Dream State by Eric Puchner
"Dream State" by Eric Puchner is a sweeping, character-driven family saga spanning fifty years, set against the evolving—and rapidly warming—landscape of rural Montana. The novel opens in 2004 at a lake house where Cece Calhoun is preparing for her wedding to Charlie Margolis, a charismatic young doctor. Charlie asks Garrett, his troubled college friend and baggage handler, to officiate, each haunted by the tragic death years earlier of a mutual friend, Elias. As Cece spends time with Garrett, she learns of his vulnerability, which prompts doubts about her own future and the life she’s imagined with Charlie.
Amidst an attack of stomach flu that jeopardizes the wedding, Cece must choose between two possible futures: the one planned for her and the one she never imagined. This pivotal summer sends ripples into the lives of all three—Cece, Charlie, and Garrett—and their children, as the narrative traces their struggles to either escape or repeat familial patterns over five decades.
The novel is richly detailed and not driven by action, but by nuanced examinations of how one choice can mold a lifetime and how trauma and loyalty resurface through generations. Puchner delves into themes of friendship, love, grief, and the changing American West, combining precise humor and evocative prose. Environmental issues and political anxieties weave through the later chapters, reflecting on global crises such as climate change, fascism, and the migration of trauma and memory from parent to child.
"Dream State" is ultimately about the legacy of mistakes—both personal and inherited.The passage of time, the enduring and fractured bonds of marriage and friendship, and the beauty of impermanence permeate the story, earning the novel praise for its unforgettable characters and thoughtful, poignant reflections on how families and relationships evolve.
Originally published: 18 February 2025
Author: Eric Puchner
Dream Hotel by Laila Lalami
"The Dream Hotel" by Laila Lalami is a speculative dystopian novel following Sara Hussein, a Moroccan American museum archivist who finds herself detained at a facility known as Madison after an AI-driven algorithm flags her as "high risk" due to violent dreams detected by a Dreamscape implant she wears for insomnia. The technology, marketed for health, harvests dream data and, in Sara’s case, identifies subconscious "pre-crime" threats, leading to her involuntary confinement for a mandatory observation period—officially three weeks, but ultimately extended to six months because of the facility’s ambiguous and shifting rules and profit-driven retention policies.
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The retention center operates like a prison while emphasizing that none of its "guests" are technically prisoners. Every minor infraction—refusing to work, loitering, or showing "personality"—escalates each woman's risk score and lengthens detention. Sara’s desire to return to her husband, Elias, and their twin babies is thwarted by the system, which thrives on bureaucratic incompetence to maximize corporate revenue and minimize basic care. The staff regularly withhold supplies and medical attention as a form of control.
Inside Madison, Sara befriends multiple detainees—Emily, Toya, Lucy, Marcela, and others—all of whom wrestle with the erasure of autonomy and demonstrate, in small ways, resistance against the system’s surveillance and manipulation. Sara’s efforts range from maintaining her own private dream journal (as a way to counter algorithmic errors) to orchestrating a work strike that challenges both the administration and its false promise of justice. Parallel to her present, chapters flash back to her career, marriage anxieties, and childhood experiences of profiling.
The narrative captures Sara’s degradation—psychologically and physically—as her contacts with the outside world dwindle, her pleas for justice go unheard, and her family faces its own financial, emotional toll. Eventually, after much resistance, including leading a strike that imperils the facility’s lucrative contracts, her heightened "risk to the company" leads those in charge to expedite her hearing. She's released only upon agreeing to sign away the company’s liability, returning to a life she no longer sees as free or safe, haunted by what surveillance and injustice have stripped away.
The novel powerfully explores themes of surveillance, technology’s impact on autonomy, and the intersection of profit motives and the criminal justice system. Lalami’s prose highlights the subtle gestures and relationships that survive even in hostile conditions, and through Sara’s experience, the reader witnesses the pain of being reduced to data, the difficulty of regaining dignity, and the uncertain hope of solidarity in resistance.
Originally published: 4 March 2025
Author: Laila Lalami
Genres: Science fiction, Dystopian Fiction, Psychological Fiction, Political fiction
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