4.5⭐️

Familial expectation wars against an author’s personal ambition in this mixed genre novel about a paraplegic Nigerian-American woman,Zelu.

I enjoyed the book even though it was long. Told from mainly Zelu’s POV and those of her family and friends, we are taken on Zelu’s impulsive, fearless and sometimes irrational journey as an author, adrenaline junkie, daughter, sister, friend and wife.

Embedded in this book is a symbolic and satirical story about the end of the world and robots taking over. I enjoyed the sci-fi bit but felt it ended abruptly just as the fictional part.

There were so many things the author took a swipe at- patriarchy, ableism, sexism, cancel culture, nationalism, family dynamics, dysfunctional relationships, social media culture and racism.

There was so much to pack in. The literary fiction part was believable with the characters relatable and interesting. The story of the robots also packed its punch.

This is an incredible masterpiece making distinct parts of a book work together seamlessly and independently.

I look forward to reading more from this author.

4.25⭐️

Wow! This is such a unique book! This is mostly a literary fiction family drama with a touch of sci-fi in the form of a book within a book. The main character is Zelu, a black paraplegic female author who starts the novel in a low place but then skyrockets from there. I absolutely loved the literary fiction parts and the character development. The characters are so real, especially Zelu, and very well developed although many are also quite unlikeable. As in any close family, the family dynamics are complicated, which made it all the more realistic. I loved learning more about the Nigerian culture and the perspective of a disabled black Nigerian-American female.

I don’t tend to read much sci-fi but the sci-fi portion of the book was compelling and I found myself looking forward to those chapters and delving back into that world.

Overall, I highly recommend this book and look forward to reading more from this author.

Thank you to NetGalley and William
Morrow for an advanced reader copy in exchange for my honest review.

Death of the Author by Nnedi Okorafor was such a fabulous story.
This book was amazing, kept me hooked every moment of it.
I do believe this is one of the best literary fiction stories I’ve ever read. Also joined alongside Afro futurism sci-fi.

Wow wow wow. Death of the Author is a breathtaking epic from Nnedi Okorafor who weaves in disability, artificial intelligence/automation, fan culture, science fiction, Africanfuturism, and contemporary fiction. Through the novel, we follow Zelu, a disabled, Nigerian professor who is abruptly fired from her professorship while she attends her cousin's wedding. She moves back in her with her mother and father and writes what eventually becomes a blockbuster of a novel, Rusted Robots. The novel intersperses interviews with Zelu's family, chapters of Rusted Robots, and the point of view from Zelu herself. Every piece of this novel works - I got so invested in the story of Rusted Robots and how everything turned out, while also falling for Zelu and all her friends and family who surround her.

I highly, highly recommend Death of the Author - this is another incredible novel from Okorafor and unlike anything else I've read before.

Thank you to NetGalley and to William Morrow for the advanced copy.

Many thanks to @netgalley for this ARC! Death of the Author is being released tomorrow, January 14 and I’m so excited for everyone to be able to read it!

I’ve loved Nnedi Okorafor’s writing since her Binti trilogy and was very happy to get to read her latest work.

The first storyline is set in Chicago, centering around Zelu, a paraplegic Nigerian-American writer who is, as everyone in her family will readily attest, a bit of a mess. We first meet her at her sister’s wedding and pretty quickly see her life fall apart in a big way. Throughout the book, we see her parents and siblings love her in the best/only way they know how, which is often full of critiques and loud voices speaking over her, even as she’s achieving some pretty incredible things.

The second storyline is set in a post-human Lagos, Nigeria. The main character in this one is Ankara, a Scholar Hume- humanoid robot- obsessed with collecting and retelling stories, who is given terrible information on her journey and has to decide what to do with that information.

We see both Zelu and Ankara face physical struggles and existential threats and build strange relationships that no one around them understood.

I was super impressed with how one of the storylines wrapped up and felt like the other one had alllllll sorts of foreshadowing that led to nothing? Weeks after finishing this one, I’m still going over my highights and notes and thinking about it and wishing I had someone to talk about it with!

oh i feel like i'm going to be thinking about this book for a long time and i kind of don't know how to write out my thoughts without really spoiling it.
This is a great sci fi entry point for lit fic readers. It's a story within a story - one level has Zelu a disabled Nigerian American writer who experiences the lowest point in her life only to come out of it with a novel that skyrockets her to fame worldwide. What follows is her journey to reclaim her life from what has been laid out and expected of her and the success and struggles she faces while doing so. Zelu was an incredibly interesting character - not particularly likeable all the time, she is selfish and can be one track minded - but there's a lot of nuanced work done by Okorafor and I really understood a lot of the decisions she made even as i was shaking my head at them. The dynamic with her siblings and parents was frustrating but honest, i often wanted to shake all of them and tell them to just LISTEN to one another.
On the other hand is her novel, Rusted Robots, which we get pieces of throughout the book. These snippets are easy to follow and why I think the book is a good step in for people who aren't always comfortable in the sci fi genre. The ways that Robots mirrored, and even sometimes predicted, moments and memories from Zelu's life were really impactful for my reading experience. And as always there's a lot to say about humanity by way of bodiless AIs and, well, rusted robots.
The ending simultaneously left me wanting more and also left my brain WHIRRING between the various stories. I felt like Zelu's story was building up to something that didn't quite land, or maybe in further thinking about it this will all come together for me. But i felt like the interviews implied some big moment in Zelu's life and short of the fact that she went to space i'm not sure what that thing was? It felt more momentous than what we actually got, but maybe I'm missing something.

Death of the Author alternates between Zelu's life of newfound success, her robot novel, and family interviews. Upon losing her job and facing rejection of her latest manuscript, Zelu initiates the writing of a science fiction novel centered on robots. Surprisingly, the book attains remarkable success.

Ordinarily, I'm not a fan of multiple POV shifts, but in this case, the narrative benefited from this approach. The interviews with Zelu's family members offered a nuanced understanding of her character, which was necessary given the dysfunctional nature of their relationships. I found their behavior towards her disturbing, but her growth and increasing assertiveness were admirable. The Rusted Robots chapters were enjoyable, although the shifts between storylines occasionally caused frustration. Nevertheless, I was fully invested in both narratives, which explored complex, yet intersecting conflicts and character arcs.

This novel is outstanding, weaving together a rich tapestry of themes and topics. It would be an excellent choice for a book club. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the eARC.

Consider this two books in one. Literally, because there are chapters of the book Zelu writes throughout the book about Zelu, her family, her disability, her culture, etc. And while sometimes I questioned why I needed to read a book within a book, it comes together at the end in a very satisfying way. I also really liked both stories. Zelu's family drama made me feel for her so much! I recognize that different cultures have different familial characteristics, but the constant harassment of her for embarrassing the family made no sense. Sadly, they took no pride in her or offered support in ways other than to infantile her. (Is that how you say it?) And the story Zelu wrote was a terrific reflection of where she was and where she was going! It was all kind of magical!

The writing felt stilted and clunky here. It sets out to tackle a variety of topics but doesn't really spend enough time handling any of them. The book within the book aspect in theory sounded amazing but those parts didn't flow as well in execution.

'Death of the Author' is a science fiction book which can be appreciated by non-sci-fi lovers. It follows Zelu, a disabled, Nigerian American author as she pens a sci-fi novel that takes the world by storm, but then finds that everyone is more interested in her own life and how she has begun to integrate AI adaptive technologies. The book follows Zelu and her family across continents, as well as tells the story of robots after humans have ceased to exist.

The parallels between the two stories in this book are fun to examine, and Okorafor's commentary on AI and humanity is well thought out and nuanced. I found myself drawn in and rooting for Zelu, even as she made choices I didn't agree with.

Thank you to Nnedi Okorafor and William Morrow for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

DEATH OF THE AUTHOR

A very happy pub day to DEATH OF THE AUTHOR by Nnedi Okorafor! This was my first novel from Okorafor, and I really enjoyed reading it (thanks to NetGalley and William Morrow for the digital copy)! Zelu, the main character, is a triumph. She's complex and three-dimensional, and although she was occasionally frustrating, I always understood where she was coming from.

If you're interested in potentially picking this up, you should know up front that this isn't reeeeally a sci-fi novel. I'd describe it as primarily a character study and a family drama with some very lightly speculative elements and snippets of a sci-fi story thrown in. To be clear, this didn't bother me at all, and in fact I quite enjoyed how it's kind of in a genre of it's own. My aim in calling it out is simply to clarify any expectations.

On the family drama tip, I found this to be the least baked piece of the book. A lot of it still worked for me, but I often found myself scratching my head at Zelu's relationship with some of her siblings, especially Chinyere. Given how many disagreements they had, some of which got kind of vicious, I think I needed a bit more of the siblings' perspective or side of things to really understand their point of view. Without it, they frequently come off like unsupportive caricatures, and I don't think that's intentional.

The snippets you get of Zelu's novel are a lot of fun. Books about other pieces of art that take the world by storm are always a gamble, but this one sticks the landing in my view.

Overall, I'm quite glad to have read this. It might not crop up in my end-of-year favorites, but it was refreshing and inventive. If you read it, DM me about the family stuff, I'll be interested in others' takes.

"Death of the Author" by Nnedi Okorafor combines contemporary fiction, Afro-futurism, science fiction, family drama, and much more in its pages.

This story centers on Zelu, the second oldest daughter of Nigerian parents, who are from different tribes. The family is large and deeply rooted in West African/Nigerian customs and thinking, even though they all now live in/around Chicago.
Zelu is in a wheelchair since the age of 12 due to an accident. She is an adjunct professor of English, who is not fond of her current students and their ineptness. Zelu is unceremoniously relieved of her job (via telephone) while at a Sister's wedding in the Caribbean. She has also been attempting to publish a novel, but has been rejected many times. When Zelu refocuses and writes a highly popular science fiction novel about androids, AI, and the end of the human race, it becomes a best-seller and worldwide phenomenon--even becoming a highly successful movie adaptation, though not exactly the adaptation Zelu would've hoped.

The story takes us from present/future day and mixes with selected chapters from Zelu's best-seller, "Rusted Robots." So, a story within a story.

The writing is descriptive, easy to follow, authentic and imaginative. Okorafor conveys much emotion of Zelu and her family.
Zelu, who is Nigerian-American, wheelchair-bound, and very dutiful to her family, though she is still outspoken and determined to "living her own life." This creates much tension between Zelu and her family and others and their evolving relationships--especially after Zelu's novel is published and becomes a best-seller.

The introduction of the researcher and his team who have an amazing opportunity for Zelu, presents an interesting dilemma. I enjoyed this aspect of the story, as I was not expecting Zelu's family to be in such opposition to her and her wishes.
The representation of Nigerian culture through food and celebration was authentic and well-presented throughout the story.

The AI/humanoid/robot characters from the story-within-a-story were fleshed out and the themes in these storylines often paralleled the real life of Zelu/current events. I liked the juxtaposition and furthering of the story with these switches between the "real" life and the alternate story.

The humanoids/"ghosts" and other beings from the "Rusted Robots" story--are very well conveyed throughout the story. The developing relationship/friendship of the two main robot characters was sincere and sweet, and I enjoyed their symbiotic journey.

I would recommend this book to all. I bet the audio is going to be amazing as well!!

Thank you, NetGalley and William Morrow (publisher) for the Advance Reader Copy (e-read) of "Death of the Author."

Thank you Netgalley and William Morrow for this ARC!!

Hmmmm I'm not really sure how to place this book. I don't have particularly strong feelings either away about this book. I didn't really enjoy the interweaving of book within a book, but I did like the interviews and how real the characters felt. Overall, I think I was just hoping for some more character growth for all the characters.

I am so frustrated by this book!! I feel like I've been fighting it as much as reading it, and I have such conflicted feelings. Having reached the end, and now fully understanding the premise, I like the idea so much. I was pretty invested in Zelu for the majority of the book, though I struggled to get invested with other sections at times.

Basically, there are three interweaving parts of this story: Zelu's timeline as an improbably successful and popular author; the Hume timeline with Ankara, a robot locked in battle with an army of AIs (hardware versus software, more or less, which fits other themes in the book!); and interviews with members of Zelu's family. I have nothing relevant to say about the interviews, except that I usually liked them even when wasn't not sure how they related to things or where they fell in the timeline of the novel.

As for the other two threads, I found Zelu's to be the most interesting, though it's minimally sci-fi and I struggled to buy into the scale of her success. I had a much harder time getting invested in the robot plotline, in part because the first few sections were written exclusively as dense summary rather than as engaging scenes. That changes as the book goes on, but by then I was already tepid toward those sections. But they are the most sci-fi heavy portion of this sci-fi novel! So what's a reader to think?

At this point, I've read all but three or so of Okorafor's works, and I usually either really like them (e.g. Binti, Remote Control) or am very lukewarm toward them (e.g. The Desert Magician series). Her prose style is usually quite spare, and I think that's the reason I couldn't immediately get into this. There were so many places where more detail, more sensory description, and more linkage between the scenes would have helped immerse me in the world. The Ankara scenes especially felt so rushed, which in turn made me skeptical about the wild success that Zelu experiences as an author. Weirdly, I think I would have liked this book to be longer just so that things could have been more fleshed out. But I see a lot of other readers complaining that too much time was spent on Zelu's family drama and connecting more to the harder scifi, which makes me smile.

I liked this book more than I would have expected at the midpoint, and I kept feeling like Okorafor was playing with me. In fact, I think this might be the case. By the end of the novel, I felt like she wrote this book for herself and merely allowed us to read it. I won't say too much about the plot or gradual reveals, because they snuck up on me in a way that I found extremely satisfying.

While I'm not saying that this book is autobiographical AT ALL, I suspect from having read her actual memoir (Broken Places & Outer Spaces) that Okorafor put a fair bit of her personal experience into Zelu's descriptions of living with disability. One of the things I liked so much about Zelu's POV is that she's not always likeable per se, but she is ALWAYS herself. She's not interested in being a role model for the disabled community, or in trying to get along with people who rub her the wrong way. Her family drove me CRAZY at times, but hey, that's family. As a reader, I'm always character-first, and getting to tag along with Zelu's ups and downs meant that even when I wasn't always connecting with the prose, I was never in danger of DNFing. I wanted to know what would happen to her.

In addition to extensive disability and Nigerian-American rep, there's a trans side character (I liked how that was handled even though she's in barely 1% of the story) and lots of small discussions about things that I don't see represented often in mainstream fiction. I can see that this book is already polarizing for readers, and I can see why, as I felt like I was being pulled in multiple directions while reading. I would personally say that "Death of the Author" is more literary than scifi, so people coming in with scifi expectations might be disappointed; but if you're an Okorafor fan, I think you'll also be delighted by what I perceived to be a high number of easter eggs related to Okorafor's other works.

I received an ARC of this book through NetGalley; my review is my own and is being left voluntarily. As long as Okorafor keeps writing books, I'll keep reading them. I mean this is in the most normal way possible: I like her brain.

First off, let me start off by saying that I am not a big sci-fi fan, but I love the whole meta book within a book trope so I went for it with Death of the Author and so glad I did. I knew Nnedi Okorafor is an accomplished author, and I had no hesitancy to read a book penned by her.

Our main character in Death of the Author has hit a rock bottom, loss of her job, single and her latest book rejected by publisher. Zelu decides to take a risk with her literary career and write a novel unlike anything she has written before... a science fiction novel about robots and AI non-human characters. Her life is changed when it becomes an instant blockbuster.

I loved the present time storyline, loved that our protagonist had a disability, but the way Okorafor created her she was so well developed and rounded that the disability didn't become her defining characteristic. There was such a beautiful blend of intersectionality and personality that Zelu feels so authentic and relatable. I rooted for her the whole time. The sci fi chapters were a little tougher for me to enjoy, only because that isn't my thing, but I thought even those chapters were well written and loved how they portrayed/related to Zelu in her current life. I think this novel will appeal to both the literary novel lovers and to those that like science fiction. You get the best of both worlds with Nnedi Okorafor writing the story.

Thank you to netgalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read and review and advanced digital copy. All opinions are my own.

Zelu feels like the odd one out of her Nigerian and high achieving family. She is unemployed, disabled, and not succeeding as an author. Until one night she begins to write a science fiction AI story, that becomes an instant best seller. As her life changed with fame, the lines between fiction and reality blur.

There are so many great things about this book, so I do really recommend it despite my three stars (which is solely based on my enjoyment factor). This book is very well written. The main characters are well developed and feel very real. I loved all the family drama and dysfunction and how it clearly affected the main character. Theres disability rep and a lot of the story is based on the main character living as a disabled black female in the world. It gets into the whitewashing of cultural works of art as well. There’s a story within the story, which thankfully was written within short chapters because I just couldn’t get into that sci fi aspect. If you like scifi, you’ll appreciate it and how it begins to mirror the real life occurrences. This book is really long; too long, and that was one of my issued. While I enjoyed the story and the main character, I just got really bogged down around 50-75% and it felt like a chore. The rest of it I was excited to pick up so give this one a try.

“But you should know, Zelu’s no robot. She’s all human, and she felt things deeply. Everything that happened, she felt it all.”

Death of the Author comes out 1/14.

There is something very addictive about this author’s writing style. So much so that I kept reading much further than I wanted to. Personally, I went into this hoping for sci-fi but it is unfortunately very low on the sci-fi and is much more of a lit fic book with a lot of family drama. Personally that is just really not my cup of tea which is why I eventually stopped reading. But I will say that the writing style did hook me in and had me reading for longer than I thought I would stay interested. As such, if you are a reader interested in family drama with a dash of sci-fi then I would definitely give this a chance because it is written very well. As for myself, I would definitely give other books by this author a chance if they were more suited to my genre tastes. Thank you to the publishers and author for the ARC copy.

This book was like a box of candy with a surprise filling, and it delighted me…


This is my first reading of Nnedi Okotafor’s book. Initially, the blurb suggested a blend of literary fiction with some sci-fi elements, which piqued my interest. However, delving deeper, I found it more heavily rooted in science fiction, particularly within the Africanfuturism subgenre. Nnedi is known for coining the term Africanfuturism and forraying stories in the mainstream from this subgenre. I went in without reading any reviews, simply the synopsis of a young woman who dared to defy the odds and chose to live on her terms... And the book delivered just that emphatically.


The title, Death of the Author, is inspired by the famous essay by the French literary critic and theorist Roland Barthes. Although I haven't read the essay, a brief overview helped me grasp its significance and why Nnedi chose it as a title. "Death of the Author" posits that an author's intentions and personal details should not significantly influence the interpretation of their work. This mid-20th-century literary concept suggests that a reader’s interpretation can hold as much value as the writer's. In Nnedi’s book, this idea is intricately woven throughout, encouraging readers to reflect deeply on their interpretations of the protagonists’ actions.


We meet Zelu, a twenty-something aspiring author and adjunct professor at a university in Chicago. She is Nijamerican, skillfully navigating the delicate balance between her deep love for the culture of her Nigeran heritage and her embrace of the individualistic ethos she was taught as an American-born and raised in Chicago.

As a person with paraplegia, she faces numerous struggles, yet her strength is truly inspiring. She refuses to let anything hinder her life. Despite her desire to lead an everyday life, society and her family often remind her of her limitations. In contrast to her siblings, who all thrive professionally, Zelu boldly chooses a less conventional path as a writer. She navigates the challenges of being the black sheep with humor, resilience, and determination.

While on the picturesque island of Trinidad and Tobago celebrating one of her sisters’ wedding, Zelu’s life is upended. As she hits absolute rock bottom, her stellar piecework from the depths of this abyss emerges- Rusted Robots. As she rides the high wave of success of her book that takes her from Boston to Lagos, we, as readers, are privy to Zelu’s psyche as we see her extension through the protagonist, Ankara, whom she created for her book Rusted Robots.

I did not agree with Zelu at each point, but I admired her. Nnedi crafted a complex and nuanced character, and I was absorbed into the story from the first page, but I could not put it down. A delightful surprise within the book was the exploration of Zelu's creation, "Rusted Robots. The themes of love, grief, and familial pressures were beautifully written and brought me to tears, highlighting the universality of our emotions despite cultural differences. Nnedi’s struggle with scoliosis is reflected in Zelu’s emotional journey, adding depth and authenticity to the narrative. That said, the book does suffer a bit in pacing. While the first half was flawless, the story began to drag after the 60% mark. The conclusion of "Rusted Robots" felt rushed; through the protagonist Ankara, I glimpsed Zelu's innermost thoughts, and truncating the ending robbed me of a fuller and better understanding.

The book's ending will stay with me forever. As I write about it, I see how I, as a reader, have inferred that Zelu’s personal life influenced her protagonist, Ankara, and that Nndei’s struggles are reflected in Zelu. This is why the book stays with you long after you are done reading.
This is one of the more difficult reviews I had to write. I also request that Rusted Robots be released as a stand-alone book because I loved reading it.

I absolutely recommend reading it. Nendis wove magic!



Thank you, NetGalley & William Morrow, for providing me with an eARC to review

4.2 Stars

Despite my familiarity with Okorafor's phenomenal writing, I was little concerned that this concept would fall flat. I could not have been more wrong! Death of the Author is an inventive and intriguing story. Flipping between a contemporary family-oriented narrative that feels in parts stifling, relatable, and heartwrenching and a sci-fi story-within-a-story, this has a little something for everyone. My favorite bit, however, is the end--unpredictable and brilliant, it launched an already good book way up the ranks of my favorite reads.

As for the bones, you will find a lot of what makes Okorafor's works great. Loving and complicated families, unusual and exceptional protagonists, unexpected friendships, and rich blends of Nigerian culture come together to make a world that feels very real and vast. I particularly enjoyed how well the meta-fiction was handled--essentially giving the reader two novels in one. I'm impressed at how complete both stories feel without a vastly inflated word count, and how well their connections paid off by the end of the novel.

Oh wow, this book is a journey. When my friends asked me what "genre" this book is I answered "I don't know, I'll find out before I finish it." But this book just refused to be contained within a single genre. It instead traveled between literary fiction and SciFi. Back and forth. I think some readers were upset about it. I was not. I was along for the ride. What ride that is, you may ask?

Briefly we have two entangled stories. One takes place in the near future, where Zelu--a disabled American-Nigerian author, down on her luck and sick of conforming to the expectations of her over-protective family--writes a best-selling novel about robots and AI in a dystopian future where humanity is now extinct; the near-instant fame she acquires almost destroys her and her family. The novel's success comodifies her and her creation to the point where she feels her grip on her fictional world slipping.

Enter story number 2: Zelu's novel. In the far future, two robots (one with and one without a body) become so entangled in their coding they can no longer completely separate, all while their respective 'tribes' are at war and the Earth is months or weeks, or hours away from total annihilation brought upon by a third group of robots who flew too close to the sun and have gone mad.

So what are you reading? I dare you to find out. The line between the stories blurs to total extinction as the novel progresses. In parallel, the line between Zelu and her fans seems to also blur under the pressure of social media to engage in parasocial relationships. And at the same time, Ankara and Ijele (the two robots) also become more and more entangled. It is an interesting story about labels, tribalism, creation, duty and individualism. The only part that made me feel uncomfortable was that the actual author of this novel didn't linger as much as I'd expected on the evils of automation, big corporations, and rushed prototypes. But somehow I am okay with this, because of the unique twists, turns and questions explored in the rest of the novel.

At times Zelu and her family are difficult to understand. Her Nigerian family's resistance and vicious take downs felt like too much, almost artificial. In a way the ending explains this. But also...I remembered my own experience as a Romanian expat. It may be difficult for Western audiences to understand, but some societies, whose social and natural resources had been stripped by the West, really do dog their members down. I remember when one of my Ivy-league PhD-holding friend was without a job for months; her neighbors rejoiced in her struggles, held them up to her face and mocked her for her efforts to better her life. Yes, this type of cruelty is possible. It comes from the hollow place where people's dreams used to reside, where the stories of their glorious future succumbed. It is hard for Western audiences to understand this...because they insulated themselves from the outcomes of their actions on other cultures. It doesn't make the story unrealistic. It makes it authentic in an uncomfortable way. Still, the ending was surprisingly hopeful. Both Scheherazade and Icarus would be proud of this conclusion. Perhaps flying too close to the sun is not a death-sentence, so long as another author can pick up the story and keep it alive for future generations.

Overall I really enjoyed the story and found it hard to put down. It's been wrongly compared in my opinion to "Yellowface" but that is only a superficial similarity and you may be disappointed with the outcome if you go into this expecting a variation on R.F. Kwuang's novel. I better comparison would be in my opinion "The Unseen World" by Liz Moore. Although that may give too much away. 4.5 stars rounded up.