The Dream Hotel by Laila Lalami – The Geeky Bibliophile
In near future America, technology has progressed to the point that even your dreams are under surveillance. Dream about the wrong thing one time too many, and you might find yourself being detained by the RAA (Risk Assessment Administration), because your dream data has alerted them that you are likely to commit a crime soon. Such is the case for Sara. The data indicates she is a danger to her husband and must be placed in ‘observation’ for 21 days. Little did she know how easy it was to break the arbitrary rules of the facility and have her mandatory stay there extended. As the months pass, Sara begins to doubt she will ever be freed.
I enjoyed this book and was willing to forgive several issues with the story until it abruptly ended. (To be fair, that willingness to overlook issues may have proved impossible to do once I started writing out my review, but that is an accurate reflection of my thoughts as I was reading.)
I get that a lot of novels leave the ultimate resolution of the story up to the reader’s imagination. And most times, I’m fine with that. (Frustrated, but fine.) If the abrupt ending was an attempt to accomplish that, it didn’t work. Not for me, anyway.
SPOILER ALERT
It needed a hint about what might be coming next for Sarah, but that wasn’t given. (Yeah, I know. She called someone she probably shouldn’t be calling. But for all we know, she was calling for no particular reason at all.) More was needed to make the book feel truly finished, regardless of whether the resolution was what I wanted or not.
As others have said, the ending felt rushed. Lots of potential for trauma-related drama was quickly glossed over, shrugged off, or completely ignored in a race to get to that abrupt, unsatisfying ending. I would have been more engaged with the story if that had been properly explored.
SPOILER ALERT
Not to mention, rich story potential was wasted by barely acknowledging the true depth of the struggle Sarah would naturally face upon release. The little that was made of it didn’t make even the slightest scratch on the surface of the C-PTSD she would obviously be dealing with. It felt more akin to a few unfortunate hiccups along the way, and that was about it.
There were several loose-ends that needed some kind of resolution, as well. The lack of that made several characters, and their actions, feel completely pointless. It’s a shame because one storyline, in particular, intrigued me greatly. It seemed as if it was headed somewhere important, but once Sarah figured out that person wasn’t who they’d presented themselves to be, the storyline was unceremoniously dropped. Maddening!
I really liked the premise of the story (which is somewhat reminiscent of Minority Report), and certain pieces of it were very good. As a whole, however, the story failed to live up to its potential thanks to one-dimensional characters, too many loose-ends left dangling, and a terribly, terribly unsatisfying ending.
I do not recommend this book.
Author: Laila Lalami
Title: The Dream Hotel
Genre: Dystopia, Speculative Fiction
Publication Date: March 4, 2025 by Pantheon
About the Book
A novel about one woman’s fight for freedom, set in a near future where even dreams are under surveillance.
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.
The agents transfer Sara to a retention center, where she is held with other dreamers, all of them women trying to prove their innocence from different crimes. With every deviation from the strict and ever-shifting rules of the facility, their stay is extended. Months pass and Sara seems no closer to release. Then one day, a new resident arrives, disrupting the order of the facility and leading Sara on a collision course with the very companies that have deprived her of her freedom.
Eerie, urgent, and ceaselessly clear-eyed, The Dream Hotel artfully explores the seductive nature of technology, which puts us in shackles even as it makes our lives easier. Lalami asks how much of ourselves must remain private if we are to remain free, and whether even the most invasive forms of surveillance can ever capture who we really are.
About the Author
LAILA LALAMI is the author of five books, including The Moor’s Account, which won the American Book Award, the Arab-American Book Award, and the Hurston Wright Legacy Award. It was on the longlist for the Booker Prize and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in Fiction. Her most recent novel, The Other Americans, was a national bestseller, won the Joyce Carol Oates Prize, and was a finalist for the National Book Award in Fiction. Her books have been translated into twenty languages. She has been awarded fellowships from the British Council, the Fulbright Program, the Guggenheim Foundation, and the Radcliffe Institute at Harvard University. She lives in Los Angeles.
