Dream Count follows the lives of four Nigerian women—Chiamaka, a travel writer; her best friend, Zikora; her cousin, Omelogor; and her housekeeper, Kadiatou.
It’s a pandemic-era novel about grief, love, friendship, and the immigrant experience. More than anything, it’s about taking stock of one’s dreams, both the ones that came true and the ones that never stood a chance.
The title comes from Chiamaka’s personal “dream count”—a rundown of the men she has loved, or tried to love, and how they all left her feeling unfulfilled.
She starts the book by declaring that her biggest dream is “to be known, truly known, by another human being,” and from there, the novel explores how love and longing have shaped her life and the lives of the other women.
One of the main criticisms I have (and have seen echoed by others) is that the book focuses too much on men. And not love—just bad, disappointing men.
I would have liked to see more depth in the relationships between the women, but instead, we spend a lot of time going through Chiamaka’s messy romantic history. Darnell, for example, is terrible. Her whole section is basically a “man count,” and after a while, it just gets tiring.
Another thing that threw me off was Chiamaka’s voice. She’s supposed to be a middle-aged forty something year old woman, but she reads like someone in her early twenties. I kept having to remind myself that she was meant to be older, which made it hard to connect with her.
The writing itself is good, sometimes even brilliant—but also kind of boring. I liked the non-chronological structure, but the pacing made the book feel longer than it needed to be.
Of all the stories, Kadiatou’s was by far the most interesting. Her background and journey were rich, and honestly, she should have been the main focus of the book instead of Chiamaka. I also liked Omelogor’s chapters, they had more depth and almost felt like they had a proper plot. Zikora’s story, on the other hand, was just kind of there.
At the start, I was excited to meet these four women, but by the end, they just felt like ordinary people going through everyday experiences especially with the men. Not necessarily a bad thing, but I didn’t find them all that relatable.
The book does make you think about your own “dream count”—what you’ve hoped for in life versus what you actually got—but it didn’t leave much of an impact on me.
I had a love-hate relationship with Dream Count. Sometimes, it dragged, and I wanted to quit reading. Other times, I was drawn in. But those moments were few and far between, and for such a long book, that was a problem.
Elaborate Review I loved: https://pandorasykes.substack.com/p/2-girls-1-book-dream-count-by-chimamanda
Dream Count Blurb
A publishing event ten years in the making – a searing, exquisite new novel by the bestselling and award-winning author of Americanah and We Should All Be Feminists – the story of four women and their loves, longings and desires.
‘The major publication milestone of 2025’ OBSERVER
‘The return of a literary titan’ TELEGRAPH
CHOSEN AS A SUNDAY TIMES, GUARDIAN, OBSERVER, FINANCIAL TIMES, INDEPENDENT, TELEGRAPH, GQ and COSMOPOLITAN BOOK OF 2025.
Chiamaka is a Nigerian travel writer living in America. Alone in the midst of the pandemic, she recalls her past lovers and grapples with her choices and regrets. Zikora, her best friend, is a lawyer who has been successful at everything until ― betrayed and brokenhearted ― she must turn to the person she thought she needed least. Omelogor, Chiamaka’s bold, outspoken cousin, is a financial powerhouse in Nigeria who begins to question how well she knows herself. And Kadiatou, Chiamaka’s housekeeper, is proudly raising her daughter in America – but faces an unthinkable hardship that threatens all she has worked to achieve.
In Dream Count, Adichie trains her fierce eye on these women in a sparkling, transcendent novel that takes up the very nature of love itself. Is true happiness ever attainable, or is it just a fleeting state? And how honest must we be with ourselves in order to love, and to be loved? A trenchant reflection on the choices we make and those made for us, on daughters and mothers, on our interconnected world, Dream Count pulses with emotional urgency and poignant, unflinching observations on the human heart, in language that soars with beauty and power. It confirms Adichie’s status as one of the most exciting and dynamic writers on the literary landscape.
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