I read this ahead of assigning it as part of a dystopian book club unit; I wanted to make sure it would work as an option with the other options selected. It did and the students who read it had THOUGHTS. The things we all liked were: the integration of the texts and emails and the overlapping narratives/flashbacks and we loved to hate the premise because who really likes the idea of being in a world like the one Lalami created? Uhhhhh no one. That being said, she definitely made it feel realistic and uncomfortable. We also loved to hate the characters; at varying points I think we wanted to throttle each of them. The things we didn't love: the ending. We all wanted more and we all felt like there were some loose ends that could've been more tied up at the end. Despite all of that, it was a solid 3.5 read--a good fit for the dystopian unit I created and one that my students enjoyed.
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SYNOPSIS:
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.
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