Kelechi Okafor has made her young adult debut with Are You Still Watching?, a speculative thriller from Scholastic that takes the familiar anxieties of social media, surveillance, and performance and pushes them to an intergalactic scale.

The novel has been selected by The Bookseller for its Best of Black Publishing 2026–2027 list, which describes it as a high-concept speculative thriller in the vein of Black Mirror and Severance. The book explores surveillance, capitalism, AI ethics, and social inequality through a teenage protagonist whose life turns out to be far more public than she ever imagined.

Are You Still Watching? is Okafor’s first book for young adults, but she is already well established across fiction, podcasting, performance, and cultural commentary. She made her literary debut in 2023 with Edge of Here: Stories from Near to Now, a speculative short-story collection exploring contemporary Black womanhood, technology, love, spirituality, and possible futures.

The collection introduced readers to the speculative territory that has become central to Okafor’s fiction, imagining technologies and alternate realities that expose the anxieties of the present. Its stories include a device that allows white people to experience racism and a headset that offers users the possibility of an alternate romantic life. The book was praised by writers including Chika Unigwe and Yomi Sode.

Okafor followed Edge of Here with Awakened, her debut novel, published in 2025. The book moves between near-future London and West Africa, bringing together journalism, ancient spirituality, and a mystery surrounding the disappearance of young Black people.

Beyond fiction, Okafor is known as the host of the long-running Say Your Mind podcast and for her work as a writer, actor, and presenter. She also founded Kelechnekoff, a dance and fitness studio in Peckham.

Read the synopsis below:

The year is 2032. Dorcas has her whole life ahead of her – university, career, escape from her suffocating small town. There’s only one problem: she has no idea who she wants to be. Then something impossible happens. A being from another world brings a terrifying message: her entire life is a reality show broadcast across the galaxy … and she’s bombing. The audience is bored. Unless she does something extraordinary – anything – she’ll be cancelled. Permanently. Now Dorcas has one chance to figure out what makes a life worth living. Before her time runs out.

Are You Still Watching? is out now from Scholastic.