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Just returning from a work trip overseas, Sara is surprised to be taken aside at the airport by agents of the Risk Assessment Administration. Her risk score is a little elevated, and the algorithm indicates she will likely soon commit a crime. That means that she’s taken to a retention center, where she and other women also deemed to be high risks are monitored and assessed. Theoretically, they only will be held there for 21 days, but in practice, most are held for months as their dreams are watched for dangerous tendencies and they invariably get time added for breaking one or more of the constantly changing rules.
Sara longs to be released from the “not-a-prison” that sure feels like one and reunited with her husband and young children. She’s told if she just keeps her head down and follow the rules, her chances to leave will be better, but after months and more months, she begins to think there must be another way.
The Dream Hotel has a similar premise as “Minority Report,” that people in the future will be essentially arrested for the possibility of their committing a crime. Here, there are no sedated psychics who see future crimes; a well-fed algorithm makes the predictions. There are some new technologies that we don’t have now, such as neuro implants that are intended to help people get better sleep but which also provide data to authorities on people’s dreams. There are even more data points from other technologies, too, than what is available now, but it’s not a lot different. That’s what makes it so disturbing: we know that government and private businesses know a lot about us because of the devices we use and the data collected from them. A scenario like that in The Dream Hotel is just a logical next step.
Most of the book is hard to read because it’s so depressing; many innocent women are held in a prison, their rights taken away, almost but not technically forced to work to enrich the prison business. I wasn’t entirely sure how Lalami would conclude the book, but I admit I wasn’t quite expecting what did happen. It just didn’t feel like it tracked with the rest of the story. I also thought that some plot threads, which turned out to be pretty important to the story, weren’t balanced with the rest of the book as well as they should have been. I thought the book could have used another solid edit before being published.
Even so, The Dream Hotel is a thought-provoking book.
Rated: High. Profanity includes 15 uses of strong language, around 15 instances of moderate profanity, about 15 uses of mild language, and a dozen instances of the name of Deity in vain. Sexual content is fairly minimal; a husband and wife have sex but there is very little detail. There is some perilous content, some bad treatment of “inmates” in the “not-prison.”
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*I received an ARC in exchange for my honest review.
