The Dream Hotel is a gripping and thought-provoking dystopian novel that immerses readers in a near-future society governed by predictive AI. In this world, sophisticated algorithms are used to prevent crimes before they happen, offering an illusion of safety while raising questions about fairness, freedom, and the human spirit.

At its core, the novel explores the troubling implications of using technology to control human behavior. The predictive AI, designed to anticipate crimes and prevent them, may not always be accurate, leaving marginalized communities disproportionately affected. Through this chilling concept, the novel critiques a system that, rather than promoting justice, deepens inequality. The narrative highlights the stark divide between the wealthy elite, who seem to exist above the law, and the disenfranchised, whose every move is scrutinized by algorithms that can't fully capture the complexities of human nature.

Equally central to the novel is the exploitation of prisoners, an uncomfortable reflection of a reality where those with the least power often bear the heaviest burdens. The stark portrayal of this systemic abuse serves as a stark reminder of the consequences of unchecked power, and the peril of allowing such technologies to govern human lives.

Despite these grim themes, The Dream Hotel is ultimately a story of resilience. The characters, though trapped in a world that often seeks to strip them of their agency, demonstrate the strength of the human spirit. The novel suggests that while freedom is always at risk of being lost, it can be preserved through solidarity and community, offering hope in the face of overwhelming odds.

The world-building in The Dream Hotel is both haunting and fascinating, and the narrative is rich with philosophical and ethical questions that challenge the reader to reflect on the role of technology, power, and justice in our own world. The writing is sharp and evocative, with each chapter tightening the novel's grip on the reader as the story unfolds.

In conclusion, The Dream Hotel is a timely and incisive novel that raises crucial questions about the intersection of technology, power, and human rights. It’s a captivating read for anyone interested in dystopian fiction that tackles both the personal and societal consequences of a future shaped by algorithms, surveillance, and inequality. Highly recommended.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC!

In this novel, the United States has taken an extreme step in fighting violence by using an algorithm to detain individuals deemed at risk of committing a violent act. It's no longer about just making threats, either; in this world, implantable devices design to help people sleep better also can read their dreams, and the content of their dreams can be used against them. That is what happens to Sara Hussein, a mother of young twins who sought help for her extreme exhaustion and ends up in a retention facility because the algorithm predicts she is at risk of harming her husband. Once she is in the system, she finds that it is hard to escape it, because not only can her own dreams and data be used against her, but she is also of value to the private company that runs the retention facilities. She is subject to the whims of those who supervise the retainees, who enforce the endless and often changing rules of the facility, and is under constant surveillance by cameras, microphones, and the device that continues to record her dreams, and every infraction lengthens her stay. She is torn between trying to follow the rules in the hopes of being released and fighting against an unjust system. What is so chilling about this book is that it doesn't seem that far-fetched, given how much of our lives we put online and how little attention we pay to the terms and conditions of the apps and sites and devices we use every day. Who is to say that all our data won't be used against us, particularly in the current political climate?

Thank you to NetGalley and Pantheon for providing me with a digital ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This novel hits horrifyingly close to reality. A combo of Minority Report, 1984, and all those YA dystopian stories from the 2010s that had intense surveillance, (but with more late stage capitalism) this book was so good at establishing its premise that it pissed me off. The overwhelming unfairness of it all made me viscerally angry. Intensely compelling.

The overall message was one of resistance through community which I appreciate immensely and honestly makes me want to do fewer things that give the world data points about me and yet here I am writing a review so what does that say about me.

Sometime in the not-too-distant future, Sara Hussein, mother of two and archivist at the Getty Museum, is traveling home from a conference in London when she is detained at the airport and sent to a retention center for those deemed at risk of committing a crime based on their risk assessment score. Based off of a proprietary algorithm that includes sleep data, Sara does not know exactly what she is at risk of doing or why. When her 21-day observation stretches into months, she must decide whether to remain compliant or attempt to stay true to her own nature.

This is a wonderful dystopian novel in the vein of The School for Good Mothers and The Handmaid’s Tale. The plot is gripping, the writing is lovely, and the themes that the novel grapples with are prescient and timely. I expect this book to be in the top 10 I read this year, and it would be especially good for a book club as there are so many discussion points here. Prison-for-profit, the surveillance state, and gendered expectations are all explored in ways that are always interesting and never pedantic. My one complaint is that Sara’s character’s interior life was a bit subdued; her separation from her children did not have the emotional intensity I would have expected. But all in all this is a solid book that I anticipate being very popular!

Thank you to NetGalley and Pantheon for the electronic advanced readers copy!

Read this if you: liked The Handmaid’s Tale, The Farm, Hum, or The School for Good Mothers

Skip this if: you strongly dislike dystopian fiction or anything touching on sci-fi.

We live in a time of digital overload. Everything we do is tracked, it seems, and the data is shared. So, imagining, in the somewhat near future, our dreams being tracked doesn't seem that far off! Now think about how screwed up dreams can be... The data from our dreams, along with all the other tracked info out there, is analyzed and reviewed by the Risk Assessment Administration and used to determine the risk you pose of committing a crime. Nothing could go wrong with any of this!

The concept of this book is fascinating. Sci-fi, dystopian, authoritarian vibes abound! I wanted a little more out of the ending, but overall, The Dream Hotel will be one I'll keep thinking about.

Sci-fi literary fiction is one of my favorite genres ever. I’m a horror fan but nothing terrifies me more than stories that deal with AI, autonomy, and a reminder that our technological consumption will likely be the ruin of us all. Just a little light reading, amirite?

The Dream Hotel starts off strong and hooked me in immediately. So many incredibly profound lines and the concept was just excellent. It lost a little steam about halfway and I wasn’t crazy about the ending, so it wasn’t the five star read I was predicting early in. I did overall enjoy it though, and it was an important read! l I love the hype it’s getting and can’t wait to see what others take from it.

Thanks to the publisher for the ARC of this book! The Dream Hotel is set in the near-future in a dystopian society where the government has created an agency to assess risk and retain potential criminals before they commit their likely crimes. This premise seemed ambitious to me, but I found myself pretty much immediately sucked in. It does cover a super broad range of societal issues - racism, sexism, the lack of equity in the justice system, commodification of personal data, overreach of both government and tech companies - but it never seems forced or contrived.

Some parts near the middle dragged and there were other areas that I wanted to have more detail for (especially more about the back story both for Sara and for the formation of the RAA), but overall I really enjoyed this book. It's given me a lot to mull over in the hours since I finished reading it and I find myself hoping to revisit these characters in a sequel eventually because I think there's a lot of story left to be told.

In Pulitzer Prize, National Book Award and Booker finalist Lalami's latest novel, which just landed on the Women’s Prize fpr Fiction long list, she envisions a not-too-distant future where one’s dreams can lead to incarceration for crimes that have may never be committed. When the novel opens, we learn that a private company, Safe-X, had purchased a 1930s era public elementary school, Madison, that it uses as a retention center (not to be confused with a prison or a jail). The protagonist, Sara Hussein, is being held at Madison until her forensic observation is completed.

Thirty-eight year old Sara was an archivist at the Getty Center and the mother of twin toddlers who is being retained at Madison on a “forensic hold.” After returning to Los Angeles from a business trip to London, she is detained at LAX and told by agents of the federal Risk Assessment Administration (RAA) that her risk score was high. She hadn’t seen her score since she and her husband, Elias, purchased their apartment three years earlier when the bank required it to secure a mortgage (in Lalami’s near future, people can’t get decent insurance without solid health and fitness scores so there was a demand for licensed trainers). An algorithm had flagged Sara as an imminent risk, despite the fact that she had no criminal record nor major changes in her life since her last risk report.

In Lalami’s future, the RAA was part of a controversial Crime Prevention Act that was enacted 20 years ago after a shooting at the Super Bowl in Miami in which 118 people were killed, a traumatic event witnessed live by 113 million Americans. The RAA was charged with identifying and detaining individuals who were likely to commit violent crimes, and it had been effective in identifying hundreds of potential murderers and preventing suicides by firearms. But there was a clash in the Senate about private detention contractors, such as Safe-X, jeopardizing fundamental civil rights and the types of data that the RAA could legally use in its algorithms.

That there were questions about the legality of the RAA is of no consequence to Sara who is unable to lower her risk score when the capricious guards repeatedly slap her with extensions to her detention for minor infractions. The retainees “have to eat what they’re given, do what they’re told, sleep when the lights are out, but they’re considered FUO, Free under observation.” As her detention is extended long beyond the initial twenty-one days, Elias stops responding to Sara’s calls and emails, and she is starved for news of him and of their children. The world has moved on without her.

The Dream Hotel examines the access that we so freely grant to technology — our smartphones, our automobiles, our door cameras — and how that information can be misused. Sara, sleep-deprived as the mother of twins, had purchased a Dreamsaver implant to help her with her debilitating sleep deprivation. Like most of us, Sara did not bother to read the terms of service, so she was unaware of how the data mined by Dreamsaver could be shared and misused. Lalami has created a chilling world where we can’t even wander freely in our dreams because they are in conflict with technology. Lalami’s novel is all the more frightening because the future she envisions - where every moment of our lives is monitored and documented — is here. Thank you Pantheon and Net Galley for an advanced copy of this engrossing novel filled with luminous prose and sophisticated storytelling.

Imagine being held accountable for things you dream about but don't actually do! Sounds very 'Minority Report' for sure.
As Sarah returns from a trip, she's arrested at LAX for a crime she 'might' commit towards her husband. She's then thrown into a detention facility of all women who've been arrested for similar offenses. There are so many parallels in this book to what is going on today. My favorite quote '"We blame the algorithm for our predicament, she thinks, but the algorithm was written by people."
You could easily see this happening today with all the restrictions on woman's rights, and all the data that is collected about us online. This book is thought provoking, timely and gives you a feeling of existential dread as Sarah tries to escape her predicament. I love dystopian books, or books dealing with an alternative future, and in this tale you don't know if what Sarah is experiencing is real or in her mind. A great narrative on the dangers of our current and future society.

Sarah has just landed at LAX, when agents from the Risk Assessment Administration pulls her aside and informs her that she will soon commit a crime. Using data from her dreams, the RAA has determined she is in imminent risk of harming someone. For safety reasons, she must be held for 21 days. This book is set in the "future" where companies are mining data from all our devices, social media accounts and dreams. This information is allowing the government to profile people in the name of safety.

This was a book that definitely makes you think about how much information we are willing to share on a daily basis, and what the information says about you. We knowingly allow our data to be collected all the time. Think about your social media, online shopping, internet browsing, 23 and me, DNA testing etc. How could all this info be used against you?

I was a little disappointed with the ending. It seemed quite abrupt with no real explanation as to why. I give it 3 1/2 stars.

Thank You NetGalley for the free e-galley.
Publication Date: March 4, 2025

Thank you NetGalley and Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group for this ARC.

I think dreams are so interesting, so I thought this book would be more engaging for me. Unfortunately, the story didn't quite hold my attention. While I can see how others might enjoy its futuristic elements, it just wasn't the right fit for me."

I adored Laila Lalami's previous fiction and was looking forward to how she wrote a speculative fiction story. In The Dream Hotel, Sara has just landed at LAX and is looking forward to reuniting with her husband and young child. She is pulled aside in security by the Risk Assessment Administration which has flagged her at high risk for committing a crime. You see, the RAA uses an algorithm to monitor dreams for potential future violence. Sara is now a "retainee" on a 22-day hold at a retention center where she aims to prove her innocence. Lalami generates an interesting scenario on preventative measures. If we could stop crime before it happened, would it be worth it? It's a fascinating idea (this will be a good book club book), but I think in reality the algorithm is flawed and so this is less of a morally complex question than it could have been. It certainly tapes into a surveillance state and how much of our individual freedoms are we willing to give up? I did find the ending of this seemed a bit forced and unsatisfying, but this is a book worthwhile of further discussion.

Thank you to Pantheon via NetGalley for the advance reader copy in exchange for honest review.

Thank you to NetGalley and Pantheon for an ARC of The Dream Hotel. I hate leaving negative reviews but I didn't connect with this book as much as I wanted to. I wanted so much more from this. It was such an AMAZING concept but the execution fell flat for me. I wanted to know about how this world began! Instead, the majority of the book takes place in the detention center and seems to drag. It was disappointing. Then the ending was very abrupt. But I firmly believe that no two people read the same book so I don't want to influence anyone with my review. Thank you again.

4.5 stars

“The attendants never call the women prisoners. They say retainers, residents, enrollees, and sometimes program participants.”

“Step by step, they’ve replaced village matchmakers with dating apps, town criers with social media, local doctors with diagnostic tools. The time has come for sages, mystics, and prophets to cede to an AI.”

Fans of The Handmaid's Tale, 1984, and similar dystopian novels will enjoy this book! The commentary on consumer data mining and the use of AI and algorithms to make policy decisions was relevant and thought-provoking. I enjoyed Lalami's writing style; there were so many nuggets of wisdom, it was hard to choose my favorite! I wasn't completely satisfied with the ending (I almost wish there was a sequel!) but overall the book was great. Looking forward to reading more from Laila Lalami!

Thank you so much to NetGalley and the publisher for this eARC in exchange for an honest review.

This is sci-fi but reads like fiction. It introduces the idea that we can prevent crimes with enough data and analysis. It's a fascinating dystopian topic that doesn't feel far from reality, which makes the eerie tones within this novel even more spine-chilling. Overall, I thought this book was interesting, well written, and has important assertions it makes and demonstrates through the story. This is less of an adventure and more of a character/environment study of this plausible societal shift.

Thank you to Netgalley and Pantheon for a copy. This book is out Today!

Well this was a terrifying book to read right now. Set in the near future, Sara is detained at an airport because the new government organization that reports potential criminals claims that she might commit a crime, based on her dreams. Sara is detained in a facility, supposedly for three weeks, but the twisted rules and officers end up keeping her there for far longer. This was a great, if haunting, read right now, good for anyone concerned about the role of technology in our lives and government overreach.

Wow. What a delightful adventure into the future where AI has really dug its talons into society. Have you ever ruminated about potential "what ifs?" Well, this book takes that notion and runs with it. Laila Lalami's writing is so incredible and I just could not put the book down. The tension and mystery kept me on the edge of my seat the entire time, and I look forward to reading her other novels.

In a near-future surveillance dystopia, your risk score determines if you will soon commit a crime. Near-criminals are sent to retention centers where they are observed for twenty-one days. Sara is detained at LAX because an algorithmic analysis of her behavior and dreams deems her a potential murderer. She learns that observation centers are closer to prisons and that most people are kept for much longer than the stated period. While there, she has plenty of time to contemplate the role of technology in her life and what she may have done to increase her risk score, and also wonder whether compliance will ultimately get her any closer to release.

This is definitely a novel that I think will have a lasting impact for me. I think this was an ambitious novel that has highlighted a lot of my complex feelings surrounding capitalism, the mass prison industrial complex, corporate greed, and government overreach. You can completely feel the desperation from the main character and the monumental cost that the experiences had on her and her family. Even the way the story concludes highlights the injustice and powerlessness of her experience. I think this was a unique story and brilliantly executed, and will stay with me for a long time. There is a quote that I think this novel highlights perfectly, which I will leave below.

“Most every woman I have ever met has a secret belief that she is just on the edge of madness, that there is some deep, crazy part within her, that she must be on guard constantly against ‘losing control’ — of her temper, of her appetite, of her sexuality, of her feelings, of her ambition, of her secret fantasies, of her mind”

SO good!

Thank you to Knopf, Pantheon, Vintage, and Anchor and NetGalley for an advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review

4.5 stars rounded down to 4

I'm not going to lie; this book was hard to read at the current moment we're living in. It felt a little too on the nose for what could potentially happen in our country. And it's incredibly and insanely terrifying.

Basically, the United States has come up with a new AI system that identifies people who are likely to commit crimes before they actually commit them. And in an effort to stop those crimes from being committed, temporarily places the citizens in a jail-like building until they're deemed "safe" to exist in society again. Except, much like the actual prisons in America, not much is done to actually help prisoners in whatever why they need to ensure they have the tools to live a crime-free life. And, in fact, the prisons are actually making a profit on being full and putting the prisoners to work. Yeesh.

In the Dream Hotel, Sara is placed in one of these retention centers while traveling home from a business conference. It's been determined she is at risk for hurting her husband and it seems that part of that risk is being determined by the examination of her dreams. Of course, Sara has just had twins and is exhausted and stressed, but none of that matters. Once in the facility, Sara learns just how difficult it is to get out.

It's highly likely this book will disturb you. While on it's surface, the premise seems a little bit ridiculous and once upon a time, I would have been like "this could never happen!" it actually seems all to real and likely these days. I mean, the US government has just approved legislature that can jail immigrants merely accused of a crime with no due process. I have no doubt people will start being jailed for things they haven't even done. All while our government tells us it's in our best interest and will keep us safe.

Anyway, only you know if this is a book you can handle right now. I thought it was well written and really good; but I also understand it may feel too real and scary right now. Kudos to Laila Lalami for writing a book that manages to hover so closely to the line of dystopia and reality.