This is Laila Lalami’s fifth novel – and the first I have read.

Her second “Secret Son” was Women’s Prize longlisted in 2010, her third “Moor’s Account” was both Booker longlisted and a Pulitzer Prize finalist in 2015 and her fourth “For the Other Americans” a National Book Award Finalist.

I would describe this near future dystopian novel loosely as perhaps: Madhumita Murgia’s Women’s Prize for Non Fiction shortlisted “Code Dependent” meets Rachel Kushner’s Booker shortlisted “Mars Room”

And more accurately as perhaps:

An exploration of the “data colonialism” (Murgia’s term) at the heart of much of the Big Data/Artificial Intelligence development (Murgia’s chapters on AI profiling by police and other authorities to identify potential offenders, the use of the marginalised to train AI systems, and the increasing integration of online/data and physical surveillance in a form of risk profiling and scoring in China are all very relevant here);

Combined with an indictment of the privatisation of the US penal system and its evolution over many decades into a Prison-Industrial complex (explored also – albeit more in the footnotes than the violent action – in Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah’s widely prize listed “Chain-Gang All Stars”).

The novel opens with Sara, the close third part point of view character for almost its full length, waking up On her 38th birthday in Madison, once a school but now a retention centre operated by a private firm Safe-X.

Sara is a resident/program participant there "retained" for observation initially for twenty one days, but in practice seemingly indefinitely until the RAA (the Risk Amendment Association, a body which uses data analytics tools to identify and detain individuals likely to commit violent crime) deems that her Risk Score has reached a safe enough level. Infractions in prison – minor and major – or even just behaviour observed by the ubiquitous surveillance devices are zealously noted by the Safe-X staff with Safe-X having a clear conflict of interest in releasing them as while in retention, the retainees are required to perform work (both the normal kitchen/laundry duties but also repetitively training AI algorithms for firms with which Safe-X has contracted).

The chapters move forwards giving us more of Sara’s life in prison, as well as her strained relationship with her husband (now single parent to two young twins) and her immigrant father – both of whom cannot help thinking she is not keeping her head down enough to bring her score down to match.

In parallel, at least in the first part of the novel, we get the recent backstory to Sara’s retention: stopped at US airport immigration on a flight back from a conference in London (Sara was trained as a historian of post colonial Africa but now works as a digital archivist at the Getty) seemingly due to an incident on the plane she was tangentially involved in, she then seems to upset the distracted security official with some answers he misinterprets. This then triggers a close examination of her risk scores which have gone over the safe level due to a series of dreams in which she imagines harming her husband (dreams which are captured by the Dreamsaver – an implanted device originally designed for sleep apnea sufferers but which turned out to drastically improve sleep quality with longer REM cycles, but a device which turns out to transmit its data to the RAA.

The novel’s pacing is fairly slow although this allows the author to explore her ideas more.

I liked: the links that Sara draws to her own training and the way in which colonial occupiers catalogued and categorised their subjects, including the way in which this was used by them to make labor extraction more efficient; the links she draws to her job and her knowledge that archives still are subject to human error; a character who is an insurance claims adjuster who used a combination of software pattern spotting and her gut feel to root out fraudulent claims post a wildfire (although the line when she says that the period in retention means she is unlikely to return to her old firm; “they wouldn’t hire me with the hole I have on my resume. As a matter of fact, no one in actuaries would.” seems to mistake e profession for an industry); the one-off section around mid-way when we switch PoV characters to a data scientist at Dreamsaver carrying out onsite practical experiments on the idea of product placement in dreams.

There is what seems to be intended to be a build up of tension when a huge wildfire (climate change is very much part of the dystopia) threatens the prison and leads to a very belated and unsafe evacuation to a very unsanitary other facility – but this whole section seems anti-climactic to me (for example at the start Sara is so concerned at the apparent lack of urgency of Safe-X for the retainees that she is on the verge of making an escape but then it simply does not happen as they are evacuated just in time).

But the narrative then does develop when Sara discovers via a slip up that a resident who was actually released after the standard (but largely unheard of) 21 days, was an undercover agent – and this together with the wildfire incident provokes her to get a small group of fellow residents to withhold their labour/strike which combined with a norovirus outbreak pushes the prison’s operations (and ability to fulfil its contracts) to the limit.

And this thought provoking and intelligent novel ends on a small note of hope – that perhaps thoughtful and careful disengagement from the world of openly shared big data, social media and connected devices is possible.

Another brilliant book by Laila Lalami.
The characters were great, the storyline well structured and for me totally original.
Some of the content is frightening that it might become true one day, or that where we live might become one of those places that things like this truly happen.
There is a big warning in the book of what might happen if mankind relies too heavily on Artificial Intelligence to run peoples lives.
The author has taken our fears of relying too heavily on technology and AI and imagined the world shown in such imaginative detail.
I loved it!
My thanks to the author for the hours of enjoyment that the book has brought me, I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

Title: The Dream Hotel
Author: Laila Lalami
Pages: 336
Rating: 3.5/5 (rounded up to 4)

"In a world without privacy, what is the cost of freedom?"

I finished this on Friday, and it's still circling in my head. A dystopian read based on the privacy that we're already slowly giving away. It made me think. A lot. In this world they're scored on risks and if the algorithm says that you're likely to cause harm you're sent to a retention centre for 21 days. But of course - it doesn't last for 21 days.

I really did enjoy this read. I did find some things confusing as a few characters and issues were mentioned but never addressed again.

I loved the concept of commercialising dreams. (Didn't Futurama do this?) And I would love to have seen more of this world rather than based solely on Sara. I did get school of good mother vibes and I did find Sara's husband a bit of a wet lettuce.

This was a great idea with some brilliant concepts. I just wanted more!!

You'll love this book if you like
- dystopian mysteries
- the book the school for good mothers
- TV shows like black mirror
- breach of privacy concepts
- this could actually happen - reads
- sci fi fantasy reads
- little to no romance (one spicy dream)

Unfortunately I’m not sure this book was for me.
I loved the sound of it from the synopsis and it held some really interesting ideas that I hadn’t seen before. However I don’t feel like it lived up to it while reading it. I didn’t love or connect with the characters and I found it very slow.
I do however appreciate the opportunity to read this.
Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for my arc.

This book describes itself as being gripping. and the subject matter as terrifying. Unfortunately, this book was neither of those things for me.

Sara was a distinctly unlikeable character who, despite perhaps being treated unfairly at the start, was responsible for every misfortune she faced afterwards (with the exception of the fire). I feel a bad feminist for saying it, but if she had just kept quiet and followed the rules for 21 days, none of the rest would have happened.

The 'new resident' was wildly anticlimactic, no matter what the blurb would have you believe.

I had high hopes for this story, and for an interesting take on a world that is even more heavily surveilled than ours is, but for me, it just didn't live up to its promises.

This was an incredibly interesting idea with important and relevant social commentary. However, in saying that, the characters felt so flat. Sara was inherently boring as was her relationship with her husband. The women imprisoned with her were two dimensional and I often confused one with another. The plot and story were well developed and raised so many questions around government control, society and crime, I just wish the characters were as well developed.

I wanted to like this book more than I did. It explored a lot of really interesting ideas around the surveillance state, the prison industrial complex, and the limits to ai/algorithms. Some elements were a bit too on the nose/didactic like the explanation of how crime is constructed by people in power. At the same time I couldn't really suspend my disbelief around people's dreams being used as evidence of future wrongdoing or even the whole idea of the detention centers. And while it touched on racial profiling Sara's family experienced and how algorithms are biased, it almost didn't go far enough into how race intersects with the prison system. Ultimately it just failed to resonate on a deeper level.

DNF. I got 50% of the way through this book and tried to persevere, but I think the formatting and extremely long chapters made it difficult to stay engaged. I really loved the premise of this book and enjoyed the first 30 odd pages but then I began to struggle and it didn't seem worth continuing.

This was one of the most disturbingly plausible dystopians I’ve read in recent memory. I had such an uncomfortable feeling of dread throughout the read; the injustices were infuriating and felt a little too real.

I loved spending time with Sara. Her inability to let injustices go, her tenacity, and her commitment to the labour strike both relatable and sympathetic. She felt so human to me and even though sometimes her actions were objectively self-destructive, her motivations felt compelling. Her friends were an interesting bunch too: Toya and Victoria were particularly intriguing to me. I loved the inmate friendship group and their dynamics.

The pacing was artful. I often found myself reading 100+ pages in one sitting. The pace is consistent, not rushed or frantic, despite the urgency of the story. The writing style complemented the pacing; I really enjoyed it!

I deeply appreciated the commentary on late stage capitalism, surveillance, racism, existing as a woman, and the immigrant experience. Parts of it were incredibly difficult to read (Omar’s fear and trauma of borders, for example) but heartbreakingly relatable.

The only thing that might improve this read might be clear delineation of time in chapter headings part one. I found swapping back and forth in time a bit confusing at for this section. The other sections are much clearer and I liked the use of other media styles to move the narrative along in creative ways!

While I predicted some of the explanations, the ending genuinely surprised me.

I highly recommend this one for anyone who enjoys artful criticism of capitalism, dystopian worlds, social justice themes, fantastic characters, and an inventive story. This would make an awesome book club choice, there are so many themes and nuance that would make for rich discussions.

I was privileged to have my request to review this approved by Bloomsbury Publishing on NetGalley.