For most of us, our dreams are what our brains do while we are sleeping. We have no control over what we dream, and certainly should not be held liable for what our mind decides to conjure up when we are in the throes of slumber. But what if our dreams held more significance? What if they were considered to be a pre-cursor to our future actions? What if they were believed to be able to predict future crimes? Welcome to Laila Lalami’s new novel The Dream Hotel, an ominous speculative fiction novel about the dangers of the surveillance state.

When Sara Hussein is detained at the airport, she cannot imagine why, aside from perhaps, her name. She soon learns that she has been flagged because it is believed she will soon commit a crime - harming her husband. When Sara learns that it is her DREAMS that have landed her in trouble, she cannot believe it - of course she is not going to act on a figment of her sleeping mind! Nonetheless, Sara finds herself headed to a retention center where she will have to stay until her risk score, a number assigned to each person assessing their chances of committing a crime, lowers to an acceptable level.

While it is continuously stressed that the retention center is not a prison, it is difficult to look at it as being anything but with the retained being treated as if they have already committed and been convicted. As Sara gets to know the other women she is being held with, she discovers that they are there for a variety of reasons, and all are struggling to find purchase in pleading their case for release. Sara finds her stay in the facility being extended time and time again due to unfair circumstances beyond her control, but the extra time in the retention center gives her an opportunity to potentially uncover what’s really going on behind the scenes …

The Dream Hotel should serve as a warning to all of us who breeze past the privacy notice and terms of service when downloading a trending app or purchasing a new device. While most of us click accept without thinking twice, figuring that no one will ever use our data against us, Laila Lalami proves that the opposite could easily become quite true in a world that takes surveillance of its citizens a little too seriously.

The premise of The Dream Hotel is excellent - it is just the sort of book I go for, especially since I like to speculate and perceive our world through an alternate lens. However, the execution of this storyline is unfortunately lacking. I needed a bit more grit, intimacy, and horror to really drive this story home for me and make it feel real.

The Dream Hotel by Laila Lalami follows the story of Sara as she pleads her innocence in a time when you can be punished for your dreams. This novel is a take on technology’s consequences in the near future and the ethics surrounding it.

I really enjoyed reading about the relationships between the dreamers. I wish the novel delved more in to the other characters backstories. I do feel like the ending felt a bit flat. Overall I found The Dream Hotel a captivating read. The concept of The Dream Hotel is so brilliantly original that it makes readers really think about the ethics of the future of technology. I would love to read more of Lalami’s other works.

I’d recommend this book to both science fiction readers and also readers who are looking to branch out into that genre. This book is perfect for fans of Blake Crouch and John Marrs.

In a time where society is tired of violence and crime, prevention becomes the solution. A risk number is attached to everyone where everything they do is monitored and examined, when the risk score gets higher than 500. They can be placed in a secured area where they will be monitored at all times for a short period of 21 days. Only if they do not commit any infractions while also proving to be proper members of society by working with companies affiliated with the facility. This book gave me so much anxiety I had to put the book down multiple times, but I couldn’t stop reading it. I felt claustrophobic reading about Sara’s experience in Madison being that controlled and having no power over their view of her. Placing ridiculous expectations over their behavior and their dreams had me twitchy and frustrated. There was so much here that tore me up, racial profiling, harassment, gender inequality, and corporation abuse. I probably missed some but a lot of these opened my eyes to how easily we can be put into these situations. Corporations buying out information and holding it against us, manipulating our information. I really hope that you give this book a chance it might open you to a perspective you’ve never had before. I had an experience reading this that I do not regret.

Thanks to NetGalley and Pantheon Books I received a ARC for an honest review !

I really wanted to like this. It started out super strong, but the speculative fiction energy petered out really fast, which is what drew me to this read in the first place.

An absolutely captivating book that draws you in from the first page. While ostensibly set in the future, the similarities to modern day make for an eerie and cautionary tale. I was initially skeptical of the premise, but it quickly became one of my favorite reads of 2025. I know I’ll be recommending this for years to come.

I loved this book although it frightened me with its resemblance to our current situation. It didn’t skimp on the characters or the details, which gave it a startling reality. Read this now, then put it on the shelf next to 1984 and The Handmaid’s Tale.

Thanks to NetGalley and Pantheon for the ARC.

This felt timely and thought-provoking. Lalami writes this in a way that feels real.

This one really took me by surprise! I thought it was going to be a creepy "am I dreaming or is this reality" style Sci-Fi story. It actually takes a futuristic dystopia kind of vibe and I was here for it! I thoroughly enjoyed how the story unfolded and the characters developed so I began to understand how the main character got herself in the situation she was in with few freedoms and how her companions did as well. This whole idea of your dreams being tracked with potential consequences and removal of basic freedoms in response to those dreams is frankly a frightening concept! This one really reminded me of John Marrs' dystopian society novels and style. It was a great read and I'd definitely recommend to any Sci-Fi lover. I received this ARC copy from NetGalley and the publisher and all opinions are my own.

This felt a bit long and repetitive, and while it's critiques were smart, I wanted it to dig deeper. 3.75.

3.5 stars
The premise of this book is fantastic and heartbreakingly parallel to things that have ACTUALLY happened. One of my favorite things the author says is in her acknowledgments.
“The town of Ellis is fictional; pre-crime is not.”
And that is what is super interesting about this book.

Basically a woman is detained at the airport because of her dreams and is transported to essentially a detention center for women who have committed crimes in their dreams or who have suspicious behaviors.
Just drinking alcohol on a casual basis increases your risk of being sent to a detention facility. Reading this content is so scary, but I love it!!!

I very much did enjoy reading this book, but my god the ending is just SO anticlimactic. I was sure it was going to end a different way and it didn’t and I was entirely dissatisfied. My very first thought was “what was the point then?”
Having said that, I would still recommend it to dystopian lovers because the concept is great and unsettling.

The Dream Hotel found me unexpectedly, right after I said out loud that I wanted to read something “really incredible and gripping” and, like I conjured it, it delivered tenfold.

Not only does it ask important questions about surveillance and how technocrats can really destroy the world as we know it, it tells a damn good story. I read it in as many stolen moments as I could find, it taking up time I would have spent scrolling or working.

The story follows Sara, a new mom who gets detained at LAX for a crime she hasn’t yet committed and thrown into a retention center where she’s to be observed and monitored for any indication that she is innocent or guilty of future crimes.

This novel is incredibly unsettling, brilliant, and unpredictable. I didn’t know where the train was going to land after it left the station.

It makes you want to delete your social media accounts and question why we willingly share any of our information to corporations who would quickly and willingly sell us out for a dollar.

Add this to your TBR.

This was such an interesting concept that sucked me in! The exploration of a twisted justice system that isn't too far from our reality was disturbing and intriguing. The writing style was nuanced and I really connected with the main character and felt her anxiety and stress throughout the book. This book definitely reads like dystopian fiction but is also deeply rooted in reality making it even more disturbing of a story. My only complaint is I kept getting the side characters and different inmates confused. I wish they had slightly more differentiation or backstory so I could tell who was who throughout. Overall, this was a interesting and haunting read and I really wish it was a series and we could learn even more about the world and the technology.

The Dream Hotel by Laila Lalami was very good and very different. If you like dystopian, sci-fi, frightening technology, introspective, will have you questioning your dreams then you will love this book.

Lalami did such a fantastic job with this book. The story line and plot reminded me of Minority Report. Sara is detained in at LAX returning from a work trip. She is married and recently had twins. She went over her 5 points and they are trying to figure out why. She is sent to a prison like facility for having dreams of doing harm. This book made me angry and also made me wonder what would be like if this were to really happen. Everyone under an AI program to monitor and prevent crime regardless of whether you would act on it or not. So good!! Thank you to Pantheon and NetGalley for letting me read this ARC in exchange for my honest thoughts and opinions.

I thought this was a really fantastic science fiction dystopia, reminded me of episodes of Black Mirror. The story does a cool thing where it's non-linear, the timing shifts around in a really interesting way. I thought this was a great book overall!

Have you ever wondered what life would be like if every facet of our lives was documented and controlled by AI, including our dreams? The Dream Hotel offers a stark view of how technology, and particularly AI systems can control our not too distant future.

Sara Hussein is used to extra questioning in airports but when she is flagged at LAX after returning from a business trip in London based on her risk score, specifically her sleep data, she quickly learns the consequences of allowing AI to scan personal data for risk. After reasonable pushback on Sara’s part, in combination with the nature of her dreams, she is deemed a risk to her husband and sent to a retention center for 21 days. She had no idea that the digital sleep program she opted to have implanted is actually recording and analyzing her dreams and that what happens in her dreams can be used against her. 21 days come and go and she soon realizes she will remain detained unless and until she figures out a way to disrupt the systems that placed her here.

This story could easily be an episode of Black Mirror, it evokes the scary side of technology and highlights its flaws in truly analyzing and understanding human nature. I loved the characters and found myself turning every page hoping to see Sara, and her friends, reunited with their families. This story evoked a level of anxiety I haven’t experienced since reading the School for Good Mothers. As someone who uses technology to track biometrics on a daily basis (Apple Watch, Oura Ring, etc.) stories like this are a good reminder that we must retain a balance in the use of technology and never trust AI to fully replace the ability to understand the human psyche.

If you’re looking for some motivation to disconnect from your digital footprint or scale it back, this is definitely the book for you. Thank you to NetGalley and Pantheon for my copy of this book; all opinions are my own.

This book will make you angry, and if it doesn't, it should.
Alarmingly prescient, The Dream Hotel shows the knife's edge of navigating a system designed against you, and how easy it is to slip.
Sara finds herself in a women's retention facility (statedly NOT a prison, but if it walks like a duck...) after her risk score inexplicably rises above the accepted threshold.
Guilty until proven innocent by an algorithm that is actively searching for things she could be guilty of, Sara spends her days trying to move unseen in a heightened surveillance state, and her nights escaping into dreams that can be used as evidence against her.

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

I found myself needing to take breaks throughout reading this because, while it is an excellent read, it can feel a bit hopeless, given that our current affairs are but a hair's breadth away from the book's reality.
Hopeless and angry.
And while us readers are allowed to get viscerally mad for Sara-- frown, scoff, swear aloud at d*ckwad Hinton-- she has to simmer her rage, keep it silently roiling. I think that tangible contrast between us made this story that much more poignant.

Also, Sharp Jello is a great band name.


Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.

Thank you Pantheon and NetGalley for this ARC! Always a pleasure to receive a free book in exchange for my honest review.

I was super excited to see that I was approved for this book! The premise 100% gives me Black Mirror vibes and I am HERE for it! Which is why I am so sad to say that this book fell flat for me. I wanted to love it so much......this is a skip for me.


1/5

Holly Collins

Thank you for providing the advanced copy of Dream Hotel. This was a uniquely thought-provoking read, simultaneously terrifying and yet unsettlingly imaginable.

Set in a near-future America where dreams are under surveillance, the story begins with Sara's detention at the airport. An algorithm, analyzing her dream data, predicts she will harm her husband, leading to her confinement in a retention center. Here, she joins other "dreamers," predominantly women, all striving to prove their innocence. As minor infractions lead to extended stays, Sara confronts the oppressive system and the powerful tech companies controlling their lives. The novel compellingly questions the balance between convenience and freedom, and the very essence of identity under constant surveillance.

The pacing of the book felt somewhat restrained. I honestly anticipated a dramatic climax that would challenge and potentially dismantle the deeply disturbing system presented. However, the narrative remained largely focused on a personal level, and the conclusion didn't quite reach the explosive point I had envisioned. While I was immensely intrigued by the world-building and the potential it suggested, I found the middle section somewhat slow, and the ending, for me personally, lacked complete satisfaction. Nevertheless, Dream Hotel remains a very interesting and relevant read that is undoubtedly worth the reader's time.

This book was a wonderful commentary on how our thoughts and every move could become data to be used and taken advantage of by authorities. How might we prevent crime, and might extreme prevention methods, such as that in The Dream Hotel, challenge our humanity?

I found this story compelling and enticing and the events in this book extend the idea and action of profiling, which happens in society every day. This is a great example of what happens when it's taken too far. Then when you are incarcerated or held against your will, the goalposts of innocence move. I thought the book could have been shorter to get the same point across, but overall this is an incredible novel.

I loved the concept of this book and felt it had such high potential, but the execution fell flat for me. I couldn’t connect with any of the characters, the story was soooo slow, and in the end it felt like nothing really even happened. So sad that I didn't love this one!

Thank you to NetGalley and Pantheon for the ARC.