Valerie S. (VolunteerVal) - reviewed on 6/18/2025 + 707 more book reviews

I was curious about Death of the Author by Nnedi Okorafor from all the buzz it received last winter. Then it was the May title for my book club. It's the first of the author's novels I've read, and it provided an interesting experience.

There's a lot going on in this 450-page novel:
- a contemporary storyline featuring Zelu, a Nigerian-American writer who has a physical disability and a dysfunctional family
- a book within a book about dystopian robots
- interviews with Zelu's family members

I'm not a fan of fantasy/sci-fi so I thought about skipping the robot chapters, but since I listened to the audiobook narrated by Liz Femi, Anthony Oseyemi, Jason Culp, and Chris Djuma via Libro.fm, I decided to take in the whole story. It demands to be analyzed with fellow readers, and I really appreciated our book club discussion. We talked about numerous topics, including the ambiguous ending.

I'm not necessarily motivated to pick up other titles by this author, but I'm glad I read this one.

Back to all reviews by this member
Back to Book Reviews
Back to Book Details