A genre-blending gem…
“Stories were the greatest currency to us, greater than power, greater than control. Stories were our food, nourishment, enrichment. To consume a story was to add to our code, deepen our minds. We felt it the moment we took it in. We were changed. It was like falling. It was how we evolved.”
Summary - 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 narrativea surprisingly cutting, yet heartfelt drama about art and love, identity and connection, and, ultimately, what makes us human. This is a story unlike anything youve read before.
Part literary fiction, part science fiction equals a beautiful and vastly underrated gem of a book. I haven’t experienced a character come to life quite like Zelu did in a long time and SciFi or not, I need to go through Okorafor’s backlist because Death of the Author blew me away. I cared for Zelu, imperfections and all, because who is perfect, let alone when all that has happened to her in life. I also loved Zelu’s family cs, I didn’t always love the way they treated her but by the end I saw all of their perspectives and knew this family has nothing but love for each other.
This is a novel within a novel and while some of us in the #read chat thought it took us out of the story a bit, by the end, I found that it actually immersed me more because we get to read Zelu’s words, we get to experience the book that is taking her world by storm.
The summary initially intimadated me but let me tell you, don’t let that stop you from gibing this one a go – I was not confused once. Admitedly, some of the SciFi went over my head but I evenually sunk right in and enjoyed this book more than I thought I would.
Big thanks to the #read group for reading this one with me – we had a LOT to discuss, such a great book club book.
What’s a book that has intimidated you?
Find Death of the Author at the publisher →
Toni Rocchetti is a copy editor helping authors strengthen their narratives, deepen character arcs, and find the story that is already in the draft. She reads 80+ books a year across literary fiction, memoir, and nonfiction — and writes about what she is learning along the way. Work with Toni →
