A unique concept, brilliant cover, good representation. I did like it, but I didn't connect enough to feel any stronger than that. Thank you for my copy!

In Death of the Author by Nnedi Okorafor, a woman wrestling with her own sense of self in a family that doesn’t quite accept her as she is writes a best selling sci-fi novel – and begins to become a part of her own science fiction story as technology starts to intersect with her life. It has complex characters, raw emotion, and plays with narrative subtly, making it a hard thing to pin down.


In Death of the Author, we are introduced to the protagonist, Zelu, by way of an interview. This is a pattern that introduces every major shift in Zelu’s life with an interview from a different person close to her in some way. What’s interesting is that the first interview is with Zelu’s older sister Chinyere, who is frequently Zelu’s biggest detractor in the family, quick to scold her for not conforming to the behaviours they’d expect. And Zelu is certainly non-conformist. We meet her at a low point – her challenging literary novel isn’t selling, she’s just been fired from her teaching job, and her familial relationships are strained, often because they refuse to see past her disability. Zelu lost the ability to walk as a pre-teen in an accident falling from a tree – and most members of her wider Nigerian family see her at fault, now a burden on the rest of them – and while this isn’t the express view of her immediate family, they certainly seem to have internalised it, with Zelu internalising it most of all to form an inner self-hatred that seethes at her core.

Even when she writes a bestselling sci-fi novel in a fit of inspiration borne from her tumultuous experiences at her younger sister’s wedding, they, and she most of all, still find the negatives in everything. It can be hard to read at times, the way Zelu is treated by her family, her inability to open up and tell them how she really feels, the way she pushes away the person she can trust. But that rawness feeds into a reality, one that brings forth both the great and terrible aspects of being Nigerian diaspora in America, specifically one of Igbo and Yoruba descent. And with that comes a near future, one with self driving cars, artificially intelligent phone apps that curate content (for good and ill) and even more significant technological leaps. The intersection between her career, her disability, her cultures and technology feels like the core to this novel. Social media becomes a curse for her, like with many authors who write a bestseller and start attracting haters.

And the throughline of the novel is a different novel altogether, ostensibly the one she writes – Rusted Robots. In this story, a human bodied ai named Ankara in Nigeria who searches for and collects human stories. She soon discovers a terrible fate is soon to befall an almost humanless earth, but then gets caught in the middle in a conflict between the no-bodies, ai that mostly shun physical form and hate humanity, and the humes, robots who inhabit only one human body and seek to preserve the best of humanity. It’s fascinating how this story reflects the primary narrative and vice versa, and as choices Zelu makes reflect those in her novel, it leaves you wondering about how the story affected her and how she built the story.

The book feels to me very much a character study, and in that respect it’s a strong one. Zelu is prickly, flawed, traumatised and deeply compelling. Seeing her slowly figure out herself is both agonising in the falls she has to make along the way, and gratifying in how realistic those gains are. But, as the interviews throughout the book hint at, the plot is building to something, some event that involves Zelu making a choice that not everyone agrees with, that is implied to be surprising if not for the fact that it is Zelu doing it. Elements of that ending felt rushed to me, and I’m still digesting the conclusion to the Rusted Robots story which recontextualises most of what came before.

Death of the Author builds gently up to the more sci-fi elements (not counting the fully sci-fi robot story within the story) which may frustrate genre readers who like things more overt – but there’s a deftness with which Okorafor builds Zelu and the characters around her that I think this book is definitely worth reading, especially if you prefer sff with a more literary feel.

Rating: 8/10

With thanks to Gollancz and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this ARC!

What an incredible read. This book is compelling and had me hooked from the first few chapters. This book is fully of messy flawed characters that are so utterly human.

I loved Zelu. I am disabled, and a lot of Zelu’s frustration with her family rang true for me. The words were so real and raw that there were moments when I had to step away for a moment. There are entire scenes where I held my breath, eager to see what Zelu would do next. Her determination leapt off the page.

And of course, that ending. So clever, and made me pause to rethink the entire book. I loved it so much.

I’m going to be talking about this one for a while, and picking up the rest of the author’s books.

It's a rare thing when you end a book and you feel the urge to start all over again because the second read will be totally different, as you know how it ended.

Death of the Author is that kinda book. Nnedi Okorafor did it again. She mixes African Futurism (I hope this is the right term) with sci-fi and mind blowing plots, while at the core showing us humanity and connection in all its beauty.

On top of that, it's a book within a book, and it's a piece on publishing industry and marketing. Something I really love.

I encourage you to definitely read to the end, as only then will you know how everything connects. And it connects in ways that are truly mind blowing.

5/5 stars

Thank you @netgalley and @orionbooks @gollancz for the eARC!

#DeathOfTheAuthor #Netgalley #Bookstagram

Unfortunately this is one of those times that the writing style just didn't personally work for me. The concept was really cool and the characters seemed very interesting. But I found myself constantly rereading sentences because the way this was written just really confused me.

I tried this from 26/11/24 to 29/11/24. DNF at 26%. This was absolutely fine but I just didn’t connect to it. Zelu has a very strong narrative voice and I appreciated the Nigerian influences in this but I’m just not interested enough to continue. It was just boring to me and I’ve not had the best look with this author before so it’s definitely a me problem. This does seem fresh though and seems to be unique. Plus I appreciate the disability representation.