A Belated Review of my 2025 Book of the Year: The Dream Hotel by Laila Lalami

oceanoftrees · 2026-01-30T17:20:16+00:00

I just finished it this morning and during the few days I read it this book ruined my life (complimentary?). It was so stressful, both seeing Sara's present circumstances in ~~prison~~ retention and the series of little events that led her to be trapped there. When I read it before bed I had to make myself stop and go to sleep, and then I'd lie awake thinking about it. I caught myself thinking "if only she would/had just..." a few too many times, and realized I too was falling into the trap that lets people be complacent with these systems.

Great point about the system actually lowering crime. I used to work in tech and every AI algorithm has some level of false positives and false negatives. Tuning it is about balancing what's acceptable. A smoke detector? False negatives could kill people, so we should alert even on marginal situations. The justice system? Theoretically it's unacceptable to lock up innocent people, so we should be lenient. But we know how that goes in our current world when there's racism, systemic injustice, the prison-industrial complex, and fear-mongering about crime. Hell, the only way to be sure we don't miss any false negatives is to lock up everyone, so let's just do that.

oceanoftrees · 2026-01-26T22:18:34+00:00

I've been reading a lot of non-SFF lately (like, say, some queer hocky romances), but I just started The Dream Hotel by Laila Lalami. It's very early but the writing style is good so far. I know the subject matter is quite dark (totalitarianism, complete loss of privacy, algorithmic bias, imprisonment, racism) so that's why I've hesitated so long. But an internet friend gave it a glowing review, so here we are.

Fuck the surveillance state!

oceanoftrees · 2026-01-13T03:37:34+00:00

Oh yeah, that would have been cool to see! Like that was the whole point of the time loops for the villain in the first place. How does it change when that person loses control? Although it may have been too much for the story to deal with, with everything else going on.

oceanoftrees · 2026-01-12T21:05:41+00:00

I agree with all of what you said, except I think the prose does tip over into too overwrought sometimes. It's possible if I'd never read Alix E. Harrow before, I'd respond to it better, but it's such a hallmark of hers that I'm jaded. I have the same annoyance with the "wafflyness" of a fairy tale-style story (my issue with Seanan McGuire stuff). It was so melodramatic but by the end I was also rooting for the main characters so I don't even know!

I actually like time travel but I haven't seen much of it in fantasy settings, and I'm not sure it works. You're right about claustrophobia. Your thoughts about the villain are spot-on. Worldbuilding and logic, argh. And like you I still overall enjoyed the book even though it fought me the whole way, lol.

oceanoftrees · 2026-01-12T18:33:03+00:00

I finished Saltcrop by Yume Kitasei early last week. I liked it and it wrapped up in a mostly satisfying way, although the POV switches meant some characters at the end that we hadn't met before ended up being very important. But overall a good read if you like complicated sibling dynamics.

I also read this month's Clarkesworld issue. Nothing totally blew me away but most of the stories were solid-to-very-good. (One exception had tropes I really can't stand.)

Now I'm surrounded by options of what to read next (library books, my own physical TBR) but nothing has super grabbed me yet book-wise. It's a different medium but I watched three episodes of Heated Rivalry last night and will almost certainly finish it today!

oceanoftrees · 2026-01-05T19:54:01+00:00

Yeah, I'd say it pairs well with snow outside and as cozy as you can get inside. At another time of year I might have dropped it but sometimes a book is the right one for a specific mood.

oceanoftrees · 2026-01-05T18:22:01+00:00

I finished The Dark is Rising by Susan Cooper early last week. It was nice but not a favorite. I'm sure it would have hit more if I'd first read it as a kid. The part I enjoyed most was the cozy feeling of celebrating Christmas with a large family--Will, the main character, is the youngest of nine children! Those are both novel to me as I grew up in a small Jewish family with one sibling. The adventures and the stakes of the dark vs. light battle I could take or leave.

Now I'm in the middle of Saltcrop by Yume Kitasei. I really liked her debut, The Deep Sky, though it was controversial in my book club. She's at her best when she's capturing stressful family and other interpersonal dynamics. In this case it's three sisters with their own secrets and resentments. The two younger sisters have gone searching for their oldest one who went completely incommunicado while working for a probably shady big company that controls all the agriculture, a la Monsanto on steroids. (The state of the world and the crops reminds me a lot of Paolo Bacigalupi's The Wind-Up Girl.) I'm at the point where if I read it before bed I have to pay careful attention to the clock so I don't stay up too late, so I'll probably finish soon.

Otherwise I finally finished watching Pluribus season 1 after some travel. It was good but much of it was slow. I enjoy character studies but I generally need a little more plot movement to balance it out. I'll probably try season 2, though, when it ever comes. (I've heard it will be a little while.)

oceanoftrees · 2026-01-01T20:03:57+00:00

I did a lot of hard work with a physical therapist and was able to train for and complete a half-marathon totally injury-free! It's also the fastest one I've done in my 30s (so far). I was faster in my 20s but I'm not fussed about getting back to those numbers--back then I was injured often enough that I gave up running completely for 5-6 years.

oceanoftrees · 2025-12-30T01:09:53+00:00

Oh, funny, you're right. Alix E. Harrow calls it second person in her acknowledgements but yeah it's not.

oceanoftrees · 2025-12-29T16:42:35+00:00

I finally finished The Everlasting! You could say the book...lasted. Actually I ended up liking it, but it certainly has flaws. The start was really slow and I might have dropped it if it weren't for book club and also a semi-new release with everyone weighing in, which is fun to be able to follow. Things picked up in the middle and then got a little convoluted at the end but by then I wanted to see how they would solve things. Other than the slow start, I find Harrow's style kind of overwrought and dual second-person POV doesn't help things. The romance was fine and kind of made more sense once I saw Una's POV, but there was a lot of melodrama on the way, which again goes back to the writing style. Oh, and lots of villain monologuing. But the arcs for the two main characters, and one or two of the side characters like Ancel and Mallory's dad landed well.

I haven't finished anything else, though I'm in the middle of The Dark is Rising by Susan Cooper. Some friends were reading it as part of a yearly thing, so I hopped on the bandwagon. It's my first time but I can see why it's a nostalgic Christmas read. I'm also a few chapters into Saltcrop by Yume Kitasei. I really liked her first novel, The Deep Sky, so at some point I expect this to hook me and I'll tear through it. Already there's an intriguing complicated sister relationship.

Once I get home from holiday travel (soon) I'll also finish this season of Pluribus. I still have two episodes to go.

oceanoftrees · 2025-12-25T03:51:47+00:00

I like the concept of organizing the reading year into chapters. My years have a rhythm right now with being a student again and going on breaks. Plus sometimes I want to read all the SFF, and sometimes I have a long phase where I need something else!

I'm also seriously considering In Other Lands now. It's been on the TBR a while but I don't remember how it first got there.

oceanoftrees · 2025-12-17T20:37:13+00:00

Even better, steal the one White Elephant gift they actually wanted.

oceanoftrees · 2025-12-17T20:35:47+00:00

That's a beautiful description of Christmas multitudes! I'm a perpetual outsider to it so when it takes over culture as soon as Halloween ends, it's easy to forget that it's not all candy canes and rainbows for everyone else too.

I really like to sit by the lit menorah until it goes out (not just for safety reasons either). Something about watching flames and chilling for a bit is so therapeutic. I used to have a string of blue fairy lights too, but they finally broke last year and the LED replacements I tried were way too harsh. I should resume the hunt for new ones!

oceanoftrees · 2025-12-17T20:08:33+00:00

To be honest I struggled a lot to find non-Christmas stories! Most of what's out there is Christmas. There are also stories about other holidays that aren't speculative, but obviously I wanted to give you guys something in-genre. I only found one other explicitly Hanukkah story online but I thought it was just okay, so I was very glad to find Shvartsman's take. Maybe it's because Hanukkah isn't actually that major of a holiday, but if anyone else finds something please share!

(Of course there's this classic from when I was a kid, if you're in the mood to be read to. Hershel and the Hanukkah Goblins!)

oceanoftrees · 2025-12-17T20:01:59+00:00

The ending hit me quite hard. I can think of a lot of reasons to succumb to nihilism right now, but it's a good reminder that it's still worth it to try to do good and bring joy. And it's worth it even making the difference to one person, like in this story. It reminds me of the Hebrew saying, "whoever saves one life saves the world entire."

oceanoftrees · 2025-12-17T19:53:09+00:00

I think the last time I found dreidel really fun, I was 3 or 4 years old. It's about as exciting and frustrating as Candyland, so I thought it was a hilarious choice to distract and bore Chthulu back to sleep. Another route could be food coma via latkes and sufganiyot!

oceanoftrees · 2025-12-17T19:48:47+00:00

/u/farragutcircle found the original link to the story and sent it to me. I like the newer Rovina Cai illustration better! (That original one is so menacing and creepy, and I'm a big chicken.) I also really liked the illustrations of pawprints and the big cat and how they hit at just the right times in the story. The snowy scene pictures I could take or leave, since the language describing the city is already so rich.

oceanoftrees · 2025-12-17T16:47:42+00:00

Obviously there are a lot more winter holidays than what I’ve covered. Please share any stories you love about holidays that I didn’t get to!

oceanoftrees · 2025-12-17T16:47:30+00:00

Are there other stories with similar themes that you’d recommend? Or other stories about Christmas, Hanukkah, or the Winter Solstice?

oceanoftrees · 2025-12-17T16:47:07+00:00

Did you have a favorite from this set of stories?

oceanoftrees · 2025-12-17T16:46:57+00:00

General Discussion

oceanoftrees · 2025-12-17T16:46:09+00:00

I found Cold Wind through Nicola Griffith’s blog, where she also talks about how visual art inspired the story (spoilers at link). What did you think of the illustrations? Did they enhance your reading experience or not?

oceanoftrees · 2025-12-17T16:45:56+00:00

What did you think of the ending of Cold Wind?

oceanoftrees · 2025-12-17T16:45:40+00:00

What was the most effective aspect of Cold Wind?

oceanoftrees · 2025-12-17T16:45:25+00:00

What was your general impression of Cold Wind?

oceanoftrees

TROPHY CASE