News stories, social feeds, casual conversations — AI worries, fears, and complaints seem to be everywhere lately. It’s a topic I can’t seem to escape. So I wasn’t quite sure what to expect from The Dream Hotel.

The novel is set in a future where algorithms play an even bigger role in daily life than they already do. Under the guise of crime prevention, people are closely monitored and scored on everything — activities, spending, travel, online activity, even their dreams. An implanted device captures those dreams, and data systems evaluate them for signs of potential violence or crime.

Returning home from a work trip to London, archivist Sara is stopped and questioned at the LA airport. She’s eager to get home to her husband and twin toddlers, who are already circling the parking lot waiting to collect her. Laila Lalami crafted that airport scene exceptionally well — tense and anxious enough that I felt nervous, confused, and annoyed right along with Sara, safe as I was in my own home while reading.

Much of the story follows Sara once she’s moved into a Retention Center, closely watched until the government decides her dreams no longer mark her as a danger to her husband. As she waits, Sara begins to suspect that the companies running these Retention Centers have goals a lot more capitalistic than public safety.

It’s ridiculous in a chilling way — the kind that makes you scoff at first, then pause with a small pit in your stomach. Could a future like this actually become reality?

The ending felt like the book just… stopped. There was resolution, but also a lingering “so, what now?” Maybe that’s the point, though — leaving readers to sit with exactly that question about our own future.