Readers Guide for The Dream Hotel

My Readers Guide for The Dream Hotel by Laila Lalami will look at this unusual literary sci fi book by an award-winning writer. This is a Read with Jenna pick, but is it for you? This guide has Jen’s Quick Take on the Book, a character list, and some book club discussion questions.

Jen’s Quick Take: The Dream Hotel by Laila Lalami

• I’d call The Dream Hotel literary speculative fiction
• I don’t read much speculative fiction or sci fi BUT will try to sum up what I think will and will not appeal to my core blog readership of mystery lovers
• This was NOT as plot-driven a book as most mystery lovers will be used to.
• It was more a character study and cautionary tale about modern technology.
• Most of the story took place in a detention center and in the mind and memory of the main character.
• The Dream Hotel is a March Read With Jenna pick!
• The Dream Hotel also reminded me a little of some classics I read in the past, books with unjustly imprisoned characters like The Count Monte Cristo or One Day in The Life of Ivan Denisovich. Also other dystopian books like The Handmaid’s Tale.
• If you are a mystery reader looking for tech-themed mysteries, try Jane Pek’s Verifiers series

Readers Guide for The Dream Hotel by Laila Lalami

This will include a character list plus some discussion questions!

Character List: The Dream Hotel by Laila Lalami

Sara and her family and friends

• Sara Hussein: main character, an archivist at the Gerry Center and new mother
• Elias Rosales: Sara’s husband and the father of their twins
• Mona and Mohsin: Sara’s twins
• Myra: Sara’s friend
• Saïd: Sara’s brother
• Zach Miller: Sara’s cousin
• Adam Abdo: Sara’s lawyer
• Faiza: Sara’s mother
• Omar: Sara’s father

Madison Detainees

• Emily: Sara’s roommate, a former firefighter
• Marcela DeLeon: guitarist for an indie band
• Lucy Everett: widow and former accounting clerk
• Eisley Richardson: the new detainee
• Alice: former trucker
• Ana: a pregnant detainee
• Toya Jones: former insurance worker who works in the laundry and loves detective novels
• Victoria Aguilar:

Madison Detention Center Employees

• Hinton
• Jackson:
• Ortega:
• Williams: library attendant

Discussion Questions for The Dream Hotel by Laila Lalami

• As The Dream Hotel begins, Sara is unexpectedly detained at the airport as she returns from a work conference. At first she’s incredulous, then annoyed, and angry. Have you ever been in a similar situation and how did you react?

• As an exhausted new mother, Sara got a neuroprosthetic implant that promised would help her feel more alert on short periods of sleep. But this implant also tracked her dreams. What does The Dream Hotel have to say about the benefits and dangers of tracking and surveillance in our world?

• What are some of the differing reactions of Sara and her fellow detainees to being held? Which of their attitudes and perspectives do you relate to the most?

• Sara spends a great deal of time daydreaming and reflecting on her upbringing and childhood. What family history and personal experiences do you think you’d think about if you were in a similar situation?

• The Dream Hotel briefly switches out of Sara’s point of view into that of Julie. What did you think of the switch and what the purpose of it was?

• Sara’s cousin tells her that Sara’s father thinks she was detained because she is difficult. Do you think this is a fair assessment? How do you think Sara’s “difficult” nature helps and hurts her over the course of the story?

• How do you think The Dream Hotel compares to other dystopian or speculative fiction books (or movies) you might have read or watched? What do you think books like that reveal about the resilience of the human spirit, about crime and punishment, and about

Do you have comments or questions about the book? Leave them in the comment section and I will answer you!