In a near future, where an algorithm can predict future crime, our protagonist, Sara, is put in retention for the future crime of murdering her husband. How does the algorithm know? Her dreams. Many people choose to implant a sleep device in their head that cures insomnia and improves REM so they only need four hours of rest. The issue? The company producing the device sells your dreams to the thought police. Once in retention, the for-profit company contracted by the government wants to keep retainees there as long as possible. The plot is shockingly realistic and the stories thought-provoking. The author has a few tell instead of show moments, but overall, paints a dystopian picture that leaves the reader questioning all capitalistic advancements with "and at what price?"

For readers of sci-fi and dystopian who want to root for a grassroots underdog. This novel feels shockingly close to reality, fictionizing the prison industrial complex, AI, and the rise of invasive technology.

Think about a future where nothing, not even your personal dreams, are private and the government thinks that dream interpretation can anticipate crime. It’s creepy and scary and it’s the basis for this story. I’m glad I read it but it made me extremely uncomfortable, which I know is the point. It makes you think about how much of our private lives we are giving up by using Siri and Alexa, not to mention the cameras that are now everywhere.
Four very scary stars! Thank you Netgalley and Knopf, Pantheon, Vintage and Anchor for the digital ARC. (I now need to read a light fluffy happy novel.)

The premise of this book was promising, but the execution fell flat. There were moments when I almost DNFed it—some sections dragged, while others felt unnecessary to the overall story. The characters lacked depth, making it hard to connect with them, and I wished they had been more relatable. The sudden POV change—for just one chapter—felt random and didn’t add much to the narrative.

Thank you to NetGalley and Pantheon for the ARC!

Based on premise alone, the book The Dream Hotel sounds riveting: a woman is found guilty of some transgression, of which she is unaware, and must serve time in a retention center. Dreams are being policed, and it’s difficult to tell what is real. However, I had trouble getting sucked into this narrative. It felt a bit like watching a movie, albeit a horror film, where you’re watching scenes unfold but not really connecting with characters. I’m not sure why I had trouble connecting with or caring too much about Sara. It’s definitely appropriate for the times we live in, but I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone with anxiety. Still, a very well written book! Thank you to NetGalley, Lalami, and Pantheon for the ARC!

Lalami shows her strength as a write as she explores the dystopian genre in her latest book. Focusing on the world’s need for better sleep, Lalami capitalizes on the contemporary issue in this novel. In order to sleep better, Sara gets a neurotransmitter that allows her to get some glorious sleep after the birth of her twins. However, this company, has shifted gears and is now in the business of preventing crimes by analyzing the dreams of those who have willingly submitted to getting these neurotransmitters. Lalami creates a hopeless situation for the protagonist, and the audience can see how quickly something can be exploited for capital and power. The book provides documents to see how difficult is becomes for Sara to maneuver through the bureaucracy. I also like that Lalami gives Sara the opportunity to utilize the library in the retention center which becomes her oasis of sanity. Sara reaches for the classics as a way hold onto a society that she is not longer allowed to live in.

I wish I had not requested this book. It was ultimately too creepy for my taste. I guess I really can't handle too much sci fi.

Oh well.

Many thanks to netgalley and the publisher for the arc.

The Dream Hotel has an interesting concept, where dreams can be used by the Risk Assessment Administration to view individuals Rick’s factors and prevent potential crimes from occurring. This gave me Minority Report vibes and I was intrigued with women being targeted, as well as specifically their dreams. I was expecting more from this and while I definitely wanted to know what the heck was happening, then ending left me wanting. Which I guess could be the reality of a lot of situations where people are held for crimes they haven’t committed or for lesser crimes that are now being seen as felonies or something like that.
We follow our FMC Sara, who has been flagged at the airport due to her risk factor increasing a bit over 500, and she’s deemed a threat. She will be detained for 21 days to see if her score will decrease. What we find out is that the rules at Madison are ever changing and you can be written up for even the slightest thing, increasing your risk factor and increasing your stay. While the attendants suck, it’s mostly a cash grab for the company of Safe-X who are using the women as guinea pigs for ads, surveys, and just overall work grunts. You also flip back to when Sara was first detained and what the interactions was.
While I did enjoy this and would recommend, it is slow and I had to push myself to finish.

Special thanks to NetGalley and Panthenon publishing for my ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Great concept, poor execution. I loved the themes in this book: technology, algorithms, surveillance, privacy, detention, etc. Very timely! However, I couldn’t connect to the characters at all. The brief POV shift in the middle of the book was unnecessary and confusing. I kept waiting for the author to come back to it but she never did. I found the pacing to be incredibly slow and at times boring. I almost DNF’d it but forced myself to keep going. Overall I feel disappointed. I had such high hopes for this one.

2.5 ⭐️ rounded up

A dark but very good read. Original and not cloying. Uncomfortable at times but that’s expected given the subject matter. The writing was fantastic. Easy to read and well paced.

With her latest novel, award-winning author Laila Lalami has written the terrifyingly plausible dystopian tale of our dreams (pun intended). Set in a near future in which all aspects of life—even dreams—are surveilled, Sara is retained by the Risk Assessment Administration under suspicion that she’ll soon harm her husband. In this electrifying novel, Lalami examines technology and privacy and explores the slippery slope of surveillance in a not-too-unlikely scenario. Kaleidoscopic, evocative and vexing, The Dream Hotel is a master class in riveting writing.

I loved this book! It was terrifying in the sense that it was too real. It feels too close. The way the author went about the containment and the jobs, I thought was done very well and added the horror. I was expecting the plot to get pushed a little more, but I didn’t feel like it was lacking either. Can’t wait to read more by them!

Loved this book! I can't wait to see what Lalami does next. I loved how disconcerted I felt throughout, and it had a great mix of being socially relevant and critical of the state of things in the US but also being a story that I could connect with emotionally.

Thanks to NetGalley and Pantheon for my ARC in exchange for my honest review. This book will be published March 4, 2025.

This dystopian thriller pulled me in right away. As if technology hasn’t invaded our lives enough, now they have access to our dreams! I felt for Sara as she seemed unjustly held at the Retention Center (think prison) due to a dream that had her committing a crime. The only way she can get out is to resist and fight back. This message feels timely.

Themes include AI, technology, surveillance and corporate greed. Fans of Blake Crouch should enjoy it.

Trigger warning if you’ve had to evacuate due to a fire.

This is a harrowing novel for our times. It is a must read. The Dream Hotel is difficult to finish because of the tragic tone, hopefully our world does not turn out like this.

This book messssssssed me up. When near-future feels like it could be sooner than is comfortable, enough so that it gets your heart rate up a little. The last time I felt this as a book got started was Jessamine Chan’s A School for Good Mothers.

I wanted this to wrap up in a cleaner way, there were one too many loose ends for me. Specifically, the second storyline - it felt like it was introduced as motivation and then just dropped off without being revisited. That being said, it was a page turner for me and I felt all of Sara’s frustration (sometimes I felt more frustrated than she seemed) throughout.

Definitely recommend this one - especially to my friends so we can talk about it please.

3.5 - bc I can’t stop thinking about it

dream hotel

interesting premise but boring
characters all sound the same
plot felt underworked
felt like a first draft
not interesting
felt dystopian YA novel bareactive
stakes not clear for how she’d win
weird change of Pov for one chapter we never got again, the other perspective could’ve been illuminating to what the other side has to lose
abtangoists week - hinton just calls her a pain in the ass for refusing to end the strike, like okay?

The Dream Hotel had an interesting premise but ultimately did not explore much. I finished the book still hungry for more discourse on the ethics of dream farming, advertisements in dreams, and retention programs for non offenders based in a morality social score. Most of the characters aside from Sara felt the same with no distinctive voice or personality. Hinton, our most solid antagonist figure outside of society as a whole, was not very strong. Once Sara stood up to him and refused her notebook, I expected more pushback and intense dialogue, and all he said was “You’re a pain in the neck.” What!?

The writing felt very much like a first draft - ideas unexplored, characters weak, and even a one off POV chapter that came across interesting but was dumped immediately. It carried no point but had promise of at least introducing us to an alternative POV that was so against our protagonist it would at least shine a light on their ethics. The book overall felt like a YA dystopian novel that would benefit from a strong plot. The stakes were not high enough for the scenario and overall the experience was underwhelming for such a strong concept. Review to follow on Goodreads in accordance with embargo dates

This book was unique and hauntingly beautiful. What would we do if our dreams caused us to be held responsible for what they reflected. It is a scary and haunting thought, yet one I could see people trying to harvest the power of in the future. I love how the book is laid out, incorporating the past, present, and dream world. I think readers are going to be enchanted by this unique book.
Thank you so very much to Knopf, Pantheon, Vintage, and Anchor and Netgalley for allowing me to read an advance copy of this title.

Thanks so much to Pantheon and NetGalley for an eARC copy of this book in exchange for an honest and unbiased review!

Having recently struggled with insomnia, this story felt particularly prescient to me - the speed at which I would sign up for something to help me fall asleep and sleep through the night, fine print be damned...

And I feel that this story has been released at exactly the right time. It's about five seconds into our future, really honing in on how systems of power justify surveillance and how life conveniences can paper over truly questionable and harmful practices. There is also a lot in this story about how resistance starts, the ways that humans in adversity find ways to express themselves and combat injustice.

But unfortunately, the characters and ending really dropped this down for me. Ultimately, I was never chomping at the bit to pick this story up because it was oddly rather boring throughout the middle. The character's inner monologue often didn't seem to match her speech and/or actions. She'd have these revelations and really poignant thoughts about what was going on, complete with steps to take to withstand and even counter the injustices happening to her and others...but when she tries to tell others about these beliefs, it comes out very flat, and many of her plans go unspoken and ultimately unresolved.

The ending is unsatisfying (Spoiler tag on book review websites linked here)

So this falls into great premise, interesting concepts that prove VERY relevant to today, and a lackluster execution.

I would typically pick a book like this from a shelf to read-the genre typically isn't my cup of tea. This book was amazing. Eye-opening, provocative, timely. Not dystopian, but a parallel world in which we teeter on falling into. I do wish that the book was a bit more wrapped up at the end. The release of Sara and Toya seemed to need more discussion as to why it happened. Strike? Norovirus? The knowledge of Einsley? It seemed a bit abrupt.

For a dystopian sci-fi, the world Laila Lalami crafts in The Dream Hotel is disturbingly closer to reality than fiction. While this isn’t a genre I usually consume, I devoured this with a morbid curiosity at the implications that what the main character faces could in fact happen to any of us—if not now, then in the near future. The way this book examines surveillance, privacy, systematic injustice, and the incarceration system are so thought provoking and simultaneously filled me with intrigue as well as dread as I read on, especially when nearing the last 20%.

Although the book seemed to lag in the middle, I really like how the author included various types of media to help tell the story, such as articles and reports. Additionally, the subtle inclusion of drastic climate change patterns helps to build this speculative world that has become a little too close for comfort. The narrative this book presents is so plausible it’s horrifying, posing the question of how free we really are in a world increasingly ruled by technology. The thoughts this book has left me will stay with me for a long time; definitely a required read for how critical our current timeline is.

4.25 stars! Thank you to NetGalley and Knopf, Pantheon, Vintage, and Anchor for the opportunity to read this arc in exchange for an honest review.