The Dream Hotel by Laila Lalami is an incredibly prescient novel for our AI obsessed age. It is Minority Report meets Orange is the New Black. Following Sara through the red tape and bureaucracy of the carceral state was frustrating and terrifying. Highly recommend this incredibly compelling novel. I flew through it because I couldn’t put it down.

Laila Lalami's The Dream Hotel is a masterful exploration of a dystopian future where personal privacy is a relic of the past, and even our innermost thoughts are subject to surveillance. The novel centers on Sara Hussein, a Moroccan American who, upon returning to Los Angeles from a conference in London, is detained by the Risk Assessment Administration (RAA). This federal agency employs biometric data to predict potential criminal behavior, and Sara's "risk score"—calculated from her dreams—indicates she might harm her husband. Consequently, she is confined to a retention center for a supposed twenty-one-day observation period.


Lalami's portrayal of the retention center is both chilling and immersive. The facility, operated by a private prison firm, imposes exorbitant fees for basic amenities and extends detainees' stays for minor infractions, creating a Kafkaesque environment where proving innocence becomes an insurmountable challenge. The narrative delves into the dehumanizing effects of such a system, highlighting the erosion of personal freedoms under the guise of security.

The novel's structure is particularly noteworthy. Lalami intersperses the main narrative with report sheets, transcripts, and terms-of-service excerpts, adding depth and realism to the story. These elements underscore the bureaucratic coldness of the surveillance state and its invasive reach into personal lives.

Lalami's storytelling is both compelling and unsettling, forcing readers to confront the potential consequences of unchecked technological advancements and the commodification of personal data. The Dream Hotel serves as a cautionary tale, urging a reevaluation of the relationship between privacy, technology, and freedom. It's a novel that resonates deeply, leaving readers to ponder the true cost of security in a surveillance-driven world.

I found this book really interesting. I enjoyed the heavy themes of technology, privacy, risk, and the prison system. It's interesting timing for this book to come out as more companies are heavily investing in AI that can have a high error rate without proper testing, usage, and oversight. The MC was a little irritating to me, but I still felt for her. I found her relationship with her husband worthy of a bit more exploration than we get in the book. I would have liked a bit more depth to the dream company - I was really interested in those pieces, but we only get a short few scenes. Part of what makes this novel extra bleak is that the premise is not that far off from our reality, which really drove home the despair the MC feels. Highly recommend this one to any sci-fi/dystopian fans!

Thank you to Pantheon and NetGalley for the ARC.

This book is absolutely spectacular. Totally captivating and well-spun dystopian fiction with a humanity that oozes from the pages. I couldn't put it down.

“We blame the algorithm for our predicament, she thinks, but the algorithm was written by people. That’s who put us at Madison. People, not machines.”

Unfortunately I didn’t enjoy my time reading The Dream Hotel by Laila Lalami. While the concept was interesting and I did enjoy reading about the main character’s experience in archival work and the discussions around how algorithms and statistics are biased, I left the novel feeling unsatisfied.

I never emotionally connected with the main character or the side characters that she interacted with everyday. The way the story was written made me feel like an outside observer, and I never felt like I was actually engaged with what was going on, even during high action moments.

I also felt disjointed as a reader with the one random perspective shift in the middle of the story that was never really discussed again – I don’t think it added much to the story, and if anything took away the excitement of a reveal that came later.

Readers who enjoy slow, introspective stories might really love this one – just don’t go into this expecting a gripping dystopian read that is difficult to put down like I did.

Thank you to Netgalley for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Review posted to Goodreads on 1/16/25.

Brief review will be posted to Instagram at the end of January in my monthly reading wrap-up.

This book had the potential to be really good, but it ended up being just okay. Long and drug out, nothing at all exciting and the ending was very anticlimactic. I’ll give it 2 stars because I finished it, but I doubt I’ll even remember it next week. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for letting me read this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

A frightening depressingly realistic future dystopia where the U.S. has commissioned a Risk Assessment Administration (RAA) to detain people that an AI algorithm predicts are likely to create future crimes.

Sara, a Muslim working mom of young twins, returns from a conference in London to find herself detained at LAX passport control based on a prediction that she will murder her husband. This is based on an undefined black box of data including that from a Dreamsaver implant, prescribed to treat sleep deprivation but that secretly uses AI to spy on people’s dreams as a predictor of future criminal behavior. Even if you do not have the Dreamsaver device, the government keeps risk assessments on everyone, tracks biometric data, and sets a random score of 500 above which you get retained as a risk to society.

Despite calling it a retainment, Sara’s clearly imprisoned in a decommissioned elementary school with her every move watched, recorded and evaluated. Like the many other women there, she’s held long past the 21 days proscribed observation period. She’s made to do forced labor rating AI-generated content on how human-generated it seems- oh the irony in this!
Sara’s freedom and privacy get completely stripped away as she lingers in a vague, undefined evaluation in which nothing is in her control. It feels like the government version of disappearing people, and no one seems inclined to evaluate the accuracy of the algorithm that targeted her or whether it has racial profiling implications. Plus, the for-profit private company owning the retainment centers has more profits to gain by keeping people there as long as possible.

As you read the novel, it feels that you too could easily become unjustly retained in a Big Brother state based on undefined risk data you have absolutely no idea about, and no recourse to challenge. It also deepens fears around relying on AI to make emotionally laden judgments and the extremes to which society might take surveillance tech. You can practically hear the clanging of emergency warning bells as you read.

A creepingly haunting warning of where the next evolution of technology could lead us.

Thanks to Knopf, Pantheon, Vintage and Anchor, and NetGalley for an advanced reader’s copy.

Coming home from a business trip, Sara is detained at the airport and then held in a facility — all because the algorithm, which monitors dreams, social media, and all of our personal data, has decided she is likely to commit a crime in the future.

With this terrifying premise, Laila Lalami’s The Dream Hotel initially reminded me of the 2002 movie Minority Report, but instead of an action/thriller where our narrator is running around trying to prove their innocence, Sara is stuck in the facility where she’s being held, along with many other women, for observation. They’re told it’s not a prison, but it certainly operates like one.

Sara is determined to stick up for herself and for what's right, even though she knows it'll result in her time at the facility being extended - again and again.

Touching on topics of social media, surveillance, big business, discrimination, motherhood, and so much more, Lalami’s novel is a fascinating character piece and societal study!

This was one of those books that pulled me right in. I was in the middle of another book, but I was so curious about this one and planned to just read a couple chapters - I ended up not being able to stop. I really loved the opening chapters, how they gave us only little pieces of information about how and why Sara got here.

The midpoint had such a strong lynchpin, but then I found myself in a little bit of a slump in the following chapters, wanting to get back to that new piece of information and its ramifications - but my patience paid off because I very much enjoyed the way Lalami rounded out this story.

Absolutely adore this author and will read anything they have written or will write. New favorite! Will purchase for libraries.

I really enjoyed this book, though it took me a bit to get into it.

The Dream Hotel isn't categorized as horror (as far as I could see) but it felt horrifying because the dystopia was too plausible. We may not put people in jail for "pre-crime" yet (do we?we might???) but, as Lalami puts in her afterword, these "crime predictive" softwares already exist. I think the scariest part of this book is the way Sara is treated in retention. She is denied hearings for silly reasons, she is written up and given extra time in holding on the whim of a guard, and she is expected to work for basically no pay, all like real prison.

This book also made me think about the fact that none of us would probably hold up under a microscope. We all have bad thoughts, fights, bad dreams, etc,. I probably couldn't get out of retention either,

"In any case, crime is relative, it's boundaries shifting in service of the people in power."

First book I’ve read by Laila Lalamj and I loved it! I couldn’t imagine a world like this, this tied to AI, and government. I’d be screwed 🤣 and in a retention center in a heartbeat due to my dream, my thoughts. Definitely very very very good!

4.75/5

Think Minority Report, Black Mirror, and Orange is the New Black all thrown together to create this wonderfully dystopian novel. A horrifyingly accurate depiction of where society may be headed, this book had me on the edge of my seat. A must read.

Thank you NetGalley and Knopf, Pantheon, Vintage, and Anchor for sending this book for review consideration. All opinions are my own.

Thank you Pantheon and NetGalley for the ARC. WOW.

Plot: The story takes place in a future world where people can be detained on a pre-crime basis, based on a risk score that is calculated using various data. Sara is detained at the airport and sent to detainment due to her slightly high risk score, which was high in large part due to an alleged dream that she had suggesting she might be a danger to her husband. Sara is a mom to twin infants, so she is in a lot of turmoil as she seeks her freedom.

Review. This one hit me hard…. in part because the future felt not so distant, but also because I could truly feel Sara’s pain, and I felt like I was in her head the entire novel. This novel takes a hard look at pre-crime detainment (such as immigration detainers) and really the depravity of the prison system in general. I could go on and on about the many thought-provoking themes this novel evokes, but I don’t want to spoil any of the experience. This is a novel that I won’t forget, and I hope the author is nominated the Booker or National Book Award for this one.

5🌟

This book was fantastic. I thought the concept was unique and although it reminded me a little bit of Handmaid's Tale, it felt much more plausible and realistic. It was very frightening to think how easily something like this could happen and how every aspect of our lives could be under control (more than it already is!).

ahhh where to start with this one! Lalami definitely offers a fresh take on themes that feel increasingly relevant in today’s world, but i fear this one was not for me. i really wanted to like it, but i struggled to fully immerse myself—a key part of enjoying a dystopian fiction like this.

i appreciate lalami’s attempt to tackle big issues like racial profiling, societal pressures on women to "sit down and shut up," and how we easily we’re willing to trade privacy for convenience.

unfortunately, by trying to tackle so many issues, the story ultimately fell flat, with moments that came across as very on the nose or overly didactic. while the black mirror-esque premise intrigued me—and made me want to start thinking twice before blindly accepting cookies on the internet—the execution just didn’t land for me personally.

i didn’t love it, but i didn’t hate it either. if sci-fi is your thing, this is still definitely one you may want to pick up!

huge thank you to netgalley and the publisher for the opportunity to share my honest opinion !!

My thanks to NetGalley and Knopf, Pantheon, Vintage, and Anchor Publishers for an advance copy of this novel that looks at how the dreams we have can be held against, us by a government looking to prevent crimes, crimes that seem to be against the status quo, and crimes that never seem to come to trial.

I have been reading science fiction most of my life and in many ways I feel this has really shaped my view on technology. I had given up on flying cars, thinking that is no way a government would allow something that dangerous be given to civilians. Of course I never thought military assault weapons would be open-carried, so prepare for flying cars hitting your house. Whenever I see something new, my first thought is how will it be used to control us. Drones will deliver your Amazon products, and also bomb babies in disputed lands. Social media will make us all care for each other was another myth. Artifical intelligence is something that has been written about quite a lot in science fiction. Mostly not well. And yet it is still the dream. AI will change things. Yes, jobs, environmental impact, and maybe end us all. Humans have a gift for that, along with a want to control. One of the few places we can be free is in our dreams. We can be who we want, love who we want, and live a life that is free. In this novel dreams are the crime, a crime that hasn't happened. And that demands attention and detention. For how long well, there is an app for that. The Dream Hotel by Laila Lalami is a novel set in the future, a future that the author dreamed up, but seems very close to the future we are dealing with today.

Sara Hussein is coming back from a trip to London, excited to see he husband and her twins. Flights used to a be a nightmare, with her last name, and darker complexion, but since AI took over the TSA, things have been easier. Until the Scout asks her to step to another line. And another. And soon she is answereing questions. The algorithm has shown that Sara has had dreams about hurting her husband. This dreams have been picked up by an app, she downloaded. As no crime had been committed, Sara is to be retained for twenty-one days, to see if these dreams go away. The retention center is a remodeled school, and is full of other dreamers, guilty only of dreaming something that got them flagged. The rules of the center are hard to follow, bad dreams add time, not cleaning utensils, time, not working time. Guards get vacation pay for the more write-ups they give. Sara begins to notice that people keep being added but few leave. Months pass, her twins are growing up, and Sara is feeling lost. Until something happens that makes Sara want to be human again.

A book that is far topical than I think even the author expected. Pandemics, wildfires, AI, banned social media sites, and even more. This is a book with a slow build, which mirrors the life that Sara is living. Detention means having lots of time, but nothing to do with it. Retention is the same thing, but even your dreams might get one in trouble. There is much going on. Looking at the agreements on apps is a big one. Prison work systems. The lack of freedom women have, and how if possible governments would love to prearrest women for acts like dreaming of abortion, or reporting their co-workers for inappropriate actions. Lalami is a very good writer, showing Sara and her before life, and what she has now to deal with. Dropping little things about the last pandemic causing a rise in speech problems among children. Even crazed wildfires. Lalami makes this very much a book of today, and one that many will nod and go I can see this happening. And others go, hmm I wonder if I can patent this idea and make it happen.

I was looking forward to this book because the premise sounded similar to the movie Minority Report. While there are similarities, The Dream Hotel fell short of capturing the suspense and drama of the film.

Dreams are used to predict possible crimes in the near future. After returning from a conference in London, Sara, a wife and new mother, is flagged by the Risk Assessment Administration as a danger to her husband. She is sent to a retention facility for twenty-one days of observation. Still, as the observation period turns into months, she wonders what it takes to prove her innocence. Learning to adhere to the unwritten rules, Sara's world is upset when a new detainee, Eisley, shows up and upsets the norm.

This book starts slowly and never gains momentum until the end, which feels rushed. I feel frustrated for Sara and her fellow detainees but could never fully relate to them. For these reasons, I had difficulty caring enough to finish the book—I kept thinking it would get better, but it never did. Given today's AI controversy, I found this book thoughtful and a bit scary. 3/5 stars.

Thank you, NetGalley and Pantheon, for an advance copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own. The publication date is March 4, 2025.

Wow, this book is amazing and scary all at the same time. Scary because I can see a world like this happening in the future, and I don't want any part of it. I am a little disappointed in the ending because I would've hoped for a better outcome in Madison, some actual changes, but it also makes perfect sense that it would end that way. This book had a great flow and gave you little snippets of the outside world that added value to the story. Hinton is still a mystery to me, and I didn't understand the need for certain interactions. For example, the interaction between Elias and the other visitor seemed unnecessary. But these things did not take away from the story.
Thank you for sharing this story with me!

I was wonderfully impressed by this semi-horror, techno dystopian piece of literature (my own categorization tbh), mainly because of its ability to get stuck in my head. At a time when fascists are being legitimized at increasing rates, technology is becoming an ever present burden in our organic lives, the position of laborer is more clearly being seen as a sort of entrapment, and abolition is taking a center stage in many leftist (and even liberal) circles, this book is a striking blend of themes that bring to light such important conversations. Not only that, but Sara’s story is one that prompts you to wonder “what would I do if this was my life,” before considering that we’re currently hurdling towards a future much like this, if not already living in a diet version of it. The wildfires in California have not only brought people up to speed with the issues of climate change, hastened by the use of AI in the past few years, but also of the incarcerated firefighters who are pushing back the blaze. When the wildfires in this book began, I was shaken by the parallel, and reminded of how necessary it is for people to start making connections, and fast. Not only that, but Lalami’s ability to mold characters is so refreshing. I looked forward to seeing how their relationships progressed, how they faced challenges, how they grew. Their innovation in the face of an oppressive system was inspiring, and I found myself even more invested in the personal relationships that were taking on water as Sara’s stay at Madison was extended. There were genuinely times I wanted to throw my phone at the wall or scream or cry. Okay, maybe I did actually cry a little when Sara was faced with yet another string of unfair punishments by the attendees. It was a great, experience, and I really do look forward to reading the book again when it’s published!

3.5 stars rounded up to 4

Sara Hussein is flying home from a work event in London when she’s suddenly detained because of the holistic (as monitored by many recording devices and metrics, including her dreams) belief she’s a threat to others. The ideas here were unique, and gave off a combination of Orange is the New Black and The Handmaid’s Tale vibes, but the story became slow to me midway through and there wasn’t much happening in the plot for a long time. Because the book starts with Sara’s detention, her husband and children’s characters weren’t as well developed as I would’ve liked to truly care about them and their roles in her story.

The book has a very brief conclusion. Switching from dreams to reality was sometimes confusing (I read the eARC & the font was consistent throughout- not sure if there will be font differences in the print book?) A bit long for me.

Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.