BookBrowse Reviews The Dream Hotel by Laila Lalami

BookBrowse:

A dystopian nightmare set in a world where not even dreams are private.

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Laila Lalami is an award-winning writer whose previous books include The Moor's Account, The Other Americans, and Conditional Citizens. Our First Impressions reviewers gave The Dream Hotel an impressive average rating of 4.8 out of 5 stars.

What the book is about:

The Dream Hotel by Laila Lalami is a frightening glimpse into what terrors an authoritarian government could visit on its citizens. Its main protagonist Sara unwittingly falls into a waking nightmare when she's arrested for having a dream (which are monitored by the state) in which she tries to kill her husband (Stephanie K). Our protagonist, Sara Hussein, attempts to restore logic in a Kafka-esque world where dreams are regarded as a window into the most private parts of ourselves and are used to identify patterns and make predictions. But in the retention facility, where rules shift at the whim of the attendants, and any deviation adds more time to a resident's stay, Sara cannot make strides in reversing the belief in her presumptive guilt (Jill S).

Readers found Lalami's prose engrossing.

Although I rarely read dystopian fiction, I couldn't put this book down (Lisa G). The tempo is impeccable…The mixture of interior thoughts and exterior action provides a pacey and chilling suspense story that will keep you madly turning the pages. There's never a dull moment (Betsey V).

They also felt the main character was relatable and the subject matter intensely topical.

The reader is shown a potential dark side of our increasing reliance on technologies and what is sacrificed, unthinkingly, for the sake of convenience. I found myself relating to Sara, her thoughts, dreams, weaknesses, and totally human responses that are tangled and used against her (Kay D). [Sara] is "retained" for 21 days to protect her family and becomes trapped in a nightmare of a bureaucratic algorithm that should be familiar to all of us who have to "stay on hold," "press 2 for …," or text with a chatbot (Katharine P).

The Dream Hotel dazzled reviewers with the impact of its story…

I had been feeling lately that books and movies just are not original anymore until I read Laila Lalami's The Dream Hotel. This book was so frighteningly real, even though it's set in a futuristic society (Kathy W). A single book can profoundly affect our emotions and how we view the world around us. The Dream Hotel by Laila Lalami is such a book (Regina S). Would shelve this alongside Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale or George Orwell's 1984 for its thought-provoking premise (Karen B).

…and left them with plenty to reflect on.

The book makes you think about how companies collect our data and use it for profit, often without us realizing it. I also appreciated how the novel highlighted how profit-driven systems can lead to the mistreatment of people. It raises important questions about personal rights, especially for women, and how easily people can fall in line with unfair treatment. The story is engaging and leaves you reflecting on these issues long after you finish (Alana G). The novel raises important questions about the future of technology, privacy, and human freedom. It's a chilling yet captivating look at what could lie ahead. I plan to recommend it to my book club as I think it would lead to very interesting discussion (Lisa G).

This review first ran in the March 26, 2025 issue of BookBrowse Recommends.