Four very different unmarried women who were born in Nigeria are the main characters in this novel. I find Adichie’s voice so full of curiosity, insight and humanity that she grabs me from the very first page.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this book.

Just wow! I am still processing.

Such a thought provoking novel. It has so many amazing characters and, a serious thought provoking plot.

Loved the story line, and cast of characters

This is going to be atbthebtop of every book club list.

I think Adichie is a wonderful writer and this book shows how great she is. I think the first half of this book was very well done and kept me engaged. As the book went on and more perspectives were added it was harder to stay attentive to the book.

Dream Count is a book I will carry with me for the rest of my life. Chia, Zikor, Kadi, and Omelogor became my friends and sisters, as I read their stories. Finishing it was heartbreaking, not just because I had to say goodbye to them, but because I knew their journeys would stay with me forever.

This isn’t a book to rush through. Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie writes in a way that's meant to be savored. The story reads like a stream of consciousness, deeply immersing you in the minds of these characters. As someone whose mind is constantly racing, it really resonated with me.

At its core, Dream Count is a character driven story about four Nigerian women navigating life — exploring their careers, struggles, and relationships. It’s real, raw, and unflinchingly honest. Even though my experience as a Hispanic woman immigrating to the U.S. differs from theirs, I found a deep connection in the way they spoke about their families, their homes, and the expectations placed on them by the women in their lives. It's a reminder that there's more that connected us, than what makes us different.

Chimamanda’s exploration of these women’s lives is a beautiful reminder that, as immigrant women, we are bound by more similarities than differences—our dreams, our contradictions, the tension between what we’re taught and what we choose to believe. This book resonated with me in a way few others have.

As painful as it is, Dream Count is a love letter to womanhood, one that left me feeling seen and connected in ways I didn’t expect. It's a story that has changed something in my brain and will linger.

*This book contains some heavy themes, so I would recommend checking the trigger warnings before diving in. The storytelling is raw and unflinching, and at times, it can be difficult to read. But it also provides an honest portrayal of the challenges women face in this world, especially women of color.

I didn’t hate the writing, but I absolutely loathed the structure. This just didn’t feel like a cohesive novel.

Adichie takes us on a journey through the lives of 4 very different Nigerian women. We watch as their lives unfold through the choices they make. The paths they take turn out to be much different than what they imagined for themselves when they left their homes and university.
It is told from multiple POVs as the story intermingles seamlessly going from one to another. We first get others impressions of each woman and then we see life from their point of view and understand their needs and fears. We see each as they try to turn their dreams into reality.
The central character is Chiamaka. She comes from a wealthy family. She takes advantage of her background to become a travel writer. She is caring and the core that holds the four women of this story together. Her best friend Zikora is a successful lawyer. Heading on a career track that looks to others like a perfect life. However, like her friends she is weighed down with the expectations of family. Omelogor leaves a fast paced life in the world of high finance of Nigeria. Still, with all her success she is disillusioned and unfulfilled. The final character is Kadiatou who is Chiamaka’s housekeeper. Her story is quite different and she has a quiet strength that she must draw on at the end of the book.
The book asks “What do people need to be happy? Is it ok to live a life alone or is happiness defined by the traditions we’ve been brought up with?” It addresses the topics of race, misogyny, and assault. We must be honest with ourselves and recognize what is required to turn our dreams into reality. An excellent book, 5 stars.

I would like to thank Penguin Random House and NetGalley for an ARC of this amazing book. These opinions are my own.

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's Dream Count delves into the lives of four women who are connected to each other. While the book opens as a "covid" novel, it really is a novel about relationships, relationships between the women, but mostly relationships between the four main characters and the men they have been involved with in their lives.

While I enjoyed this novel, I had a sense that the stories of each of the main characters was unresolved. Perhaps this was on purpose, but I wanted more after having spent so much time getting to know these women.

Readers should know that they must read the author's note at the end of the book to fully appreciate and understand the novel and the events in one of the main character's story.

Ten years of waiting and it was worth it! The joys and disappointments of four African women on both sides of the Atlantic. The author gives all 4 women a brilliant and distinct voice, and this one is sure to be a huge hit with independent readers and book groups alike.

I should preface by saying I'm a big fan of Chimamanda Adiche and this long-awaited new story surpassed expectations. Unfortunately I'm still at the stage where Covid-era books give me the ick (maybe still just too soon for me, I don't know), but firstly, nothing about this book gave me the ick and, secondly, it also jumps around a bit in the timeline so it's really not heavily focused on the pandemic. But I love how the whole story really does get at those universal but unprecedented (lol) feelings we all had during the pandemic. The reflection it caused. The doubt it sowed in our life choices up until that point. Adichie explores a variety of universal but not often discussed feelings that span heartbreak, unrequited love, parenthood, and contentment.

The story follows a group of women connected in various ways, starting with Chiamaka and branching out to her best friend, her housekeeper, and her cousin, and wildly different paths they took in life, and, in doing so, creating a beautiful and heart breaking story of womanhood. I just want to sit down to dinner with these women and could talk about their lives for hours. Adichie creates such full, imperfect, and inspiring characters and these women have to be her best yet.

Thoroughly enjoyed, thank you so much to NetGalley & Knopf for the honor to read a copy early!

At first, the connection between the story and title seemed far-fetched, but as the story unfolded, the narrative became clear.

Dream Count is a beautifully-written novel that weaves together the complexities of the human desire of four powerful women as they reminisce about their past relationships that did not exactly fully align with their dreams of love.

Despite the fact that the novel masterfully captures the emotional depth of the desires of these women, I found the frequent flashbacks into their many relationships very extensive and lengthy.

Chimamanda's writing is, as expected, brilliant.

It was an absolute privilege to receive an early copy of this novel.

I was so excited to get my hands on this ARC - 10 years in the making! This book was just ok for me, but because of how much I had looked forward to it, I felt an extra level of disappointment.

Basically, this is a character study of four women and their relationships. It feels almost like four different novellas bound together, so I'll go one by one and give my feelings about each one.

We open with the first woman, the "glue" that sticks these women together: Chiamaka. Chia is a dreamer, the daughter of a rich father, who wants to make it as a travel writer. We meet her during the pandemic lockdown and immediately dive into long-winded reflections on her failed romantic relationships. I was missing a reason to care, to be honest. I didn't feel compelled by Chia. The men in her life were so crummy, and she had so little agency in her relationships. And it began feeling repetitive; I didn't feel any progressing character arc, just one crummy guy after another.

Next, we get to know Zikora, and this section starts with such promise. Zikora is in the throes of labor, and I was looking forward to a story of motherhood. But again, we leave the present day almost immediately and dive into Zikora's dating history as well. I did connect with her character more than Chia, but still, she was a woman without agency, dating men who didn't value her. I did enjoy the parts of her story that dug into her relationship with her mother, who was an interesting and complex woman who Zikora begins to understand better over time.

Then, Kadiatou - a breath of fresh air! A young girl in Guinea, looking up to her big sister who yearns for more in life, not quite understanding her dreams - Kadi genuinely loves the quiet village life. Life takes her down an unexpected path. Her sister's spirit drives her forward, something to live up to, but Kadi does have her own deep strength. She just doesn't recognize it in herself. I don't think I've read about a character like her before, and I was so interested. And then - BAM! Enter crappy guy who takes away her agency.

Omelogor was a totally different story. I actually didn't think I liked her when her section began - her voice sounded pretentious and condescending. But as I got to know her, I grew so fond of her, of how she saw the world, of how she valued her culture and people, and of how she saw the complexity in her society. I respected how she was unwavering in her convictions, voicing her stance without fear of what others would think.

If you are looking for a series of character studies and don't need a plot to advance a book forward, then you're probably going to enjoy this more than me. The same goes for if you are a hopeless romantic who feels compelled by stories of searching for something you are not sure you want.

Looking through all the 5 star reviews this has, I seem to be in the minority. So, if you're excited to read it, ignore me and pick it up!

Chia - 2 stars
Zikora - 3 stars
Kadi - 3.5 stars
Omelogor - 3.5 stars
Average - 3 stars

Thank you to NetGalley and Knopf, Pantheon, Vintage, and Anchor for this ARC to read and review.

Oh how I missed Chimamanda! These four women and their stories and their struggles and their desires and their failures and their needs! So real! So valid! I loved reading about these older millennial women navigating womanhood, motherhood in the height of COVID! The why are you not married for chia and omelogor was so real bc why are you not married lol jk jk but just some of the nonsense one endures being a daughter of africans! I resonated so much with these women! They arent perfect! They say some wild mess and deal with some loser ass men but overall isnt that life?!?! Your trials your failures etc! Chimamanda continues to elevate as always! Although i liked this novel, if i were to compare to her other bodies of work this would be at the bottom unfortunately! Overall, the writing is lovely and doesnt put me in a slump and made me stay!

I have enjoyed previous books by Adichie, but this one unfortunately didn’t work for me. It felt more like 4 novellas with somewhat intersecting stories about bad men/relationships, mothers and daughters, wealth, power, culture, roles and traditions. The writing was beautiful, but the plights of the characters (with the exception of Kadi) did not grip me. Kadi’s “chapter” was based on a true story that happened on 2011 which the author explains in an afterward. That could have been the entire book. The other chapters didn’t seem to hang together as a cohesive novel and the story lost something in its totality.
Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC. Dream Count is available on 3/4/25.

Dream Count
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

I am a fan of Americanah, and was excited to receive a copy for review, and was certainly not disappointed. Dream Count is a beautifully written recounting of the stories of four interrelated women. It deals with love, relationships, with cultural differences, discrimination and misogyny. Diffucult topics all.

It is both inspirational and heartbreaking. The author's afterword is not to be missed.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Knopf for providing the digital galley.

An absolute masterpiece about the bonds of love and family. I didn’t want this book to end. Thanks to NetGalley for the advanced read!

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie is one of the most important writers of our time. Her novels Half of a Yellow Sun and Americanah are both modern classics, and her essay We Should All be Feminists should be required university reading.

I loved this novel. Here, Adichie presents us with four dynamic women characters, whose chapters alternate in focus and narrative voice. The story is set both in America to Nigeria and the author interweaves the personal and political as the four women navigate love, work, gender, and class divides.

My thanks to the publisher and to NetGalley for giving me an opportunity to read an ARC copy.

I swear everything that this author writes, I just love. Her writing style, the relatability....just everything.

very well written story about some very interesting and well written people. i would definitely recommend it. 5 stars. tysm for thea rc.

This started off a bit boring and slow but picked up after a little bit. After the beginning *awkwardness*, the characters started to become life-sized and impressively multi-dimensional. It usually icks me out a little bit reading about the pandemic, so I think I would enjoy some of her other books a little better. Overall this was a good book!

Adichie is truly a beautiful and talented writer. A true gem. I adore her work and so reading this was so exciting for me. The characters have so many layers to them, and as the story progresses, we get to see more and more of these characters. Adichie doesn't stray from talking about heavy and important topics and thoughts for the characters. Every word continued to build on the narrative and characters and made me feel like I was being pulled right into the story.