Maybe I should rate this higher because I really loved this book. I listened to the audiobook and the Nigerian accents were absolutely beautiful. But the story itself was amazing too. Unfortunately, I didn't love the chapters about the AI robots. I listened to that on a super fast speed so I got the gist, but really just wanted to get through them. But the rest of the story about Zelu, I absolutely loved. [contains spoilers] And funnily enough, at the end of the book, I got the impression that Zelu and her family and all the saga was actually made up by the AI robot. It starts with Zelu who is Nigerian and disabled. She fell out of a tree when she was 12 years old and is now in a wheelchair. It talks about how she lost her job as a teacher for yelling at a student. And she moves back in with her parents and starts to write this book. So we get chapters of this book through the novel. It is about an AI robot. And there are "ghosts" who don't have bodies. And the human race is mostly extinct, except this one AI robot finds the last human on earth who eventually dies. But throughout the book are interviews with people in her family about the "author." She ends up becoming extremely famous for this book she writes and a movie is made about it. Zelu can be a little surly at times, but it doesn't make you hate the character at all. At least I didn't. She is at her sister's wedding and meets a cousin of the groom and they hook up. But they stay friends and eventually later, she marries him. They are not a typical couple. He has a successful app he's managing, so he travels a lot. And she's busy doing things to promote her book, which mostly she doesn't want to do. She is going through the ups and downs of being in the public eye and being judged. Her dad ends up dying (once again, another book about a dad dying). And a few years later, she finally goes to Nigeria to see where he was buried. Her whole family doesn't want her to go because she's famous in Nigeria and it could be dangerous. She decides to go anyway and brings friends with her. Oh yes, one of the main things that happens too is someone from MIT contacts her and she's given these things that go on her leg so she can walk again. It's a lot of work to get there, but then it's like, she's almost turning into her robots because now she has robot legs. Now, she's in Nigeria and they are heading back to the airport and they are attacked. There's a whole situation and Zelu has never tried to run with her "legs" and now she is and she is running at an incredible speed. I think they said 35 miles per hour and she is able to get away from the attackers. And her friends are OK too. She gets back home. She ends up pregnant but at the same time decides to go up in a spaceship. She doesn't tell her husband. And then in the end, we find out from the AI robot, that AI made up a story even though AI is not supposed to, which I believe is supposed to be Zelu and her whole family. The journey was great though. I loved Zelu and her whole family and felt like I knew her. Maybe I should've rated this 4.5? (read less)

Maybe I should rate this higher because I really loved this book. I listened to the audiobook and the Nigerian accents were absolutely beautiful. But the story itself was amazing too. Unfortunately, I didn't love the chapters about the AI robots. I listened to that on a super fast speed so I got the gist, but really just wanted to get through them. But the rest of the story about Zelu, (read more)

At a low point in her life, Zelu writes a sci-fi novel that captures the world’s attention and imagination and makes her famous. As a black woman with a disability, though, she finds fame and fortune don’t change how her family and others treat her. With the book's title, Death of the Author, Nnedi Okorafor infers that her main character, Zelu, dies, but she manages to hold the details close so the death hovers mysteriously above the novel. Okorafor weaves together three distinct pieces — Zelu’s story, excerpts from the popular book she wrote, and interviews with Zelu’s friends and family — all building to a somewhat anti-climatic ending. I didn’t love the book within a book, but I appreciate how Okorafor ties it all together. (read less)

At a low point in her life, Zelu writes a sci-fi novel that captures the world’s attention and imagination and makes her famous. As a black woman with a disability, though, she finds fame and fortune don’t change how her family and others treat her. With the book's title, Death of the Author, Nnedi Okorafor infers that her main character, Zelu, dies, but she manages to hold the details (read more)