Readers/viewers of Minority Report will recognize some aspects of this novel; the direction Lalami took this idea in for our contemporary times was interesting and highly readable.

Thank you to Net Galley and Knopf, Pantheon, Vintage, and Anchor for the ARC. I wish I could rate this higher because I really enjoyed the themes being explored. The first half is strong but the ending is unsatisfying because the book feels incomplete since many threads which were brought up in the beginning do not get resolved. Also the ending felt super convenient and random. But otherwise the writing style is good, and I enjoyed following the main character's time in retention.

Ok starting off the year STRONG with this one. Set in a dystopian present/near future where everyone gets assigned a risk score, and you can be detained at any time if the government deems you a threat, even going so far as to track your dreams. Very Black Mirror/Orange is the New Black/School for Good Mothers vibes, I love this.

Thank you to NetGalley and Knopf, Pantheon, Vintage, and Anchor for sending me this book!

Thank you NetGally for this book!!

I throughly enjoyed this book! This brand of sci-fi and speculative fiction had always been very fascinating for me and from the first chapter I was intrigued by the setting and by the narrator. Laila does an amazing job of having this read like literary fiction, it makes the book that more accessible and fast to get through. I literally could not put it down.

3.25 ⭐️
While I did want more from this book, it was very readable. I would recommend this book if you’re interested in a story about a woman’s incarceration and you’re not hoping for something heavy on the dystopian/ sci-fi end of things.

This somehow felt both totally far fetched and super rooted in current times and the unfortunate ways of society today. I felt mixed about it all, but would be interested in other works by this author regardless.

Thank you for the opportunity to read this book! This was a well-written futuristic Thriller that really makes you think about the role that technology plays in the world today and where it could be going in the future. It was fast-paced, engaging and interesting.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an advanced copy!
This started out sliiiiightly slower than I expected, but gripped me in around 20% through and I couldn’t put it down. This has dystopian/science fiction-y elements and themes, but it reads like literary fiction IMO — and something about that combination really worked for me. While not necessarily fast-paced (I would actually call it rather slow), there is *juuuuust enough* happening to keep your attention and keep the pages turning.

Xoxoxxoo, a girl scared to dream now

I wanted to like this book more than I actually did, but it offers an interesting exploration of the surveillance state, the limits of AI, and how easily we surrender personal information without fully considering the consequences. These themes make it a worthwhile read, especially for anyone intrigued by such topics. However, my main issue was that the characters felt one-dimensional, and the exploration of these themes, while relevant, came across as somewhat surface-level.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this book.

It was overall a great read. A few slow parts, but not many.

I read it over the course of two days.

Recommend.

This novel is very close to modern day real life -- and not in a good way. The novel is a well-written telling of life where people's dreams are monitored and misinterpreted. with sometimes dire consequences. The person's authorization for dream monitoring was hidden in the very small print of a contract for a brain implant to help insomniacs sleep. The atmospheric story telling depressed me as I read it. Denouement was vague.

The Dream Hotel by Laila Lalami

The Risk Assessment Administration has its greedy fingers into everything. In the not too distant future, everyone has a Risk Assessment score and getting too far over 500 on the Risk Assessment rating puts a person on a watch list if it doesn't go even farther to put a person into a retention center. These retention centers seem to be for profit outfits and they have their prisoners (oh, excuse me, you don't get to call them prisoners) as slave (oh, sorry "not" slave) labor on contracts that the centers have with companies. Ideally someone who is forced into a retention center will be out after the initial required stay of twenty one days but that seldom happens. The retention center powers that be have a huge number of fuzzy rules that can be easily broken, easily changed, and not even stated which leads more retainers than not to have much longer stays at the centers, thus giving the centers a somewhat stable work force for its for profit endeavors. How convenient, how shady.

Add to all of that is the fact that a large number of people have devices installed in their bodies that both help them have better sleep but also record their dreams. The dreams are monitored by powers that be to supplement a person's risk assessment. Violent dreams can land a person in a retention center and violent dreams can keep a person ensconced in a retention center indefinitely. Sadly this "retention center fuzzy not prison but it sure seems like one" situation can make for anxiety induced nightmares that certainly don't help risk assessment scores. This is the world we enter into at the start of The Dream Hotel.

This dystopian story does the genre in a way that I enjoy. So much that goes on in this story could happen in the future. Even now, devices are implanted to improve sleep, government departments and businesses abuse their powers for all kinds of greedy reasons. The common everyday person can have little recourse to fight the huge bureaucracies that can govern their lives and their ability to get through life without a lot of wasted time, money, and effort. I like the way the author handles Sara's story and the only thing I ask is that there will be a follow-up book to this one. The story isn't over, I want to know more, I have questions, and I think there is a lot of room to explore what is happening and what happens next. The feeling of unease is strong for me because I don't think the author had to reach too far into "fiction" to write this world.

Thank you to Knopf, Pantheon, Vintage, and Anchor | Pantheon and NetGalley for this ARC.

What a ride!!

Imagine, you’re coming home from a work trip to reunite with your husband and twins. Suddenly, you get pulled by security and within hours and told you’re taken to a retention center and told you’re guilty of soon committing a crime. How? Because in this near future, even your dreams are under surveillance.

Sara Hussein. What a character. And year ???? in the future. What a dystopian setting. Every dystopian book I read has started to feel like more and more of a real life future and this one was no exception. The discussion of AI and privacy with technology and government boundaries and imprisonment for profit… this book has it all.

I could’ve read another 100 pages of this book and I actually wish it was a bit longer just to flesh out some parts that felt rushed to me. The end felt very sudden and I still don’t 100% understand why there were a few chapters from the other POV.

All that being said, however, I flew through this book in 24 hours and really enjoyed it. This would make for a fantastic book club pick as there’s so much to discuss!

This is a story of a sleep-deprived working mom of twins who turns to a life-changing piece of technology: ‘Dreamcatcher’. This implant promises deep, restful sleep by storing dreams for you. But in a dystopian twist, those dreams are being monitored—and when Sara returns from a work trip, she’s flagged by a government agency that claims her dreams indicate she’s a future threat. No trial, no evidence…. just her dreams. Sara is sent to a grim detention facility for “retention,” and what follows is a nightmare of shifting rules, arbitrary punishments, and a growing realization that proving her innocence might be impossible.

Lalami builds a world that feels terrifyingly close to our own, where the lines between safety and surveillance, convenience and control, have been obliterated. Sara’s journey is painful and infuriating, but you can’t help rooting for her. She’s messy, stubborn, and fully human, and her fight against an unjust system feels raw and real. The friendships she builds inside the facility—especially with Toya and Victoria—add layers of warmth to an otherwise bleak world.

This book really hits hard with its commentary on how easily we trade our privacy for convenience, how corporate greed is everywhere, and how technology always seems to hurt the people who are already struggling the most. It’s unsettling, no doubt, but you can’t stop reading. Lalami’s writing is so vivid and powerful—it pulls you in, even when it’s breaking your heart. Every moment feels intentional, and you just have to know what happens next.

While the story is heavy—there’s no denying the dread that lingers as you read—it’s also thought-provoking in the best way. What does freedom really mean? How much of it are we giving up without even noticing? And how do you fight back against a system designed to crush you?

If you’re into books like Minority Report or shows like Black Mirror, you’ll probably love this one. It’s got all the dystopian elements, but with a deeply personal, human story at its core. It’s the kind of book that sticks with you, making you question the world we’re building—and the small choices that might already be steering us toward it. Highly, highly recommend.

Thank you to NetGalley and Knopf, Pantheon, Vintage, and Anchor.

In the near future, the government establishes a Risk Assessment Administration to determine who is likely to commit a crime based on an algorithm of many data points -- and then they put those people in retention centers that are actually, definitely jail. One of those data points? Your dreams.

Combine that with the perils of late stage capitalism and you have an actual living nightmare.

This does not feel that farfetched given the current state of technology. And that is what makes this story so chilling. What happened to the main character Sara could happen to any of us. Imagine the worst nightmare you have ever had and then imagine the government using that as proof you should be imprisoned, away from your children and the rest of your family, not to mention your job would be lost as well.

Laila Lalami is an incredible writer, and I will be seeking out more of her books. She created a believable world -- she even took the terms of use for the technology in this book from real software agreements -- and her characters are fully developed. While I got frustrated with Sara multiple times and would not necessarily make the choices she did, by the end I fully respected her.

The first half of this book I read with a feeling of dread. The second half contained more hope. I don't think it is a reach to say this book should be a must-read. It will certainly make you think twice about the data you agree to give companies (that care only about making money). And on that note, you'll think how others could become rich by turning you into a commodity.

Thank you Knopf, Pantheon, Vintage, and Anchor and NetGalley for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

Thank you, NetGalley and Knopf, Pantheon, Vintage, and Anchor | Pantheon books for this ARC for review. This book was not at all what I expected, but I greatly enjoyed where it took me. The Dream Hotel touches on how technology can help or harm us depending on who is using it or what it is used for. This book was a fascinating study at how technology could be used to control society, and specifically women, in a very scary way, with no research to support it.

A jarring, deeply unsettling story about a future that closely parallels our present - Laila Lalami is a masterful storyteller as she unveils a narrative centered around a young mother who's held captive against her will.

"The Dream Hotel" opens when Sara Hussein, an archivist at the Getty Museum, is pulled out of line at the LAX airport after returning from a business trip and subjected to a series of interrogations - all because her Risk Score, an algorithmically calculated total that is the result of the national RAA (Risk Assessment Administration), has put her into the threshold for at risk. Forced to live in an all-women's retention facility that mirrors a prison, she's stripped away from her husband and two young children, and forced into a purgatory with only vague promises of eventual freedom. The current world is one that's subject to an all-encompassing scope of surveillance, where data about every conversation and even dreams are collected, processed, and analyzed - an can be used against you.

The bulk of this novel focuses on Sara's experience living in the retention facility known as Madison, and the other women she meets and befriends during their shared experience. It is a dark, dismal environment where abuse of power is rampant; rules and regulations are only at the detriment of the detainees; and the women are forced to work to help the CRO (Chief Retention Officer) meet contractual guidelines with other companies for corporate profit. The novel is a clear critique of the existing incarceration system, and how poorly governed and structured it is; especially given recent events of the abuse and mistreatment of prisoners in our country, this message could not have come at a better time. Lalami's novel also serves as a warning to the growing presence of surveillance, data collection, and AI - and the dangerous ways these things can sabotage and destroy our current society.

Very much a recommended read when "The Dream Hotel" is published in March 2024!

The Dream Hotel is creepily on point in so many ways! From 'I didn't read the fine print in the terms of service and that led to unforeseen consequences' to 'surveillance is great, but oops, now I'm the one being surveilled' to 'women should support each other, but sometimes they'd rather kiss the patriarchy's butt'. It isn't just a fictional illustration of contemporary concerns though--the characterizations are so richly textured you are drawn into caring about these people (or in some cases, caring about seeing them get what's coming to them, lol). Highly recommend!

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. And that quickly, Sara ends up at a privately-run retention center, where she and the other detainees are monitored virtually every minute by guards and electronics to insure that they comply with ever-changing rules lest their sentences be increased as a result of an infraction.

Laila Lalami has created a very realistic future society, where an effort to reduce crime has led to massive surveillance, including not only observable behaviors but also dreams, which are then interpreted according to a mysterious algorithm to determine who is likely to commit a crime in the future. Punishment for crimes has been replaced by crime prevention, and retention facilities are touted as a means of keeping society safe from crimes.

As Sara's sentence is repeatedly extended, often because of write-ups for seemingly random or totally fictitious violations, she begins to despair of ever being freed. After nearly a year of confinement and separation from her husband and their infant twins, it seems that playing by the rules will never earn her release, and rebellion is her response. The tension ramps up as the novel follows her rebellion and the system's responses, and this reader turned the pages eagerly to learn the outcome.

Highly recommended for those who enjoy mysteries and dystopian fiction, this novel will be published in March 2025. Thank you to the publisher and #NetGalley for providing a complimentary ebook in exchange for an objective review.

WOW. This was disturbing in so many different aspects, and brilliantly written. I must admit that I've always been leery of "smart" devices. This increased that wariness, LOL, and I'm grateful I've avoided watch type devices.

I think The Dream Hotel highlights inherent dangers in social media and reliance on technology. Well done.