The Dream Hotel by Laila Lalami is the story of a woman that is determined to be at risk of harming her husband and is sent to a retention center. While there, her every move is monitored, and she grows increasingly frustrated and concerned about her husband and twin children. This book explores the concerns regarding technology and whether surveillance can accurately interpret someone's motives. I found this story to be particularly chilling due to everything that's going on with immigration rights now. This story was very well done, but I found the ending to be lacking. Thanks to NetGalley for the free digital review copy. All opinions are my own.

This was a really odd book that navigated between dreams, the past, and current situations. I can't imagine how I would feel if someone had access to data on my dreams and that my score could be used to predict how likely I am to be a risk for society.

A special thanks to Pantheon, NetGalley and the author for this advance copy of The Dream Hotel in exchange for this honest review.

I’ve been really trying to branch into the sci-fi genre, because even though I don’t read a lot, what I have read I really enjoy - this one had such an interesting premise as we follow our protagonist Sara as she’s detained at the airport by an agency that has been hacking her dreams and says she has an increased risk score from having dreams that she may harm her husband. While this one sounded so fun, the pacing was a little bit off for me, as we found out a lot about the other characters, but then it rushed up so quickly with her release at the end of the book. I wanted to love this one so much more but it was just okay for me.

Thank you again to the publishers and NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for this honest review. This one was a read with Jenna pick for March and available for purchase today!

In a dark futuristic world, where technology can provide intervention to ensure more sleep, a young woman returning from a business trip abroad, is detained at LAX when agents flag her for potentially being a threat to her husband’s life. Based upon an algorithm, taking into account the content of her dreams, Sara Hussein, is sent for a 21 day period of observation in a detention center, described again and again as NOT a prison.

While being unjustly held captive for ever increasing periods of time, Sarah becomes
isolated from her husband and young children. Finding it nearly impossible to accept her undeserved Incarceration in a world ruled by technology with endless rules, Sarah finds herself on a collision course with a vengeful guard who has the power to extend the length of her confinement.

Ms Lalami has written a dark tale exposing the potential impact of technology on our freedom. Will we be losing our privacy to an authoritarian state that can read our thoughts and log our dreams ? Is this unthinkable world right around the corner ?

With well drawn believable characters in a setting so clearly drawn that I was able to see it, The Dream Hotel was hard for me to put down. I was lost in this frightening parallel world from the first right up until the very interesting end. Thought provoking, troubling and insightful The Dream Hotel was an engaging read. Five gold stars for this one. It was published on March 4, 2025 so it’s readily available. My thanks to NetGalley and Penguin Random House for an ARC in exchange for my honest review.

What It’s About:

The Dream Hotel is set in a near-future dystopia where dreams are surveilled. Sara has been identified as a threat to those around her because of the content of her dreams, and she is sent to a retention center where she will be held until the Risk Assessment Administration determines she is no longer likely to commit a crime. “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”.

Why I Liked It:

I flew through this book and was so struck by how imminent this reality feels. Knowing that every waking moment is inundated with advertising and surveillance, it only stands to reason that our dreams would be the next frontier for product placement. Lailami illustrates how seemingly advantageous technological advancements can be used to further systems of oppression - and they are certainly never without their biases.

I liked this dystopian look at government surveillance. The RAA is a terrifying reflection that in today's society seems all too possible, clear violations of what we currently consider human rights chipped away at due to fear of safety and security. I have never read LL's writing before (not sure if this is a debut), but it is very compelling.

This book is sci-fi in some ways but it is really a thought provoking character-driven story about integrity, rights, and what we are willing to do to protect ourselves and others. It is a story of rebellion and resistance. Due to it being very introspective and character driven, it is slower paced; the pacing does serve the story in giving it a real-life feel.

Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC of this title. This one is going to stick with me for a long time because it feels so close to what a future could look like if we continue using AI to make decisions about people. There was a lot layered in here, it was slow at times, but worth it.

so, this book. it follows Sara Hussein, a museum archivist in LA, through her time being held in a retention center for women flagged by the Risk Assessment Administration: a government agency in a near-future surveillance state that scores the potential risk of citizens committing crimes, and incarcerates those whose score is deemed too high. the reader slowly discovers, as Sara does, that it's not just every nuance of her internet footprint prompting her "high" score—the RAA's algorithm is also observing her dreams, data sold to them by the tech company behind an implant meant to help people sleep.

this is obviously terrifying, but not currently extant, technology in the real world. but what really steals the breath right out of my chest about this book is the way Lalami uses this one speculative element to highlight all the very real microaggressions and micro-oppressions, all the small violations of human rights, that pile up and pile up into mountainous and systematic injustice. racism and misogyny, but also the slow horror of incarceration. the women in this book are dehumanized, physically endangered, gaslit and persecuted by power-happy attendants and the relentless grind of capitalism—it's haunting to read, knowing that what they go through isn't far removed from what happens in real detention centers and prisons.

it's infuriating, it's depressing, but it's so compellingly written! Sara is specifically and completely real-feeling, flawed and afraid and angry, and all the other characters feel like fleeting glimpses of real people too. and i won't say it ended on a hopeful note, but...more like a strengthening note, a message that individual resistance does matter, can create small change that opens opportunities for bigger change.

it's what i needed in the current moment: an intense read that is very much worth it.

The Dream Hotel by Laila Lalami is an absolute must read. This story will easily be in the top ten of my favorite books in 2025.

This is a Science Fiction novel, yet, it is absolutely relevant, and creepily realistic. In our political climate here in the US, and with advancements in technology, this story didn’t feel too far off from where we are at now, making it feel very real, and grounded within the trajectory of our near future.

The absolute power of this book isn’t from the realistic possibility of the Sci-Fi though, but within the female experience. So much progress we’ve made, only to have it taken away piece by piece. And who is left to fight in an unjust world? Not many. But this story finds the few, and delivers the message that we must always fight for our rights, and for ourselves, even when the world tells us to shut up.

I highly recommend this book! You don’t need to be a Sci-Fi genre reader to enjoy this one. It is serious, but it’s also rich in imagery, and thought provoking moments. It will keep you beholden to it from the first line until the last, and long after.

Thank you NetGalley and Knopf, Pantheon, Vintage, and Anchor for this advanced reader’s copy. I thoroughly enjoyed this book.

Concept of this was terrifying. Imagine being jailed for thought crimes but nothing is even competently run or researched so anyone could end up there. Reminds me of something else going on right now.

The Dream Hotel is the kind of novel that wraps around you like a silk robe—elegant, mysterious, and just a little bit haunted. As a Read with Jenna pick, it lives up to the hype, offering a story that blends emotional intimacy with atmospheric intrigue.

The hotel itself feels like a character: opulent yet elusive, a sanctuary and a trap all at once. The protagonist’s journey through grief, memory, and self-reclamation is deeply moving, and the dreamlike prose makes every chapter feel like you're walking through fog with a lantern. It’s the kind of writing that lingers—beautiful, yes, but also quietly unsettling.

Where it loses a star for me is pacing. Some sections meander, and a few symbolic layers feel a bit overextended. But those moments are outweighed by the emotional payoff and the novel’s bold willingness to let mystery live.

Fans of Sarah Addison Allen or Emily St. John Mandel will likely find something to love here. The Dream Hotel doesn’t just ask you to check in—it invites you to stay awhile and reflect. And maybe that’s the whole point.

It was easy to imagine a world like this in the future. I appreciated the author's writing style, which allowed me to feel the frustration/anger/sadness for Sara. I was expecting a little bit more from the ending, but I'm glad that there was some sort of closure, albeit abrupt. I hope that Lalami writes more books in this genre.

Sara Hussein has just landed in LAX after a work trip to London and has little on her mind other than her sleep deprivation and seeing her husband and twin children again. She is shocked to be detained then shocked even more to be sent to a retention facility. An archivist at the Getty she cannot conceive being considered a threat to anyone, least of all her husband. But that's what her dreams are telling those who monitor them.

As her detention stretches into months and nears a year, Sara feels increasingly bleak and angry and finally begins to fight back.

This is a disturbing, dystopian novel which should seem impossible, but in these dystopian times, is haunting. The happy-ish ending should bring hope, but it's a long time coming. #TheDreamHotel #NetGalley

What an unexpected delight this book was! I couldn’t put it down. I am a sucker for dystopian type books and this one had some realism that was great. It read like an episode of black mirror.

I picked up this book expecting a lot, given the other acclaimed books by this author, however, I was very disappointed. While the idea of a society at the mercy of a surveillance state seems interesting, the story and the narrative itself was flat. 25% into the book and I did not want to continue. I skimmed and continued hoping that the story will get interesting or some plot twist will occur but that was not to be.
The story is very slow moving and the ending seems abrupt and very unsatisfying.

It's a very interesting book how things can go really wrong really fast. S.A. RA came back from London and she was retained at L.A.X. She was sent to a rehabilitation area called madison. She was based on her score's From her past and her dreams as well. This was really interesting. How this information was used against when she thought it was private. Information. She probably started when she had the children and she could not sleep. This was kind of scary.Because it's based on information on The cloud. This was really interesting too.Because every time she came up to her case , they actually did documentation like it was real. She realized who she Was and how she had to react to the past. They brought up many things and this was really interesting too how they went back to her when she was 10 years old.
They said she had some anger issues as well and she was gonna hurt her husband which was not true. The title is very interesting because they called it the dream hotel.But actually it was not a dream.It was real life. Very interesting book to read.Because this is actually happening in real life.When you take these geno testing they can find everything out about you.

This book infuriated me and made me cringe in all the best ways. Set in a not so distant future where chips and predictive technology can be implanted in one’s brain that may determine whether someone might commit a crime. The story blends the chilling mixture of Minority Report with the oppressive atmosphere of The Handmaid’s Tale.
This story follows a newly mother of twins, Sara, whose brain scores have come back at a dangerous level, she's then abruptly detained and thrown into a detention center with no hope of release.

As the narrative unfolds, it paints a stark and unsettling picture of a world where every action is monitored and technology is idolized as the solution to human problems. The characters are forced to confront the horror of being punished for crimes they haven’t committed, and might never commit.
Lalami doesn’t hold back in exploring what such a future would look like, especially for those who are marginalized, discriminated against, and stripped of their rights.

Without spoiling too much, I’ll just say I had a growing suspicion that this story would lean into the idea that such control and punishment were specifically targeted at women. And while the ending didn’t take the turn I was expecting, it did dive deep into the psychological toll such a system would inflict. It forces readers to ask themselves…..
In a world that teaches women to be obedient, would you submit, or would you fight for what you know is right, in whatever way you can?

*Thank you to Laila Lalami, Knopf, Pantheon, Vintage, and Anchor | Pantheon and Netgalley for the audio copy. I am freely leaving my honest review.

Unfortunately, this book was a bit underwhelming. The premise had potential, but the pacing dragged, and I found myself waiting for something exciting to happen. There were a few “OMG” moments scattered throughout, which kept me from putting it down completely but they weren’t enough to make up for how slow and confusing the rest felt. By the end, I was left wondering what story the author was really trying to tell. It felt a bit all over the place. Not a terrible read, but definitely not one I’d rush to recommend.

The Dream Hotel was a fantastic dystopian novel - that given everything going on in our country currently feels scarily real. The increasing dependence on technology and social media, the overreach of technology companies when it comes to privacy and personal data - the world that Lalami has expertly created is not a future that seems that far away. Sara Hussein was a great character and her anger, helplessness, and fear about her situation and whether she will ever get back to her life and her family is felt full force. The Dream Hotel is a cautionary tale in a lot of ways - incredibly thought-provoking and worth the read. Thank you to Pantheon and NetGalley for the chance to read this novel.

I say wasn’t able to finish this book, and had to DNF it at 14%. I just didn’t connect with it as much as I had hoped to. If I decide to pick it up again, I will come back and update my review.