Das Dream Hotel

by Laila Lalami, Michaela Grabinger (Übersetzer)

Als Sara Hussein von einer Geschäftsreise nach Los Angeles zurückkehrt und den Flughafen verlassen will, wird sie von einem Angestellten des Amts für Risikobewertung aufgehalten: Ihr Risikowert sei zu hoch, denn die Analyse ihrer Traumdaten habe ergeben, dass sie zur Gefährdung für ihren Ehemann werden könnte. Zu seiner Sicherheit muss sie sich für einundzwanzig Tage unter Beobachtung begeben. Während ihr Mann ahnungslos mit den zweijährigen Zwillingen auf ihre Rückkehr wartet, wird Sara in Gewahrsam genommen. Zunächst versucht sie genau wie die anderen inhaftierten Frauen, ihre Unschuld zu beweisen. Doch als immer neue Gründe auftauchen, weshalb sich ihre Haft verlängert, beginnt Sara zu ahnen, dass sie auf eigene Faust für ihre Freiheit einstehen muss.

Genres: Science Fiction, Fiction, Dystopia, Audiobook, Book Club, Fantasy, Literary Fiction

496 pages, Hardcover

First published March 4, 2025

About the author

Laila Lalami is the author of five books, including The Moor’s Account, which won the American Book Award, the Arab-American Book Award, and the Hurston Wright Legacy Award. It was on the longlist for the Booker Prize and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in Fiction. Her most recent novel, The Other Americans, was a national bestseller, won the Joyce Carol Oates Prize, and was a finalist for the National Book Award in Fiction. Her books have been translated into twenty languages. She has been awarded fellowships from the British Council, the Fulbright Program, the Guggenheim Foundation, and the Radcliffe Institute at Harvard University. She lives in Los Angeles.

Reviews

[emma · Rating 4 out of 5]

i'm ready to check in!

update: never mind. please do not check me in.

these days it's like, oh, a near future in which people are thrown in prison based on being determined close to committing a crime by a deeply flawed and capitalist algorithm created by a creep with political ambitions? who could imagine. 

in spite of feeling about a week and a half away from our current reality, this is an intense, oppressive book. i felt so surveilled and so restricted, just by virtue of the depth of both on-page.

was this a perfect read? no. there is an unnecessary POV switch that lasts exactly one chapter. there are more loose ends than there are concluded plotlines. there is a lot of redundancy, and not only of the variety that adds to the experience.

but i think it's timely and terrifying.

bottom line: i can't imagine the next time i'll be in the mood for dystopian fiction, but if you are, this one'll do.

(thanks to the publisher for the e-arc)

[Emily May · Rating 4 out of 5]

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

You know those dreams, the ones where you have to get somewhere, desperately need to get somewhere or pursue something, but things keep happening, keep getting in your way and holding you back? The panic that keeps increasing as time— or whatever you’re chasing —slips away from you?

That's what this book is like.

It's set in a future that feels just around the corner-- one where companies mine data from all our devices, social media and, in this case, dreams, and allow the government to profile us. In an effort to combat crime before it's even occurred, those considered 'high risk' by the algorithm can be legally detained.

It starts with a period of 21 days, but every tiny infraction recorded can extend the detention period without question or trial, no matter how unfair. This is the situation Sara finds herself in when an algorithm deems she is a threat to her husband, trapped in an institution as her baby twins grow up without her. I felt every bit of her frustration and suffocation.

Entire generations have never known life without surveillance. Watched from the womb to the grave, they take corporate ownership of their personal data to be a fact of life, as natural as leaves growing on trees.

Sara grows increasingly disillusioned with the system that would put an innocent woman in what is essentially a prison. Along with the other women in the centre, she tries to reclaim some freedom in any way she can.

The more I thought about it, the easier it was to suspend disbelief for this premise. Obviously the data mining is not difficult to believe at all, but I at first questioned whether people would really consider it a good idea to detain innocent people... but then, profiling is already occurring, and has been for a long time. And, from a strictly utilitarian perspective, one could argue that the technology in the book has done more good than harm. A minority suffer so that the majority can live in safe communities, free from crime. Scarily, I don't even think it'd be a tough sell.

I loved the concept and enjoyed Sara as a protagonist. I thought some of the secondary characters could have been better developed. I also thought it went on a bit too long. These reasons are why it's a 4-star instead of a 5. But I would still highly recommend it.

She wants to be free, and what is freedom if not the wresting of the self from the gaze of others, including her own?

[Nilufer Ozmekik · Rating 4 out of 5]

In The Dream Hotel, Laila Lalami crafts a compelling narrative about surveillance, technology, and human resilience. The novel centers on Sara Hussein, a scientist unexpectedly detained at LAX when an algorithm flags her as a potential threat to her husband, thrusting her into a nightmarish detention system that criminalizes dreams.

Lalami creates a disturbingly plausible near-future world where advanced technology transforms personal subconscious into potential evidence. Unlike speculative fiction that feels distant, this story grounds its dystopian premise in current technological capabilities, making the narrative feel uncomfortably real.

The novel's strength lies in its nuanced exploration of systemic injustice. Sara's personal struggle becomes a broader examination of how technological surveillance disproportionately impacts marginalized communities. Her fight to maintain dignity and identity within a dehumanizing system reflects contemporary concerns about privacy, racial profiling, and algorithmic judgment.

Lalami's prose is precise and evocative, capturing the psychological claustrophobia of unjust detention. The narrative moves between Sara's immediate experience and wider societal critiques, creating a multi-layered exploration of power, technology, and individual agency.
While the middle sections occasionally slow, this pacing effectively mirrors the oppressive nature of institutional confinement. The story's tension builds gradually, drawing readers into a world where personal thoughts become potential weapons against individual freedom.

The Dream Hotel is more than a dystopian thriller; it's a thoughtful meditation on the erosion of privacy and personal autonomy in an increasingly algorithmic world. Lalami challenges readers to consider the human cost of technological surveillance, creating a narrative that is both intellectually rigorous and deeply empathetic.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Knopf, Pantheon, Vintage, and Anchor | Pantheon for sharing this unique dystopian thriller's digital reviewer copy with me in exchange for my honest thoughts.

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[Cindy Pham]

After tolerating overly ambiguous literary fiction, this book is exactly what I wanted with giving an interesting concept and delivering with details of this world and oppressive system. The themes are so relevant to AI and privacy today, and I would love to see a show adaptation to this pitched as Orange is the New Black meets Severance, with opportunities to expand the primarily female cast with stories from other inmates.

[Rose · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wanted to like this book more than I did. It explored a lot of really interesting ideas around the surveillance state, the prison industrial complex, and the limits to ai/algorithms.

Some elements were a bit too on the nose/didactic like the explanation of how crime is constructed by people in power. At the same time I couldn't really suspend my disbelief around people's dreams being used as evidence of future wrongdoing. And while it touched on racial profiling Sara's family experienced and how algorithms are biased, it almost didn't go far enough into how race intersects with the prison system.

I think the biggest issue I had was how flat the characters felt. I didn't get the relationship between Sara and her husband, and the side characters didn't leave much of an impression. I'm not sure why there was one chapter from a woman at the dream tech company? Ultimately it just failed to resonate on a deeper level.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the eARC

[Cory Brock · Rating 2 out of 5]

1984 meets Minority Report, but boring.

The Dream Hotel has a lot of problems. It plods along at an incredibly slow pace until the last twenty or so pages, all while focusing on characters that seem to have things happen around them rather than having much agency in the story. It’s a shame, because the premise of AI being used to flag people as potential threats based on dreams is interesting, but the novel as a whole falls flat.

There was some sort of disconnect with the characters; I never felt as though I could connect to them, and they all seemed very passive aggressive towards everyone else and each other which really threw me off.

Overall disappointing, especially considering the potential. Even the dream sequences were bland and mundane.

[Amber Rose · Rating 2 out of 5]

⭐️⭐️ (2/5)

I wanted to love this book. The premise had everything I look for in dystopian fiction—thought-provoking social commentary, speculative intrigue, and a concept that felt like a mix of 1984’s ThoughtCrime and Inception’s dream manipulation. The idea that dream interpretations could be used as pre-crime evidence, punishing people for thoughts they hadn’t even acted on yet? That’s the kind of eerie, big-brother surveillance nightmare that should have made for a gripping read.

Instead, it dragged.

This wasn’t the kind of slow burn that builds tension—it was the kind that makes you check how many pages are left because nothing is happening. The book kept circling the same themes without advancing the plot. Every chapter seemed to reiterate the same message, hammering it in without deepening the story.

And then there were the characters—flat, two-dimensional, and impossible to connect with. I don’t need to like a protagonist, but I do need to care about them. Here, they felt like placeholders for the book’s themes rather than real people. Without strong characters to anchor me, the pacing felt even more excruciating.

Beyond that, too many plot points were left unexplained. Why was the CRO’s name redacted when no one else’s was—especially in their own company files? Was the company only targeting women, or was anyone with an implant a potential victim? And seriously, what was the reasoning behind a corporation going through all this effort to aggressively market carrot chips? The book dangled these details as if they were leading to something, but instead of delivering answers (or even intentional ambiguity), they just… disappeared.

The novel wanted to make a powerful statement about corporate-backed oppression, but instead of pushing the conversation forward, it just repeated what we already know: capitalism thrives on exploitation, systems of power are designed to trap people, and the wealthy benefit while the rest suffer. All true. All valid. But for a book like this to work, it needs to add something new to the conversation—not just restate the problem.

At the end of the day, The Dream Hotel was a frustrating read—an intriguing concept buried under sluggish pacing, redundant messaging, shallow characters, and unresolved plot points. If you have patience for a meandering story and don’t mind a book that tells rather than explores, you might get more out of it than I did.

But for me? It was a missed opportunity.

[Devanshi Singh · Rating 2 out of 5]

took an eternity to finish, just about as long as sara stayed

[Linzie (suspenseisthrillingme) · Rating 4 out of 5]

How much of our lives and ourselves must we keep private in order to maintain our freedom in this post-internet world?

Centering around a terrifyingly plausible near-future premise, The Dream Hotel just might be the most thought-provoking book that I’ve read in a while. Given the state of our world, data-mining, and technology in general, the idea that this storyline is exceedingly far-fetched makes you wonder: Is it really? For that reason alone, it’s a nightmare-triggering plot that will likely have me turning over the words long into the night. Alongside of that, though, was the important underlying message: Only together—and through dissent—can we disrupt things that may seem entirely out of our hands.

As for the plot and the characters, I would classify it as a mix of literary and speculative fiction. With evocative prose that gave a claustrophobic feel to the setting and the conditions, the critique lying just under the words came more alive with each page. But it was the short-lived dual timelines and dual POVs that made me sit up and take notice. Through them, it gave a mild thriller edge which kept the slow pace from bogging me down. But don’t fret, the last third of this novel deftly picked up speed and pulled me in with a ratcheting level of intrigue until the provocative last scene that kept me engaged.

The only small hiccup could be a personal issue. Thanks to moments that felt somewhat repetitive and internal monologues that went on a bit too long in regard to Sara’s love of history and the WPA, I found myself skimming a bit here and there. You see, other than some broad strokes for character development, it just didn’t seem to have any bearing to the plot or the premise. Just the same, I ate up every word as I flew through this book in just one single sitting, so definitely take my mild critique with a large grain of salt.

All in all, despite a slower pace than my normal kind of read, I was wholly riveted by this Black Mirror-esque world. Warning us of what could happen if we don’t pay attention to what damage is being done to our privacy and freedoms, it was like a siren’s song to society at large. And thanks to a well-developed protagonist, intense topics, and some rather profound observations, I was utterly moved by these eye-opening words. I, for one, will be checking every terms of service before I sign on the dotted line in the future. After all, what aren’t we seeing in the grand scheme of things? Rating of 4.5 stars.

SYNOPSIS:

Sara has just landed at LAX, returning home from a conference abroad, when agents from the Risk Assessment Administration pull her aside and inform her that she will soon commit a crime. Using data from her dreams, the RAA’s algorithm 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.

The agents transfer Sara to a retention center, where she is held with other 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.

Thank you to Paula Lalami and Pantheon Books for my complimentary copy. All opinions are my own.

PUB DATE: March 4, 2025

Content warning: imprisonment, bullying, wildfire

[switterbug (Betsey) · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’ll start off declaring that novels about dreams, dreams written in novels, manifesting in novels, and dreams engulfing novels (and typically written in italics) tend to bore me, and then I skim. I lose interest with the writer for idly using dreams as metaphors, and subjecting the reader to eye-rolling symbolism. And “Dream” in the title? I nearly passed this one by. But it’s Laila Lalami, and she’s incapable of writing a bad book.

Lalami killed it! In this, dreams are not used as a plot or character device. Rather, dreams are monitored by a corporation that supplies the buyer with a voluntary implant to regulate their sleep cycle, and used to prosecute for future behaviors and potential retention in a facility. Shades of Minority Report, but I’ll stop there. TDH is entirely Lalami. She’s exceptional at balancing a large cast of characters and complex plot.

Sara lives with her husband and twin babies. Sleep disturbance is a common side effect of new motherhood—she has a job, too-- and the sleep deprivation makes it impossible for her to stay refreshed in her waking life. Exhaustion has taken over. She agrees to an implant from a technology firm, and, not unusually, Sara scans the terms of service agreement rather than focusing on where the devil is.

Shit happens, and Sara ends up being “retained,” as they say—"not imprisoned” as they say, in a facility she can’t leave freely. Bad food, low water, and strict rules heighten feelings of confinement, and random petty violations ensure extended stays.

Profits for the facilities grow. And the reader is taken behind the scenes for a short but consequential chunk of pages. Senior staff and talking heads meet and discuss achievements, ambitions, numbers, fault lines, data, inmates, and accountability. It makes us think, and fill in some of the blanks ourselves. The reader isn’t babied with info dumps and exposition.

Cruel guards and maximum monitoring ensue; cameras, hearing devices, and gadgets are the norm. The State keeps records of our risk scores; above 500, you’re headed for trouble. Our algorithms determine our autonomy. If you already have an implant, you’re under closer scrutiny, and your dreams reach their full attention—or, actually, their software’s attention.

A lively tempo and a mix of interior thoughts and exterior action provides a pacey and chilling suspense story. You will madly turn the pages. A hot friction between inmates and guards (and it’s not lame) had me trembling at intervals, almost panicked.

How Lalami does it, I don’t know, but she rocks the narrative. This class of blockbuster book is infrequent and appeals to readers who like to think, not be fed with exposition. Lalami intuitively knows this and avoids TV-in-a-book. The encounters are realistic, and not interrupted with station identification.

TDH explores humanity through inequality and — one side has the power and the good guys have only their wits. They endure intense surveillance, nutritional deprivation, and frightening vulnerability. The friends Sara makes in the facility become allies—except the ones that aren’t. But nothing in this novel is clichéd or cut-out plot boiler. But boil over it does!

If you like eerie surveillance novels--stories of how technology has intruded on our lives—you will sign on to its technical smarts and emotional truth. Psychologically driven and far-reaching, The Dream Hotel is a futuristic nail-biter, but we know it is already here. It renders us at the mercy of things we can’t control, moment by moment. Just the tools used at the retention facility are frightening.

What if every petty law we bend or break or arbitrary rule we ignore escalated into losing the privileges we take for granted? America is already headed toward a fascist government, so Lalami’s story is a horrifying showcase of what we are facing in the present. The Dream Hotel is something that nightmares are made of! Brilliant, confident, Lalami got the "ris."

“If only she could have something to eat or a glass of water, she would feel revived. Had she run a red light…neglected to pay for a parking violation…left the grocery store without scanning all her items? Had her phone pinged near a political protest or some kid of public disturbance?” There were also childhood tragedies and secrets in her family.

Yeah, Ms. Lalami has the ‘ris.

Thank you to Book Browse and Pantheon Books for an arc copy.

[Terrie Robinson · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Dream Hotel is set in the near-future where the lines between technology, security, and liberty are blurred...

Sara Hussein was detained by the Risk Assessment Administration at LAX when returning home from a business trip in London. The RAA officer tells Sara that, using data from her dreams, the algorithm flagged her as a potential threat, specifically to her husband. For his safety, Sara must remain under observation at a retention center for twenty-one days.

After spending months in the retention center with other dreamers, all of whom are women trying to prove their innocence, Sara wonders if she will ever be free...

The Dream Hotel is a speculative fiction novel, and like most dystopian stories, this book is disturbing. It is thought-provoking and shocking enough that I couldn't stop thinking about it. With the jump in direction our technology is headed, this is a cautionary tale that feels frighteningly real.

This is also a character study of Sara, who is present or referenced in every chapter. Her plethora of emotions resonated with me, and I feel confident I would emulate her behavior under the same circumstances. Lalami's evocative writing leads you to believe that what is happening to Sara could easily happen to you. As an emotional reader, this book was an intense experience.

This was an immersion read with the gifted DRC and the Audible audiobook narrated mainly by Frankie Corzo, who recounts the story and whose voicing skills effectively capture the diversity of the characters. Barton Caplan's narration is limited to the reading of various reports and communications.

The Dream Hotel is an all-too-real and frightening glimpse into what the future of technology could hold. Key themes of predicted behavior versus fact, reality versus uncertainty, and unchecked monitoring versus personal privacy are explored. It's a perspective I enjoyed reading that nearly caused my brain to explode!

4.5⭐

Thank you to Pantheon Books and Laila Lalami for the DRC via NetGalley. This is my honest and voluntary review.

[Alexia · Rating 2 out of 5]

My first read of 2026 turned out to be a complete disappointment. I had been eager to read this book for a long time, holding high expectations that it would live up to, but unfortunately, it let me down terribly. I genuinely expected to love it.

I’ll talk about what little I liked first. The only aspect that stood out was the message the author conveyed through this story. It effectively highlighted how dependent we are on technology without even realizing it until it's too late, showing how technology can entirely take over our lives. The dystopian setting depicted in the book felt plausible enough that such a scenario could easily unfold in real life. That's all I found worthwhile.

Moving on to what I disliked—absolutely nothing happens in this book, and I mean that quite literally. Until the last 30 pages, the plot remains stagnant with no significant events. The characters are so passive that I often had to take breaks because I couldn't bear to read anymore out of pure frustration. I understand the author’s intent to portray them like that but because of it it's very hard to care for them or like them.

Sara, in particular, was the most foolish and passive protagonist I’ve encountered in a long time. She’s 38 years old, yet I kept wondering how she managed to survive to that age. Her dreams added nothing to the plot and were irrelevant.

Regarding her marriage to her husband, who is clearly a terrible person—he abandons her, doubts her innocence, and leaves her at her most vulnerable—yet she constantly thinks about him, misses him, and wants to reunite and that made me dislike her even more. By the conclusion of the book, nothing in her life has truly changed except for her realization that the system isn’t helping people but controlling them. That’s the only growth she experiences. The so-called friendships she formed at the facility are so superficial that I honestly couldn't tell they were genuine until the story explicitly pointed it out.

In conclusion, the only reason I'm giving this two stars is that I liked the premise and the ending. Other than that, I have no interest in recommending it.

[Thomas · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars

On a conceptual level I enjoyed this book’s messages about technofascism, the exploitation of prison labor, and how people who stand up against injustice are often the ones who are most punished. That said, I found the structure of the novel a little middling and that it focused more on plot than character-building. The quality of the writing was solid enough for me to get through The Dream Hotel relatively quickly, though the prose didn’t amaze or wow me. A timely novel with a relevant message for today’s times, though the execution wasn’t my favorite.

[Flo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Longlisted for Women's Prize for Fiction 2025 - This novel is about a woman who is placed in a retention center (a prison that is not called a prison) because an algorithm determined that she might commit a crime. It explores issues that are already happening around us. It’s strange how a Minority Report premise—once considered science fiction and dystopian 20 years ago—now feels not just like a possibility, but something that might already be a reality somewhere. The tone of the book is conventional, but this almost works in its favor. It critiques things so familiar that witnessing the injustice becomes unbearable, yet the fight against a rotten system feels all the more satisfying.

[Hannah · Rating 5 out of 5]

Yesterday, a Carribean woman came to my house to buy some tables off Facebook Marketplace. She was in a state of clear distress when she arrived. I had no idea why, but when she told me, I felt emotionally arrested: she had come because she needed the tables, but she had come in fear because she wasn't sure I was legit - she was afraid my ad was an ICE ruse (ICE = Immigration and Customs Enforcement). I was flabbergasted. Then in reading this book, I am reminded of how little it takes for abuse of power to be wielded - even though I was obviously not ICE, I could've easily called in a tip that a woman whose English was clearly not native had just visited my home. I would have had enough information from her Facebook page for ICE to find her, and regardless of whether she was here legally, there's a chance she would've been detained anyway. This woman, who had two children and was an educator, who gave me a bear hug of gratitude at the end of our transaction (for not being ICE) - she could easily have been Sara.

The book is more dire in one sense in that Sara's been remanded to the Risk Assessment Administration (RRA) - a fictional agency set up to hold people who might commit a crime. Yup - that's right - MIGHT. Sara finds herself in this position because she has unknowingly consented to give up private data when she agrees to a tech user agreement. (This is why it's important to read every data privacy/user agreement!! - even if you feel like you have no choice, at least you'll know what data you're being forced into sharing).

The rest of the book is her nightmare of trying to get out, of being blamed by the rest of the world when "all she has to do" is follow the rules, when rampant abuses of power abound, and a corporate hidden agenda is designed to keep her in, until...

In the meantime, she's lost her job, will be unlikely to find another, is unclear about the state of her marriage, has a complicated relationship with her father which only gets more complicated, and will suffer from PTSD for a lifetime. However, in the end, you are left with the realization that the "near-prison" industrial complex has created its worst enemy. And now, I need a sequel!

To think that the woman who bought my tables lives in greater fear than I do breaks my heart for her, her children. and for the millions more who have fewer options than I do and who are easily Sara. Actually, given that legal status doesn't seem to matter to ICE, any one of us could be Sara. Keep that in mind, and let's be kinder to each other and look out for each other please. Stay safe folks!

[JaymeO · Rating 3 out of 5]

HAPPY PUBLICATION DAY!

What would you be willing to risk in order to sleep well?

In the near future, the American government creates the Crime Prevention Act in order to prevent future crimes and murders. The Risk Assessment Administration has been monitoring citizens for twenty years, determining if they are at risk to cause harm to others. With the help of the new Dreamsaver device, not only will people be able to be well rested in a short period of time, but the government will be able to track their dreams.

When new mom of twins Sara Hussein is returning home from a work trip abroad, she is flagged at the airport as a risk by government agents. Her risk assessment score has risen above 500 and therefore deemed a threat. She learns that her new Dreamsaver device has elevated her score due to her violent behavior in her dreams and is considered a high risk to kill her own husband! She purchased a Dreamsaver because she wanted to be able to sleep less and be more productive during the day as a working new mom. She is retained at Madison, a forensic observation facility for 21 days.

When 21 days turn into almost a year, Sara must figure out how to break free from a system that is stacked against her.

The premise of this book reminds me of Minority Report…only minus Tom Cruise and ALL of the action! It is labeled as a thriller on Goodreads, but is definitely lacking all thrills! The theme of the human cost of technical surveillance is explored as well as racism and immigration. I found the book to be repetitive, extremely slow, and better suited to the literary fiction genre.

The plot is very intriguing, but I was expecting way more from the ending. I feel like I’ve been duped and am very disappointed in this Pulitzer Prize finalist.

2.5/5 stars rounded up

Expected publication date: 3/4/25

Thank you to NetGalley and Pantheon publishing for the ARC of The Dream Hotel in exchange for an honest review.

[Summer · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Dream Hotel begins with a terrifying situation.
A working mom just left her flight and is on her way home to her husband and children. Government agents pull her aside and detain her because she’s at risk of committing a crime. Months pass and she’s still in confinement. Needless to say The Dream Hotel pulled me in from the start.

This dystopian tale portrays a realistic and terrifying possible future. At several points I found myself on the edge of my seat, white knuckled, dying to know what was going to happen next.

The Dream Hotel is a genre bending mix of science fiction, thriller, and literary fiction. The author seamlessly blends the genres crafting vivid imagery and dimensional characters. The book details the possible dangers of AI when there’s no humanity and how technology can negatively impact marginalized people.

The Dream Hotel is my first read by Pulitzer Prize winner Laila Lalami and I cannot wait to read her backlist! This would make a great book club read with plenty of discussion opportunities!

The Dream Hotel by Laila Lalami will be available on March 4. Many thanks to Pantheon Books for the gifted copy!

[BookOfCinz · Rating 4 out of 5]

Jarring, enraging, pulsating and brilliant!

You know those books you finish reading and you look up hoping someone is around that just experienced what you’ve read, and they are not so you feel utterly alone? This is how I felt after finishing DREAM HOTEL

The book open with Sara landing at LAX after coming from a conference in Europe. This is a conference she’s attended for the last seven years as a museum archivist. Upon arriving at the airport she is told they need additional information from her as she may be a risk to her husband. Using data from her dreams, the RAA’s algorithm has determined that she is at imminent risk and she must be kept under observation for twenty-one days.

At the retention center Sara meets numerous women who are being held for observation based soley on their dreams. They must defend themselves against what they dream nightly. The facility makes sure to let them know it is not a prison but it feels exactly like one. What Sara thought would be a 21 day retention turns into over 300 days and she is slowly losing her patience.

Sara decided to sign up to the Dream programme having just delivered twins and was not able to sleep at nights and function in the day. Little did she know the data collected from her dreams would be used against her.

In this book the author, 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.”

If I had to sum this book up, I would call it “URGENT” and “TIMELY”. It felt deeply imminent that something like this could happen, especially on Trump’s America.

[Victor Almeida · Rating 4 out of 5]

Que livro foda! Nunca terminei tão feliz e sem um pingo de esperança ao mesmo tempo.

[The Lit Homebody · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thought provoking for sure, but I was constantly waiting for the momentum to pick up and it never did so I feel like I crawled through this. A very timely subject though.

[Linda · Rating 4 out of 5]

For a full spoiler version of this review, please check out my book review blog here: https://spoiledbooks.blogspot.com/

Laila Lalami’s The Dream Hotel is a near-future dystopia that feels uncomfortably plausible. After a mass-casualty event, an AI-powered bureaucracy uses a wearable called “Dreamsaver” to record citizens’ dreams and calculate a “risk score.” When archivist Sara Hussein crosses a threshold she’s detained in a private facility and told she can earn release by lowering that score—if she follows opaque rules, performs unpaid digital labor, and submits to constant surveillance. The premise hits like a blend of 1984 and Minority Report, but filtered through Lalami’s sharp eye for power, prejudice, and how systems grind people down.

What really lands is the mood: claustrophobic, angry, and weirdly hopeful. Lalami nails the slow-burn frustration of being trapped inside a machine that insists it’s objective. I wished the ending had a touch more breathing room, but the book’s ideas—privacy, algorithmic “justice,” and resistance—stick.

⭐ 4/5 — smart, timely, and chilling in the best way.

[Chase Mills · Rating 1 out of 5]

The premise.. fantastic. The execution.. beyond lackluster. There’s only so much gravity you can give to the cautionary tale/social commentary aspect of a novel. The actual plot and character development were majorly lacking. Throughout the whole storyline. The same circles were treaded over and over. Ultimately, to fizzle out and lead to an undercooked ending.

[Fairuz ᥫ᭡. · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars! 🌟 Huge thanks to Knopf, Pantheon, Vintage, and Anchor & NetGalley for the ARC! 💌

Welcome to a future where your dreams can get you arrested. ☁️🚔

Sara lands at LAX, expecting to see her husband and baby twins—NOT to be told that she's a future criminal. 🤯 The Risk Assessment Administration (RAA) has analyzed her dreams, and the algorithm decided she's a threat to her husband. Guilty before proven innocent.

She’s taken to The Dream Hotel—aka a high-tech prison disguised as a retention center—where women are locked up for potential crimes. Every step, every word, every breath is monitored, and the rules? Always changing. 😵‍💫 A 21-day stay turns into months, with no way out.

Dystopian nightmares? Try dystopian reality. 🔥

This book had me suffocating alongside Sara. Every time she thought she was getting closer to freedom, BAM—another rule, another punishment, another reason to keep her trapped. It’s slow, but that’s the point. The system is designed to break you, and Laila makes you feel every moment of that helplessness.

⏳ Dystopian Future
🔒 Big Brother/Surveillance State
⏳ Wrongfully Accused
🔒 Trapped with No Escape
⏳ Psychological Thriller
🔒 Morality & Ethics of Technology

The scariest part? It felt TOO real. 😨 We already live in a world where data is collected from every device, every social media post, every click. Would people really protest a system that "prevents" crime? Or would they let it happen, convincing themselves it’s for safety?

This book is a psychological thriller, a dystopian drama, and a terrifying look at our tech-driven future all rolled into one. Sara’s desperation, the hopelessness of fighting a faceless system, and the moral questions it raises?? CHEF’S KISS. 🤌✨

LOVED:
✔ The concept. It’s haunting, realistic, and forces you to question EVERYTHING about privacy, freedom, and justice.
✔ Sara’s fight for her identity. She’s NOT a hero. She’s just a woman trying to survive a system that’s crushing her. And that makes her SO real.
✔ The eerie, slow-burn tension. It’s not a fast-paced action thriller—it’s psychological. The dread builds, every rule change feels like a punch, and you start feeling trapped with Sara.

MEH:
❌ Some parts felt too long—the middle dragged a bit.
❌ I wanted deeper connections between Sara and other characters. The friendships in the center? SO interesting, but not fleshed out enough!
❌ The ending… I’m still processing. 😵‍💫 Not bad, but I expected more of a punch after ALL that build-up.

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

This book is a warning. A terrifying, unputdownable, too-close-to-reality warning. 🚨 If you love speculative fiction, dystopian thrillers, or books that make you question EVERYTHING—this one's for you.

[Megan · Rating 4 out of 5]

reading vlog: https://youtu.be/MXnXnkpFOCY

a fascinating examination of incarceration systems, AI, how much of our data we give to corporations, climate change etc etc ETC!! really well written and so thought provoking

[Dianne · Rating 2 out of 5]

Surprisingly lackluster, with little energy and no real resolution. The characters felt unfinished to me, almost stick figures. It took me 10 days to finish the book, which is ridiculous, but I wasn’t compelled to pick it up and continue.

Using biometric data to identify and retain people for their“pre-crime tendencies” is an interesting idea for sure, but the execution didn’t grab me at all. I’m disappointed because I am a huge fan of Lalami’s “The Moor’s Account.”

Thanks to NetGalley and Pantheon for an ARC of this novel.

[Snjez]

dnf @38%

The premise is interesting. It reminded me a bit of Minority Report, but with no action. While I was interested to see how things would be resolved for Sara, the story is very slow-moving and repetitive, and I find everything that is happening to her very frustrating and anxiety-inducing. I've tried reading a little bit, then putting it down to read something else before I continue, but picking it up again started to feel like a chore.

[Leilin · Rating 2 out of 5]

Pretty disappointed with this...

Everything about this book was firmly mediocre: nothing new to the themes it choses to focus on, blatant lack of understanding of any technology that has been named in it and A LOT of unearned gravitas in the delivery.


About the structure:
* I really disliked the back and forth between timelines, in the first part of the book. After a few of these, I ended up going ahead and reading the flashbacks first, before going back to read the present part. This structure did not bring anything to the narration, it only served to take us out of a story that was already on the weaker side of gripping at that point.
* Then there was the abrupt and entirely useless change of POV shoved smack in the middle. It could have been fine if this was an actual plot line but it never becomes one, though - the whole thing only amounts to a very marginal (and arguably quite forced) impact on the main story.
* In general, the whole ending is an absolute mess of a rush. We are within 45 pages of the end when Sara has a rare moment of logical and smart deductive thinking, figures out that side plot line I just mentioned and seems finally primed to take meaningful action. What can we expect from 45 remaining pages, though? If you're thinking "not much", you'd be right. Nothing meaningful either. Sara arrives to some very late (and quite frankly absolutely unoriginal) realizations about life, a few last-minute attempts at raising the stakes are thrown into the mix (for example Sara's dream journal all of a sudden being given new importance it never had before)... and we're done. But see, now Sara has learned and she'll probably, maybe, do some smart stuff later, off pages and off book though, sorry, the end, thanks.

About the characters:
* We needed some sort of reckoning for Sara, see her have to realize that moral choices would really cost her and would take her away from all her privilege. This never happens. The whole book reads like a privileged woman discovers injustice and the concepts of resistance. I had to sit there reading about her being aggressively sure she should be listened to when she had no leverage to back it up, and thus subsequently very melodramatically describing her anguish when it obviously didn't get her anywhere (the name "Karen" comes to mind). Another time I had to witness her realizing that strikes do in fact cost the people who participate in them. And so on... If we are going to work with a character like this, then I want to see them majorly struggle, until they get to an intimate understanding of what protecting your rights can cost, once you fall on the other side, where it is no longer a safe and comfy given for you.
* Another option would have been to explore her anger problems - we glimpse her bottled rage and she is so extremely quick to fury. I would have enjoyed the story better if we had gotten a protagonist who could have killed her husband, a very imperfect victim who still fights for what's just. We do get an imperfect victim, alright... but a dramatic and out of touch one. That did not make for an interesting read.
* Finally, if the last paragraphs are going to harp on about community and how freedom is not protected/won alone, then I would have liked the other women to actually feel like fully fledged characters. I could not even remember who was who for 80% of them, not that it mattered in any way.

About the world:
It made no sense.
* Why is Sara only now realizing that she's being a data point for all her apps and devices? That's not exactly a futuristic concept.
* There's a whole branch of government working Minority Report-style, with a plethora of contracted retention centers, etc. but she has no idea how any of it works or what it does? I said she was privileged, even if she - and possibly the author - don't know it, but I can't reasonably believe she could be that sheltered. It must be that the world building was half-assed.
* An unfortunate consequence of this is that no interesting point of criticism against the technology beyond "this is wrong and unfair because Sara doesn't think she deserves it" can be made.

A quote I liked:

What has retention taught her these last few months? [...] That the rules don’t have to make sense. That no matter how unjust the system is, she is expected to submit to it in order to prove that she deserves to be free of its control.

  **ARC provided by publisher in a giveaway. Thank you!**

[Cynthia · Rating 5 out of 5]

We generally think of violence as something visible. It’s graphic. It’s gory. It’s easy to identify.

But I think violence has its subtleties. It’s a cruel and quiet violation, but it doesn’t leave a mark that others can see.

The Dream Hotel bursts with a violence that never results in physical injuries. In a society working to prevent violent crime, we see the irony of intrusive assaults that do not fit into a black and white definition.

This is a soft hum of a novel, peeling away at the layers of control that govern the characters while creating a scenario that feels both terrifying and plausible. The message is there, but it’s never screamed at us. We need to think about the content to recognize what it is saying.

We are living in a surveillance state. Technology, despite all of its benefits, is bloated with issues, and as we further embrace it, we discover how those issues affect us. That is, if we are paying attention. Lalami examines this carefully, and while her story never explodes climatically, it gives readers a host of flavors to chew on. This is an important book… no, no… a necessary book, and I firmly believe that everyone should read it.

I am immensely grateful to Pantheon Books and NetGalley for my copy. All opinions are my own.

[Billie's Not So Secret Diary · Rating 2 out of 5]

The Dream Hotel
by Laila Lalami
Science Fiction Dystopia Speculative
NetGalley eARC
Pub Date: March 4, 2025
Knopf, Pantheon...
Ages: 14+

Sara, a new mother of twins, fresh off a plane after one of her first conferences since coming back to work, is detained by the Risk Assessment Administration because her RAA number (a combination of her life activity, disagreements, and other factors recorded by 'smart' technology, including the chip in her head that monitors and records her dreams) is over five hundred, so it's determined that she is about to commit a crime and is taken to a retention center for a twenty-one day observation period to get her number under five hundred.

But with the strict rules being changed on the whims of her minders, thus adding to her RAA number, she finds herself, like the other women there, denied release because their numbers keep rising. After months of trying to follow the rules, a new resident arrives, and Sara, along with the other long-term residents, is shocked when the woman is released after her twenty-one day observation period, something that rarely happens.


This is a story about the greed of companies and their reasoning for using Big Brother surveillance to prevent crimes while adding money into their pockets from consumers who buy and use these products. Plus if one is put into observation, they are charged outrageous prices for bedding, clothes, and to make calls (which drop after a few seconds), and using tablets to email family/lawyers.

I can see this in our not so distant future because of our heavy reliance on technology, allowing it, and those who create it, to control our lives as we allow it to invade our privacy.

The idea of the story was good, but the presentation wasn't. I was quickly bored because of the lack of history, and also there were a few issues, like people living off the grid/hiding, but the author forgot about the satellites above us; which if the technology was that advanced, would have no problem to find those who are hiding.

But worse was Sara's containment. I get the added drama and shock, but if the technology was that advanced, knew everything about a person, and all factors were taken into consideration as claimed, her medical history of being a new mother to twins, would have exempted her from a stay, instead more of an outpatient check-in.

Little faults like that were irritating as was the lack of details and depth in why the book was titled the 'Dream Hotel'. Sure dreams were a factor, (and the blurb claims the women are dreamers) but not enough was explained to make it fit, until …. spoiler.... Something like 'Tec Hotel for Women' would have matched better.

Even though I felt for Sara, and was angry at how unfairly the system was rigged and treated her, I was disappointed in the story.

2 Stars

[Jill · Rating 5 out of 5]

Imagine this: you’re a working mother of young twins, and as you teeter on exhaustion, you turn to the latest technological breakthrough. It’s called Dreamcatcher, a simple implant that stores your dreams, allowing you to gain a few hours of restful sleep and wake up revitalized.

But you’re living in today’s America, so when you return from an overseas conference, you are retained by the Risk Assessment Administration – a federal agency that analyzes predictive advanced biometric data to assess whether a citizen is prone to commit a crime in the future. Your score indicates you are an imminent danger, and you’re sent to a retention firm for three weeks. You are guilty of nothing except an overactive dream life, which quickly becomes your nightmare.

I’m reading this on the eve of the murder of the UnitedHealthcare CEO who, as it turns out, used AI to deny one-third of claimants the life-transforming or life-saving care they needed – even though the AI had a 90% error rate. Laila Lalami’s vision of an intrusive breakthrough technology that steals the lives of innocent people is gripping.

Once I started reading it, I was so riveted I could barely tear myself away. The author writes, “…it’s the parasitic logic of profit, which has wormed its way so deeply into the collective mind that to deny lucre it to make oneself a radical or a criminal, or a lunatic…Detaining someone because of their dreams doesn’t exactly trouble Americans, most of whom think the R.A.A.’s methods are necessary.”

Our protagonist, Sara Hussein, attempts to restore logic in a Kafka-esque world where dreams are regarded as a window into the most private parts of ourselves and are used to identify patterns and make predictions. But in the retention facility, where rules shift at the whim of the attendants and any deviation adds more time to a resident’s stay, Sara cannot make strides in reversing the belief in her presumptive guilt. Sara has never been a "follow the rules" person, and she slowly begins to realize that regaining her freedom cannot be achieved on her own.

The Dream Hotel is an extraordinary, prescient book. It is well-plotted, masterfully written, and filled with the questions that matter: In our quest to embrace the latest sophisticated technology to make us safer, are we losing that very element that makes us most human? Can true freedom only be written in the company of others, those courageous enough to fight back and say “no?”

I cannot recommend this book highly enough, particularly during our present times and the dangers to come. Thank you to BookBrowse and Pantheon for giving me the privilege of being an early reader in exchange for an honest review. This novel deserves every award it will likely get.