The Dream Hotel (2025) -Laila Lalami

"Just off the plane at LAX, Sara Hussain, in this dystopian novel, is stopped by TSA and told that a governmental algorithm has computed that she is at an elevated risk of committing a crime. They are convinced that Sara is a danger to her husband, corroborated by unknown factors, principally her dreams. Unable to clear her name of crimes she has not committed nor has she been charged with, Sara is put into a “retention center” filled with women similarly being imprisoned based on the potential for criminality based on their dreams. In this retention center, Sara is separated from her husband and two young children for an increasing period of time, and much as Sara tries to follow the repeated advice to keep her head down and comply, this dystopian “crime prevention” system highlights time and time again how the prison industrial system is unnavigable and concerned only with profitability."

The full review can be read at: https://readbya.substack.com/p/the-dream-hotel-2025-laila-lalami