What a unique, and thought provoking book. The scariest part of this is how this could actually happen in the future. Lalami’s writing is evocative and visceral. Sara’s plight is something that I will think about for quite a while.

This felt a little bit 'too soon' for me, and therefore I didn't enjoy it as much as I should have. Kind of like how I won't read 'A Handmaid's Tale' any time soon, since we're essentially living it! The premise centers around companies mining data from all our devices, social media and, in this case, dreams, and allow the government to profile us. Basically, in an effort to combat crime before it's even occurred, people who are considered 'high risk' by the algorithm can be legally detained. This seemed to be a 'ripped from the headlines' type of book, and i just wasn't prepared. Sarah was a good protagonist, but the book felt a little too long. I do think some of the other characters could have been a little more fleshed out, as well.

*Mild Spoilers Ahead*

In a dystopian future where technology is pushed to its limits, Sara is sent to a "retention" center after being flagged for having a high-risk score, which predicts she is likely to commit a crime. The reason for her detention? The content of her dreams, which allegedly suggest she might harm her husband. All her data, stored in countless apps and tracked by the system, has come to haunt her, used against her in ways she never anticipated.

At the retention center, the system preys on her data like vultures, constantly circling and scrutinizing every detail, never satisfied. Any refusal to cooperate - like refusing to do work - only increases her risk score, prolonging her stay. Tech surveillance is pervasive, watching her every move, but never offering her the control it once promised. It's ironically technology that tethers her to the outside world inside the center, yet at the same time, it alienates her from it, trapping her in a digital web of constant surveillance. What’s especially heartbreaking is that while Sara and the other inmates are repeatedly told they're not criminals, they are treated as though they are at every turn.

The story unfolds with a sense of claustrophobia, alternating between her stay at the center and flashbacks to her past, interwoven with documents like medical reports, meeting minutes, emails, transcripts of announcements, questionnaires, and terms and conditions, reflecting a digital age where bureaucracy thrives. Sara's story highlights the false comfort technology was supposed to offer, especially for someone like her, often flagged at airports and scrutinized for being an immigrant. Yet, the system she trusted does not give her agency; instead, it uses her past against her. This world is one of techno-feudalism, where the definition of crime keeps shifting, and algorithms shape people's fates.

As the inmates are manipulated into doubting their own stories, seeds of conflict grow among them. Yet, the story is ultimately one of hope - of how, through collective action and solidarity, radical change can occur. It emphasizes the importance of questioning the systems in place and recognizing that while the algorithms may have brought Sara here, they were written by humans and can be undone. The narrative is about reclaiming power, even when your past is weaponized against you, and finding leverage in the fight for freedom.

The book is incredibly readable, and it kept me on the edge of my seat at all times. Lalami has managed to write a dystopian story that eerily feels prescient. I really enjoyed this one!

Thank you to Netgalley, the author (Laila Lalami), and the publisher (Knopf, Pantheon, Vintage, and Anchor | Pantheon) for an advanced copy. Thoughts and review are completely my own.

A young working mother returns back home to LA to find herself detained at LAX. Sara is confused, she's done nothing wrong but as she waits she slowly begins to comprehend they are detaining her for possible violence against her husband as seen in her dreams. She is sent to a detainment center full of women in similar circumstances all being held to see if their 'risk factor" numbers can be lowered to a safe level. While at the 'dream hotel', Sara begins to feel like her husband might be blaming her for her situation and he becomes withdrawn and keeps her from seeing her twins. A cautionary tale to the seductiveness of technology and how we have all been lulled into compliance while our right to privacy disappears. Perfect for fans of School for Good mothers by Jessamine Chan.

This was a very thought provoking dystopian novel. I felt like I kept waiting for more the entire time I read which was a bit of a strange feeling.

I know that the hardest struggle for me was just how timely it was. The entire concept hits a bit too close to home in a lot of ways with how AI has grown and how technology just continues to expand.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this e-arc

The premise of this book is fantastic and heartbreakingly parallel to things that have actually happened.

A woman is detained at the airport because of her dreams and is transported to a detention center for women who have committed crimes in their dreams or who have suspicious behaviors.
Just drinking alcohol on a casual basis increases your risk of being sent to a detention facility. Reading this content is so scary, but I love it!!!

I enjoyed reading this book, but the ending was anticlimactic. I was sure it was going to end a different way and it didn’t and I was entirely dissatisfied. I would still recommend it to dystopian lovers because the concept is great and unsettling.

this book definitely made me think, even though I think it could have been shorter. What I love about science fiction is how it points to our world and society in a fantastical way, and forces us to think about humanity in a different light. this book accomplished that for me, but it was a trudge. like the main character, I felt trapped in her world and wanted so badly to escape. I think the author did a great job with tying it up at the end while still leaving me with questions.

Horror books don't scare me. I find Stephen King so over the top that his books are funny. What does this have to do with The Dream Hotel? The Dream Hotel scared me. Being judged on your dreams is terrifying. Dreams are subconscious garbage, and killing someone in the dream doesn't mean you want to kill them in real life. The book does address this, but the people in charge of jailing people don't care. There's a feeling of being in quicksand as you read. The more Sara struggles, the more she sinks.

My only problem is that the ending felt like the beginning of a series. However, I couldn't find anything online about more books. As a standalone, this doesn't feel complete. If there's more, this is an excellent start to a nightmare world with the possibility of committing crimes instead of having done anything.

For most of us, our dreams are what our brains do while we are sleeping. We have no control over what we dream, and certainly should not be held liable for what our mind decides to conjure up when we are in the throes of slumber. But what if our dreams held more significance? What if they were considered to be a pre-cursor to our future actions? What if they were believed to be able to predict future crimes? Welcome to Laila Lalami’s new novel The Dream Hotel, an ominous speculative fiction novel about the dangers of the surveillance state.

When Sara Hussein is detained at the airport, she cannot imagine why, aside from perhaps, her name. She soon learns that she has been flagged because it is believed she will soon commit a crime - harming her husband. When Sara learns that it is her DREAMS that have landed her in trouble, she cannot believe it - of course she is not going to act on a figment of her sleeping mind! Nonetheless, Sara finds herself headed to a retention center where she will have to stay until her risk score, a number assigned to each person assessing their chances of committing a crime, lowers to an acceptable level.

While it is continuously stressed that the retention center is not a prison, it is difficult to look at it as being anything but with the retained being treated as if they have already committed and been convicted. As Sara gets to know the other women she is being held with, she discovers that they are there for a variety of reasons, and all are struggling to find purchase in pleading their case for release. Sara finds her stay in the facility being extended time and time again due to unfair circumstances beyond her control, but the extra time in the retention center gives her an opportunity to potentially uncover what’s really going on behind the scenes …

The Dream Hotel should serve as a warning to all of us who breeze past the privacy notice and terms of service when downloading a trending app or purchasing a new device. While most of us click accept without thinking twice, figuring that no one will ever use our data against us, Laila Lalami proves that the opposite could easily become quite true in a world that takes surveillance of its citizens a little too seriously.

The premise of The Dream Hotel is excellent - it is just the sort of book I go for, especially since I like to speculate and perceive our world through an alternate lens. However, the execution of this storyline is unfortunately lacking. I needed a bit more grit, intimacy, and horror to really drive this story home for me and make it feel real.

The Dream Hotel by Laila Lalami follows the story of Sara as she pleads her innocence in a time when you can be punished for your dreams. This novel is a take on technology’s consequences in the near future and the ethics surrounding it.

I really enjoyed reading about the relationships between the dreamers. I wish the novel delved more in to the other characters backstories. I do feel like the ending felt a bit flat. Overall I found The Dream Hotel a captivating read. The concept of The Dream Hotel is so brilliantly original that it makes readers really think about the ethics of the future of technology. I would love to read more of Lalami’s other works.

I’d recommend this book to both science fiction readers and also readers who are looking to branch out into that genre. This book is perfect for fans of Blake Crouch and John Marrs.

In a time where society is tired of violence and crime, prevention becomes the solution. A risk number is attached to everyone where everything they do is monitored and examined, when the risk score gets higher than 500. They can be placed in a secured area where they will be monitored at all times for a short period of 21 days. Only if they do not commit any infractions while also proving to be proper members of society by working with companies affiliated with the facility. This book gave me so much anxiety I had to put the book down multiple times, but I couldn’t stop reading it. I felt claustrophobic reading about Sara’s experience in Madison being that controlled and having no power over their view of her. Placing ridiculous expectations over their behavior and their dreams had me twitchy and frustrated. There was so much here that tore me up, racial profiling, harassment, gender inequality, and corporation abuse. I probably missed some but a lot of these opened my eyes to how easily we can be put into these situations. Corporations buying out information and holding it against us, manipulating our information. I really hope that you give this book a chance it might open you to a perspective you’ve never had before. I had an experience reading this that I do not regret.

Thanks to NetGalley and Pantheon Books I received a ARC for an honest review !

I really wanted to like this. It started out super strong, but the speculative fiction energy petered out really fast, which is what drew me to this read in the first place.

An absolutely captivating book that draws you in from the first page. While ostensibly set in the future, the similarities to modern day make for an eerie and cautionary tale. I was initially skeptical of the premise, but it quickly became one of my favorite reads of 2025. I know I’ll be recommending this for years to come.

I loved this book although it frightened me with its resemblance to our current situation. It didn’t skimp on the characters or the details, which gave it a startling reality. Read this now, then put it on the shelf next to 1984 and The Handmaid’s Tale.

Thanks to NetGalley and Pantheon for the ARC.

This felt timely and thought-provoking. Lalami writes this in a way that feels real.

This one really took me by surprise! I thought it was going to be a creepy "am I dreaming or is this reality" style Sci-Fi story. It actually takes a futuristic dystopia kind of vibe and I was here for it! I thoroughly enjoyed how the story unfolded and the characters developed so I began to understand how the main character got herself in the situation she was in with few freedoms and how her companions did as well. This whole idea of your dreams being tracked with potential consequences and removal of basic freedoms in response to those dreams is frankly a frightening concept! This one really reminded me of John Marrs' dystopian society novels and style. It was a great read and I'd definitely recommend to any Sci-Fi lover. I received this ARC copy from NetGalley and the publisher and all opinions are my own.

This felt a bit long and repetitive, and while it's critiques were smart, I wanted it to dig deeper. 3.75.

3.5 stars
The premise of this book is fantastic and heartbreakingly parallel to things that have ACTUALLY happened. One of my favorite things the author says is in her acknowledgments.
“The town of Ellis is fictional; pre-crime is not.”
And that is what is super interesting about this book.

Basically a woman is detained at the airport because of her dreams and is transported to essentially a detention center for women who have committed crimes in their dreams or who have suspicious behaviors.
Just drinking alcohol on a casual basis increases your risk of being sent to a detention facility. Reading this content is so scary, but I love it!!!

I very much did enjoy reading this book, but my god the ending is just SO anticlimactic. I was sure it was going to end a different way and it didn’t and I was entirely dissatisfied. My very first thought was “what was the point then?”
Having said that, I would still recommend it to dystopian lovers because the concept is great and unsettling.

The Dream Hotel found me unexpectedly, right after I said out loud that I wanted to read something “really incredible and gripping” and, like I conjured it, it delivered tenfold.

Not only does it ask important questions about surveillance and how technocrats can really destroy the world as we know it, it tells a damn good story. I read it in as many stolen moments as I could find, it taking up time I would have spent scrolling or working.

The story follows Sara, a new mom who gets detained at LAX for a crime she hasn’t yet committed and thrown into a retention center where she’s to be observed and monitored for any indication that she is innocent or guilty of future crimes.

This novel is incredibly unsettling, brilliant, and unpredictable. I didn’t know where the train was going to land after it left the station.

It makes you want to delete your social media accounts and question why we willingly share any of our information to corporations who would quickly and willingly sell us out for a dollar.

Add this to your TBR.

This was such an interesting concept that sucked me in! The exploration of a twisted justice system that isn't too far from our reality was disturbing and intriguing. The writing style was nuanced and I really connected with the main character and felt her anxiety and stress throughout the book. This book definitely reads like dystopian fiction but is also deeply rooted in reality making it even more disturbing of a story. My only complaint is I kept getting the side characters and different inmates confused. I wish they had slightly more differentiation or backstory so I could tell who was who throughout. Overall, this was a interesting and haunting read and I really wish it was a series and we could learn even more about the world and the technology.