On the surface, the plot is a general story within a story concept. The main character is writing/wrote a book and chapters from that book alternate with the author’s life. The “story” is about a future of robots and the persistence of tribalism even in this AI ruled world. There is a lot of food for thought with this book and people may connect better with the second story of the robots more than others. I was more connected for most of the book to the more current day story and as such, didn’t look forward to the robot chapters. That was enough to reduce the book from 4 from 5 stars because otherwise it was brilliant and quite a look at disability, romantic and family relationships and the complications involved surrounding these issues. I recommend this for anyone who is an existing fan of Nnedi Okorafor as well as anyone new to her work and interested in the book description.

I love this unique story within a story. It drew me in and I couldn't put it down. I felt a deep connection with the characters as they learn to forgive and accept themselves, which is something many struggle with. I love the juxtaposition of the "real world" with the "science fiction" world that may not be so far off. This beautifully written story will stay with me for a long time.

I went into this novel unsure what to expect and I’m glad I did. The story grabbed me early and I didn’t want to put it down.

This was a character-focused story of a Nigerian-American paraplegic writer - navigating her family, her fame, various personal relationships, her disability, her culture, and more.

The main character, Zelu, and her family were complex - at times I loved them, was frustrated by them, wanted to argue with them. I enjoyed the interjection of the Interview chapters with the different characters, to get a peek into their thoughts, and it helped add context to the relationships and flesh out the other characters.

Zelu was complicated and messy, making her feel real - and even when I didn't agree with her, I understood her choices.

I think a reader should go into this novel without knowing too much of the overall plot and enjoy following Zelu throughout her story.

Nnedi Okorafor is unmatched in current times. This title is beyond outstanding. Death of the Author is as compelling and engaging as any book I’ve read in the last couple of years. It should stand in the pantheon of science fiction great books, as Okorafor should be fully recognized by all.

“The end of the world is a good place for stories to reside.”

I read Death of the Author on a cruise vacation, and I spent a lot of non-reading time wishing I could get back to this book. I feel like that says a lot about it.

Having two intertwined stories where both kept my attention is really impressive, and this book managed to do it. I will say that the Rusted Robots chapters were a bit more intriguing to me, but that’s simply because I’m a post-apocalyptic / sci-fi fan at heart.

Zelu is a complex and relatable character; I loved her, flaws and all. Her discussions regarding her disability were thoughtful and real, and they made me think long and hard about my own understanding of what living with a mobility disability would be like.

The family dynamics in this mystified me, but I think that’s simply because that’s not how my family dynamics work. I kept wishing Zelu would simply not tell them things, especially when the response was always the same.

I did find some situations unrealistic - for example, when Zelu VERY REASONABLY stands up for her decisions regarding her exos and her own disability in response to the journalist and the entire internet jumps to call her ableist with no dissenting voices - I simply cannot believe that in this day and age that is the reaction we would see. But maybe I’m naïve and want to hope for the best in people?

Thank you to NetGalley for an eARC copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Nnedi Okorafor is on a very short list of mine where I'll read any book they write. Her sci-fi worlds, of a genre she calls "Africanfuturism", are a breathe of fresh air among sometimes stale Western fiction tropes. Her syntax is also refreshing, as there's a deceptively simple, almost folkloric structure to her sentences that makes her books very accessible, yet still rich and alive. It sometimes feels like you're sitting around a fire listening to her tell you a story.

In Death of the Author, you are really reading two books in one. The first story is about Zelu, a headstrong parapalegic writer, her rise to fame, and her relationships with her Nigerian-American family. This takes place perhaps 30-50 years in the future, in a world very similar to modern day, so it would be a stretch to call it science fiction beyond a few minor elements, which is a big departure from what Okorafor is known for. Autonomous vehicles, for some reason, are only starting to hit the market, despite today already being a reality. One key plot element revolves around Zelu gaining access to a piece of life-changing technology that probably <i>will</i> exist 30-50 years out, but other than that the speculative fiction elements are sparse. In truth, the most fantastical element I found in Zelu's story was that an MIT professor and grad students had enough free time to travel the world with their writer friend all the time.

Even in the darkest parts of Nnedi's stories, there's a core of strength and hope that her MC's often posses that rarely leave you with a bitter taste in your mouth. That said, I unfortunately found Zelu somewhat unlikable, although not unrealistic as a person. Maybe that was the point though? I found it difficult to read scenario after scenario of Zelu's family relentlessly putting her down and never acknowledging her successes. On the other hand, career-wise and romantically, Zelu seems to have every single thing she ever wanted just fall into her lap with seemingly little friction. She doesn't handle this dichotomy with poise or gratitude, or even a sense of agency, only an attitude that she always knew she deserved this life and the world was just catching up. There is no mention of her immense privilege, despite her disability, and no sense of urgency or insecurity in maintaining her new lifestyle once she achieves it. I think many other people in her situation might have a bit more internal conflict or hint of imposter syndrome. Some chapters are interviews of the people close to her, with a vague sense of past tense, as if something bad was going to happen, but which ultimately felt discontiguous with the rest of Zelu's chapters. By the end, I couldn't help but feel I had missed something about understanding her as a person, and that there was a lack of character development from who she started as and who she ended up as.

The other story being told alongside Zelu's is that of <i> Rusted Robots </i>, the science fiction novel that skyrockets Zelu to fame. I didn't really connect much to it, and while being set in a far future Nigeria, didn't see much of how it connected to it's environment, or even Zelu's story. It followed a story with a pretty standard plot element, one we've seen in Baldur's Gate 3, The Host by Stephanie Meyer, and Animorphs. I won't spoil it, but you can probably see the throughline there if you know any of these other works. It contrasts with Zelu's story in being almost too fantastical and folktale-like that leave some of the worldbuilding feeling underdeveloped and vague. To me, robots as a subject matter also feel well-worn at this point, so I just didn't really connect with much of it.

Overall, <i>Death of the Author </i> feels like it takes all of the components that Okorafor so seamlessly integrates into her typical sci-fi work - Africanness, hope, survival, transhumanism, self-actualization, etc. - and deconstructs them into disparate elements and tales. Much like eating two slices of bread with a cold slice of cheddar does not provide the same experience as a hot, toasty grilled cheese sandwich, Zelu's story and <i>Rusted Robots </i> didn't quite add up to the sum of their parts for me.

All this said though, I believe in an artist's right to evolve and I'm glad that Nnedi wrote such a personal and somewhat risk-taking novel to share with the world. Perhaps elements of this book were <i>too</i> real for me, and I have to accept that I hide away in reading hard sci-fi and avoid literary fiction because I want escapism, not reminders of life's messy ambiguities and harsh realities. I do hope she continues to write more like this though, and I will still eagerly read whatever she publishes. There will be an audience for this book, but I don't think I was it.

Much thanks to the author and publisher for providing me with the eARC in exchange for an honest review.

I went into this thinking it would be a really interesting read about robots, AI, and the future of our world. I finished this book feeling like I had been scammed. This was such a weird and odd book, and I feel like the premise of it did not match the actual plotline and summary. I felt a bit misled in the actual story, and at times, the main character was deeply unlikeable in her decisions. She was hard to empathize with, and many times, put herself and others in danger for the sake of the plot. Being a grown woman, I couldn't justify her decisions as I could with a YA protagonist. This book truly was unhinged, but not in a good way.

This masterful novel refuses any genre boundaries or expectations, with an escape velocity powerful enough to shame any natural laws trying to hold it down. Nnedi Okorafor manages to seamlessly blend three distinct narratives in this story, the “main” narrative, a series of interviews about the main character, and the novel-within-the-novel. Each of these have a distinct voice, especially noticeable in the interviews which each builds a world for that interviewee in their speech patterns and what they share to tell, and yet they fall into each other, never competing for space but somehow building into a beautiful meta-narrative about identity, individuality, and family, and somehow so much more. Importantly, as you switch across these three modes it never feels like a gimmick, instead it feels necessary, like it is the only way to see a bigger picture, more zoomed out. The stories and memories and vague foreboding of the interviews make the parallels between the two narratives more apparent, and as those two narratives seek to understand and explain each other the interviews create a web of context.

The world-building is really skillful, giving such a strong sense of time and place. The way deep roots spread across continents, and the lives all of those locations are given through the characters’ relationships with and experiences and memories of them, gives the world-building a tangible feeling. This also goes for the post-human landscape in the novel-within-the-novel, a lush world that feels complete and full. The characters are all great. There are a lot of ancillary characters in the main narrative, as the main character has a big family, and not all of them are really fleshed out in a complete way, and yet each has a distinct role in the family, and they are colorful and exciting and still feel genuine. The family as a whole serves as a character, and all of the siblings and so forth are the unique parts, making the family both spectacular and relatable. The main character and a few of the more important ancillary characters are exquisitely developed, full of impulses and complications and genuine heart. The writing supports the characters, being straightforward and emotional in turn, meeting the needs of the scene. For a novel that definitely has a lot of ideas the writing never felt stuffy or pretentious, it felt very earthy, almost, and grounded. It made everything else in the story more convincing. I will repeat I especially appreciated how distinct each character felt in their interview chapters, showing a finesse with writing dialogue and sentiment in such a way as to build distinct and intentional realities.

On the one hand, none of the ideas of the novel are incredibly groundbreaking. It is asking how to find one’s place in the world, and that includes what it means to be surrounded by people who care for you and yet feel lonelier than ever. But on the other hand, the way it explores these ideas is so deft that they feel original. Disability, cultural identity, family dynamics, social expectations and fame/popularity, technological marvels and limitations, heritage, inheritance—these are all parts of the vocabularies used to adventure through these ideas. None of the characters or stories are defined by any one of those things, but they are used to build something unique and wonderful. It is worth thinking about the title, too. The “Death of the Author” represents a mid-twentieth century revolution in literary criticism, an approach that broke with the orthodoxy that insisted the detailed history of the author and their context and intentions defined any given text’s “ultimate meaning” and instead prioritized the individual experience of the reader, the subjectivity of the relationship created in the act of reading informed by the world and experiences of the reader. It isn’t hard to see parallels with and influences from the author’s own life, including the fact that she was temporarily paralyzed from the waist down after a surgery when she was nineteen and that became the origin of her writing career. So, in that way, the author isn’t dead, the author is very much in this novel. Yet, at the same time, this story is one that is inviting the reader into a relationship an act of co-creation, and it absolutely resists any stifling box such as “ultimate meaning.”

Maybe most important to say? This story is fun. A lot of fun. Once I started it I didn’t want to put it down. I felt invested and included in the lives being spun, and being able to bear witness to the journeys of discovery within these narratives was a genuine delight.

(Rounded up from 4.5)

I want to thank the authors, the publisher William Morrow, and NetGalley, who provided a complimentary eARC for review. I am leaving this review voluntarily.

If I wasn’t already in love with Nnedi Okorafor’s work, I would be now. Death of the Author absolutely gripped me from the beginning. Zelu is a beautifully complicated character. She is stong yet vulnerable, brilliant, independent and selfish, stubborn, and so many other very human qualities.

What I loved:
🤖 The story within the story
🤖 The blend of sci-fi and literary fiction
🤖 The spotlight on ableism and the place tech has within that space
🤖 The grappling with being of, but not entirely, two cultures (American and Nigerian)
🤖 The complex relationship Zelu had with her family
🤖 The discussion of fame and the demands the audience places on authors
🤖 Literally everything

This book has a little bit of everything and it is all necessary to tell Zelu’s story. I felt angry, sad, hopeful, scared, and inspired. Okorafor’s message of the importance of storytelling for humanity was poignant and timely. I cannot wait for my preordered copy. I will definitely be rereading this in 2025. It’s one of those books you can keep coming back to, especially after the twist at the end!

Thank you to NetGalley and William Morrow Books for the eARC.

The best way I can think of to start this review is simply to thank Nnedi Okorafor for writing this book. Very few books render me unable to articulate my feelings accurately, but "Death of the Author" has left me reaching for words to describe what this book has meant to me.

This was a true privilege to read. Okorafor is a master storyteller and "Death of the Author" absolutely had me by the throat. Okorafor's writing allows you to feel so present in the worlds that she creates and not a word or intention is wasted within her pages. I could go on about the parts that made me laugh, cry, and feel so deeply I had to put the book down, but I feel that would do a disservice to other prospective readers. I think this piece is best read blind with an open mind.

This was a phenomenal read and one of the best stories I've been privileged to come across. I can't wait for readers everywhere to get to know and learn from this book.

Thank you endlessly to NetGalley and the publisher who gifted me an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This is an interesting novel with a story within the story. Zelu, our protagonist, is catapulted into fame after she writes a SciFi novel about robots. It’s a contemplative tale that is sure to be the talk of the literary streets in 2025!

This sign-up made it seem like there was a real physical book to be reviewed, but that was unfortunately not the case. I am not sure why the ad for this is about a deluxe special edition book if we are not receiving it.... It is just the digital copy of the book, so it seems there was a bit of false advertising here, so it was misleading. The book itself was fine, it was nothing special but just interesting


Thank you to NetGalley, to the author, and to the publisher for this complementary ARC in exchange for my honest review!!!

I downloaded this as a “read now” because it’s a speculated book for a subscription and I was very… unsure if it would be something I liked. I’m not really a litfic reader, or a fan of books about books, but everyone seemed super hyped so I thought I’d give it a shot. It was… not what I was expecting. The blurring between fiction and reality wasn’t much of a thing except for heavy-handed references to her robotics. The story felt meandering and I kept waiting for the cool reality-warping weirdness to happen or something like that and it just… didn’t? The story within the story seemed interesting enough and I would’ve liked to stay with it more, but the phrase “terrible information” grated on my nerves. I also think that that the book constantly insisting that this story is the most amazing story ever and the author being such an overwhelmingly adored genius sort of primed me to think like… yeah idk abt all that. I thought that too was heavy-handed; it’s a problem I have with books about books in general though, those kinds of stories tend to draw attention to the writing itself, so for me, it makes it hard not to be overly critical.

The very very end was cool. I liked the full circle sort of thing. I didn’t think the interviews added much to the story but I liked the one with Zelu’s mom—it recontextualized her in a way I thought was effective.

I think people who really like literary fiction will enjoy this, but as a sci-fi reader it just wasn’t for me. (Speaking of, the number of times the book mentioned that Zelu doesn’t know anything about sci-fi but wrote the most amazing sci-fi novel ever… also how does she go from publish date to movie released in like. A year? 18 months? Less than 2 years definitely. How?)

The perfect blend of literary fiction and sci-fi, Death of the Author follows paraplegic Zelu as her novel about robots in a post-human world rockets her to fame.

This is one of those books where you want to read it immediately again to experience it anew. I loved both interwoven stories and how they came together at the end. There was such raw, thoughtfully crafted emotion throughout (this is one of the few books that has made me cry!) that it was easy to connect with both human Zelu and robot Ankara. There's messiness, there's so much realness, and there's hope and the love of storytelling paired with harsh realities and struggle. This was really beautifully done!

This is a complicated, layered, and engaging novel about a young Nigerian-American paraplegic writer, Zelu, who writes a surprise science fiction bestseller that upends her life. Portions of the SF novel appear throughout the book, and this is one of the most masterful stories-within-a-story I've ever read. Zelu is an unforgettable protagonist, even when she was driving me crazy, and this is a loud, chaotic, compelling story that is masterfully constructed. Thank you to NetGalley and William Morrow for a digital review copy.

A stunning story within a story, Death of the Author follows the life of Zelu Onyenezi-Oyedele, a paraplegic writer and the black sheep of her large, accomplished Nigerian family. Determined to redefine herself beyond the label of helpless failure, Zelu pens a novel that becomes an overnight sensation, catapulting her to fame and fortune. But the life of a famous author proves to be far more complicated than she imagined. Okorafor masterfully weaves metafiction with sci-fi and magical realism, gifting readers with, not one but two, heartfelt tales that explores life on the fringes—of family, society, and identity. From the first page to the last, I am captivated by Okorafor’s ability to highlight deeply human experiences through these complex characters and vivid storytelling.

Death of the Author by Nnedi Okorafor is science fiction novel featuring Zelu, a Nigerian American woman, who writes an epic novel called Rusted Robots. The narrative of Zelu’s life and the Rusted Robots story alternates and converges in many ways throughout the book. What strikes me the most about this book is the depth of humanity and emotions that are explored that you feel connected to the characters. Zelu’s family angered me throughout the book for not supporting her even when she was successful. Her struggle with being famous demonstrates how delicate it is to speak your mind with the whole world listening. I became invested in the story of the robots who are at war with artificial intelligence in a post apocalyptic world without humans.

I would recommend this book for science fiction and fantasy readers. I was mesmerized by this book, it’s so different and immersive than any other book I’ve read.The cultural aspects of Nigeria and family dynamics combined with the book within a book concept is cleverly written. It defies any expectations you could have of a science fiction book. Mind blowing.

Thank you William Morrow and Netgalley for the advanced reader copy. All opinions are my own.

Thank you to Harper Collins and NetGalley for an advance readers copy of this book.

At 484 pages, this rich novel-within-a-novel is hardly long enough!

The story of a complex woman, paired with the futuristic novel that brings her fame and fortune, is so well-written that one keeps reading in anticipation of what will happen to the imaginative plot and characters.

Zelu, American-born daughter of educated, well-to-do Nigerian immigrants, is at a low point in her life. A paraplegic since a fall at age 12, now at 32 she is an adjunct professor of creative writing, and a novelist whose book has been rejected 10 times. Assertive, sometimes arrogant, and certainly not diplomatic, at her younger sister’s wedding she receives word that she has been fired from her job because of on-going student complaints about harsh comments on their work and ability.

At this nadir, she begins to write a new novel, one that is part science-fiction, part parable, about the interweaving of physical, emotional, mental, and moral qualities in a post-human world. Called “Rusted Robots,” it catapults her to success.

Relationships are central to the story, and to complicate Zelu’s experience of the world, she is enmeshed in her large family with five siblings and her parents. All her siblings are professionals – medicine, law, engineering – and they live locally (in Chicago) and gather regularly. And all are not shy about expressing their doubt and disbelief around Zelu’s life choices. Some, in fact, are antagonistic and even contemptuous of Zelu’s difficult decisions.

Already feeling judged and found wanting by her large family, Zelu now has a following of thousands who also have opinions about her life. The highs and lows of social media add another dimension to the story.

The structure of the book increases its unique appeal: interspersed between the narratives of Zelu’s life and her fictional book are first-person interviews with her family members. They give another, kinder, perspective on the family’s wish to protect Zelu after her devastating accident as a child.

With the parallel future world of automatons who have consciousness and volition, and a brilliant, surprise ending, this book is a paean to storytelling – how it happens, who does it, and why it matters.

I'm reading this and listening through the Penguin app and really enjoying. Okafor knows how to pull you into a story. I'm trying to control my anger at the main character's family! Support your daughter!

"In this exhilarating tale by New York Times bestselling and award-winning author Nnedi Okorafor, a disabled Nigerian American woman pens a wildly successful Sci-Fi novel, but as her fame rises, she loses control of the narrative - a surprisingly cutting, yet heartfelt drama about art and love, identity and connection, and, ultimately, what makes us human. This is a story unlike anything you've read before.

The future of storytelling is here.

Disabled, disinclined to marry, and more interested in writing than a lucrative career in medicine or law, Zelu has always felt like the outcast of her large Nigerian family. Then her life is upended when, in the middle of her sister's lavish Caribbean wedding, she's unceremoniously fired from her university job and, to add insult to injury, her novel is rejected by yet another publisher. With her career and dreams crushed in one fell swoop, she decides to write something just for herself. What comes out is nothing like the quiet, literary novels that have so far peppered her unremarkable career. It's a far-future epic where androids and AI wage war in the grown-over ruins of human civilization. She calls it Rusted Robots.

When Zelu finds the courage to share her strange novel, she does not realize she is about to embark on a life-altering journey - one that will catapult her into literary stardom, but also perhaps obliterate everything her book was meant to be. From Chicago to Lagos to the far reaches of space, Zelu's novel will change the future not only for humanity, but for the robots who come next.

A book-within-a-book that blends the line between writing and being written, Death of the Author is a masterpiece of metafiction that manages to combine the razor-sharp commentary of Yellowface with the heartfelt humanity of Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow. Surprisingly funny, deeply poignant, and endlessly discussable, this is at once the tale of a woman on the margins risking everything to be heard and a testament to the power of storytelling to shape the world as we know it."

And how once out in the world, an author's words are no longer theirs to control.