Very meta, with a story within a story. I particularly liked the interviews with Zelu’s family. They helped move the narrative forward. The story felt unresolved to me, though I liked the final twist.

Okorafor’s writing and pacing has greatly improved. It’s a pleasure watching a writer grow.

Thanks to Netgalley for the advance copy.

was this really a sci fi? i honestly don't think it fits the mold well. but i also think that's probably one of its best aspects, gloriously genre-swapping between an intense literary fiction and the book within. 5 stars. tysm for the arc

Death of the Author by Nnedi Okorafor is a showcase of her signature lush, evocative prose and a deeply complex, fascinating main character. The rich world-building and introspective storytelling kept me intrigued.

However, the pacing stumbled for me. At times, the narrative felt overextended, with certain beats repeated to the point of redundancy. Then, just as it seemed everything was building to a crescendo, the ending felt rushed and incomplete.

After losing her job and having her latest manuscript rejected, Zelu randomly starts writing a science fiction novel about robots. Unexpectedly, the book becomes a smash success. Death of the Author alternates between Zelu’s life of newfound success, her robot novel, and interviews with her family.

I’m normally not a huge fan of a bunch of back and forth between povs, but for the most part, it worked for me with this story. The interviews with her family allowed us to get to know Zelu from different perspectives which I found necessary. Especially because her relationship with them was so cringe to read. I hated how they treated her, but I was proud of seeing her come into her own and not giving them so much power over her life. The chapters of Rusted Robots were fun to read. At times, I certainly felt frustrated about getting pulled out of each separate story, but overall, I was entirely invested in the stories. They both had conflicts and journeys that were deeply complex and different yet similar.

There are so many things I enjoy about this book. It’s truly brilliant and weaves in a lot of different themes and topics. I think it would be a great read for a book club.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the eARC!

Zelu is a paraplegic Nigerian American author struggling to find her voice in the literary world until she hits rock bottom and just writes for her herself - creating "Rusted Robots" which becomes an international sci-fi sensation. As her book and her life shift into high-gear, we follow stubborn, impulsive, and fiercely independent Zelu as she attempts to adapt to her new normal. Fantastic and propulsive writing keeps two novels moving throughout - Zelu's story runs parallel to the 'Rusted Robots' narrative until the two collide in an incredibly thought-provoking ending. I really enjoyed the structure of this incredibly creative novel and want to discuss it with a book club for sure - would be a great buddy read!

My biggest complaint with this novel is that there really isn't much character development in Zelu at all. Some people are just like that - the immovable and unchangeable rock that everyone else has to adapt to and learn to accept and live with, but I personally find those kinds of central characters really annoying to read. There is a lot of character development in others, including the robots Ankara and Ijele whose inner thoughts we do have access to, so that helped keep me invested.

I found myself crying through much of this. I'm struggling to explain why, but I'll do my best for this review.

The expectations I had of this were that Nnedi Okorafor wrote it and it was probably going to be very good. But I didn't know much about the plot, and I think that helped. This book juggles various genres and formats: we have a story within a story, a human author and a robot one, as well as interviews from a character's loved ones. The two stories seem to foreshadow each other.

Now onto my incoherent adulation: this book is about what it means to be a person, to be human.

◾️Creating stories from our experiences, our very lives - we are alive because of stories, they sustain us
◾️Consuming stories as falling in love; the missed step, the fall; our codes are changed, we evolve
◾️Ankara!!
◾️Udide!!
◾️Food as healing, as love, as memory, as family- but beyond the nuclear family- as culture, homeland, in the earth but in the stars too
◾️"Yeah. Maybe I'm a little angry. What black woman isn't?"
◾️Acknowledgement as existence, needing recognition from peers and strangers but also your parents and siblings ("Man, if Dad doesn't side with me on this, then I don't exist")
◾️FAMILY as a whole - something that presses you, crushes you, but can also hold you up in a way where you cannot fall, even if you want to
◾️The spirits of our ancestors living within us - we are history, we cannot delete the past, it will always exist
◾️Zelu's mom dancing with the masquerade, her mom's new twists 😭
◾️Fantasy of space as a sort of sensory deprivation chamber for us and our thoughts and pains and bodies, FREEDOM from everything
◾️Accept what you are, but also accept what you CAN be
◾️Our bodies - a suit we're trapped in that some can operate, others cannot; even trapped in the house of love that our caretaker families brick us into - only able-bodies being worthy of humanity
◾️"Tomorrow is where my hope lives"

Also everyone online piling on Zelu for book two just made me think of all the "yo when are you dropping your next album" comments on anything Rihanna posts 💀

Bear witness. You are the author.

This genuinely touched my soul. I'm so glad this was my final read of 2024. What a way to end the year.

Onward!

Thank you, Netgalley for the opportunity to review this book. Boy was this book incredible to read. This book was a great exploration of culture and disabilities. I was sucked in from the start and the back and forth between Zelu's perspective and the novel was my favorite aspect. I will admit I hated Zelu from a majority of the book and it might be because I'm a people pleaser by nature. To see someone constantly act selfishly without thinking of others drove me nuts, but in the end, it makes total sense.

Our ability as humans to assign meaning to everything when sometimes perspective changes and so does the meaning. I was captivated by this idea of how different aspects of individualism and cultural differences could change how one sees different events.

I'm in love with this author's writing and strong character-building. This book has made me realize I need to expand my reading tastes and try different types of books. I will be buying copies of this book for my friends because, in this day in age, this book's messaging is incredibly important.

Nnedi Okorafor’s Death of the Author is a captivating metafictional odyssey that blurs the line between storytelling and lived experience. At its heart, the novel follows Zelu, a fiercely independent Nigerian woman whose life takes an unexpected turn after losing both her job and yet another publishing opportunity. Zelu’s decision to pour her frustrations into a bold, imaginative sci-fi novel—Rusted Robots—becomes the catalyst for an extraordinary journey of transformation, self-discovery, and unintended consequences.

What makes this novel stand out is its layered exploration of identity, art, and agency. Zelu is an unforgettable protagonist—disabled, unmarried, and defying cultural expectations—who navigates familial pressures and professional failures with sharp wit and unyielding determination. Her struggle to break free from societal molds resonates deeply, especially as she finds her voice through speculative fiction.

Okorafor deftly constructs a story-within-a-story, where Zelu’s Rusted Robots mirrors her own desire for reinvention and relevance. The interplay between Zelu’s reality and the dystopian world she creates highlights the fragility of authorship in a modern, interconnected age. It poses provocative questions about who controls narratives and how stories are shaped, reshaped, and even co-opted once they leave the author’s hands.

With humor as sharp as its insights, Death of the Author balances poignant themes of resilience and alienation with thrilling moments of creative rebellion. The novel’s structure evokes comparisons to R.F. Kuang’s Yellowface and Gabrielle Zevin’s Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, but Okorafor’s unique voice brings something entirely new—a fusion of cultural commentary and speculative wonder.

From the vibrant chaos of Lagos to the cold reaches of space, the novel’s rich settings and striking contrasts ground its fantastical elements in emotional truth. It challenges readers to reconsider what it means to write, to be written, and to have a story truly belong to its creator.

Death of the Author is both thought-provoking and compulsively readable—a must-read for lovers of speculative fiction, literary metafiction, and stories about finding strength in vulnerability. It’s a testament to the transformative power of storytelling and a celebration of voices that refuse to be silenced.

2.5 Stars

This book was about Zelu, an author who became famous overnight because of a book about robots she wrote when she was in a really dark place. And yeah, she got all the praise and money, but because her feet didn’t work and she was Nigerian, people still had to be awful to her. Like, of course. Welcome to Earth.

The most prominent issue was her family. Her close family, her distant family, everybody. Just toxic. Her rich aunt and uncle in Nigeria were okay, maybe, but the rest? Horrible. Her extended family was the kind that you never meet, but somehow they still talk shit, demand money, and bring nothing but negativity. We’ve all got at least one or two of those, right? But her close family? Her parents and siblings? They were next-level bad. No support, no acknowledgment, no help. Just… awful. Her siblings especially were straight-up bitches. I hated how they treated her.

Zelu herself? I loved her at the start. She was smart, strong-willed, and sensitive. I rooted for her (well, not until the end, though). I hated how selfish she was in the end. I am a mother; I couldn’t relate to her choice.

I enjoyed 2/3 of the book (well, not much for the robot part, though). The last third was wonky. I felt it was rushed, the space thing just came out of nowhere, and I don’t know, 'weird' in a bad way, in my opinion. The ending left a bad taste for me. The story about Ijele and Ankara didn’t spark my interest. Their ending was just too abrupt. I’m really not a fan of how this all wrapped up. But at least, i agreed with Zelu: "Fuck Patriarchy".

(When I first finished the book, I rated it 3 stars. Two days later, when I sat down to write this review, I realized I’d already forgotten most of the plot. So… I dropped it to 2.5 stars.)

Note: Thanks to William Morrow and the author for this ARC.

Death of the Author is one of the most ambitious books I've read in recent memory: a unique blend of hot sad girl lit fic and sci-fi that exams identity, creation, AI, humanity, disability, collectivistic family dynamics, the relationship between an author and their work, and so much more. I think, in many ways, Okorafor's ambition paid off. Especially in the first half of the book, I was so impressed with her ability to craft a story that felt both current and uncharted.

Though our main character, Zelu, was deeply flawed (and often stressed me allllll the way out with her decisions), I also found her intriguing and even relatable at times. Seeing her navigate being a disabled, Nigerian-American, up-and-coming author while processing deep-seated guilt and trauma and seeing how Rusted Robots connected to her experiences and her relationship with her Nigerian culture was my favorite part of the book. Sometimes the difficult relationship between Zelu and her family was frustrating to read, but I appreciated the complexity that Okorafor brought to the family dynamics. I feel like it got me to take a step back from my American views and put myself in the shoes of traditional Nigerian cultural norms, approaching the topic with curiosity in place of judgment.

Now, what didn't work for me as much...well, honestly, the second half of the book just felt a bit weaker than the first half. Throughout the interviews included in this story, it felt like suspense for something big was being built up. And, yes, we see Zelu experience many difficulties—and make her life more difficult based on impulsive decisions—following the success of her debut novel. But the build up didn't pay off for me, and I was left feeling unsatisfied. I didn't love the ending overall, though I can appreciate the themes around creation, the impact of storytelling, and the relationship between writer and reader. The ending felt a bit too abrupt for me, and I found myself wondering why we had been meandering through certain scenes in the second half that, really, didn't feel like they added much to the overall story. I enjoyed most of my experience reading this book, but in the end, I don't think I'm walking away with too much that I personally will return to. Though, as someone who doesn't usually read sci-fi, I did enjoy easing into it with a unique read like this.

✨ Thanks to NetGalley and William Morrow for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review! ✨

I received an ARC from the publisher in exchange for an honest review

Death of the Author by Nnedi Okorafor is a mixed third and first person-POV literary sci-fi metafiction about the relationship between author, story, and who is being written about. Zelu is an Igbo-Yoruba Nigerian-American professor who lost her job after a situation with a student. Instead of searching for more work in academia, she writes a sci-fi novel that earns her a million dollar advance but also puts her in the spotlight in ways she’s not used to. On top of that, her family is very unsupportive when she’s approached by a small team to try out a pair of bionic legs that will let her walk again.

There are three different ways the story is being told and the more the story goes on, the more unclear it is who is actually telling the story. The main story is the one following Zelu’s author career starting when she’s at her cousin’s wedding and learns she has just lost her job and goes through her deal, her struggles to write the sequel, and more. The second part is the various interviews with the people who knew and loved Zelu including her mother, sister, and partner, Msizi. The third is from the POV of Ankara, a robot designed to look human who is one of the stars of Zelu’s novel. Zelu’s are the most linear and the most clear cut for what the story is, but layers get pulled back in the interviews and in the chapters from Ankara, which really sell the metafiction aspects.

As we talk more and more about AI and what place it has in society, it’s important for us to discuss what positives it could have for the disabled. For Zelu, AI comes in the form of exo legs, a pair of bionic legs that earn her the name ‘robot woman’ and give her the ability to walk for the first time since she was twelve-years-old. Nnedi Okorafor really explores the complexity of Zelu’s decision to accept the legs through her family acting as if she should have considered them first and how people would view her and the way the disabled are not supported in modern Nigerian society. The legs don’t remove Zelu’s disability; they’re more of a tool that gives her more movement than her wheelchair.

What I really liked was how Zelu is so stubborn and firm in her beliefs and she is going to do what she is going to do. I sometimes feel like there is a fear of writing an unlikable female lead and to that I say ‘screw it. We can’t win anyways. Give me all of the messy, stubborn women who make mistakes and believe they’re right anyways.’ It wasn’t surprising at all when Zelu got cancelled because it felt less like an ‘if’ and more of a ‘when’ but I was on her side from beginning to end. If I was in her place, I would be upset, too, if my purposefully Nigerian characters were Americanized to the point that they felt unrecognizable.

Content warning for depictions of racism, sexism, and ableism

I would recommend this to fans of metafiction with a sci-fi angle, readers looking for explorations of the intersection of technology and having a disability, and those looking for a literary story that features a novel within a novel

4.5 stars rounded up to 5

Death of the Author was my first novel by Nnedi Okorafor but certainly won't be my last. Wow, what an experience!

Zelu, a disabled woman who prefers writing over pursuing a traditional career, has always felt like an outsider in her large Nigerian family. Her life takes an unexpected turn when she is fired from her university job and receives yet another rejection for her novel during her sister’s wedding. Disheartened, she decides to write something purely for herself, crafting a far-future epic about androids and AI battling in the ruins of human civilization, which she titles Rusted Robots. When she finally shares her unconventional novel, it sets off a transformative journey that propels her to literary fame and forces her to confront the consequences of her work. This metafictional narrative, blending sharp commentary with profound emotional depth, explores the intersection of storytelling, identity, and the power of fiction to reshape the future.

This was captivating. I really had no idea what to expect going into it, and I'm glad I requested this one! I like that the novel is split, with half of the chapters focusing on Zelu's story and the other half on Rusted Robots. Okorafor writes characters beautifully. You can feel Zelu's pain and frustration—at the world, at her family, at herself. Everyone felt very real, rather than like caricatures, which always drives me crazy in novels and films. Highly recommended if you're into sci-fi or books about books/writing.

Honestly, I wish I could read more of Rusted Robots as well.

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC.

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

Zelu has reached the bottom of rock bottom. During her sister’s wedding, she is promptly fired from her teaching job while simultaneously receiving news her latest book was rejected… again. Zelu can’t seem to catch a break. Wheelchair bound after a terrible childhood accident, she is forced to move back in with her parents. While wallowing in her own self pity, Zelu writes a sci-fi book she calls Rusted Robots. After sending it to her agent, she is published and rocketed into stardom. Zelu’s life is turned upside down and we get to watch from the sidelines.

This book was AMAZING. I thoroughly enjoyed to two separate narratives with the primary story and the book written by the author. This book had me desperate for more page after page. I love Okorafor’s genre bending work. Not only is she capturing and amazing story about family expectations, navigating fame, and living life to the fullest, but also, found family, fighting for your life, and doing what you can to hold everything together. I honestly don’t think Okorafor can write a bad book. 5/5 stars obviously!!

Zelu as at her younger sister’s wedding when she gets fired and has her book rejected yet again. She then proceeds to write one of the most successful novels of all time, Rusted Robots. The reader is also transported into the world of Rusted Roots.

This is a spectacular work of meta-fiction that makes stark commentary about our world and society. With rich description and deep character development, it is hard to not be blown away.

I recommend this book to anyone and everyone. I am going to lobby for it so hard at my book club!

Thank you to William Morrow and Net Galley for the DRC. All opinions are my own!

4 stars

I think Death of the Author is a very good book, I can understand people giving it 5 stars, but it also wasn't really the type of book I was expecting or usually read. I did enjoy it, but it felt much more like contemporary/literary fiction than the sci-fi I was expecting both having read the Binti series and knowing DotA had been picked up by multiple SFF subscriptions boxes. There definitely is a strong sci-fi storyline and I thought the way the two stories weave together at the end was interesting, but for most of the book that didn’t feel like the focus.

3.5 stars.

This is more lit fic than sci-fi, so definitely manage your expectations. There was A LOT of family drama and family trauma, which put me off from giving this 4 stars or higher.

The dual narrative with Zelu's life and Zelu's novel was confusing to read, but mostly because you don't get enough time to stew in the sci-fi world that Zelu created. The sci-fi story chapters were too short to be immersive for me. I could feel myself settling in to read a chapter about robots in a post-human world, and then BAM, Zelu's family drama would be the focus for the next chapter.

But if you like lit fic with immigrant family themes and breaking out of the immigrant child mold of parental and familial expectations, then you might like this.

Zelu isn't a likable character. She's honest to a fault, she's mean at times, and she keeps it real. Despite being annoyed by her shortsightedness, pettiness, and (sometimes) immaturity, I actually liked how Nnedi Okorafor created such a real, authentic character that isn't just a mishmash of tropes.

This novel felt like I was reading about a real person instead of a fictional FMC. That's how masterful the author was in pulling this off.

But while I enjoyed reading this and I liked Zelu's journey as a disabled Black author who shot to stardom overnight, I was expecting more from the Yellowface comp. There were bits and pieces of satire on author behavior and social media, but it wasn't the point of the story. I was definitely let down, but it didn't deter me from liking the novel for what it was.

This isn't the type of book I'd usually pick up, but I did like the big subplots that branched out from the main storyline: robot legs, whitewashed Hollywood movie adaptations, being a one hit wonder, and fandom galore.

Thank you to William Morrow and NetGalley for this arc.

could not read the book, it would never load or scroll properly on my device. giving 3 stars for Nnedi Okorafor's previous work being high quality.

Thank you NetGalley and William Morrow for giving me early access to this book! All opinions are my own.

This book has cemented Nnedi Okorafor as a must buy author for me. “Death of the Author” is easily one of the most beautiful and well written books I have read this year. This is a book within a book, of an author who writes a famous science fiction novel and how it affects her life. This isn’t really a science fiction novel, nor is it just a plain fiction novel, but rather a masterfully woven story that blends multiple genres. For sure a must read! 5+⭐️

Rarely can I make myself read science fiction, but Nnedi Okorafor’s Death of the Author caught my attention from the beginning, and never once did I consider not finishing. What’s more, I started recommending it after having read only the first 13%.

On one hand, Zelu is a paraplegic Nigerian American aspiring novelist, who in one day is fired from her adjunct teaching job in a university and receives the tenth rejection letter for her literary fiction novel. She blames herself for the childhood accident that confines her to a wheelchair and feels the outcast among her large family of parents and siblings, all of whom are high achievers.

Feeling lost and alone amidst extended family at a wedding in Tobago, she sits down to her laptop and starts to write and write and write. What comes out is not her usual realistic-based literary fiction that has failed, but a sci-fi novel she names Rusted Robots. All but one human being has already died, and the lone survivor has little time to live. Mankind has left behind robots to repair the world that killed them, but Ankara, the scholar “Hume” (with Humes being the most humanoid of the robot types) soon learns of another threat that could wipe out the robots as climate change wiped out humanity. Much to Zelu’s surprise, Rusted Robots is an immediate smash hit!

Can Ankara save the robot world? Can Zelu survive her poor family relationships, her own poor self-image, and the twists and turns of her overnight fame as the book becomes a film she detests, fans turn against her, and her agent and publisher increasingly pressure her for the next two novels required by her Rusted Robots contract?

As Ankara’s story continues between chapters of Zelu’s story, which takes on a bit of a sci-fi twist of its own. Add to these narratives, intermittent chapters based on a journalist’s interviews with Zelu’s family members. Throw in a university medical researcher and his assistants, the richest man loosely based on Elon Musk, social media and AI, a hodgepodge of robot species, and a totally unexpected but perfect ending. The components add up to a book unlike any I’ve read before—one that leaves me in awe of the author’s accomplishment.

Thanks to NetGalley and William Morrow/HarperCollins for an advance reader copy of this highly recommended new novel by Nnedi Okorafor.

I tired a couple times to at least complete this book, but it never worked out for me. It’s a shame because I can tell it’s really well written, but the style wasn’t for me. It is one I may revisit sometime, since it may do better when I am in a different mood.

Note: ARC provided by the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.