Absolutely brilliant! I thoroughly enjoyed it. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with an advance copy, I will definitely be recommending it.

In "The Dream Hotel," Laila Lalami gives us a nightmarish look at what happens when tech companies take over the justice and legal systems of a country. It might have seemed farfetched, but we just have to look at 2025's United States to see that Lalami's vision is spot-on. Lalami tells the story of Sara, who is detained at the airport for being a possible danger to her husband. She is not told why she is a danger, and her every answer is twisted into evidence against her. Sara repeatedly tries to get out of detention but she is constantly met with an endless series of purposeful obstacles. It's strongly reminiscent of all the legal troubles we see with immigrants in the US and in the UK.

The book is anxiety inducing because Sara's predicament feels relevant and realistic. Lalami creates a believable fictional world run by algorithms because we see technocrats taking over our lives and harming us through politics and the legal system. We yearn for Sara to escape because we want to escape our real lives as well. Like Sara, we want to reclaim our stolen identities from the algorithm and the tech companies who have infiltrated our lives. Scary first-rate read. As of March 2025, this novel has been longlisted for the Women's Prize for Fiction. I am rooting for its inclusion on the shortlist which will be announced on 2 April 2025

Oh, this is a dystopia that is too close to real life. I’m immediately grabbed by the story and want to read on
The novel tells of a potential future world where Brain implants allow the government to monitor your dreams and these together with data from social media used to monitor and convict you for being a potential criminal even before you have committed any crime . in the book, Sarah and mother and wife is travelling home from a conference abroad when immigration on entering the USA flag are opposite as a potential criminal and imprison her. The story follows her in increasingly impossible attempts to be released from incarceration.
Speculative fiction is one of my favourite genres and this book is so close to the current state in the USA that I find it quite chilling
The author has a clear flowing writing style which is a pleasure to read. The story is fast paced and kept my attention throughout. Character development is well described and you feel you know the main character well by the end of the story.
Originally published in Spain 2008 I’ve not read any of the authors previous novels.

I read an early copy of the novel on NetGalley UK in return for an unbiased review. The book was published in the UK on the 4th of April 2025 by Bloomsbury publishing plc.

This review will appear on NetGalley UK, StoryGraph, Goodreads, and my book blog bionic SarahSbooks.wordpress.com. it will also appear on Amazon UK.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an advance copy of this book,

This is a good read and thought provoking read. I see that the author started to write it in 2014 and it is quite worrying to think that what would have seemed outlandish and unlikely in 2014, now seems within the realms of possibility!

the Retention Centre is well described, rather than a traditional type of institution as in the TV series Bad Girls or Orange is the New Black, this Dream Hotel reminds me more of Wentworth and of course, the authorities are always keen to stress that it is not in fact a detention but a retention centre. prison it seems

Sara is an interesting and relatable character but I felt that the other women, possibly apart from Emily, were a bit thinly drawn and I couldn't remember who was who or what their reason for retention was. It doesn't matter really because I suppose the point is that anyone can be retained. The centre is run with the inefficiency, indifference and rigidity which, according to the TV anyway, is characteristic of all American penal institutions.

In a way, not much happens but that in itself give the reader a feel for the monotony and despair of the lives of the women. No spoilers but the cynicism of the way Sara's situation is resolved is breathtaking but all too believable.

I don't think the title is an accurate reflection of the book.

The Dream Hotel isn’t a hotel at all. The people in there- stuck, without access to the outside world for indeterminate times with extensions given if they don’t follow the arbitrary rules that could change at any time. It’s not a prison. particularly because the people there haven’t committed any crime- yet. They’re there because their ‘risk score’ indicated they might and this is how crime is now managed. Dreams are ‘farmed’ via a device which was sold as a way for customers to get more rest and better sleep, and during the course of the novel we find out that it can be exploited for other means too.

This was an uncomfortable read, challenging at times. It was claustrophobic and the lack of consistency of rules was frustrating (intentionally, by the author- this isn’t a criticism).

The acknowledgment tells of research into the past though the book is set in the future and it shows, it’s written with the skill of a well-crafted historical novel.

I enjoyed that the narrative was broken up with different formats (minutes of CR Officer meetings, emails to Sarah) and that these were inconsistent, I.e they weren’t at the start or end of each chapter, which reflected the many inconsistencies the protagonist had to live through. Unfortunately I never warmed to her husband or their relationship and would have liked to for the book to feel even more tragic. Overall a very interesting premise, well executed.

I was really intrigued when I started reading The Dream Hotel, it felt like a terrifying glimpse into a potential future. Where people's every move is monitored and now even their dreams are a source of data. All in the name of crime prevention.

When Sara is detained at the airport on her return from a business trip she is confused more than anything. She's sent to Madison for monitoring, but it's more like a prison. Every minor transgression is punished with an extension to the time inmates must stay. Sara apparently has been detained due to her dreams indicating she might be a danger to her husband.

There is then a twist that tells us Madison is not what we think, rather it is a perverse way to test a product placement initiative.

I really enjoyed the first half of this book, but felt that the second half lost momentum and the story didn't really offer any satisfactory resolution to the building tension.

The Dream Hotel, Laila Lalami's fifth novel, despite its engagement with the problems of predictive algorithms and artificial intelligence, read to me like a cross between Jessamine Chan's The School for Good Mothers and Orange Is The New Black. In other words, this may have a speculative premise but it's also about big problems in the here and now: the US's carceral society, and the way that its observation and classification of behaviour especially oppresses people of colour. Sara Hussein, an archivist, is travelling back from a work conference when she's told at the airport that her 'risk score', calculated by AI, is too high, and ends up in a 'retention centre' for observation because she's supposedly more likely than the average person to commit a crime. Sara combs through her past, wondering why she ended up here - is it an association with a distant, criminal cousin, her brother's accidental death when she was a kid, or even her violent dreams, which are monitored through an implant in her skull? The Dream Hotel manages to be intensely gripping - I found it hard to stop reading, desperate to find out how Sara might escape this brutal bureaucracy - without sacrificing deeper themes. Lalami explores Sara's changing relationship to the retention centre and, implicitly, the world that she lives in as she moves from being a person who believes if she does everything 'right' she will be rewarded to somebody who realises she needs to seek solidarity with others. I had big problems with Lalami's previous novel, The Other Americans, because it wanted to spell out every single word of its message. The Dream Hotel is SO much better - OK, it has Things To Say, but Lalami trusts herself more as a writer and allows us to follow Sara's simple but satisfying journey. I'm glad that, as I predicted, this made the Women's Prize longlist.

Laila Lalami is a great writer, I love her themes and her style. This near-future dystopia is a particularly unnerving example of the genre, feeling just around the corner - not surprising, given Lalami apparently started it years ago. Thought crime being kind of a classic concept already also plays into this sense of doomed inevitability. A good read but not necessarily an enjoyable one.

My thanks to Bloomsbury and NetGalley for the ARC.

I thoroughly enjoyed this sci-fi dystopian based on an algorithm to prevent future crime. It was tense and propulsive, I read it in just a day. It kept tightly on theme, and achieved what it set out to do. The only reason it wouldn't make it as a new favourite of mine is because I wish I felt more emotional stakes from our main character, but overall I really enjoyed my time reading Dream Hotel.

The Dream Hotel is a book that enrages the reader in all the right ways. Sara is tsken into retention as tech and algorithms suggests she may commit a crime against her husband and a retention of 3 weeks may help assess that. However she's been held for months now...

This book is about how easy it is for those in authority to take ownership of our stories, how they can manipulate them to suit their narrative. This is prescient in our current world and I could see Sara's rights being stripped away and the retainees gaslight all over the place.

I feel like this novel could be a wake up call for readers, we must be alert to the stories we're told, especially by those in power, motivation is rarely about looking after the everyday woman...

The writing is evocative and well executed, compelling the reader to read on and root for Sara and the other women held at Madison. I'm incredibly grateful that I got to read a gifted netgalley copy thanks to Bloomsbury Publishing.

Creepy and all too realistic as a vision of the near future. It was a little slow in the first half and left me struggling to pick it up, but I really got going in the second half as the paced picked up.

DNF

I couldn't take to this book. I just felt I'd seen it all before, and done better. So, I checked out early.

The premise of people charged with future crimes is basically the same as Minority Report. So what does The Dream Hotel bring to the party in addition?

Well, not much. To me it felt like the book was more focused on themes than on story. Yes, racist profiling is bad, yes, big tech is scary... and if I'd kept reading to the end I'm sure there would have been lots of other worthy takes.

But I simply wasn't interested in the story or characters - it all felt a bit dull.

As I read, I was reminded of The Future by Naomi Alderman which had similar themes, but which wrapped those themes into an interesting, intriguing and exciting story. The Dream Hotel does none of that - instead it settles for attempting to be thought-provoking, but fails there too because most of us have long since been provoked into thought by the menacing powers of tech. And that provocation came from the huge amount of other books and movies that have already covered this ground.

I'm sure critics will see The Dream Hotel as "a timely warning" or something, but for me it felt like a retelling of a tale that's already pretty tired.

The Dream Hotel by Laila Lalami is a compelling exploration of surveillance, technology, and human resilience, set in a near future where even dreams are under scrutiny.

Sara Hussein, a scientist returning home to LAX, is suddenly detained by agents from the Risk Assessment Administration, who inform her that she will soon commit a crime. Using an algorithm that monitors her dreams, the RAA has determined she poses an imminent threat to her husband. For his safety, she is to be held under observation for twenty-one days.

Transferred to a retention centre, Sara is joined by other women whose dreams have flagged them as threats, each struggling to prove their innocence. As Sara faces months of uncertainty and harsh rules, a new arrival disrupts the order of the facility, setting her on a collision course with the powerful corporations that control her fate.

Lalami creates a disturbingly believable world where technology turns personal thoughts into evidence of criminal intent. This novel is a sharp critique of systemic injustice, focusing on how surveillance disproportionately impacts marginalized communities. Sara’s fight to maintain her identity amidst the dehumanising system is a timely reflection on privacy, racial profiling, and the dangers of algorithmic judgment.

Lalami’s writing is evocative, capturing the psychological tension of detention while exploring broader societal issues. Though the middle sections slow down, this pacing effectively mirrors the oppressive nature of the system. The novel builds tension gradually, forcing readers to reflect on the human cost of surveillance and the erosion of personal autonomy in an algorithm-driven world.

The Dream Hotel is more than a dystopian thriller; it’s a thought-provoking meditation on the boundaries between personal freedom and technological control. Lalami challenges readers to consider the price of a world where privacy is a commodity, creating a narrative that is intellectually engaging and emotionally resonant.

Read more at The Secret Book Review.

A gripping dystopian novel which doesn't feel too far from the reality of the modern world.

The premise is truly unique yet believable and I could imagine it happening in the future - which made it all the more scary!

The world building and the accomplished prose made the reading experience an immersive journey and Sara was a wonderful protagonist. Brave, intelligent and vulnerable.

Such a fascinating read - with slight tones of The Handmaids Tale - I never wanted it to end.

'The Dream Hotel' is a superb dystopian novel exploring capitalism, the surveillance state and the prison-industrial complex.

Sara Hussein is 'retained' at Los Angeles Airport after her return from London because her 'risk' score (which determines the likelihood of her committing future crimes) has become too high. This is partly owing to the content of her dreams which the government can now monitor after she had a Dreamsaver sleep aid implanted. She is initially held for 21 days in a retention centre while her score is monitored, but like most retainees, she finds that her stay keeps being extended due to minor infractions.

This is a gripping novel which combines Sara's story with other documents which help to flesh out the world in which this novel is set. Like the best dystopia, it feels eerily plausible in the way that it is described, extrapolating from current anxieties in our society - the way that certain demographics are policed more aggressively than others, the ease with which prisoners can be exploited for profit, our increasing willingness to be governed by algorithm. Sara's sense of injustice and powerlessness is palpable throughout this novel.

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for sending me an ARC to review.

Absolutely love this book. Took me a while to get into it but when I did I was gripped and couldn’t stop reading till I got to the end. Hope it wins the award it has been longlisted for.

4.5

I thought this was such an interesting and unique subject just by reading the synopsis and let me tell you, it did not disappoint. It fed into fears of increasing surveillance and AI, the dangers of not reading T&C's in full and the risks of companies having a data breach. It shows what can happen if technology goes too far (IMO). Imagine your own subconscious mind having you labelled as a future criminal? Imagine having a risk score for committing crime and even the littlest thing can increase it? Such as a dream, a conversation or being related to a criminal. This book was so well written that I actually had a dream I was being carted off to Madison as my risk score shot up. I loved the character of Sara and I found the interactions between the women detained so fascinating. I saw a review talk about this being our generations 1984 and I wholeheartedly agree.
A great read and I can see why it's been longlisted for Women's Prize for Fiction 2025.

This book is terrifyingly unnerving as it gives a glimpse into a possible future for humanity. I couldn’t put it down!

I'm sorry but try as I may I can't get into this book at all. Disappointing as I really liked the cover description.

Thanks Netgalley for letting me have a read but not for me.

The Dream Hotel is a literary sci-fi novel covering the real horror behind technology. It feels very Black Mirror meets Orange is the New Black

Although not a new concept of AI/tech being the villain of the story as we all blinding follow, I found this a really compelling read.

The novel touches on a lot of different topics varying from AI, race, identity, freedom, and I thought they all worked well within the story

I really liked the way the narrative flowed as we got a mix of time periods, it didn’t feel like you were being dragged from past to present.

I would say the ending was my least favourite part as the set up did feel like something bigger was to come but overall I massively enjoyed this