This novel has a very intriguing premise as it looks at a future where technology can predict crimes. In that prediction of crimes there are retention facilities for those who the algorithm has deemed enough of a danger to commit a crime that they must remain until that risk score decreases. It is at the heart guilty until proven innocent.

The story takes place in a facility called Madison and follows one woman Sara Hussein as she navigates life at Madison and getting released. Overall the story is fascinating and keeps the reader wanting more as time passes. Madison gives the reader more of an impression of a jail than a facility devoted to those with high risk scores based on their dreams. What it highlights is not only how much technology plays a part in our lives but how every moment can lead into everything we do. We think about tiny moments of an argument and in this world that would increase your risk score for a future crime. Could an argument really predict a future crime? This is one of many questions that leaves the reader pondering about advances in technology.

The novel is well written and really sucks in the readers with not only the narrative aspects but also how information is presented in the form or transcripts and other also found documents from Madison. The characters are well developed and you could easily imagine yourself in this type of facility. I could easily see this one a book club hit as there are so many different aspects to dig into, more than what can be conveyed in a review.

This was a very intriguing dystopian fiction that made me think a lot about surveillance, the data that is collected and mined on all of us, technology/AI and our continuous lack of privacy. Lalami builds a world that feels far in the future and yet totally possible. Which is terrifying! I liked the style of this novel- primarily what is happening in the retention center, with flashbacks to when Sara's experience begins, other key moments from her past and jumps in and out of her dreams.

I found myself unplugging more and more as I read this without entirely realizing it. It's really quite eerie all that can be tracked on us and potentially misinterpreted or used against us.

I will be thinking about this book for a long time.

In the not so distant future crime is predicted by an algorithm giving people a score and once the score gets too high hey go to retention centers to bring the score down. 👀

I do still have some questions and could have read a lot more but super thought provoking and extremely timely (unfortunately)

Thanks to netgalley and pantheon for an eARC.

In The Dream Hotel, Sara’s life is upended when a government agency detains her, claiming that data from her dreams predicts she will harm her husband. Held in a nightmarish facility where the rules constantly shift, she struggles to prove her innocence alongside other accused women.

I highly recommend this book where Laila Lalami delivers an unsettling, thought-provoking book where free will, and the cost of convenience in a world where even our dreams aren’t private.

Thank you NetGalley for the advance reader in exchange for my honest review.

The premise of this book immediately caught my attention as we now live in the world of artificial intelligence now a real life thing. Look at social media and how we are targeted by certain advertisements. Our phones are always listening. It’s not hard to imagine a world where the government, under the guise of preventing crime, takes extreme measures—no matter how crazy they may be. The concept is undeniably unsettling and definitely thought provoking .
What starts out as a technology designed to help with insomnia and related conditions evolves into a tool for categorizing and institutionalizing individuals based on crimes they might commit in the future. The real problem? Some people are being condemned for nothing more than dreams—visions of crimes they would never actually carry out. I found this book both compelling and unnerving, as it hits uncomfortably close to reality. It challenges you to think beyond the present and consider just how far government overreach could extend. This was my first book to read by Laila Lalami, this is not my typical genre, but I enjoyed it and could not put it down.
Thank you to NetGalley for an advanced copy.

What would happen if the government could retain you because of your dreams? Loved the premise and the first half of the book. This is definitely worth picking up if you are astonished by devices knowing everything we say, think and do. The constant surveillance is creepy and not too far of a stretch in today’s society.

I wanted more from the ending of this novel. I also wanted more from her relationship with her husband - there was an interesting dynamic that could have been explored more.

That said, I was riveted by the situations presented in this story and recommend!

So, I liked it. I was definitely casually hooked by this story's set-up. Why was Sara detained? What is going on here? What will happen to all these women? And though there was a definite arc to this book, at the end I was left going, ok but what's next? That said, I think it would be so interesting to read a whole set of books centering around the retention facility or the Dreamsaver company and how it is affecting more of society. It's a really creepily interesting concept, and feels just dystopian enough that it's removed from current reality, but just realistic enough that it reads like contemporary fiction.

I would rather be left wanting more than be left annoyed at how long a book was, thus, in conclusion, liked a lot! Close to really liked.

Thanks to Netgalley and Pantheon for the e-ARC!

Great dystopian story. Relevant for the times? Perhaps. What do you do, how do you live, when even your dreams are not safe?

A compelling and important read for the times we live in. "The Dream Hotel" doesn't feel too far off from our current reality and that may be the scariest part of it all. In a future where AI is everywhere, Sara's freedom is taken away and she must fight against the impossible, technology (and capitalism).

A bleak and powerful novel. Thanks to Laila Lalami for making me a little bit more paranoid...

If Minority Report and Chain Gain All-Stars mixed with even more capitalism, you'd get The Dream Hotel.

In a not so distant future United States, people are under constant surveillance by the Risk Assessment Administration, should your risk score get above a certain threshold, you have the potential to commit a crime and are sent to a retention center for 21 days for observation. These retention centers are supposedly not prisons...but you'll find that they operate exactly in that manner - external communication is controlled by the monopoly PostPal, a commissary with overpriced everything, not required but required jobs, and strict surveillance by retention officers. Sara Hussein has found herself stuck in a retention center after being flagged coming back from a conference in London, she is separate from her husband and two kids - and despite doing her best to be a model retainee, continues to have her stay extended.

I highly recommend this book - this is definitely one of my favorite reads of the year so far. In addition to Sara's story - there are interludes between chapters with news briefs, meeting notes, and more that add additional flavor to what's going on behind the scenes and further immerse the reader in this world. I felt more and more desperate for Sara as she continues to be held there while her family on the outside keeps insisting she "just needs to follow the rules." This is an incredibly commentary on the justice system, surveillance, and more. This book will make you mad and leave you breathless.

Thank you so much to Knopf, Pantheon, Vintage, and Anchor and NetGalley for the advanced copy.

In The Dream Hotel, we follow Sara as she is detained in an airport for her risk assessment score being too high. In this dystopian future, anything can count for or against your score.

Laila Lalami sets a chilling scene in this future where your data is sold and used against you, but the algorithm doesn't lie. As Sara is sent to a retention center, she tries to prove her innocence and lower her score, while missing out on her twins lives and feeling guilt over the toll this is taking on her husband.

Author Laila Lalami does a fantastic job of making Sara's anxiety and hopelessness feel too real. This would have been a 5 star read for me, but the first half spent a lot of time in Sara's head and the plot didn't really pick up until that halfway point.

4 stars.

Thank you to NetGalley and Knopf, Pantheon, Vintage, and Anchor | Pantheon for the copy of the eARC in exchange for an honest review.

5 stars! This book will be in my thoughts for a long time to come. I couldn't help but reminisce when Black Mirror first came out. What made Black Mirror so eerie was not how far fetched it could be but how our current society was slowly marching toward those themes. Same sentiment runs through the veins of this book. Thank you netgalley & the publisher for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This was an interesting speculative fiction story, and despite still struggling to tease out my overall feelings about it, it’s one that I’ve been continually thinking about since I finished it. Perhaps it’s because while this novel is written as a dystopian tale, it also feels like something that is far too close to home already.

The story follows Sara, a working mom of infant twins who gets detained at LAX when coming home from a business trip. The Risk Assessment Administration has used all of its data and algorithms, including data about Sara's dreams, and recognized that her "risk score" is too high, meaning that she is in imminent danger of committing a crime and must be sent to a facility for three weeks until the danger period passes. From there, we follow Sara's experience in the facility, her relationships both formed inside and with her family on the outside, and how it seems like the world is out to get her, even though she hasn’t ever actually done anything wrong in the first place. Everything in this story really makes you think twice about how much information all of the current technology in today's world is capable of gathering about you already - although it makes our lives easier in so many ways, at what sacrifice?

The book started off rather slow for me and got to be a little meandering and monotonous at times, but I also think maybe that was intentional to further emphasize the comparison to today's world. Although it was often easy to root for Sara given the position she finds herself in, essentially imprisoned because of her “risk”, I also wanted to know more about her backstory and motivations - but again, perhaps that was intentional, leaving the reader with the unsure feeling of an unreliable narrator without actually implementing a super unreliable narrator. That being said though, I do wish there was a little more character depth throughout - I wanted to know more about the characters in the facility with Sara and I’m so intrigued by the author’s choice to include just one single chapter from another character’s POV.

All in all, it was an enjoyable reading experience, while also feeling like an eerie cautionary tale that has kept my wheels turning. Thank you so much to NetGalley, the author and the publisher for the ARC in exchange for an honest review!

The dream hotel is a much hyped novel by beloved novelist Laila lalami. The novel is reminded of minority report and takes place in a near future la. Sara is being detained returning from a trip from Morocco because big tech now monitors dreams and has flagged her for potentially committing a crime against her husband. Sara is detained with other women who have shown the same risk. Sara fights to get out of detention and prove that her dreams are only dreams. Exposing the risks of big tech when it has too much over reach, the novel feels very real and very timely to our current situation in our world and where we could be heading with tech.

I loved the set up of and the first 60-70%. I am not sure why but the last 30% lost some momentum for me, but I would still highly recommend this! A great balance of plot and character!

Thanks to the publisher for providing this arc via netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Laila Lalami’s fifth novel, The Dream Hotel, is a near-future dystopian tale involving Sara Hussein, a Moroccan-American returning home to LA from a conference she attended in London. When she lands in LA, she is pulled aside by Risk Assessment agents and told that she will soon commit a crime. They believe this to be true based on data they have procured from her dreams. The crime she is going to commit is harming her husband. Sara goes to a retention center, where she is held along with other women, trying to prove that they are innocent and their dreams are simply dreams. Deprived of her freedom for an extended period of time for her pre-crime tendencies, Sara mounts a small-scale resistance against the companies responsible for creating the biometric data. Although the story exposes the plight of big tech’s capacity to exploit our every movement and thought, this genre is not my cup of tea; it is a unique, well-imagined, and written story. Those who like dystopian novels will love it.

This book was terrifying. Not in the "somone jumping out at you" kind of way, but the idea of a our privacy and liberty being put in jeopardy in a way that is not entirely unbelievable. The main character, Sarah, is on her way back to her husband and twins when she is flagged at LAX. She is taken to a detention center becasue her dreams were flagged, indicating that there was a likely chance that she would commit a crime in the near future.

At times, I had to put this book down becasue it was just too real and creepy. That being said, it was GREAT! If you want to be freaked out in a non-traditional way, read this book!

Thank you to NetGalley for an ARC of this book.

This book hit me in a way I wasn’t expecting, and I could not put it down. It’s my current best read of 2025– and as someone who has already clocked ~70 books that is definitely a hard title to earn.

I am thrilled with so many of the books that published this week, including 𝑻𝑯𝑬 𝑫𝑹𝑬𝑨𝑴 𝑯𝑶𝑻𝑬𝑳 𝒃𝒚 𝑳𝒂𝒊𝒍𝒂 𝑳𝒂𝒍𝒂𝒎𝒊 #gifted to me via @netgalley by @pantheonbooks and audio #partner @prhaudio which is my favorite combo!

I had been reading about halfway when I added the audio, narrated by Frankie Corzo & Barton Caplan, which was a great addition. It added an intensity of hopelessness turned resolve.

I was truly taken by this premise of retaining people before they commit a crime based on certain behavioral cues. Sounds reasonable, right? I think ideas like this are appealing and culture is likely to accept them because they feel like a personal safety protection. This book shows the very real issues that occur when either specific people are in charge of these programs or even when the 'algorithm' is given such power over lives without nuance or humanity.

I was instantly enmeshed in the retention center with Sara as the technology she implanted for sleep deprivation tagged her for retention. To see how she processed her time there and the decisions she made as she began to understand the deeper tacks that made this system work was brilliant and terrifying in its possibility. Technology, data collection, capitalist only institutions, and corrupt leaders combine for a speculative fiction horror that has made me take note.

I'll start off by saying i simply adored this book in its entirety. A near future look into the control that having a digital footprint has on us, and the consequences of it? The way that everything felt so eerily real, like this could happen any day now with the advancements of artificial intelligence (an algorithm, really) and the way that we leave everything in our lives available to be looked at online.

A book that really made me consider the world around me, and the stakes we are all willing to go for this so-called safety. From the beginning, with our main character's explanation on the safety--the reasoning behind the implementation of the algorithm--I just knew that this book was going somewhere. And somewhere it went. It covered the basis of control, of what constitutes risk, and about what exactly makes us humans. It got me thinking about how humanity is simply all risks. Every day is risks, and though this book tries to show a world where it can "possibly" be avoided, there is a deeper seeded message to what is being said. That message is what really elevated it to me. It's about control, really, and how much as can and do know about the companies and the government with which we have.

Our main character is detained on the risk that she might possibly do something, a risk that has been calculated according to an algorithm that has access to her dreams. For fans of Black Mirror, and for people who want to be creeped out over a near future that sounds all too real.

For fans of Severance, Black Mirror, & Minority Report; Lalami’s latest book takes us to the near future where a sleep implant promises our MC, a new mom of twins, a full night of deep rest. The only problem? The implant comes with your standard form legalese for data storage/sharing, which she easily consents to as we all so often do with our new tech. This lands her in a load of trouble when she’s detained at the airport for an alleged violent dream in which she threatens to harm her husband. Where Lalami takes us from there is a wild ride of completely possible restrictions on our freedom; commentary on the prison system and private contractors who profit off the free labor of inmates; a look into the ways women and specifically women of color are oppressed with a smile in systems designed for this purpose; and of course the dystopic exploration of how far is too far when it comes to tech/AI/social media and what we may not even realize we are losing in pursuit of likes, engagement, and followers. Thanks to Pantheon & Tertulia co-op for the gifted copy!