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.

Unfortunately this book is simply just not for me. I don’t think the Sci-Fi aspect of this book was incorporated well. I didn’t really care for the FMC or her family. I DNF this book at around 30%. Personally just didn’t draw my attention but thank you for the opportunity!

Overall Thoughts: I liked (most) of this.

I’m finding it extremely hard to put into words how I feel about this book. Okorafor touches on many topics in this novel, including AI, cancel culture, cultural identity, and what it means to be human. I liked being in Zelu’s head, and I loved the “Rusted Robots” chapters. Okorafor writes Africanfuturism so well. The Nigerian culture was rich and a large part of this book. Similarly, Zelu’s disability was a major part of this story. Okorafor didn’t shy away from the sometimes brutal reality of being a disabled individual. The final chapter of this book had me reframing my entire outlook of the novel. I think this will be a book that is reread a lot.

Ultimately, a couple aspects of the story didn’t quite work for me. Like most novels that have a “book within a book” I tend to connect much more with one storyline. In this case, I was more interested in the “Rusted Robots” excerpts, than the general fiction chapters where we follow Zelu. Zelu was a very real, flawed character. I liked reading from her perspective, but I am not sure if she had a complete character arc and showed growth by the end of her story. I also struggled immensely with most side characters being absolutely horrible to her. It seemed like they had no respect for Zelu or her work, which personally was very hard to read. My interest in the plot wavered throughout this book, and I often felt like it was a little meandering, especially in the middle section. I suspect a lot of people are going to love this novel, but I don’t think it was the perfect fit for me. To reiterate though, that ending does have me curious about revisiting it at some point.

What an absolutely incredible book! It had its low points and weak portions, but in its entirety, it's a perfect science fiction novel.

This book refuses to be put into a box, quite like its protagonist, Zelu, a paraplegic literary writing professor who is fired from her job and ends up writing a runaway science fiction novel, which is interspersed as part of this novel. Most of this novel is about the journey that the characters undertake, both to a destination and through their fears.

A book-within-a-book. To be more specific, a scifi book within a litfic book. This made it so difficult to judge objectively, which is what makes it fantastic. The style of book-within-a-book is difficult to execute, simply because we're told so much about how good a book is within a book, and that ends up meddling with our own judgment. Most of all, it takes talent to write two genres of books with different styles of writing and different internal voices for characters, something many authors cannot accomplish well. The scifi book has incredible worldbuilding but suffers from slightly simplistic prose. Then again, popular books tend to have simplistic prose to appeal to a broad demographic, which actually adds believability to the novel. The litfic book has great characterizations, albeit a convenient plot at times, but this a scifi book overall, which requires a little suspension of disbelief. All this happens in the backdrop of Nigerian culture and mythology, which permeates through both books. Nnedi Okorafor writes Africanfuturism, and the genre is cultivated at its finest in this book.

At its core, this book is about creation (and creators), individualism, conformism, and our innate human instinct to assign meaning to everything. Where should the meaning of the text come from? The author’s intentions or the readers' myriad interpretations? Who gets to tell the stories of whom? Who gets to tell stories? Where do stories go when the author dies?

I didn't love Zelu's character, but found her so compelling and believable—she is amazingly well-written. She is a magnificent, adventurous, endearing character even while being realistic and annoying. It takes talent to write a character who could realistically write another character. Zelu's family and friends are so realistic—I can tell having grown up in a collectivist culture. Some brilliant characters within the scifi novel too—I mean, sometimes characterization suffers for worldbuilding, but everything works well here.

4.5 stars rounded up, this book is way too engrossing for anything less, but the ending was so good that I'm going to be thinking about this book for years. It may feel like too much at times for some readers, so I'd recommend this only if you're into scifi or new styles of storytelling.

Thank you to Netgalley and William Morrow books for a copy of the ARC in exchange for an honest review!

I loved following the intertwined stories of Zelu, Ankara, and Ijele. At first, I wasn’t sure what to expect as the narrative shifted between them, but it all came together beautifully. The story is a rich blend of hopes, dreams, fame, strong family dynamics, and love.

The character development for the two main protagonists was just enough to keep me engaged, though I found myself wishing for more depth with some of the supporting cast.

That said, the ending felt perfectly satisfying, even after I wasn’t sure where the journey would lead. This is a story that lingers with you—a testament to its heartfelt and thoughtful storytelling.

5 🌟

I just finished this, and I'm truly so stunned that I'm close to speechless. What an absolute treeat of a novel - truly, one of the most beautiful things I've read this year. The characters are so real that they leap off the page. Zelu is amazing - messy, human, glorious. The story within a story had me hooked from the get-go. I really did not want this to end, and yet here I am. I'll be thinking about this one for awhile.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC!

This was my first Okorafor and it did NOT disappoint. I love the way the story/stories were woven together. How the connected and paralleled. Every character was so beautifully flawed.
Death of the Author expertly addresses themes of family, culture, grief, anxiety, and pressure so flawlessly without beating you over the head with them. This novel is a beautiful journey. Thank you to NetGalley and HarperCollins for the chance to review an eARC.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for an eARC.

This is a story within a (better) story that took me entirely too long to read. I don't like to know what books are about before I read them so therefor I didn't know what to expect from Death of the Author. My first Nnedi Okorafor and I have mixed feelings about it.

Zelu is a disabled Nigerian woman who is going through it when we meet her. Her life is a mess and she has recently been fired from her job and rejected by another publisher. On the edge, Zelu goes home to write something completely different from what she has done before and to her surprise it is a massive hit. She is catapulted into a new world of fame and we watch as she refuses to compromise who she is in order to do what she wants.

We see Zelu interact with her overbearing family and the people that love her. We also bounce back and forth between chapters of Zelu's life and the novel that she has written, Rusted Robots.

Personally I liked the Rusted Robots chapters better. I don't know what my issue is with Death of the Author, but I still recommend that anyone interested should give this a try. It just was not my favorite, but I'm still glad I read it.

If you’re looking for a book that will grab your attention and refuse to let go, Death of the Author is it. Nnedi Okorafor takes us on a wild, thought-provoking journey with Zelu, a disabled Nigerian writer whose life is falling apart when we meet her. Fired from her university job and reeling from yet another publishing rejection, Zelu decides to write something just for herself. What she creates—an epic, far-future story about androids and AI in the ruins of human civilization—ends up changing her life in ways she never imagined.

This book does so much, and it does it *so well*. It’s over 400 pages, but not once did I lose focus or feel like the story dragged. Okorafor masterfully intertwines multiple subplots—family drama, romance, disability pride, Nigerian culture, and even Zelu’s hero journey as a writer—all while keeping everything crystal clear. The timelines and world-building fit together so naturally that it feels effortless.

One of the most powerful themes is how storytelling transforms both the artist and the audience. Zelu sheds so many versions of herself as she crafts her novel, and by the end, she’s completely redefined who she is. Okorafor brilliantly brings the story full circle, delivering an ending that’s both satisfying and deeply moving.

And let me just say, this book is *everything*. It’s a love story (the romance is *chef’s kiss*), a bold celebration of disability pride, and a story about finding your voice even when you feel like an outsider. As someone who’s been a fan of Okorafor for a long time, this feels like her most ambitious and deeply personal work yet.

If you’re into speculative fiction, complex characters, or stories that stay with you long after the last page, you need to read Death of the Author. It’s not just a book—it’s an experience.

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.