I just finished Laila Lalami's "The Dream Hotel" and I can't stop thinking about it. This masterful speculative fiction novel grabs you from the first page with a premise that feels eerily plausible: what if your own dreams could mark you as a future criminal?

The story follows Sara, who arrives at an airport exhausted after a long flight, only to be detained based on an algorithm's prediction that she might commit a crime. She's shuttled to a facility where the rules are designed not for rehabilitation but for permanent containment. As days stretch into weeks, surveillance tightens like a noose, and Sara's struggle shifts from seeking freedom to preserving her very identity.

Lalami expertly crafts a near-future that feels like the natural evolution of our present: a world where technology marketed as protection becomes the perfect tool for control.

The slow-burning tension is masterfully executed, creating a mounting sense of hopelessness and absurdity as Sara navigates a system that values algorithmic output above human judgment. Through her journey, we realize this nightmare could befall any of us, which makes the story all the more terrifying.

"The Dream Hotel" raises profound questions about privacy, autonomy, and the true cost of security that will haunt you long after you've turned the final page. If you enjoy thought-provoking speculative fiction that holds a mirror to our society's trajectory, this is an absolute must-read.

Thank you to the publisher and netgalley for providing me with an eARC.

An absolute pleasure of a book. Infuriating and horrifying in how within reach the technology of this near-future seem to be, Sara is a relatable and sympathetic protagonist whose troubles echo real world injustices. I felt myself raging right alongside her for all that is done to her for the sake of "safety" (or, safety disguised as corporate profit).

Truly well-crafted and paced, I couldn't look away and finished this in just 2 sittings. I only stopped reading to sleep, and thankfully my dreams are not the property of some tech conglomerate - and after reading this, they never will be.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC.

The Dream Hotel
Laila Lalami

ARC courtesy of the publisher, Pantheon, and NetGalley.

On the flight home from London, 39-year old Getty Museum archivist, Sara Hussein is detained at LAX, and remanded to Madison, a retention facility. According to computer algorithms, based mainly on analysis of her dreams, she is determined to pose a safety risk to her husband Elias, allegedly for a latent desire to murder him.

This is the premise for Laila Lalami’s latest novel, The Dream Hotel. Set in dystopian world where we are in constant surveillance – what we do, who we call, our email, the online sites we click on, what we post on social media, and now even our dreams, “over two hundred data sources” - are processed by computer algorithms to determine our “risk score,” and are acted upon pre-emptively by detaining those deemed to pose unacceptable risk of committing violence, by detention without due process to prevent the crime from occurring. It is a thought-provoking concept, all the more made chilling by the fact that, with the exception of our dreams, this tracking and data-gathering is already happening. It is not a far-fetched idea for the next step, that is, action being taken against the individual, for such. Or is it already reality? Try doing a Google search on how to make a home-made explosive. Or log on to a porn site on your work phone. See what happens. <i>”That they have committed no crime is beside the point. In any case crime is relative, its boundaries shifting in service of the people in power.”</i>

Not only is the prevention of crime the issue. Cars that automatically measure the driver’s blood alcohol level, and will automatically suspend his/her/their license. Mandatory step counters used to deny health insurance or increase premiums if you fail to meet the minimum “Health and Fitness Score.” Certainly, this novel will have you thinking a long time after you put it down.

Lalami leaves us with this: <i>”She wants to be free, and what is freedom if not the wresting of the self from the gaze of others, including her own? Life is meant to be lived, to be seized for all the beauty and joy to be wrung out of it; it isn’t meant to be contained and inventoried for the sake of safety.”</i>

Stunning! A futurisic story rooted in our reality that felt too close to home at times. So many interesting things to say about surveillance and the pros and cons we are faced with.

While the premise was nice, the writing was... not what I expected. I wanted more from the characters because I felt that what was on the front cover and the front flap was not what we were given.

4.5 rounded to 5 ⭐️

I’m a sucker for a dystopian setting.

Imagine landing at the airport, jet lagged and ready to go home, only to be told that your own dreams have labeled you a future criminal. That’s the terrifying premise of The Dream Hotel, a novel that feels unsettlingly close to reality.

Sara is detained for a crime she might commit, trapped in a facility where every rule is designed to keep her there. As time stretches on, the walls of surveillance tighten, and the question shifts from if she will be freed to if she will ever be the same again.

This book is sharp, eerie, and all too timely. Lalami masterfully explores how technology, marketed as a tool for safety, becomes a weapon for control. The slow burn tension had me on edge, and the questions it raises - about privacy, autonomy, and the cost of security - are going to linger long after I turned that last page.

The Dream Hotel centers around Sara, a woman detained on her way home from the UK because her sleep tracking data and social media activity has raised her risk score above the acceptable level. She is placed at Madison, a former school turned retention center. Along with loads of other women, she’s not serving time, only being retained until her forensic observation is complete. They've all been told 2l days, it's never 21 days. They are in limbo. Gaslit and in limbo.

This novel allows you to consider the value of your data and how we willingly give access to ourselves through ancestry DNA tests, smart devices/wearables, and our activity on social media. Advice now even says not to bring your phone to a protest in order to protect yourself and others from photos and from your phone pinging near it. In addition, there is a focus on health metrics. How far would you go if promised better sleep -if you were promised better memory and faster healing? Finally, are dreams your brain's way to make sense of random neurons firing or are they windows into the subconscious?

I gave this book 4 stars because I appreciated the questions it was asking readers to reflect on, but wanted more depth. I also wasn't shocked by a plot twist and felt it got dropped rather easily, after moving the story, forward. I am really glad I read this, it just wont be on my top books of the year list.

The Dream Hotel is both surreal and far too realistic for comfort. In a near future society where your every move is surveilled to assess your “risk score,” your actions and communications can result in forcible retainment before a crime has even been committed. In our protagonist Sara’s case, her dreams have made her a risk to society and she’s retained at a correctional facility for months where it seems impossible to prove that she deserves to be released. She’s not technically a prisoner, but she certainly isn’t free. This story teems with injustice while we watch Sara navigate life in this facility and it’s hard to imagine how the story can end. My only criticism is the slight repetitive nature of the plot, but that can be attributed to the author wanting to paint an image of the futility and senselessness of life in such a place for an innocent individual.

I love books with interesting concepts, and this is one of them! This has me reminiscing about the movie "minority report" as the government can see the crimes a person will commit before they actually do it. But in this book, it revolves around a person's dreams. Very unique book and always looking for exciting new sci fi novels.

Thanks to NetGalley for my free review copy of The Dream Hotel. All opinions expressed are my own.

"The Dream Hotel" by Laila Lalami takes place in an absolutely terrifying (but totally believable) dystopian America where the government surveils everything, even a person's dreams. When Sara is detained by the Risk Assessment Administration due to dreams she was having about harming her husband, she expects to be promptly released because of some mistake or, at the very least, after the three week detention period to which she was originally "sentenced." However, Sarah soon discovers that the rules are different for everyone and everything can count against her, prolonging her detention...indefinitely?

"The Dream Hotel" is a smart, cerebral read. It is the best kind of literary fiction. Lalami's world-building is top notch and a country where the government keeps tabs on every aspect of its citizens' lives through technology is not too fantastical to believe. The plot is entertaining and inventive, and the characters so richly developed that they came alive from the pages. I've read plenty of dystopian novels prior to this one, but I've never been so completely captivated and immersed into the disturbing world described in this book. It is definitely a warning about the potential dangers of technology and how advances designed to make our lives easier could very well end up making us less free.

Many thanks to NetGalley, the author, and the publisher for the privilege of reading an advanced copy of this wonderful book. Five stars!

This novel feels a bit like a bait and switch. While the plot is interesting and the characters are relatable, I assumed the story would be different or about something else. It ends up being a mix of Orange is the New Black and Lessons in Chemistry, but we were expecting Margaret Atwood and Octavia Spencer. With that expectation, the book is a bit disappointing; however, the story is solid if predictable. The characters were not quite as fleshed out as I would have liked and the ending was a bit underwhelming. An ok read.

The cover drew me in but the plot summary convinced me to read it. Like, imagine if our dreams were shared with others?! No, thank you! This was such an interesting look into technology, AI, and corporate greed. Sadly, this felt a little too real with the current state of the world. Sara was an interesting MC and had good growth throughout the story. The additions of emails, transcripts and reports made for a well rounded story that I definitely recommend.

rTHE DREAM HOTEL
BY: LAILA LALAMI

A woman who is a new mother to twins named Sara Hussein, and returning from a business conference in London that she has attended for years gets detained at LAX. Sara hasn't done anything wrong and just wants to join her husband Elias and her two twin babies who are there to pick her up. She has made a reservation at an exclusive restaurant and these officers are making her late, which turns out to be the least of her problems. They bring her to a facility since the Risk Assessment Administration has deemed her to harm her husband Elias A male Agent tells Sara that she has to go to the Inspection and Prevention because her risk score is to high. Sara gets questioned about an incident at Heathrow where an older gentleman was having a medical emergency to which she got him help from a doctor. The old man didn't want to exit the plane since he was looking forward to meeting family across the Atlantic. He took out his anger on Sara and that's the only reason she can think of why she's being detained. An algorithm flagged her as being at imminent risk she was told by the agent that is questioning her and took her passport at LAX in a room. She's beside herself and keeps telling them that she hasn't done anything wrong, but to no avail since the technology which are many different futuristic tools used that we're not far off from gives this a claustrophobic vibe to me as a reader.

The agent asked to see Sara's phone in which she had several apps, but he was scrolling through her photo gallery. She protested that she has no criminal record, no unpaid bills she is totally at a loss for why she is being detained. She's a museum archivist so she knows she's not a considered being included in the law breaking classes.

"RISK ASSESSMENT ADMINISTRATION.
The mission of the RAA is to keep American communities safe. We are committed to identifying risks and investigating suspicious individuals in order to prevent future crimes. Using advanced data analytic tools, we keep law-abiding Americans safe from harm, while also protecting their privacy. Our core principles are care, respect, and responsibility."

This novel is one that I ended up liking a lot more than I thought I would. This moves in a non-linear format as far as the narrative is concerned. Sara was told by the officer that returned to the room she's being held in that her risk assessment score came back as 518. Anything over 500 was flagged by all the data collecting software that she is a risk so she ends up in Madison for observation of 21 days. Cameras are always watching as well as video. I could feel how eerie the retention center was. There's all of these strict rules the residents have to follow, and breaking one results in more time spent under observation.

There's a visit from her husband in which he brings her twins and she really misses her husband and the 13 month old twins first milestones. She wanted to take the boy twin for his first haircut and preserve a lock of his hair in what I would refer to as a baby book. She asks her husband if he thinks she's guilty and he reassures her no. He tells her to keep her head down and follow all of the rules so she can come home soon. The atmosphere was grim and the food gross. She and other women are kept there longer. It's a meditative, intriguing story about technology and AI and this novel certainly examines that double edged sword and how relevant it has become in today's world. The creepy advertisements that follow me around on websites that I've wondered how that happens, but feels very intrusive is what I kept thinking about while reading this.

Using data from Sara's dreams, the RAA;s algorithm has determined that Sara's at a high risk which is ridiculous and they say that the people staying there, who are all women are trying to prove their innocent. A guard wrote Sara up for wearing her hair in a non compliant way. She has been written up for three reasons first: of which was her hair, the second time for resisting orders from the case manager. And third, for loitering in the hallway which she got an additional 45 days. She met with a lawyer who told her she had no prior arrests, worked a full time job, and is a mother. But the RAA had full authority to keep her in custody for forensic observation because the courts defined retention as precaution not punishment. Sara is still waiting 291 days for her release. There's a lot of content that makes the point of the residents not being in jail. but it sure felt like it. I think you get the idea of this residential bleak place that detained women that it sure feels like jail. The old school that these residents are staying in is more like an institution where residents have lost their dignity and if they don't eat the very sickening sounding food they get punished with adding more time in custody.

Sara;s the main character who alternates her thoughts into memories of her family. She remembered how Elias would purchase a new car without consulting her. She remembers traveling with her husband and also hikes they took, but as time goes on she feels a nagging feeling that Elias is becoming more distant. The residents have a handbook that provides what they can't do. There's a scene where Sara gets to call her husband, but just like jail her call gets shortened and the call ends because of the allotment of time allowed. This is a well written novel in which it illuminates this Author's talent of making you feel like you are feeling what these residents are. Will Sara get released or is she destined to remain there since she keeps getting additional days added? This is like a nightmare but will appeal to a wide audience. This turned out to be an immersive novel that showcases Laila Lalami's gifted skills and It's the first time I have read her work, but has inspired me to want to read her previous work. I'll be recommending this to every reader I know. As I said earlier I didn't think I was going to like this, but I was quickly pulled into the story. The Author has written a tale of humanity and how technology with all of it's glory has things that we all have to keep in mind how it can be considered that it contains drawbacks.






Sara of harming the person she loves the most: her husband Elias. For his safety she must be kept under observation for 21 days. The agents transfer Sara to a retention center, where she is held with other dreamers

.Publication Date: March 4, 2025

Thank you to Net Galley, Laila Lalami and Knopf, Pantheon, Anchor, and Vintage for generously providing me with an ARC in exchange for a fair and honest review. All opinions are my own.

#TheDreamHotel #LailaLalami #KnopfPantheonAnchorandVintage #Net Galley

This is Laila Lalami’s magnum opus. It’s quite relevant to the world we live in today, especially if you’re someone living in the US post the 2024 election. I was expecting a different ending or even a plot twist, but those things didn’t happen, which makes the book realistic in my opinion. It does have a little too much filler and it would have been a stronger story if it was 250 pages. Other than that, the themes of surveillance, the system being against you, how AI is causing more harm than good, and how prisons suck and should not exist make this book quite timely and I’m sure it will resonate with many people.

I think this book was good. I liked following the characters and found it interesting to see their development. I think the writing was good also. I was a fan of it and think it was a good concept and the writing was well rounded.

“The data doesn’t lie.”
“It doesn’t tell the truth, either.”

The Dream Hotel offers a suffocating vision of the near future, where America has become a Muskian technocapitalist surveillance state and AI dominates society. In this world where AI technology has permeated even our interior lives, Sara Hussein is detained after her dreams and biometric data have identified her as at risk of committing a crime. Despite her insistence of her innocence, Sara faces the system that technology built and confronts questions of identity, safety, and freedom, and the cost of convenience in a technological world.

The America Sara inhabits - one of rampant AI surveillance, "not prison" retention centers, raging wildfires, reproductive-age visas, and fifty-year mortgages - has clear roots in the issues and ever-advancing technology of today's society. While conceptually different, The Dream Hotel reads like a techno Handmaid's Tale, swapping out religious extremism for technocapialtalism and a sexual caste system for constant surveillance, risk scores, and indefinite detention. Both tell a bleak story of monitoring and controlling women's autonomy for the advancement of society.

Lalami says she started this story in 2014, picked it up during covid, and now with it's release in 2025 the story feels timely as ever, in an administration that daily feels like it's bringing us closer and closer to a reality such as this one.

Sara's story ended a bit abruptly, and I would've liked to delve a little more into her resistance against the system. But overall this was a disturbing, thought provoking read.

Thanks to NetGalley and Pantheon Books for the advance review copy.

In The Dream Hotel, Laila Lalami presents a chilling exploration of a near-future society where personal privacy is a relic of the past, and even dreams are subject to surveillance. The narrative centers on Sara Hussein, a Moroccan American scientist returning to Los Angeles from a conference abroad. Upon arrival at LAX, she is detained by agents from the Risk Assessment Administration (RAA), a federal agency that employs biometric data to predict and prevent potential crimes. Sara is informed that, based on her dream data, she poses an imminent threat to her husband and must be confined for observation.

Lalami masterfully constructs a dystopian reality that feels unnervingly plausible. The RAA's reliance on algorithms to assess "pre-crime" tendencies raises profound questions about the erosion of civil liberties in the name of security. Sara's subsequent internment in a women's "retention center"—a euphemism for a prison—highlights the dehumanizing effects of a system that punishes individuals for actions they have not committed but are predicted to undertake.

The novel delves deep into themes of identity, autonomy, and the pervasive reach of technology. As Sara navigates the Kafkaesque labyrinth of bureaucratic oppression, Lalami prompts readers to reflect on the balance between safety and freedom. The narrative is both a cautionary tale and a meditation on the lengths to which societies might go to maintain order, often at the expense of individual rights.

The Dream Hotel is a thought-provoking and timely work that challenges readers to consider the implications of a society where privacy is obsolete, and freedom is conditional. Lalami's eloquent prose and nuanced character development make this novel a compelling addition to contemporary speculative fiction.

This unfortunately didn't live up to my hopes based on its description. Had I read Laila Lalami before, I could have felt differently. But this introduction didn't wow me.

I anticipated this being a page turner, something I'd want to fly through like I did with The School for Good Mothers (the best comparison that comes to mind). That wasn't the case. I was pushing myself to keep reading in hopes something more intense or big events to mark a change in pace. It felt very flat.

There was a sort of emotional intensity, but more in the form of misery and dread (about the circumstances of the book, not about having to read the book—obviously no one forced me to read it lol).

Laila Lalami is a very versatile writer. I have read and enjoyed her historical fiction novel The Moor's Account. Her latest novel depicts a near future dystopian world where, to prevent crimes, algorithms are used to rate risks from citizens, even using their dreams against them.

Sara Tilila Hussein, an archivist who works for the Getty Museum, is a young mother of twins. She's taken advantage of Smart technology and had a neuroprosthetic inserted to help her sleep, not realizing that terms in the fine print allow her dreams to be monitored and possibly used against her to rate her risk.

Just before Christmas, she flies back to LA from a business trip to London where she gets held up in Customs and Immigration. She's tired, hungry and worried about her husband having to circle the terminal with their 13-month-old twins in the car, while waiting to pick her up. Understandably she gets a little snippy and irritated with the Risks Assessment Administration officer she's been passed on to after an hour of these delays. He declares she's an imminent risk of committing a future crime and will need to be escorted to a detention center for three weeks for observation and evaluation.

Safe-X, Inc, the company who runs these short-term forensic observation facilities for the US government, earns money by employing detainees on various projects, so it suits them to keep finding ways to extend a detainees stay with them, including using a thick rule book with demerits for any small infraction, so the initial 3-week stay frequently turns into months with little contact with the outside world.

Sara is advised to keep her head down and avoid any unwanted attention from the attendants but that's almost impossible to do. As the weeks go by, she forms friendships with her fellow 'inmates' and we learn their stories as well. I really liked Sara and her indomitable spirit and could really feel the frustration and helpless fear this situation created. One surprising twist gives more insight into what is going on with the company behind this project.

In many ways this story is tolling a warning bell over how much Smart technology can erode our personal privacy and freedom even if used in the name of public safety. Big Brother watching over us. Sort of reminiscent of Aldous Huxley's Brave New World.

Many thanks to the author and publisher for providing me with an arc of this new novel via NetGalley. My review is voluntary and the opinions expressed are my own. I will definitely make a point of reading the rest of Lalami's books. I thoroughly enjoy her writing.

Sara has just landed at LAX, returning home from a business trip to London, when agents from the Risk Assessment Administration pull her aside. According to the RAA’s algorithm, it has determined that she is at imminent risk of harming the person she loves most: her husband. For his safety, she must be kept under observation for twenty-one days. Sara is transferred to a retention center where they hold all of the "dreamers" - all of them women trying to prove their innocence from different crimes. With every deviation from the strict and ever-shifting rules of the facility, their stay is extended. Months pass and Sara seems no closer to release. Then one day, a new resident arrives, disrupting the order of the facility and leading Sara on a collision course with the very companies that have deprived her of her freedom.

This book was not only gripping, but it was horrifying as well. In a way, it felt all too real, with the direction the United States is heading in, and the way women's rights are systematically being stripped away. This was a lot like Margaret Atwood's Handmaid's Tale & Vox by Christina Dalcher in that regards, but also like The Circle by Dave Eggers in the way technology can sometimes do more harm than good. I kept alternating my viewpoint between Sara just towing the line so she could get back home to her family, or standing by her principles and causing chaos. It gave me a lot to consider, and I think this makes it excellent for book clubs. I highly recommend this one!