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The Dream Hotel

Laila Lalami

Pantheon Books (2025)

Lalami describes an America where people are locked up before they commit any crimes. This pre-incarceration aims to protect society by stopping potential criminals based on predictions from their dreams and other data. It is hard to say that this future is not close to our reality, because it already resembles it—constant data about citizens feeds algorithms that assess risk.

The Dream Hotel is eerie and direct. It explores how technology can both trap us and make our lives easier. Lalami asks how much of our personal lives we need to keep private to be free and whether even the most intrusive surveillance can truly understand who we are.

Rating 4.5