A powerful and thought provoking dystopian novel. The main character Sara is detained for what she might do, not for any crime committed. Very relevant today as we become more open to tracking devices AI and data collection.

4..5 ⭐

The Dream Hotel is an incredible story with a unique and thought provoking premise. I've always been fascinated by the mind and the mysteries of our dreams, and this book takes that concept to a whole new level. Set in an undisclosed future where technology has advanced in astonishing ways, it paints a chillingly believable world in which even dreams are monitored and controlled.

What struck me most was how seamlessly the author weaves in details about scientific advancements. They aren’t over-explained or treated as spectacle. Instead, they are casually mentioned as if they are just a normal part of life, which makes the world feel all the more immersive. The scariest part is that none of it feels too far-fetched. I could genuinely see this happening in the future.

Beyond its sci-fi elements, The Dream Hotel also offers a compelling exploration of grief, isolation, and sanity. The parallels between being detained in a "retention" facility and being incarcerated in prison are deeply unsettling, especially in the way the relationships between detainees and attendants mirror those between prisoners and guards. The novel also touches on themes of womanhood and the experience of being a child of immigrants, adding even more depth to the narrative.

It is fascinating and terrifying to see how technology can be both a tool of oppression and a source of convenience. This book made me feel EVERYTHING, and I loved every moment of it!

What if you could be arrested for a crime you haven’t committed yet? What if your dreams could be monitored by an algorithm to prove intent?
Sara is on her way home from a work conference in London when she is detained at LAX for a 'high risk score' by the Risk Assessment Association, without a clear indication of exactly what is triggering that score hike.
Part prison novel, part science fiction, part immigrant family story, with poignant look at the future state of artificial intelligence and the surveillance-focused deep state we seem to be headed for as a country, this book was emotionally wrought and eerily timely.
Reminiscent of The Mars Room by Rachel Kushner and The School for Good Mothers by Jessamine Chan, both devastating, brilliant novels about women’s incarceration, The Dream Hotel is cinematic in its composition, and gorgeous at a sentence level. Lalami is a true master of her craft.

Wow! This was very good and reminiscent of the best speculative fiction you can imagine, Never Let Me Go or The Other Valley. It was eerie and realistic.

“𝘋𝘪𝘥𝘯’𝘵 𝘴𝘩𝘦 𝘬𝘯𝘰𝘸 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘥𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘮𝘴 𝘸𝘦𝘳𝘦 𝘸𝘪𝘯𝘥𝘰𝘸𝘴 𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘰 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘴𝘶𝘣𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘴𝘤𝘪𝘰𝘶𝘴? 𝘛𝘩𝘦𝘺 𝘴𝘩𝘰𝘸𝘦𝘥 𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘯𝘦𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘴 𝘣𝘦𝘵𝘸𝘦𝘦𝘯 𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘵𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘨𝘩𝘵𝘴 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘢𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘴 𝘸𝘩𝘪𝘭𝘦 𝘳𝘦𝘮𝘢𝘪𝘯𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘧𝘳𝘦𝘦 𝘰𝘧 𝘭𝘪𝘦𝘴 𝘰𝘳 𝘫𝘶𝘴𝘵𝘪𝘧𝘪𝘤𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘴. 𝘛𝘩𝘦𝘺 𝘳𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘢𝘭𝘦𝘥 𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘧𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘴, 𝘥𝘦𝘴𝘪𝘳𝘦𝘴, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘱𝘦𝘵𝘵𝘺 𝘫𝘦𝘢𝘭𝘰𝘶𝘴𝘪𝘦𝘴 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘨𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝘩𝘰𝘯𝘦𝘴𝘵𝘺 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘯 𝘸𝘦 𝘸𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥 𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳 𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘰𝘸 𝘪𝘯 𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘸𝘢𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘮𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘴. 𝘛𝘩𝘦𝘺 𝘸𝘦𝘳𝘦 𝘷𝘢𝘭𝘶𝘢𝘣𝘭𝘦 𝘱𝘳𝘦𝘤𝘪𝘴𝘦𝘭𝘺 𝘣𝘦𝘤𝘢𝘶𝘴𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘺 𝘦𝘹𝘱𝘰𝘴𝘦𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘮𝘰𝘴𝘵 𝘱𝘳𝘪𝘷𝘢𝘵𝘦 𝘱𝘢𝘳𝘵𝘴 𝘰𝘧 𝘰𝘶𝘳𝘴𝘦𝘭𝘷𝘦𝘴, 𝘧𝘳𝘰𝘮 𝘳𝘦𝘱𝘳𝘦𝘴𝘴𝘦𝘥 𝘮𝘦𝘮𝘰𝘳𝘪𝘦𝘴 𝘵𝘰 𝘧𝘶𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘦 𝘱𝘭𝘢𝘯𝘴.”

4.5 rounded up. HUGE thank you to Pantheon Books for both the advanced readers copy on Netgalley and for sending me a gifted finished copy prior to release day!! This has been highly anticipated and for good reason!

I first read Lalami in 2021 when I picked up Hope And Other Dangerous Pursuits- a short story of four short, interwoven stories of refugees crossing from Morocco to Europe. I also have The Other Americans on my shelf that I truly have meant to get to sooner (maybe this’ll finally be the year!) The Dream Hotel marks a venture into new genre territory for Lalami so I went in without expectations.

“𝘛𝘪𝘮𝘦 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘢𝘨𝘢𝘪𝘯, 𝘥𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘮𝘴 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘤𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘨𝘦𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘭𝘥. 𝘚𝘰 𝘸𝘩𝘰 𝘪𝘴 𝘴𝘩𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘴𝘢𝘺 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘥𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘮𝘴 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘯𝘰 𝘮𝘦𝘢𝘯𝘪𝘯𝘨?”

Wow, the gut punch and wrenching you experience while reading this… Lalami did a fantastic job writing a believable, enthralling, and provoking story about choices, thoughts, innocence, guilt, surveillance, privacy, transparency, power, submission, identity, technology, humanity, fairness, community… shall I go on? The emotions and tension in this story are just as powerful as the story and themes themselves, providing plenty to reflect and discuss. Any one of us would feel anxious, frustrated, confused, angry as Sara does at being “retained” unfairly; that loss of independence and power over your life, of trying to fit into an ever-changing and impossible mold to appease an algorithm that never works for your best interests while feeling betrayed, forgotten, and mistreated. In different circumstances I sympathized all too well, which personally made this story even more unsettling at times. However, that’s not to say I didn’t enjoy it; I very much liked it! Some things just really hit hard and are quite relevant to our present times, unfortunately.

“𝘕𝘰 𝘮𝘢𝘵𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝘩𝘰𝘸 𝘰𝘧𝘵𝘦𝘯 𝘪𝘵 𝘩𝘢𝘱𝘱𝘦𝘯𝘴, 𝘪𝘵 𝘢𝘭𝘸𝘢𝘺𝘴 𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘴 𝘢𝘴 𝘢 𝘴𝘶𝘳𝘱𝘳𝘪𝘴𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘥𝘪𝘴𝘤𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘳 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘱𝘦𝘰𝘱𝘭𝘦 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘮𝘰𝘳𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘪𝘳 𝘱𝘶𝘣𝘭𝘪𝘤 𝘴𝘦𝘭𝘷𝘦𝘴, 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘺 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘱𝘳𝘪𝘷𝘢𝘵𝘦 𝘴𝘵𝘳𝘶𝘨𝘨𝘭𝘦𝘴 𝘸𝘦 𝘬𝘯𝘰𝘸 𝘯𝘰𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘢𝘣𝘰𝘶𝘵.”

My only reason for not a full 5 is that there were a few things I wish were expounded on by the time it ended and the ending itself felt a little rushed (but that could parallel with the fast pace at the start; how quickly things can happen without our expecting it to). It never feels slow, though the middle slows down some though I personally didn’t mind and understandably that can portray the length of time Sara has been retained; how her days feel monotonous, as if they’ll never end. I could have read another 100 pages or so of this and still would have enjoyed and been kept engaged. Still, I think Lalami did this story beautifully, relatably, and never veers off from the message she set out to make.

Content includes incarceration, very minimal profanity, and one brief sexual scene (in a dream, a tad descriptive).

In a near future, the government may implant something into your brain and assign you a risk score based on what it sees there. They can lock you up based on this assessment, and they do lock Sara up, on her return flight to LA. She is detained with no clear idea of what it will take to secure her release or when that will happen.

Prescient and eerie in the best way possible, Laila Lalami has written another standout story, perfect for the horrifying times we live in.

The synopsis of this book made me very excited to read it and it did not disappoint!

I thought the concept was fantastic and the structure of the book was super interesting and added a lot to the story. I loved the meeting minutes, nurse charts, and other data that was included in between chapters. They gave so much extra detail and insight into the workings of the facility.

The story and world building was great as well! I could 100% understand and feel what this potential future USA looked like.

The only thing I felt lacking in the book was the character development. Other than the main character and main guard, I had trouble differentiating between all the characters. They all did have one small thing to set them apart, but I kept forgetting who was who, because they weren’t built out enough.

I would 100% recommend this book to anyone who enjoyed dystopian sci-fi, or even women fiction and mystery/thriller readers.

I received a a free copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for my honest review. All thoughts and statements are my own.

The Dream Hotel
Laila Lalami
Pantheon
3.0 -3.5 ☆

I found The Dream Hotel to be an interesting dystopian novel set in a near- future reality. It was similar to Minority Report ibut in a different environment and based on a person's dreams. The institution the women were detained in was certainly not a Hotel, but much more like a Prison.. I was somewhat disappointed in the plot execution, especially the end, which felt rushed and unfinished. The author included many characters in this story, bit I didn't feel that I connected to any, not even the main protagonist and her family. Intrusion by AI, whether through the use of camera, or a person's dreams, describes a horrifying future which we all may encounter soon. This novel gives the reader a lot to speculate on and, perhaps, fear.

Thank you to NetGalley and Pantheon for the eCopy of The Dream Hotel. My thoughts about this novel are my own.

In the not-too-distant future, a sleep-deprived young mother agrees to a brain implant that will cure her insomnia. She doesn't read the fine print on her contract and doesn't connect the new technology to a Big Brother government agency that will moniter her thoughts and use them to lock her up in a hellish Retention Center for an undetermined length of time. Once there, she will lose all rights to privacy, comfort, dignity, and contact with her family. Worst of all, the Retention Centers are contracted out to a private company that hires brutal guards who penalize the inmates for breaking arbitrary rules that they can change on a whim. The penalty for breaking the rules is time added to their sentences. The management company charges their "residents" exorbitant prices for things like tampons, shampoo, snacks, and email. Access to computers is severely limited and the residents are overcharged and denied any recourse if the machines glitch or break down.
Sara Husseini is the daughter of immigrants who has grown up being told to keep her head down and avoid trouble at any cost. When she is detained at the airport after a brief business trip, she is shocked to learn that her risk score (determined by an algorythm that uses everything from actual crimes to the most casual relationships with anyone who has a questionable history and includes the violent content of dreams collected from her brain implant) is slightly higher than is considered safe. Judged a risk to her husband and children, Sara is sent to a Retention Center for what should be a twenty-one day evaluation period, but turns into nearly a year of slave labor under the harshest conitions.
Other reviewers compared The Dream Hotel to Minority Report, but I thought it was more like The Handmaid's Tale, without the gender issues.
This should have been a fascinating book, but I didn't enjoy it much.
Sara, herself, seems like a wimpy person with no real backbone. Aside from a few mild outbursts that raise her risk score, she seems very passive. By the time she develops some gumption , the story is almost over and the ending seems oddly rushed for such a slow book. (i understand some of what made Sara like that, but knowing her history doesn't make her more interesting. Like most of the other characters, she seems underdeveloped. The author seems to assign details (allergies, Muslim background, work as an archivest) at random. At least I could tell who Sara was bcause hers was the main point of view (there is a very brief section in the middle that introduces another character named Julie, who seems like she will be significant, but there isn't really enough about her to make me care) but I found myself confused by the other inmates as I couldn't recall who Victoria, Emily, Toya, and others actually were and had to keep looking them up in my Kindle. The description of conditions was more interesting than any of the people who endured them.
I expected much more from a National Book Award and Pulitzer Prize finalist.
I would like to thank NetGalley and Pantheon for the opportunity to read a free advance copy of this book in exchange for my honest opinion.

Initial reaction: Wait, what just happened? Is this f-ing play about us???

How it started: It felt a bit like one of those dreams where you know you're supposed to be going somewhere to accomplish some task, but everything is just hazy and blurred along the edges, and your brain is simply not functioning. I'm guessing this was intentional, given the subject matter of the book lol
How it ended: Honestly, I still felt like I was in a hazy dream, but it was more like the feeling you have in the morning when you wake up and you know you had a crazy dream, but you can't remember it. Basically the whole thing just felt like a hazy dream, or like a memory that is always just out of reach.

Notable symptoms I experienced while reading:
☐ Face scrunching (What is happening??)
☐ A bit of worry, because some of these things honestly, seem PRETTY dang plausible
☐ Curiosity
☐ Utter confusion
☐ Acceptance that I simply wouldn't be able to grasp the entire concept

Final verdict:
☐ This book was so incredibly written, and honestly so clever, I think it was a bit too high-brow for me HAHA :P It was very unique and entertaining, but some of the elements just didn't work for me and only served in confusing me more.

I do love a dystopian novel, but even if you don't, The Dream Hotel is a good read. A woman returning from a business trip abroad is detained at the airport by the RAA (Risk Assessment Agency). Her crime? Her dreams, monitored by the RAA, put her at risk of harming her husband. She is transferred to a retention center where she is held with other women accused of the same thing. Her stay is extended...and extended.. The retention center seems no different than a prison, with prison rules that change depending on who is in charge that day. But to be held against your will for your dreams? Alexa, are you listening? What an interesting story that gave me a lot of food for thought. Discuss amongst yourselves. This would be great for book clubs!

Thank you to NetGalley and Pantheon for this ARC of The Dream Hotel!

Traveling home from a conference in London, Sara is detained at LAX for reasons unclear to her. She follows the instructions of the attending officers who won’t even let her notify her husband who’s circling the airport looking for parking. Sara is questioned and data is examined, though she still doesn’t understand why or what the Risk Assessment Association officers are examining on their screens. Ultimately, she is retained and sent to Madison, one of many retention centers that isolate individuals at risk of committing crimes. Their data comes from social media profiles, algorithms from the Cloud, even from dreams recorded by implants sold to help people get better sleep. Of course, these devices also record and store their dreams, adding to the data the RAA uses to monitor risk scores.

Sara represents a number of individuals in society: she is a mother, she is a wife, she is Moroccan, she is strong, yet she’s also been taught to respect authority. She’s got no criminal record, but she’s kept in Madison for the better part of a year, resulting from multiple senseless infractions on the inside. What starts as a standard three week retention invariably grows for detainees, and Sara begrudgingly becomes accustomed to the routines. As her days drag on, Sara realizes complacency may not be her best course of action if she wants to be freed; if the system won’t play by the rules, why should she?

I really liked Lalani’s prose style in this novel, and I think the concept is excellent and timely. I loved following Sara through her experiences at Madison both on her own and with her fellow retainees. I do think that Lalani should have done more with the Eisley subplot - she’s there, then she’s not, then she gets an explanatory chapter that’s underdeveloped. It feels like there could’ve been a multi-POV narrative structure here if other characters had been more built-out. Having only one chapter come from a different POV felt very clunky in the grand scheme of the narrative. That aside, I did enjoy the novel and I think it’s absolutely worth reading.

4.5/5
In this frightening yet fascinating story, I'm not sure whether to label it science fiction or a cautionary tale. Imagine living in a world where nothing is private. Where our friends, our family members, losing our cool on a bad day, and even our very dreams contribute to our risk assessment score. The higher your score, the more likely you are to commit a crime.

This is Sara Hussein's reality. Pulled aside for questioning after an exhausting transatlantic flight, Sara soons finds herself locked away in Madison retention center, where she's "not" a prisoner, but she's not free to go.

Watching the women of Madison retention center struggle under arbitrary rules and power hungry attendants was frustrating. The whole idea that anything you say, do, or dream can be manipulated and construed to mean absolutely anything is terrifying.

I'm always on board for a dystopian tale, and The Dream Hotel did not disappoint! Laila Lalami has created characters we care about. Her prose is on point, and the storyline is spellbinding. My only complaint is I wish it were a bit longer! I'd love to read more about Julie!

There are plentiful things to ponder and topics to discuss from motherhood and friendship to politics and power. The Dream Hotel would be a perfect buddy read or book club selection!

Read this if you like:
• Stories with a political twist
• Introspective characters
• Stories that will make you think
• Dystopian fiction
• Bookclub reads

This book didn’t deliver. The protagonist was unlikeable, mostly due to generic characterization. The themes and messaging regarding dream and behavior surveillance were repetitive. Stylistically, I did not enjoy the emails, memos and articles that were interspersed with the narration; it failed to add any meaningful context. The section in the middle of the novel with Julie’s story was unnecessary and random - the reader never heard from her again which felt like a plot hole. As a voracious reader of speculative fiction, this novel did not add anything new to the genre.

Thank you to NetGalley and Bloomsbury Publishing for the advanced reader copy of this book, which was published on March 4. The story grabbed me immediately. We meet Sara Hussein in the not too distant (and scary) future, where our data is being mined (more than it is today).

Laila Lalami is particularly effective at describing scents and smells. My one criticism is that her use of “artifacts” disrupted the flow of the story for me. Maybe that was intentional.

Themes include power/control, art, scary algorithms, freedom and friendship.

“Freedom isn’t a blank slate, she wants to tell them. Freedom is teeming and complicated and, yes, risky, and it can only be written in the company of others.”

I plan to read more of Laila Lalami’s books.

I loved this book! We follow Sara, a woman just trying to fly home from a business trip to see her family. Unfortunately, due to the dream monitoring from her neural link, her risk score is too high and she gets thrown into a "detainment center". This is commentary on the digital age of constant surveillance and the unfairness of the profitization of the privitized prison industry. This book had me stressed, tense, and sad. I will definitely be checking out more books from Laila Lailami. My only complaint is that I with the ending had been taken a bit farther, it felt a little predictable which is not what I'd hoped for based on the rest of the story.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the arc in exchange for a fair and honest review.

A timely and fascinating new take on Kafka's "The Trial. Laila Lalami is back with a new novel that tackles the a range of issues from climate change, the proliferation of advertising, and the increased stripping of rights that we give when we engage with technology. Written with Lalami's trademark humanity and imagination, "The Dream Hotel" is one part Severance, one part Kafka. Simultaneously modern and dreamy.

The Dream Hotel, Laila Lalami

“Freedom isn’t a blank slate. Freedom is teeming and complicated and, yes, risky

The Dream Hotel is a dystopian novel set in a near and very believable future where the US government has partnered with a large tech company to use its algorithm in service of crime prevention.

Following a mass shooting, the government passes the Crime Prevention Act which allows it to mine data and detain people it finds are likely to commit crimes. Everyone is assigned a risk assessment score, which is based on all the data available about a person — social media activity, job, family life, driving record, and even dreams. Detained people are then sent to “public safety centers” for investigation and possible prosecution.

Under this backdrop, our protagonist, Sara, gets pulled aside while going through customs attempting to reenter the US. The novel follows her experience in — and attempt to escape — one of these public safety centers.

I really enjoyed this. Its themes are terrifying and its algorithmic policing plot feels very possible, especially in light of the fact that an unelected tech billionaire currently has unprecedented access to US citizens’ private data and recent reporting that the State Department plans to conduct an AI assisted review of student visa holders' social media accounts to police foreign nationals' conduct and speech.

The writing really forces the reader to feel the indignity of being detained when you’ve done nothing wrong, and I particularly liked how well it shows the ways private prisons are interested in — and profit from — keeping people incarcerated.

I found the final 25% to be a little weaker than the rest of the book and the ending anticlimactic, but maybe that’s the point. These systems drain people’s will and beat them down, and fighting back most often requires small, unsexy actions.

Recommended if you enjoyed Minority Report, The Candy House, and I Who Have Never Known Men.

Thanks to NetGalley and Pantheon for an early digital copy of this book.

For a Sci-fi book, this was scarily real. The writing was reflective and humorous with an edge of scariness built in because I truly believe something of this nature could happen in our future. I felt immersed in the story and the saga of Sarah!

THE DREAM HOTEL by Laila Lalami hit me hard -- in the very best way. In a terrible version of reality -- one that is also all too imaginable given our current time of surveillance, suspicion, and intrusive technology, a woman is accused of a crime she did not yet commit and the price of 21 days of isolation from her target is extended as she fails to meet the rigid requirements and shifting rules of the surveillance state. Well-written, marvelously paced, this story kept me on the edge of my seat, wanting and also afraid to find out what happens next, particularly when a change agent enters the scene and disrupts everything. I don't typically enjoy thriller/suspense/techno-based stories, but this one was a shining example of what is possible, particularly with the questions raised about identity and what it is to know a person--and yourself. I received a copy of this book and these are my own, unbiased thoughts.