Content Warning: This section of the guide includes references to sexual assault and sexual violence.

One of the novel’s primary themes is the pursuit of lasting happiness. Dream Count explores this theme within all four of the main characters’ storylines. Throughout the novel, the four protagonists’ ongoing quests for happiness are backgrounded by the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic. Forced into lockdown as a result of the global virus, Chiamaka, Zikora, Kadiatou, and Omelogor are compelled into deep reflection; in particular, the characters’ isolation compels them to meditate on what experiences and relationships have made their lives meaningful. The novel uses the temporal setting to inspire Chia’s, Zikora’s, Kadi’s, and Omelogor’s longing for contentment; their unprecedented circumstances make them value the lives they did have and fear for the happiness they might never find again.

Chia, Zikora, Kadi, and Omelogor look to the past to make sense of their discontentment in the present because they’re experiencing protracted bouts of isolation and loneliness. In Parts 1 and 5, Chia has “no choice but to stay indoors”; she feels “assailed by anxiety” and desperately attempts to quell her restlessness with Zoom calls that only exacerbate “the distance between” her and her loved ones (4, 5).