THE PLOT: ‘Hail Mary’ by Funmi Fetto is a short story collection about nine Nigerian women. From Nckechi, a housegirl for a wealthy Lagos family, to Rilwa, an undocumented migrant in London, each of the women must fight for their place in the world. With themes of religion, romantic relationships, and resilience, the collection explores the cultural layers and expectations of Black womanhood.

SUMMARY: This is an interesting and enjoyable debut short story collection. Written by a London-based Nigerian journalist, I liked how each story showcased a unique aspect of Nigerian womanhood and the diversity of what it means to be a Nigerian woman. Overall, I’d say this book was good but not great. The author’s line writing and plot premises show promise, but the stories weren’t all executed to their highest potential. I’m giving it four stars because it engaged me during a reading slump. And although I don’t think this is a collection that will stay with me, it’s easy to read and I’d recommend it.

GOOD BITS:  Each of the main characters were unique and I liked that each story had a different perspective on religion. My favourite stories were ‘Wait’, ‘Hail Mary’, and ‘The Tail of a Small Lizard’. They all had strong characters and plots that I could become invested in. I also enjoyed ‘Trip’ and ‘House Girl’. However, they felt like the start of a novel, rather than short stories. Both had a lot of narrative thrust but the endings felt like a speedy cop-outs. Although passable, I think they could have been structured in a more compelling way to give the main characters a stronger transformational arc within the confines of the short story.

NOT SO GOOD BITS: My least favourite story was ‘Unspoken’. Ironically, I think it won a prize and assume it was the catalyst for this collection but it feels the least developed. I have a bugbear when books, TV or film have a character repeatedly refer to ‘The Incident’. It’s cliché and it’s lazy. While you could argue it’s a necessary device to allude to formative backstory, if the plot relies on the author artificially withholding the details of a fabled ‘incident’ from the reader, it feels contrived. Finally, there was a lot of fatphobic language throughout most of the stories. I’m not inherently against this if this sentiment is coming from the character and it shines a light on their world-view. However, it was noticeably persistent that being fat equated to negative characters and stereotypes in several of the stories.

OVERALL: I’d recommend this book to fans of ‘Manchester Happened’ by Jennifer Nansubuga Makumba, ‘For Such a Time As This’ by Shani Akilah, and ‘Love In Colour’ by Bolu Babalola.

Thank you to Magpie Books / One World for my #gifted copy in exchange for an honest review. ‘Hail Mary’ was published on 8^th April 2025 and is available to purchase (with a discount) on my bookshop.org page.