The Dream Hotel is more about a future nightmare than those sometimes pleasant or sometimes confusing dreams that come in our sleep. These dreams in the future are not private. Nothing and nowhere is private when surveillance cameras, apps and implants monitor every aspect of ordinary life. Generations have lived like this and most not only accept it but welcome it in the name of safety. When Sara Hussein finds herself caught in a web where everything she says or thinks or dreams is looked upon with suspicion, she learns that it's not good enough to be good.

This story could be seen as science fiction, but unfortunately our modern society is coming very close to this as a reality. We display and celebrate the events of our lives via online social media. Our streets monitor our movements with security cameras planted on street poles, in stores and on our neighbors' homes. Financial transactions are electronically recorded in almost real time. Even our DNA has been submitted willingly for storage in databases that can be hacked.

I enjoyed reading this book immensely and it was as entertaining as it is thoughtful. Thank you Laila Lalami, Penguin Random House and NetGalley for the ARC.

The Dream Hotel by Laila Lalami is a bleak, thought-provoking dive into a near-future dystopia that feels unsettlingly possible. It’s one of those books that sits with you long after you finish, leaving you questioning how much of your privacy you’ve already handed over to technology.

The premise is classic sci-fi: neural implants designed to help people sleep also record their dreams, and an algorithm flags potential criminals based on this data. Enter Sara Hussein, a mother and archivist, who finds herself detained at a private “retention facility” for allegedly planning to murder her husband—a crime she hasn’t committed. What follows is a Kafka-esque nightmare of bureaucratic delays, opaque rules, and the grim realization that the system designed to protect society is broken at its core.

What really makes this book shine is Lalami’s ability to weave big-picture issues like technology, justice, and surveillance with deeply personal storytelling. Sara’s character feels so real, and her struggles as an immigrant and mother add layers to the story. I do wish Lalami had delved into some of Sara's relationships—for example, the one with her husband—more fully. The story also dragged a bit at times, but that monotony kind of worked to mirror Sara’s own experience of being trapped.

This isn’t your typical action-packed dystopia. It’s more about the quiet, creeping horror of compliance—how easily we trade freedoms for convenience, and what happens when those trade-offs spiral out of control. It definitely reminded me of a bit of that Tom Cruise movie, Minority Report, as well as The Testaments by Margaret Atwood.

If you’re in the mood for a challenging, unsettling read that blends sci-fi with social commentary, The Dream Hotel is a must. I'll be thinking about this one for a long time.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for allowing me to read an advance review copy!

I wasn't sure I was in the mood for bleak dystopian sci-fi that could plausibly happen in the near future, but for Laila Lalami's writing I'll hold out. This was bleak all the way through and I had a pit of dread in my stomach the whole time I was reading this, but this author's writing style takes intimate touches to illuminate bigger ideas about the legal system, climate change, technology and privacy in a way that I found beautiful and gripping.

I almost gave it five stars but I wanted a little more consistency and depth in the relationships. I felt like I knew Sara Hussein's motivations well and her character development was strong, but I wasn't sure how I felt about her relationship with her husband, for example. I wanted more background on their struggles and history. I also wanted more about her complicated feelings about motherhood. And a lot of the pacing was monotonous.

The premise was a tried and true sci fi device, AI surveillance run amok, and very similar to Minority Report, but less action thriller oriented and more in the vein of women's fiction. The story and writing style also reminded me quite strongly of Hum by Helen Phillips. Add a dash of Kafkaesque bureaucratic nightmares, the struggles of immigrants to assimilate to be safe, and the inherent bias in technology and the users of algorithms, and you get the Dream Hotel.

In the near future a company has implanted devices in our brains to help us sleep, but it also records our dreams. Data is collected from a variety of sources to help predict crimes. Interspersed with legal questions like due process for retainees vs detainees, philosophy and morality, the story follows Sara Hussein, who is stopped on a routine flight home from a London work conference and retained in a privately owned facility. An archivist by trade with two small children, she is suspected of intending to murder her husband. Bureaucratic delays and randomly applied rules extend her stay far beyond three weeks - because, since this wasn't techinically a prison, it fell into a legal gray area.

The changes were implemented after a large mass shooting at a Super Bowl game.

I usually like sci-fi when it teaches me something new, expands my view of the future with a reality I can't expect. I could predict the reality depicted in this story so it was more of literary exploration of human nature and the dangers of compliance than edgy sci-fi to me.

However, I thought it was fascinating how it illustrated the psychological motivations behind how easily we give up our privacy and freedoms in favor of the protection and convenience of technology, the blind ceding of the terms of service that can easily slide into corporate totalitarianism, and a bleak lesson for our times. Especially when the only solutions to stop it are revolting, thus adding to your criminal culpability, or living completely off grid and sacrificing community by protesting the ubiquity of the TOS.

A beautiful, thought-provoking, difficult, and very intense read. I'd describe it as the dangers of complying in advance to nightmare TOS's. I'm going to be better at reading those TOS after reading this.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the advance review copy. I am leaving this review voluntarily.

Thank you to NetGalley and Pantheon for an ARC of The Dream Hotel.

I seem to be in a very small minority here based on the other rave reviews, but I just did not care for this book. I had a hard time connecting with the main character because if I was separated from my children in a detention center for a year I would have a mental, physical and emotional breakdown...even the thought is unbearable to me, while the main character complained more about her lack of personal luxuries than she did about missing her infants. I also felt as though the pacing of the story was off as the middle 40-80% really seemed to drag without a lot happening and then the ending was very abrupt and anticlimactic.

Overall, a unique concept for a book that raises interesting questions about right and wrong in the ever-evolving world of technology, but one that ultimately fell flat for me.

2.5 stars

Dystopian novels always have my heart, and this book is no exception. This is an eerily plausible future where technology monitors every facet of your existence - from your social media interactions down to the minute details of your dreams. Personal "Risk Scores" are calculated by the government in hopes to detain criminals before they *may or may not* cause harm. However, that often doesn't go quite to plan, as you could imagine.

There were so many moments throughout reading this that I thought "yep, this sounds about right". Truly, the alternate reality that Lalami created in The Dream Hotel was so scary plausible that it often had my mind reeling. The reason why I love dystopian literature is because it's disturbingly similar to real life. So many important, real-world issues were layered into this story that it makes you sit back and wonder what could be. Beautiful and equally scary!

The book doesn't come without its flaws though. The pacing was too slow for my taste for a good portion of the book. We often bounce from present day back to past memories. While I usually enjoy flashes back to the past, this was done a little too choppily in my opinion and made it feel like the book was crawling at times.

Overall, this was a really enjoyable and resonant read for me! I highly recommend, especially for those that enjoy dystopian fiction.

Thank you to the publisher and netgalley for an advance copy of this book.

Eerily plausible dystopian world ruled by technology and capitalism. It was depicted in a way where you can feel how far a “good idea” can go in way of harmful outcome.

As the book went on, I was hoping for more big scenes, but felt the book kept a fairly even pace throughout. I do feel that there were some unfinished answers in regard to some of the characters, but perhaps the author wants us to create our own storylines.

Thank you to NetGalley and Pantheon for this eARC in exchange for this honest review.

Sara’s plight begins when she lands at LAX, a relatable and mundane setting that quickly spirals into a Kafkaesque nightmare. The Risk Assessment Administration’s cold efficiency and the eerie precision of their dream-based algorithm set the stage for a story that is as much a critique of unchecked technological advancement as it is an intimate character study. Sara’s bewilderment, frustration, and eventual resistance make her a compelling and deeply human protagonist in the face of an oppressive system.

The retention center, where Sara and other women are held, becomes a microcosm of control, manipulation, and resilience. The ever-changing rules, arbitrary punishments, and the psychological toll of indefinite detention create an atmosphere of palpable tension. The novel raises profound questions about guilt, freedom, and the ethics of predictive policing—questions that feel both urgent and uncomfortably close to reality.

When a new resident arrives and disrupts the fragile order, the story shifts into an even more gripping gear. Sara’s journey toward uncovering the truth behind the RAA’s methods is suspenseful and thought-provoking, culminating in a collision of personal rebellion and systemic critique.

With its eerie setting, compelling characters, and unflinching look at the costs of surveillance, The Dream Hotel is a masterfully crafted dystopian tale that lingers long after the final page.

The publisher provided ARC via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

This was FANTASTIC. Such an amazing book! Laila Lalami is soooo talened. Loved the themes, writing style and characters,

In the not so distant future, a few large companies monitor everything through the multitude of devices used — including one that promises to make sleep more productive by managing dreams. After a series of mishaps on her way home from a business trip to London, Sara Hussein gets detained and her dreams are used as evidence that she may try to hurt her husband in the future. So begins Laila Lalami’s The Dream Hotel, and her real and metaphorical nightmares have just started. I enjoyed this dystopian look into the future, and Lalami’s usually excellent writing made up for the slightly slow start and seemingly hurried finish. Readers who enjoy books about a surveillance-heavy future and don’t mind reading a lot of weird dreams will enjoy The Dream Hotel.

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!