Thank you Netgalley for this ARC of Dream Count by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie.

Oh wow, this is a story that, if I were to read again, I'd be reading with a highlighter and page tabs. There is so much important material to absorb in this story of multiple African women, all known or related to each other in some way, all making their way in different systems, and grabbling with issues in their world, as well as with themselves.

There was one section, that, despite my very best and multiple attempts, I just couldn't grasp. It made me loose hold of the whole of the story a bit, but not irreparably. I still felt a large impact, and there is a lot about this beautiful and intricate novel that will stay with me.

Dream Count tells the story of four interconnected African women's lives, hinging around and leading up to the pandemic, among other more personal events. Chiamaka is a travel writer recounting her many failed relationships while quarantining. Her good friend Zikora is about to become a single mother, after the man she loves abandoned her. Kadiatou is Chia's housekeeper, a hotel maid who has worked for everything she has and just wants to provide a good life for her daughter, when her life is torn asunder by an assault and a huge court case. And Omelogor, Chia's cousin, is trying to figure out how and where she lost herself, and how to come back.
I think that Kadiatou and Omelogor's were the most compelling stories. The complexities were really well done. Kadiatou stood apart from the others because she is so different: a Ghanaian instead of a Nigerian, an established mother, a blue collar worker. Her history, told in great detail, was full of hardship and it never really gets easier. Omelogor is a complicated knot of a character. A finance worker who has been involved deeply in money laundering who also gives grants to female small business owners. A woman struggling with depression while at the same time struggling to name it as depression. A mirror to all the worst parts of America, reflecting those blinding flaws back at her graduate-studies peers. She wasn't necessarily likeable, but she was super interesting.
This book takes a while to pick up, and often has long stretches where not much of anything is actually happening, but ultimately, it was worth it.

Americanah author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie is back with a release ten years in the making. Dream Count weaves together the stories of four African women as they cope with societal expectations, family, men, and friendship. In some areas, the story soars; one cannot argue that Adichie is a beautiful writer. But in others, the narrative falls flat. The introspection, lack of setting, and general focus on (usually horrid) men left the story feeling a bit hollow.

Dream Count (a play on the term body count…) follows four women: writer Chiamaka, her lawyer best friend Zikora, her brash, blunt cousin Omelogor, and her housekeeper Kadiatou. As the story begins, we're shown little windows into Chia's dating life. The stories are interesting and relatable, and the overarching message seems to be that men are trash (love that). But as the narrative progresses, we witness Zikora deal with a nightmarish childbirth, Omelogor commit a litany of crimes, and Kadi experience a life-changing trauma.

And yet, with lives full of people and stories, the men remain a frustrating focus. Just as we move on from Zikora's long-term boyfriend who disappeared when he learned she was pregnant, we're thrown into Kadi's problematic uncle's timeline (not to mention her manipulative boyfriend/fiancé). While the focus is these four women, I couldn't help but feel irritated at both the characters and at Adichie for seemingly refusing to give them the emotional depth I felt they deserved. Instead, we're continuously spoon-fed heteronormative slop.

Kadi's traumatic event is meant to really bring the four narratives together, but I didn't feel that was well-executed either. A lot of this book takes place during the COVID-19 pandemic, and of course the characters are going to be struggling with that, but their personal pains seemed to outweigh anyone else's (Kadi's specifically). I know that people are selfish, and I'm fine with portraying characters that way, but Zikora couldn't get over her issues with Omelogor long enough to video chat about how best to help Kadi — it felt cruel and unrealistic.

There is still much to be gained from this novel (and anything Adichie writes, really). Her commentary on Omelogor's experience in grad school really stuck with me (on Omelogor's classmates' dismissal of murders in Nigeria: "champion an approved cause and you win the right to be cruel") and some of her lines on pining had me nodding in acknowledgment ("I snatched [my phone] up and felt annoyed with whoever had texted, as if by texting they had taken up the space meant for him."). But in those regards, I'd recommend Americanah over Dream Count every time. Still, I'll wait patiently for whatever Adichie wants to give us next.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Knopf for the opportunity to read this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

The writing in this was beautiful as Adichie's writing usually is. The female characters were well developed, but I didn't find their stories as compelling as say, the main character of Americanah. Although the stories were interwoven, I had trouble following the connections between the characters. I think I would have enjoyed this better without the multiple POV stories. I really enjoyed the Kadiatou and Zikora sections but didn't connect as much to Omelegor and Chia. I did appreciate the authors note explaining the inspiration for Kadiatou's story.

I'm a huge fan of Adichie's previous works, so I was really excited to get my hands on this. However, it didn't meet my expectations. I liked the author's note more than the entire story. Just really disappointed with this.

I will not be reviewing this book because the author is openly transphobic and it’s 2025. You should probably talk to her about that.

Very interesting book about these women. Nigeria, and everybody had a chapter in this book based on Their name. C. H.
Ana is a writer in Nigeria who writes travel pieces. But had to stop when the pandemic started. She went through a lot of different hardships. At everybody in this book had something happened to them. Not good. ZIKONC.
Was her friend, but she tried to marry a man, but it did not work out. Her cousin also had problems with men as well.. The one I really liked was the end where the housekeeper was working in New York City, Troy and erase her daughter, and it was a very important case because she was harassed, how she was cleaning the room by a man and this was really interesting. You could see however, things tied together in this book. They handled rape differently in America. She found out because it happened in her country 21 of her friends it was completely annoyed and she had a lot of problems from chesting. This book. But it's an eye opener for me. Because it shows how different countries deal with different things, especially when it comes to sexual assault. Great book.

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie is such a stunning writer. I am blown away by her style. This story follows 4 different women, all connected in some meaningful way, recounting their past relationships. This is literary fiction at its finest. Told over the span of years (for some characters), with the present being during the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic, this story recounts past romantic relationships for each woman and how it shapes who they are as present-day people. One story in particular tells an all-too-familiar story for many immigrant, Black women (and many women in general) of sexual abuse from those in power and our broken judicial system. This book is a master-class in character study; we are introduced to each character through the lens of Chia, the narrator who connects them all, and as the book unfolds, each character is so well-defined that I felt like I knew them all so personally. My voracity for this novel wasn't instant, instead the intensity of this book snuck up on me. I will carry these characters with me for a long time and cannot wait to pick up more from this author. Thank you to NetGalley, the author, and the publisher for the advanced copy of this book for my unbiased review. 4.5/5 stars

a rare miss from adichie. the writing is, of course, incredible, and i love the depiction of female friendships and the different POVs. each character's quirks, flaws, and prejudices are unflinchingly detailed. but far too much of this book consisted of women reminiscing on their experiences with shitty men with a general "i can fix him" vibe. and i really could have done without most of omelogor's chapter.

adichie couldn't seem to decide what she wanted to accomplish - we have a fictionalized imagining of a real-life event, broad strokes criticism of american liberals, women reflecting on traditional vs progressive values and happiness.... all felt unfocused and unfinished.
hope that the next one works better for me!

I have always been a fan of Adichie’s, but this long awaited return just didn’t grab me like her earlier work.

Dream Count is Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie at her finest—achingly intimate, richly observed, and emotionally resonant. With the delicate precision of a poet and the storytelling sweep of a master, Adichie weaves together the lives of four unforgettable women navigating love, grief, identity, and resilience. Each character—Chiamaka, Zikora, Omelogor, and Kadiatou—feels fully realized and distinct, yet connected by an undercurrent of longing and strength that pulses through every page. The pandemic backdrop adds a quiet urgency, allowing memories and relationships to resurface in raw, vulnerable ways.

Adichie’s prose is as luminous as ever, offering piercing insights into the complexity of womanhood and the cultural dissonance of navigating multiple worlds. The novel's emotional depth is matched by its intellectual rigor, as it interrogates love not just as romance but as choice, sacrifice, and inheritance. Dream Count is a triumph—searing, tender, and unforgettable. It’s the kind of novel that lingers long after the last page, both a balm and a provocation.

I think the writing was very beautiful and some of the plots and elements incredibly beautiful and unique and poignant. I think some of the experiences were expanding like the perspectives of African women of different generations and experiences but some were also universal of being fetishized, of submitting to men's desires, of confusion and power. In that, the book was well done. But it felt protracted and elongated sometimes in way that didn't serve the story and just felt like it made the book so long. Also, while amazing, I don't have closure on any of the stories. I felt like they centered men and yet... didn't end anywhere which felt unsatisfied.

I think this book was just ok. The plotting wasn’t all the way there and although I liked the characters, the narrative arc felt way off. I think I’m going to revisit this one again later this year and see if my opinions have changed.

Loved!

I was InFURIATED by all the men, which obviously is a sign of good writing, if I was so invested that I was so angry!

I liked how it was broken cleanly into four parts, rather than skipping around between narrators.

Author’s note at the end was very compelling and added some interesting depth.

This was a difficult heavy read by a truly gifted author. Beautifully written but definitely not a light summer read.

This was a reflective character study of four women, their hopes/dreams, and their relationships with one another. The book is split into five chapters, with one character narrating the first and last, and the three others each having their own dedicated chapter. The first chapter gives a good overview of what the major events of the next three chapters will be, but it was still interesting to see the same events (and the same characters) from different perspectives. In these first and last chapters, I sometimes had difficulty with the sequence of events.

The most defining aspect of the book is its emphasis on relationships and the different forms they can take. For some, their romantic relationships are their main preoccupation; for others, it is their familial relationships or relationship to their career. I would recommend this book to anyone wanting a good exploration of relationships, the evolution of dreams, and varying perspectives, in addition to anyone who enjoyed Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's other works.

Dream Count tells the stories of four connected women in the years immediately preceding, during, and after the pandemic. The first and central character is Chiamaka, a Nigerian travel writer who lives outside of DC in Maryland. Chia, who experiences the start of the pandemic in utter solitude, is defined by her past lovers and the series of idealistic choices that has led her to be alone in her early forties. Zikora, the second woman, grew up with Chia in Nigeria and moved to DC for law school. While professionally successful, she finds herself betrayed and abandoned at a critical moment of her personal life. Omelogor, the third woman, is Chia’s cousin and best friend. She is brash, opinionated, and a successful banker in a male-dominated industry in Abuja, the capital of Nigeria. A few years before the pandemic she has a crisis of conscience at work and decides to move to the United States to get her PhD, but quickly becomes disillusioned by the moralistic judgment and political correctness of her classmates. Kadiatou, the final woman, is Chia’s housekeeper in Maryland. Kadiatou was born in Guinea in poverty, never went to school, and experienced a series of hardships before claiming asylum in the United States with her young daughter. Kadiatou is thrust into the spotlight after she is raped by a prominent politician while working as a maid in a hotel. While Kadiatou receives support from the other three women, she ultimately faces the trauma alone as she navigates an unfamiliar legal and cultural landscape.

There is no doubt in my mind that Adichie is an incredibly talented writer. As always, Adichie seamlessly includes poignant social commentary by grounding her characters’ experiences in the worlds they grew up in and the ones they currently occupy. I tore through this book and was invested in the each character’s journey.

Ultimately, however, I don’t think that Adichie stuck the landing. While I think Kadiatou’s narrative was one of the strongest portions of the book, paradoxically, I think Adichie could only have been completely successful if she did not include it. In that instance, the book would have been a wonderfully well-written book about the issues facing three affluent Nigerian women in the modern era, each of whom has faced their share of heartbreaks and broken expectations. Although Kadiatou experiences her own heartbreak and broken expectations, the magnitude is radically different. Including Kadiatou’s story gave the book a disjointed feel at the end. I kept waiting for Adichie to weave Kadiatou’s story in with the others beyond just the fact that they all knew her, but she never did. Thus, at the end, I was disappointed and conflicted. I had such an enjoyable reading experience, want to recommend the book to others, but think an essential structural thread is missing.

DREAM COUNT, Chimamanda Ngozie Adichie’s latest novel, is really four stories, loosely tied together by the characters’ familiarity with each other and the heartbreaking rape trial one of them endures. I could pick holes in the novel as a whole but that would be missing the incredibly interesting insights Adichie provides along the way. I especially enjoyed Omelogor’s section, a woman with a whole lot to say, while the housekeeper, Kadiatu’s story created a terrible sense of doom from the start. When I learned that story was based on an actual event, the novel made even more sense. This is a big book with many opportunities for readers to stop and think, especially for those interested in Nigerian culture. And as a starting point for many cultural issues, everyone should be!

With thanks to NetGalley and publisher Albert A. Knopf for an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Unfortunatel, DREAM COUNT by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie did not do it for me. I’m sure there are some people who would enjoy this, but it didn’t resonate and it was a struggle to get through. The flow wasn’t consistent and it felt choppy. Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for an e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

A wonderful deep dive into to the lives of four Niferian women. You are quickly invested in each of their lives and stories. Loved it!