately for me, Lalami did not let me down.
In a not so distant future, technology is “helping” to curve the crime rate by picking up “criminals” before committing the actual crime they’re being retained for. It’s “not” prison, right? Through heavy monitoring, big brother is watching, even through your dreams.
As a lover of scifi, apocalypse, societal monitoring, philosophical and psychological exploration, I found Lalami hit all of my wants and needs while still maintaining a solid story without bouncing all over the place. We follow one main character throughout and while there was one perspective switch mid story that had me confused then quickly had me jaw dropping loudly, everything was well honed and succinct.
There were so many things packed into this tight story that would make Kazou Ishiguro and fans alike pleased. While this sparks hints of my love for things like Black Mirror, it’s less doom filled while still being entirely bleak. I know it’s unlikely to happen but I’d absolutely love for a bunch of other stories set in this world of new characters experiences. We don’t get much of anything in the outside world, and this is a necessary choice for the book, but Lalami creates a luscious world I just seem brimming with potential.
In a not so distant future, technology is “helping” to curve the crime rate by picking up “criminals” before committing the actual crime they’re being retained for. It’s “not” prison, right? Through heavy monitoring, big brother is watching, even through your dreams.
As a lover of scifi, apocalypse, societal monitoring, philosophical and psychological exploration, I found Lalami hit all of my wants and needs while still maintaining a solid story without bouncing all over the place. We follow one main character throughout and while there was one perspective switch mid story that had me confused then quickly had me jaw dropping loudly, everything was well honed and succinct.
There were so many things packed into this tight story that would make Kazou Ishiguro and fans alike pleased. While this sparks hints of my love for things like Black Mirror, it’s less doom filled while still being entirely bleak. I know it’s unlikely to happen but I’d absolutely love for a bunch of other stories set in this world of new characters experiences. We don’t get much of anything in the outside world, and this is a necessary choice for the book, but Lalami creates a luscious world I just seem brimming with potential.
March 24, 2025
Thoughts to come after my hand heals --
Nope. Won't wait. Lalami captures the dark aura of life in a culture that is turning more and more into a surveillance state: a brain implant (think Neuralink) that is marketed as a painless means of improving the quality of sleep is in fact something much darker. It taps into dreams and uses that data to "predict" danger -- so an angry dream about a husband is read as a sign that the dreamer is serious about actually harming or killing him, thus requiring that the dreamer be "detained." Indefinitely. Add into the mix sinister corporations, privatized incarceration where inmates are used as labor and made to abide by rules that are never fully explained and that change regularly and at whim (think: Kafka's "The Trial"). Add in too that the protagonist, who is detained for no discernible reason that she can see, has a Middle Eastern-sounding name. Yes, it's not a very great leap from where we are and where we might be heading.
Very much book of our time, our zeitgeist. Well done, but not (for me) exceptional in any way. I believe readers of smartly written dystopian fiction who are (quite reasonably) made fearful by the State of Things will find more reward in reading it than I did.
My thanks to Pantheon and Edelweis for providing an ARC in return for an honest review.
Nope. Won't wait. Lalami captures the dark aura of life in a culture that is turning more and more into a surveillance state: a brain implant (think Neuralink) that is marketed as a painless means of improving the quality of sleep is in fact something much darker. It taps into dreams and uses that data to "predict" danger -- so an angry dream about a husband is read as a sign that the dreamer is serious about actually harming or killing him, thus requiring that the dreamer be "detained." Indefinitely. Add into the mix sinister corporations, privatized incarceration where inmates are used as labor and made to abide by rules that are never fully explained and that change regularly and at whim (think: Kafka's "The Trial"). Add in too that the protagonist, who is detained for no discernible reason that she can see, has a Middle Eastern-sounding name. Yes, it's not a very great leap from where we are and where we might be heading.
Very much book of our time, our zeitgeist. Well done, but not (for me) exceptional in any way. I believe readers of smartly written dystopian fiction who are (quite reasonably) made fearful by the State of Things will find more reward in reading it than I did.
My thanks to Pantheon and Edelweis for providing an ARC in return for an honest review.
February 11, 2025
We generally think of violence as something visible. It’s graphic. It’s gory. It’s easy to identify.
But I think violence has its subtleties. It’s a cruel and quiet violation, but it doesn’t leave a mark that others can see.
The Dream Hotel bursts with a violence that never results in physical injuries. In a society working to prevent violent crime, we see the irony of intrusive assaults that do not fit into a black and white definition.
This is a soft hum of a novel, peeling away at the layers of control that govern the characters while creating a scenario that feels both terrifying and plausible. The message is there, but it’s never screamed at us. We need to think about the content to recognize what it is saying.
We are living in a surveillance state. Technology, despite all of its benefits, is bloated with issues, and as we further embrace it, we discover how those issues affect us. That is, if we are paying attention. Lalami examines this carefully, and while her story never explodes climatically, it gives readers a host of flavors to chew on. This is an important book… no, no… a necessary book, and I firmly believe that everyone should read it.
I am immensely grateful to Pantheon Books and NetGalley for my copy. All opinions are my own.
But I think violence has its subtleties. It’s a cruel and quiet violation, but it doesn’t leave a mark that others can see.
The Dream Hotel bursts with a violence that never results in physical injuries. In a society working to prevent violent crime, we see the irony of intrusive assaults that do not fit into a black and white definition.
This is a soft hum of a novel, peeling away at the layers of control that govern the characters while creating a scenario that feels both terrifying and plausible. The message is there, but it’s never screamed at us. We need to think about the content to recognize what it is saying.
We are living in a surveillance state. Technology, despite all of its benefits, is bloated with issues, and as we further embrace it, we discover how those issues affect us. That is, if we are paying attention. Lalami examines this carefully, and while her story never explodes climatically, it gives readers a host of flavors to chew on. This is an important book… no, no… a necessary book, and I firmly believe that everyone should read it.
I am immensely grateful to Pantheon Books and NetGalley for my copy. All opinions are my own.
March 9, 2025
The Dream Hotel is thought-provoking speculative literary fiction that expounds on the meaning of freedom, the gratitude we should have for it, and how easily it can be taken away. The scenario of Sara returning home from a trip and being detained through an oversharing of personal data is shockingly realistic. Parts of it gave me chills on how easily Sara's freedom was taken away when she was a low-level threat with a clean record.
This is an engaging read that made me reevaluate the freedom I so take for granted. It was a welcome departure from my typical literary fiction picks, and I'm so glad I read it. It is one of the most anticipated reads of 2025, and I highly recommend it .
This is an engaging read that made me reevaluate the freedom I so take for granted. It was a welcome departure from my typical literary fiction picks, and I'm so glad I read it. It is one of the most anticipated reads of 2025, and I highly recommend it .
February 11, 2025
The Dream Hotel
by Laila Lalami
Science Fiction Dystopia Speculative
NetGalley eARC
Pub Date: March 4, 2025
Knopf, Pantheon...
Ages: 14+
Sara, a new mother of twins, fresh off a plane after one of her first conferences since coming back to work, is detained by the Risk Assessment Administration because her RAA number (a combination of her life activity, disagreements, and other factors recorded by 'smart' technology, including the chip in her head that monitors and records her dreams) is over five hundred, so it's determined that she is about to commit a crime and is taken to a retention center for a twenty-one day observation period to get her number under five hundred.
But with the strict rules being changed on the whims of her minders, thus adding to her RAA number, she finds herself, like the other women there, denied release because their numbers keep rising. After months of trying to follow the rules, a new resident arrives, and Sara, along with the other long-term residents, is shocked when the woman is released after her twenty-one day observation period, something that rarely happens.
This is a story about the greed of companies and their reasoning for using Big Brother surveillance to prevent crimes while adding money into their pockets from consumers who buy and use these products. Plus if one is put into observation, they are charged outrageous prices for bedding, clothes, and to make calls (which drop after a few seconds), and using tablets to email family/lawyers.
I can see this in our not so distant future because of our heavy reliance on technology, allowing it, and those who create it, to control our lives as we allow it to invade our privacy.
The idea of the story was good, but the presentation wasn't. I was quickly bored because of the lack of history, and also there were a few issues, like people living off the grid/hiding, but the author forgot about the satellites above us; which if the technology was that advanced, would have no problem to find those who are hiding.
But worse was Sara's containment. I get the added drama and shock, but if the technology was that advanced, knew everything about a person, and all factors were taken into consideration as claimed, her medical history of being a new mother to twins, would have exempted her from a stay, instead more of an outpatient check-in.
Little faults like that were irritating as was the lack of details and depth in why the book was titled the 'Dream Hotel'. Sure dreams were a factor, (and the blurb claims the women are dreamers) but not enough was explained to make it fit, until …. spoiler.... Something like 'Tec Hotel for Women' would have matched better.
Even though I felt for Sara, and was angry at how unfairly the system was rigged and treated her, I was disappointed in the story.
2 Stars
by Laila Lalami
Science Fiction Dystopia Speculative
NetGalley eARC
Pub Date: March 4, 2025
Knopf, Pantheon...
Ages: 14+
Sara, a new mother of twins, fresh off a plane after one of her first conferences since coming back to work, is detained by the Risk Assessment Administration because her RAA number (a combination of her life activity, disagreements, and other factors recorded by 'smart' technology, including the chip in her head that monitors and records her dreams) is over five hundred, so it's determined that she is about to commit a crime and is taken to a retention center for a twenty-one day observation period to get her number under five hundred.
But with the strict rules being changed on the whims of her minders, thus adding to her RAA number, she finds herself, like the other women there, denied release because their numbers keep rising. After months of trying to follow the rules, a new resident arrives, and Sara, along with the other long-term residents, is shocked when the woman is released after her twenty-one day observation period, something that rarely happens.
This is a story about the greed of companies and their reasoning for using Big Brother surveillance to prevent crimes while adding money into their pockets from consumers who buy and use these products. Plus if one is put into observation, they are charged outrageous prices for bedding, clothes, and to make calls (which drop after a few seconds), and using tablets to email family/lawyers.
I can see this in our not so distant future because of our heavy reliance on technology, allowing it, and those who create it, to control our lives as we allow it to invade our privacy.
The idea of the story was good, but the presentation wasn't. I was quickly bored because of the lack of history, and also there were a few issues, like people living off the grid/hiding, but the author forgot about the satellites above us; which if the technology was that advanced, would have no problem to find those who are hiding.
But worse was Sara's containment. I get the added drama and shock, but if the technology was that advanced, knew everything about a person, and all factors were taken into consideration as claimed, her medical history of being a new mother to twins, would have exempted her from a stay, instead more of an outpatient check-in.
Little faults like that were irritating as was the lack of details and depth in why the book was titled the 'Dream Hotel'. Sure dreams were a factor, (and the blurb claims the women are dreamers) but not enough was explained to make it fit, until …. spoiler.... Something like 'Tec Hotel for Women' would have matched better.
Even though I felt for Sara, and was angry at how unfairly the system was rigged and treated her, I was disappointed in the story.
2 Stars
March 3, 2025
took an eternity to finish, just about as long as sara stayed
March 21, 2025
Read with Jenna March ‘25 pick + longlisted for the 2025 Women’s Prize for Fiction!
The Dream Hotel is a combination of dystopian, sci-fi and fantasy set in the near future that involves wife/new mother Sara Hussein who is detained after suffering from insomnia and finding relief in something called a Dreamsaver, a neuroprosthetic device that ensures high-quality sleep. BUT there is a clause that allows the extraction and sale of the users’ (Sara) data and dreams. And with that a federal agency has used her dreams to determine that she is a threat to her husband. Sara is taken to a facility where she is kept indefinitely, losing all her rights and freedoms.
This is thought-provoking, chilling, and it makes you question if it could become reality someday. I thought this had such an interesting and unique premise in using people’s dreams to predict their societal roles, and then you have the corporations in control of it all. Is scary to think it right. I have never read anything quite like it. 4 stars — Pub. 3/4/25
The Dream Hotel is a combination of dystopian, sci-fi and fantasy set in the near future that involves wife/new mother Sara Hussein who is detained after suffering from insomnia and finding relief in something called a Dreamsaver, a neuroprosthetic device that ensures high-quality sleep. BUT there is a clause that allows the extraction and sale of the users’ (Sara) data and dreams. And with that a federal agency has used her dreams to determine that she is a threat to her husband. Sara is taken to a facility where she is kept indefinitely, losing all her rights and freedoms.
This is thought-provoking, chilling, and it makes you question if it could become reality someday. I thought this had such an interesting and unique premise in using people’s dreams to predict their societal roles, and then you have the corporations in control of it all. Is scary to think it right. I have never read anything quite like it. 4 stars — Pub. 3/4/25
March 10, 2025
1984 meets Minority Report, but boring.
The Dream Hotel has a lot of problems. It plods along at an incredibly slow pace until the last twenty or so pages, all while focusing on characters that seem to have things happen around them rather than having much agency in the story. It’s a shame, because the premise of AI being used to flag people as potential threats based on dreams is interesting, but the novel as a whole falls flat.
There was some sort of disconnect with the characters; I never felt as though I could connect to them, and they all seemed very passive aggressive towards everyone else and each other which really threw me off.
Overall disappointing, especially considering the potential. Even the dream sequences were bland and mundane.
The Dream Hotel has a lot of problems. It plods along at an incredibly slow pace until the last twenty or so pages, all while focusing on characters that seem to have things happen around them rather than having much agency in the story. It’s a shame, because the premise of AI being used to flag people as potential threats based on dreams is interesting, but the novel as a whole falls flat.
There was some sort of disconnect with the characters; I never felt as though I could connect to them, and they all seemed very passive aggressive towards everyone else and each other which really threw me off.
Overall disappointing, especially considering the potential. Even the dream sequences were bland and mundane.
January 21, 2025
At what point does protective surveillance become facistic? Sara Hussein finds herself in a nightmare version of custody due to unfortunate interpretation of her answers to interrogations on return from a business trip, and misreading of dreams. In a future delineated by the dictates of a soulless algorithm, the landscape she inhabits has all the "...beauty and joy wrung out of (life)l." Her complicated relationship with her husband and their normal stresses as parents of twins is mined for evidence used against her, so much so that infractions are classified as crimes as opposed to expected reactions. What Lalami has done here is make believable the possible future impact of a world increasingly dictated by AI and its possible misuse by humans. "The algorithm knows so much about her already, going all the way down to the nucleic acids that twist in a helix inside her cells." Her longing for the small joys of life and home have led to an appreciation for all she'd gradually taken for granted. A real page turner that in today's scary landscape could become all too real.
March 25, 2025
my fault for finishing this before going to sleep
March 19, 2025
Set in a near dystopian future, Moroccan American protagonist Sara Hussein is detained at the Los Angeles airport after a trip to London. She is told she has been flagged as “high risk for committing a crime.” An algorithm has been employed to assess each person, and Sara’s score is slightly over the threshold. At the “retention” center (which is run like a prison), she finds out that a device previously implanted to help her sleep has been used to capture data and surveil her dreams. The algorithm uses this data and there is no way to legally fight it, since it is considered proprietary (Note: This has really happened with respect to algorithms).
Lalami extrapolates the current state of harvesting personal data for corporate profit. She also criticizes the bureaucracy used to find trivial reasons to keep detainees from being released, or even to schedule a hearing. It is easy to feel Sara's mounting frustration with surveillance and bureaucracy. To avoid potentially incriminating dreams, she must try to tamp down her anger. The insertion of a new perspective at the half-way point interrupts the flow, but otherwise, it is a creative approach that calls attention to modern society’s trends toward restricting individual freedoms. Recommended to fans of dystopian and speculative fiction.
Lalami extrapolates the current state of harvesting personal data for corporate profit. She also criticizes the bureaucracy used to find trivial reasons to keep detainees from being released, or even to schedule a hearing. It is easy to feel Sara's mounting frustration with surveillance and bureaucracy. To avoid potentially incriminating dreams, she must try to tamp down her anger. The insertion of a new perspective at the half-way point interrupts the flow, but otherwise, it is a creative approach that calls attention to modern society’s trends toward restricting individual freedoms. Recommended to fans of dystopian and speculative fiction.
January 29, 2025
Wow. I will be thinking about this book for a long time. Literary Fiction and Speculative Dystopian fiction, this book speaks to our deepest fears about our changing society. In a future not so far away, you can buy a dreamsaver, a device that saves and records your dreams, but also shares this data with the government. In fact, the algorithm can apparently detect when you are about to commit a crime. You are assessed with a "risk score" by which the government can retain you at a retention center. Idea being, you stay for 21 days until the risk of you committing a crime goes down. However, most of the women there have been there much, much longer, Sara Hussein has been retained over 300 days. She misses her husband and her young twins terribly. Sara was an archivist, and now spends her meager commissary account on shampoo, snacks and internet time to read the news and email back home.
How was we reconcile the freedoms we hold most dear with changing technology and culture? What does "freedom of speech" mean when millions can be at risk if someone shares viral misinformation? Do I have the same freedom of speech as celebrities and influencers with millions of followers? What does the second amendment really mean when we have guns that can shoot 700 rounds per minute? What responsibility does the government have to keep its citizens safe?
This book extends that to our fear about our privacy and data collection. What can be done with the collection of our data? Over time, our habits, our searches, our DNA are all collected in an effort to sell us more things and to keep increasing the wealth of a handful of citizens. Many people, myself included, would like to see common sense gun laws to keep dangerous guns away from those that shouldn't have them. And what if we had even more data? Could we save lives by eliminating the crimes in the first place?
This book is a 1984 for our time. While the people of 1948 feared dictators when that classic was published, we fear our freedom being lost in the name of safety. Our privacy being taken and misinterpreted.
It reminds me of a friend of mine who kept seeing ads for diabetes medicine in her social media feeds. For months she saw this and couldn't understand it. At her blood draw at her annual physical she found out... you guessed it... she has diabetes. I have 1600 books read and reviewed on Goodreads, and I have entered COUNTLESS giveaways. I am happy to disclose that I won a copy of this book in a Goodreads giveaway. And now I am sure that I won because the algorithm knew I would rate this 5 stars.
It comes out March 4, 2025. I can't wait to talk to other people about it, it's going to drive me nuts. I LOVED THE ENDING. Based on that pub date, I just know it will be picked for one of the celebrity book clubs. Tons of people are going to read this, although many will hate it, it's not a feel good book. But it will inspire great discussions at your book club!
How was we reconcile the freedoms we hold most dear with changing technology and culture? What does "freedom of speech" mean when millions can be at risk if someone shares viral misinformation? Do I have the same freedom of speech as celebrities and influencers with millions of followers? What does the second amendment really mean when we have guns that can shoot 700 rounds per minute? What responsibility does the government have to keep its citizens safe?
This book extends that to our fear about our privacy and data collection. What can be done with the collection of our data? Over time, our habits, our searches, our DNA are all collected in an effort to sell us more things and to keep increasing the wealth of a handful of citizens. Many people, myself included, would like to see common sense gun laws to keep dangerous guns away from those that shouldn't have them. And what if we had even more data? Could we save lives by eliminating the crimes in the first place?
This book is a 1984 for our time. While the people of 1948 feared dictators when that classic was published, we fear our freedom being lost in the name of safety. Our privacy being taken and misinterpreted.
It reminds me of a friend of mine who kept seeing ads for diabetes medicine in her social media feeds. For months she saw this and couldn't understand it. At her blood draw at her annual physical she found out... you guessed it... she has diabetes. I have 1600 books read and reviewed on Goodreads, and I have entered COUNTLESS giveaways. I am happy to disclose that I won a copy of this book in a Goodreads giveaway. And now I am sure that I won because the algorithm knew I would rate this 5 stars.
It comes out March 4, 2025. I can't wait to talk to other people about it, it's going to drive me nuts. I LOVED THE ENDING. Based on that pub date, I just know it will be picked for one of the celebrity book clubs. Tons of people are going to read this, although many will hate it, it's not a feel good book. But it will inspire great discussions at your book club!
March 26, 2025
Over the past few days of reading this book, my frustration grew with every decision Sara made, every injustice she had to face, especially as they mirrored real-world injustices.
Sharing dreams on social media? Can you imagine? Channels showcasing the weirdest dreams would skyrocket in views.
Now, I feel like reading something silly and happy.
Sharing dreams on social media? Can you imagine? Channels showcasing the weirdest dreams would skyrocket in views.
Now, I feel like reading something silly and happy.
March 25, 2025
3.5. Thoughts to come.
February 26, 2025
Laila Lalami is a very versatile writer. I have read and enjoyed her historical fiction novel The Moor's Account. Her latest novel depicts a near future dystopian world where, to prevent crimes, algorithms are used to rate risks from citizens, even using their dreams against them.
Sara Tilila Hussein, an archivist who works for the Getty Museum, is a young mother of twins. She's taken advantage of Smart technology and had a neuroprosthetic inserted to help her sleep, not realizing that terms in the fine print allow her dreams to be monitored and possibly used against her to rate her risk.
Just before Christmas, she flies back to LA from a business trip to London where she gets held up in Customs and Immigration. She's tired, hungry and worried about her husband having to circle the terminal with their 13-month-old twins in the car, while waiting to pick her up. Understandably she gets a little snippy and irritated with the Risks Assessment Administration officer she's been passed on to after an hour of these delays. He declares she's an imminent risk of committing a future crime and will need to be escorted to a detention center for three weeks for observation and evaluation.
Safe-X, Inc, the company who runs these short-term forensic observation facilities for the US government, earns money by employing detainees on various projects, so it suits them to keep finding ways to extend a detainees stay with them, including using a thick rule book with demerits for any small infraction, so the initial 3-week stay frequently turns into months with little contact with the outside world.
Sara is advised to keep her head down and avoid any unwanted attention from the attendants but that's almost impossible to do. As the weeks go by, she forms friendships with her fellow 'inmates' and we learn their stories as well. I really liked Sara and her indomitable spirit and could really feel the frustration and helpless fear this situation created. One surprising twist gives more insight into what is going on with the company behind this project.
In many ways this story is tolling a warning bell over how much Smart technology can erode our personal privacy and freedom even if used in the name of public safety. Big Brother watching over us. Sort of reminiscent of Aldous Huxley's Brave New World.
Many thanks to the author and publisher for providing me with an arc of this new novel via NetGalley. My review is voluntary and the opinions expressed are my own. I will definitely make a point of reading the rest of Lalami's books. I thoroughly enjoy her writing.
Sara Tilila Hussein, an archivist who works for the Getty Museum, is a young mother of twins. She's taken advantage of Smart technology and had a neuroprosthetic inserted to help her sleep, not realizing that terms in the fine print allow her dreams to be monitored and possibly used against her to rate her risk.
Just before Christmas, she flies back to LA from a business trip to London where she gets held up in Customs and Immigration. She's tired, hungry and worried about her husband having to circle the terminal with their 13-month-old twins in the car, while waiting to pick her up. Understandably she gets a little snippy and irritated with the Risks Assessment Administration officer she's been passed on to after an hour of these delays. He declares she's an imminent risk of committing a future crime and will need to be escorted to a detention center for three weeks for observation and evaluation.
Safe-X, Inc, the company who runs these short-term forensic observation facilities for the US government, earns money by employing detainees on various projects, so it suits them to keep finding ways to extend a detainees stay with them, including using a thick rule book with demerits for any small infraction, so the initial 3-week stay frequently turns into months with little contact with the outside world.
Sara is advised to keep her head down and avoid any unwanted attention from the attendants but that's almost impossible to do. As the weeks go by, she forms friendships with her fellow 'inmates' and we learn their stories as well. I really liked Sara and her indomitable spirit and could really feel the frustration and helpless fear this situation created. One surprising twist gives more insight into what is going on with the company behind this project.
In many ways this story is tolling a warning bell over how much Smart technology can erode our personal privacy and freedom even if used in the name of public safety. Big Brother watching over us. Sort of reminiscent of Aldous Huxley's Brave New World.
Many thanks to the author and publisher for providing me with an arc of this new novel via NetGalley. My review is voluntary and the opinions expressed are my own. I will definitely make a point of reading the rest of Lalami's books. I thoroughly enjoy her writing.
December 26, 2024
4.5/5 arc gifted by the publisher
A compelling read about a new mother getting detained due to AI and her 21 day stay that extends into over 200 days. I enjoyed the discussions of the ethics of AI vs government overreach and privacy concerns, and how late-stage capitalism seeps into every aspect of our daily lives
While there’s not necessarily anything new about for profit “prisons”, AI, surveillance, THE DREAM HOTEL is an addictive read that I finished in 24 hours
My small complaint is parts of explaining how predictive algorithms work seems to be very very simplified (I’m pretty sure people don’t just use linear regressions 😅)
A compelling read about a new mother getting detained due to AI and her 21 day stay that extends into over 200 days. I enjoyed the discussions of the ethics of AI vs government overreach and privacy concerns, and how late-stage capitalism seeps into every aspect of our daily lives
While there’s not necessarily anything new about for profit “prisons”, AI, surveillance, THE DREAM HOTEL is an addictive read that I finished in 24 hours
My small complaint is parts of explaining how predictive algorithms work seems to be very very simplified (I’m pretty sure people don’t just use linear regressions 😅)
February 10, 2025
What makes us human is at the crux of all great literature, and is certainly at play on every page here. This was eerie and prescient and page turning. Interspersed through Lalami's exquisite prose are emails, reports, etc on Sara and when Sara is told the data doesn't lie, she knows it doesn't tell the truth either. While at times this felt a bit monotonous, that was very indicative of Sara's time spent in the retention center. It made me want to scream when the rules of this chess game Sara is forced to play but the powers at be change the rules everyday.
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