I had high expectations for this book and was significantly underwhelmed by the execution. The main character is Zelu, a paraplegic Nigerian-American writer. Not long after the book starts, she loses her job, and her literary fiction novel is rejected yet again. She decides to write a new book, a science fiction novel that becomes a runaway success. Chapters of that book, entitled Rusted Robots, are interspersed with chapters of the main novel.
Where do I start? The overall description of the novel appealed to me, and I liked the idea of reading the book within the book. But the actual content of Rusted Robots doesn’t support it being the rampant bestseller that it is. It’s just . . . fine. The first half of the main novel was solid and almost fast-paced, with Zelu experiencing a lot of success in various ways, but then the plot began to flag. As a character, Zelu is prickly and sometimes selfish, making her challenging to connect to. Her family was really awful to her—unsupportive and blaming—which seemed to contradict how close everyone, including Zelu, claims they all are.
The writing itself is clunky. Okorafor both shows and tells, instead of trusting readers to understand what she had just shown (e.g., someone says something “sagely.” If it’s actually sage, you don’t need to give me that descriptor). Also, some of the plotting seemed unrealistic in terms of the wild successes that Zelu has and helps others have. The ending was clever and unexpected, and I’m not sure if that’s supposed to excuse the flaws that came before. I’m not even sure that the ending adequately explains those flaws, and it left me questioning if it was worth it.
Honestly, sitting with the book after finishing it, I started to feel a little annoyed. It feels like Okorafor is relying on that ending to forgive a lot, which feels unearned and therefore emotionally manipulative. I more or less liked the plots of both the main book and Rusted Robots, and I didn’t have a bad time with the book. But I wanted a lot more from it. 3.5 stars.
