tl,dr: i don’t get the hype this book has gotten and i’m not sorry.

starting off with a general statement: i do not think i’ve been this bored reading a book in a very very long time. there was a copy at my local library; however, i chose the audiobook version and for that i am very glad. i probably would’ve never finished this book had i read it physically. i was so bored that on more than one occasion i fell asleep on my floor while listening to this audiobook. please excuse any spelling mistakes i make in names!

IN FULL TRANSPARENCY BEFORE I BEGIN THE MEAT OF THIS REVIEW: sci-fi is not my genre. at all. in fact, it is probably my least favorite genre. nothing against those who read it of course! sci-fi with robots just creeps me out too much considering the times we’re in, and sci-fi without robots just makes me feel incredibly dumb.

unfortunately, this book falls into the ‘sci fi with eerily humanlike robots’ category, and within the current climate in AI, i felt freaked out about the possibility of all humankind being extinguished. not to mention the fact that this book is not shy AT ALL! about the topic of ai writing books, and the okorafor seems to be taking the stance of supporting machine-written books.

along with the above stance, i am simply unable to give this book anything higher than a 0.5 rating because okorafor has said some disparaging things about indigenous culture and i cannot in good conscience or faith recommend ANY author who says/supports either of these two things, and anything higher than a 0.5 star rating i believe signifies any sort of recommendation/if enough things changed i would have enjoyed this book—which is not the case here.

before i keep yapping about this: THIS REVIEW WILL HAVE SPOILERS FROM THIS POINT ON! you have been warned.

yeah, one (of many) things that pisses me off about this book is that the entire book we’re led to believe that zelu is the one writing about the robots! nope! the robot is actually the one writing zelu’s story! and this information isn’t revealed until the very last chapter!

i personally was incredibly upset about this “twist” (i put this in quotes because this is more whiplash-y than something hinted at earlier in the book) because it decenters a black, disabled, woman writer and instead centers a perfectly capable ai who’s actually the one writing the story about the black disabled woman. considering that okorafor herself is a black disabled woman, this was disappointing and honestly just an odd choice for her to make re: zelu’s character. it felt very disrespectful.

i’m also gonna say that this really didn’t make sense with the various information strewn throughout zelu’s narrative; in particular the interviews with zelu’s friends and family. did the robot put in this information to make the others more sympathetic to the hume cause? i’m also really struggling with the fact that the robots are mentioned as their names in zelu’s story… so what, this robot is so self absorbed that they named zelu’s robot characters after themself? (i wouldn’t be surprised, but this really roundabout way of telling the story is just wonky) it leaves me wondering: was okorafor’s plan originally to keep rusted robots as the ‘fake’ story and zelu’s as the ‘real’ one? some things simply don’t add up.

and the fact of the matter is, the robot being the one who ‘wrote’ death of the author is simply infuriating. i would like this book to have explored the consequences of automation and nonhuman life forms developing a similar conscience to us. but no! it glaringly supports the use of AI in writing novels because that is exactly what the robot does! i don’t understand why any author would want to admit this so openly, especially because now i’m wondering if the title should be taken metaphorically: that the art of authorship is going downhill due to artificial intelligence. does that make sense?

i could talk about this point for so much longer but i digress; i have other infuriating matters to discuss.

not only the ai-glazing but it’s also quite clear that this book is self insert on the author’s part. i get it, i want to be a famous author too.

but famous exnough that every single person in public that you see instantly recognizes you? as a debut author?

honey. not enough people read books for this to happen every single time you go out idk about yall (this might be me not being on other social medias too) but i don’t even know what many of my favorite authors look like! if i saw them in public i would just think they were another random person living their life.

even for people who read solely popular books, i truly do not think that many people would recognize someone.

i also think that it is so strange that apparently zelu has missed deadline after deadline and her publisher is not dropping her???? lol that would not slide IRL (is this supposed to be explained away by the damned robot writing this book or something????)

oh my god there are so many more infuriating things about this book. like weird time jumps that make the book take place over years apparently. or zelu’s relationship with her man. or literally any event that happened.

for a book that is as long as this one is, i found zelu’s story to end rather abruptly? is the title meant to be taken literally, as in she dies in the last line of her story? or metaphorically, as i mentioned earlier? i understand that we often don’t get closure IRL, and that’s okay! but it honestly just felt like such a strange way to end by switching to “and i wrote zelu’s story and called it death of the author 🥰😊” (paraphrased)

so no. due to all of this i cannot recommend that you read this book or any of okorafor’s other works, though if you’re a certified sparkly badge gremlin™️ as i am i cannot blame you for reading this as that is the only reason i was able to finish this book!