For me, the strength of The Dream Hotel was that so many parts of it seemed feasible. It was very easy to empathize with the frustrations of the MC, a regular person, navigating a nebulous system. A black box algorithm weighing things a bit wrong, the wrong (but entirely human) reactions at the wrong time and some bad luck can cause trouble to anyone at any time. I loved the criticisms on how hard it is to navigate legal systems for the incarcerated (though technically the people are only being retained). It’s also an intriguing look at what can collectively come from the data collected about us through the myriad of apps we consent to track us. I thought Lalami managed to hit home with several of the points she was making but I think there was room for more exploration and I really wanted more from some of the subplots.
There was a lot here that reminded me of The School for Good Mothers and with the futuristic technologies (no gladiator fights here sorry) Chain Gang All Stars. Both of these were Read with Jenna picks and I’m unsurprised to see this one is rumored to be one too.

would i sign away my life to get some decent sleep? unfortunately, yes

i'll take speculative fiction about prison that doesn't feel like speculation for 500, alex. in this future surveillance state, people are "retained" on suspicion that they might commit a crime sometime in the future based on an algorithm-determined risk score. i recently read Code Dependent: Living in the Shadow of AI and the author describes very similar predictive policing programs, including a program in amsterdam that predicted the "top 400" most likely minors (!!) to commit crimes, and then proceeded to implement excessive and invasive monitoring for these children, which of course went about as well as you would expect.

lalami integrates late-stage capitalism into this concept in a way that feels both real and terrifying, as dreams are commodified and arbitrary reasons are contrived to keep the "retainees" in their facility and providing cheap labor. sara's alternating frustration, rage, and hopelessness were conveyed so well, and the way dreams are used in the narrative feels fresh.

highly recommend for fans of literary dystopian and speculative fiction!
thank you to netgalley/publishers for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

This book gave me anxiety--because what if this really could happen! Sara is sent to a retention center because her dreams indicate that she could be harmful to others--especially her family. She and the other detainees are treated like prisoners and their "stay" keeps getting extended for months and months. Very gripping read. Thank you to Netgalley for an advance copy.

This was one of my most anticipated releases of the year it did not disappoint.
The Dream Hotel by Laila Lalami exceeded my expectations; it was both emotional and heartwarming, and the characters were so memorable. I was totally engaged throughout the entire novel.
The book was full of vivid descriptions and vivid imagery to the point where I felt like I had slipped into the pages.

I had high hopes for this book. I was expecting an exciting and gripping dystopian novel but got a story that just dragged on and on and seemed to have no purpose. The ending was a let down as well. There was one chapter that seemed liked it was randomly thrown in. I actually thought the story line would pickup after that chapter but then it went back to the slow prison story. The premise reminded me of P. K. Dick’s [book:The Minority Report|581125] and the predictive policing but it fell flat for me.

I was so excited to see this was selected as the Read with Jenna March book. The book is set decades in the future when technology is so advanced that even your dreams aren’t safe from data collection. The book follows FMC, Sara, whose dreams have elevated her ‘risk score’ resulting in her being retained in a holding facility until her ‘risk’ to others- determined by an algorithm-is decreased. Though she has no criminal record, the seemingly helpful retention center is more comparable to a prison.

The book did an excellent job at keeping my attention. It definitely gave ‘scholarly / tame Orange is the New Black’ vibes, which I loved. The author did a good job peppering in enough scenes from the past without it distracting from the present. There are quite a few dreams describes throughout the book, which I typically don’t like reading dream scenes-often because they are pointless-but they worked out well in this book, and rightfully so considering the novel’s blurb and title.

The underlying messages throughout the book are strong, and the emotion is high. So many times I wanted to yell at the FMC, “don’t do that, just say silent and comply”- easily said from my cushy reading area. Rationalizing with FMC’s situation though, I quickly could see how easy it would be to become frustrated, angry, hopeless, and sad. The topics discussed in this book may seem too futuristic and unlikely but in a world where injustices occur so commonly and technology/AI is incorporated more and more into our daily lives, I pose the question: are we doomed to suffer a similar fate?

I highly recommend this book!!

So unique and thought provoking, a scary glimpse at the continued progress of technology and the government invading our privacy.

The Dream Hotel was a fantastic surprise! From the moment I started reading, I was completely hooked, staying up late to find out what would happen next. The concept of others being able to see and use your dreams is truly chilling, making this story feel both thrilling and unsettling in the best way. It reminded me of my favorite dystopian novels—thought-provoking, immersive, and eerily plausible. The world Lalami builds is so compelling that I don’t think this story ends here. I’ll be eagerly waiting to see what comes next!

The Dream Hotel starts with a woman being detained at LAX after a trip abroad due to concerns about her… dream behavior.

In Lalami's new novel, it looks like the future of data mining will likely be part of our demise as people are “legally retained” for the chance they “might” harm themselves or someone else as dictated by their dreams.

If behaviors that randomly pop through their heads WHILE THEY ARE SLEEPING are deemed too dangerous, they are put in a prison-like facility while their brain activity is assessed.

I love speculative fiction, but also, any sci-fi/dystopia-esque type novels as of late never seem too much of a stretch anymore, so proceed with caution and absorb the new interpretation of what it means to accept technology’s terms and conditions.

Thank you NetGalley and Pantheon for this ARC.

First off, I hate AI so much, always have. This book makes me hate it even more. I'd be good to never hear the words AI again and for us not to go down this path. This dystopian near future hit way too close to home. As I type this on my smartphone I'm thinking maybe I should go off grid after reading this lol

For real though this was a very unique book and definitely felt like an episode of Black Mirror. I loved the journey, the characters, and the story. The only thing I didn't love was the ending. A lot of loose ends were still there and it felt very anticlimactic. Though I don't know how they could have ended it differently.

If you love Black Mirror and dystopian, this is a great read though. The journey is worth it either way!

A very unique book that is set in the near future in a dystopian world - this held my attention and I could not stop reading. Highly recommend this book because it addresses so many different issues related to racism, sexism, and the justice system.

My favorite genre is by far and away speculative fiction, so I was really looking forward to jumping into this novel. The Dream Hotel tells the story of a future where predictive algorithms are used to prevent crime, and individuals can be retained based on the future crimes they could commit. The main character, Sara, finds herself detained when a few recent dreams in which she hurts her husband raise her risk score.

This was so promising, but for me, this was ultimately pretty disappointing due to strange issues with pacing. It drags a lot in the beginning when it spends way too much time establishing just how awful and unjust the detention is. Then there is randomly what feels like a disconnected chapter-long short story about halfway through before it rushes through a quite unsatisfying ending.

There were so many good ideas in here and I just think that the author's writing style isn't a good match for me. I am confident that many other fans of speculative fiction will enjoy this one!

This is the first book I've had the pleasure of reading by Laila Lalami, it did not disappoint. The story put me in a dream like state where my imagination flowed throughout.

This “dystopian” book was way too close to American reality for it to be enjoyable for me. The writing was good but I really struggled to be entertained by the story. I feel like the whole dream reading aspect could have been more deeply explored in order to make the book more interesting because as it was this book just felt like everything currently going wrong in the US and it wasn’t fun.

Thank you to Pantheon and NetGalley for the ARC <3

I really enjoyed this book. It has such an interesting, and entertaining, premise that did not disappoint. This book has been in my mind every day since I finished. It is so good!

I was excited to get this title but it didn’t quite hold my interest as I thought it would. Kind of repetitive and boring in so many spots. Information that didn’t quite add up if you followed the plot. I didn’t even like the main character. Disappointed. Thanks to the publisher and netgalley for this copy for read and review

Sara is a wife, a daughter, and a new mother. She is a historian, working in her dream job at a museum. And then, one day, she becomes a prisoner. In a futuristic world where everything is policed — from the emotions on your face to your social media posts to your dreams — nothing is safe. After attending a conference, Sara is detained at the airport because of her “risk score,” a number that is calculated using hundreds of pieces of data to determine whether she will commit a crime in the future. Because of this score and the altercation resulting from her detention, she is placed in a facility for monitoring. She quickly finds out that these stays are not what they seem to be, and that it will take more from her than time to re-enter the real world.

Lalami expertly develops the building tension of any good dystopian novel, adding to Sara’s story through revelations about the facility and the wider world. Sara is a great protagonist to help us navigate through this world. I was particularly struck by the ways in which her experiences reflect those of both women and immigrants; the description of her reaction to her retention largely consists of thinking about all the things she did “wrong” and blaming herself, which is a common thought pattern for both groups after every altercation.

It was interesting to read this so soon after CHAIN-GANG ALL-STARS, which also heavily criticizes the American criminal justice system. This novel focuses heavily on its privatization, monetization, and red tape. It also explores how the people in this system are at the mercy of the whims of people on power trips. It’s an interesting look at the issues with the system, the ways in which people are exploited, and how technology could quickly bring us to a future with constant surveillance even of our minds, bringing shades of Orwell into the twenty-first century.

I do think that some more time could have been spent developing the minor characters. I also saw some missed opportunities with the ending of the story that would have taken this novel to the next level. But overall, this is a well-done dystopia that reveals many truths about surveillance, the criminal justice system, and technology. Four stars.

Here's the thing- this is really a very good book.
Well written and timely, but terrifying, more than any horror story you could read.
Reminiscent of current library displays which say” this is a warning not an instruction manual” -
Thank you to Netgalley and Penguin Random House.

As more and more of our everyday lives is lived on popular media where it's visible to everyone, the plot line of THE DREAM HOTEL looks more and more like nonfiction than the fiction/fantasy it is today. Just like we are monitored by a credit score, the individuals in Laila Lalami's original story line are monitored by their actions, including their dreams. Sara voluntarily accepts a chip designed to help her sleep, but soon learns the chip has many far reaching applications that will put her in a "temporary" holding facility. From this point, the book takes on an edge that gave me goosebumps. Yes, this is a fantasy. Yes, it's too close to today's fascination with AI for comfort. Recommended to everyone who can get lost in a story that's very close to a Dean Koontz dream.

This is a powerful book about all the ways that women are punished for being people. Provocative and interesting, it held my attention the whole way. My one complaint is that I wished for more clarification of exactly how these women were being used by Safe-X. The ending is amazing, a clarion call for resistance and hope.