I feel incredibly conflicted by my feelings on this book. However, after weighing the masterful writing and how important the message is that it delivers on, I settled on four stars!

The terrifying future that we’re hurtling towards because of the casual use of AI is brought to life in this book. We follow Sara and her journey at Madison, which is what I would guess is a version of prison/retainment. The world tracks you based on your potential to commit a crime, and it’s all made possible because of algorithms and what the officials say are ‘other related factors.’ Your dreams, your friends, your actions. Every moment that is documented goes against your case. Similar to the world we live in, not much is explained to us and we’re forced to just hope that someday along the journey of reading this book, we’ll get let in on how to prevent these things from happening or why they happened in the first place.

The only quote I highlighted was from Chapter Four,

“To be a woman was to watch yourself, not just through your own eyes, but through the eyes of others.”

It was disheartening, stressful, and an eye opening experience that made me turn my attention to how absolutely terrifying artificial intelligence is and I don’t have any desire to live in a world where it exists <3

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for the advanced copy of this book!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this digital ARC in exchange for an honest review.

The Dream Hotel is a chilling exploration of surveillance and free will. Lalami masterfully examines the dehumanizing effects of predictive technology through Sara’s fight for freedom in a dystopian retention center. Urgent and thought-provoking, it questions the cost of privacy in a data-driven world.

This book was so exciting, I couldn’t put it down. I can’t wait to read this one again and I can’t wait to see what Lalami writes next.

Fantastic and intriguing story. Takes place in a not so distant future that will leave you thinking days after reading this novel.

Great world and character building. Just far enough from our current reality to be dystopian, and close enough to be scary! Similar to the movie Minority Report, but a great read. I found the subject surprising from Lalami, but it sure was hard to put down!

In a chilling not-so-futuristic world, the government attempts to control crime by predicting who is likely to commit a particular crime, partly based on surveillance of the dreams of people who have agreed to an implanted device which purportedly is only to improve sleep (which it does.) People who are identified as a risk are “detained” for observation in a prison like environment. The riveting story of one such detainee and her efforts to disrupt the system looks at how the passive acceptance of invasive technology and impersonal algorithms can cost us our freedom and individuality.

The Dream Hotel by Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award finalist Laila Lalami is a dazzling novel set in the near future about the intersection of convenience and surveillance. One of the seductive technologies available in this future is a neuroprosthetic device known as “Dreamsaver” which promises to help users fall asleep immediately and achieve the benefits of eight hours of sleep in half the time. The novel’s protagonist, Sara Hussein, had been a late adapter of this technology but succumbed after experiencing extreme sleep deprivation once she delivered fraternal twins. After having Dreamsaver implanted, Sara observes that it had a dramatic effect on her life – all of it positive. Or was it? It turns out that Dreamsaver records the user’s dreams and employs them as a data source for a crime prediction algorithm. In short, the company that made the Dreamsaver harvested data from millions of users, and trained an AI to look for patterns, make predictions, and issue a risk score used by the Risk Assessment Administration to preemptively prevent crime.

When Sara returns to LAX from a work-related trip to London, she is detained because her risk score is above the acceptable threshold. Sara is then retained at a facility resembling a women’s prison that is run by Safe-X, Inc. The novel chronicles her stay providing a stark vision of the future in which America is a surveillance state. Lalami also writes about sexism and xenophobia and also calls attention to the role humans play in the biases of technology.

This is a prescient look at the delicate balance between privacy and security as well as our burgeoning relationship with artificial intelligence.

Thank you to NetGalley and Knopf for the eARC in exchange for this review.

Thank you NetGalley and Pantheon for this eARC in exchange for an honest review!

I had a knot in my stomach the entire time I was reading The Dream Hotel. It just gave me a level of anxiety and righteous anger that few novels do. It all stems from the fact that despite the novel being dystopian speculative fiction it all feels so realistic and prescient. Sara's anger at the system just translates right to the reader.

The characters here are all great, they all feel like real people behaving realistically in their situation. From the women in the retention center being resigned in their fate and unwilling to work towards real change due to their fear of being trapped for any longer than they have to be, to the staff each of whom you want to get their comeuppance, despite knowing close to none of them will.

Its just a pitch-perfect reading experience that I recommend to all readers.

“The Dream Hotel” by Laila Lalami is a book people will be talking about. It is thought provoking, uncomfortable, and a must read.

Sara Hussein is stopped at the airport on her way home from a business trip from London. What first appears to be an extra security screening escalates into something far more invasive and horrifying. Now Sara is being held for forensic observation by the Risk Assessment Administration. Her “risk score” is outside the acceptable measure as defined by an algorithm predicting whether someone will commit a future crime. Sara has committed no crime. She is not a criminal. She is not jailed. She is being “retained” for observation. Sara watches her initial three-week release date come and go. No new release date is set. The staff at the retention center use a system of interpreting behavior and entering perceived infractions into the database to maintain power and control. Every entry against Sara by a staff member, no matter how meaningless or invalid, has the potential of extending her stay. Bureaucratic slipups are the norm, while personal mistakes are seen as proof of criminality.

“The Dream Hotel” hits close to home. Sara’s dystopian experience parallels realities within our current society. The world of this novel, its characters and its realities, are drawn so powerfully that I felt out of balance when I put down the book and tried to reenter my own world. The dream sequences and the dreamlike horror of Sara’s waking experience within this dystopian reality are acute and penetrating. Lalami’s complex characters and clear prose give this novel a razor’s edge. Sara Hussein’s story is one conceivable outcome of the current trajectory of data mining and algorithm use. The story could be set a year from now. The technology is close and much of it is already here. Having dystopian science fiction set this close to the present, and this close to home, puts a spotlight on things that we may not be quite ready to see, but that we would be foolish to ignore.

Thank you to NetGalley and Pantheon for the ARC and the opportunity to write this independent review.

beautifully written and very effective at producing outrage and anger in all the right ways. i love the way technology is used here. 5 stars. would recommend. tysm for the arc.

This was absolutely brilliant. I applaud the author using the plot to highlight not only how much we depend on technology but also how technology can turn on the people from racism and greed. I do wish the main characters relationships with others had been more fleshed out. Sometimes, it seemed a bit two dimensional so I couldn't fully invest. All in all I would rate this 3.5 rounded up to 4.

Be afraid; the thought police are here! For Sara, that means being abducted by the government from an airport and put into “detention” (think jail) because she dreamed that she killed her husband. The technology that led to this deprivation of liberty was shopped to Sara as a device that would alleviate her insomnia. But corporate greed abounds and creates much more nefarious uses for the implanted device. Less dystopian than The Handmaid’s Tale and more likely to actually happen, this is quite the eye-opening read. And if you think that this book is science fiction, think again!

Haunting, disturbing, and hard-hitting; eminded me of The School for Bad Mothers, but this got even further under my skin. A powerful mix of "can't put it down" - because I wanted to find out what would happen - and "I have to put this down" - because it was so intense I needed to take breaks.

My one critique is that I didn't quite understand or believe the relationship between Sara and her husband Elias. Keeping things vague to avoid spoilers, but he felt almost like a caricature of an absent partner at times, and I was surprised - and skeptical - that didn't seem to have repercussions.

That said, this is an excellent book and I look forward to selling it at the store; I expect fans of Margaret Atwood and Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah to love it. Thanks to NetGalley and Knopf for the ARC.

Loved this novel. In this day of way too much data being stored and its implications for our society, it is a sobering lesson for all of us. Eerie, urgent, and ceaselessly clear-eyed, The Dream Hotel artfully explores the seductive nature of technology, which puts us in shackles even as it makes our lives easier. 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.

Great title. Excellent character and plot. Cannot wait to read the author's next work, and familiar with her before I read this one.

This was beautifully-written and engaging and so tough to read. Laila Lalami writes so poetically and builds such a strong world that feels both eons away and impossibly close. The characters are well-drawn and I felt so much for our protagonist. The fears of technology taken too far are seen alongside the unbreakable hold that technology has on nearly all of us, in a way that feels terrifying and real. Lalami also writes about racism and xenophobia and sexism in a way that is enraging, but not overly obvious. I was anxious the entire time I was reading this, which is to say I didn’t really enjoy my time reading it, but I am so glad that I did read it. It made me think critically and I am always happy to read Lalami’s writing, even when she’s stressing me out.

Excellent character development and denigration, and the author did a great job of creating tension and outrage. I thought the world building was excellent. The author did a great job of making me feel the degradation to her psyche because of her imprisonment. Absolutely engaging prose, I was riveted. Thank you to NetGalley and Pantheon Publishing for giving me the opportunity to read this advanced copy.

I am not sure about the title of this absolutely unforgettable book, but maybe it's a bit like Hotel California!

The Dream Hotel sounds like a very dreamy place until you realize that the Pulitzer Prize winning and National Book Award finalist, Laila Lalami has created a fascinating study of prison, both the concrete contemporary one and the future via mind control.

When Sara Housein goes through customs, she thinks nothing of the questions she is asked until she quickly finds herself in a retention center (not a "detention center") for women who have had violent dreams. Sara is forced to learn the ropes of prison and determine why she landed there and how she can escape all on her own. I have truly never read such an in depth fictional account of freedom and I urge all of you to read this book too. Dreams can be subbed in by any other ordinary human behavior and become a potential controlling factor of our lives (and as always, women, non-binary, and people of color are the most susceptible) #knopfpantheonvintageanchor #thedreamhotel #lailalalami

Laila Lalami's novel "The Dream Hotel" presents a near-future America where technology has advanced to the point of monitoring and analyzing our dreams. The story follows Sara, a woman who is detained by the Risk Assessment Administration (RAA) because their algorithm, using data from her dreams, predicts she will commit a crime against her husband.

The setting primarily revolves around Madison, a seemingly innocuous retention center where individuals flagged by the crime-prediction algorithm are detained. The novel serves as a cautionary tale, urging readers to critically examine the trade-offs between convenience and freedom in an increasingly data-driven world and compels us to confront AI's ethical challenges and the potential consequences of relinquishing our privacy to algorithms.

Sara's past experiences with racial profiling foreshadow the more invasive surveillance she faces in the novel, establishing a pattern of authorities using seemingly innocuous data points to profile and restrict individuals, hinting at a gradual erosion of privacy.

The story also includes historical events, literary references, and allusions to our present-day for-profit prison system. These features show how these elements have been a part of our society and are present today, making this novel even more disturbing. It reminds us that humans are the ones enabling and profiting off this system. Humans are the ones who developed the technology, which can be just as biased.

The novel addresses ethical questions, the delicate balance between privacy and security, and our growing dependence on artificial intelligence. Readers will grapple with themes of greed, power, human nature, individual freedom, autonomy, and the potential for technology to be used as a weapon against us.

I highly recommend this thrilling and disturbing (but in the best way) read. It is a sort of Frankenstein's Monster meets Borges and Kafka with a dash of Orwell and "Chain Gang All Stars" by Nana Kwame Adjel-Brenyah. Thank you to NetGalley and Knopf for the ARC!