Death of the Author by Nnedi Okorafor

Death of the Author by Nnedi Okorafor

Nnedi Okorafor published her first novel back in 2005 and has won several prominent science-fiction awards including a Hugo Award and Nebula Award for her novella Binti. Her works have been optioned to be turned into television series, including Who Fears Death, which is currently listed as in development with HBO. Her most recent novel, Death of the Author, was released in January of 2025 and is already a bestseller as well as one of Amazon's Editor's Picks for Best Books of 2025 So Far. It deals with ableism, bullying, emotional abuse, panic attacks, animal death, racism, kidnapping, death of a parent and grief, war, and a traumatic injury.

Zelu is the second of six children and has never quite fit in. Her father was an engineer and her mother a nurse, her siblings have become doctors, a lawyer, and an engineer, while Zelu got her MFA in literature. While she teaches at a prominent university, it is clear that her family does not value her career. She once wanted to be an astronaut, but a fall from a tree that left her partially paralyzed dashed that dream so she fell back on what she's always loved... stories. But the books she has written so far are uninspired and her most recent one has received nothing but rejections. One day, while reeling from another rejection from a publisher as well as her sudden dismissal from her teaching job, Zelu lets loose. A story pours out of her from seemingly nowhere and she knows as soon as it's finished that it's different. It's good. The world agrees and soon, Zelu's life is changed in ways she never could have imagined possible.

Let me start by saying that Death of the Author is a story within a story. We see Zelu's story, which is full of family drama and pushing boundaries, as well as the story that Zelu writes, a science fiction story that takes place after the extinction of humanity when warring factions of AI must come together to save them all. The writing was very well done, it was easy to read and to get sucked into. Zelu's story had touches of science fiction in them but mostly focused on Zelu's relationship to her family and her character's journey. I found Zelu - as well as most of her family members - to be mostly unlikeable, quick to blame, patronizing, petty, selfish, and sometimes just downright mean. I also thought that Zelu was incredibly realistic, the world that she lived in was vivid and easy to picture, and that the pace was very fast moving but not in a way that was confusing. The AI story on the other hand had likeable characters but the chapters were too short and too sparse, once I found myself immersed in that story it would switch back to Zelu so I never felt like I could really connect and often found my mind wandering during those sections. Although I did like the book, I think I would have enjoyed it a lot more if Zelu hadn't been quite as flawed or showed more development over the duration of the book, or if I could have become more invested in the AI story. Either of those options would have worked. I also feel like there was so much happening in this book: the downsides to fame, the pressure to create something great, the difficulty in giving up a dream no longer attainable, the breaking of familial expectations, the breaking of societal expectations, the problems with cancel culture, how Hollywood whitewashes anything they can get away with, the growing use of generative AI while we underfund and underappreciate the arts, that it was hard to connect to the story in any meaningful way.

I'm giving Death of the Author by Nnedi Okorafor 3.75 stars out of 5. I did enjoy it but I wish I had been able to connect to the character more. But it is an interesting premise that blends literary fiction and science fiction well.

For more from Nnedi Okorafor, check out her website at https://nnedi.com/

Pairs well with jollof rice and knowing that using technology does not make you part robot.