Rating: 3 Stars
Published: April 8, 2025
Pages: 176
Genre: Short Story Collection
I saw this book on bookstagram with really great reviews by some book lovers I follow so I thought to buy a copy as I think it is always good to have a collection of short stories at hand if all fails. This is the author’s debut so obviously, I went into reading this with zero expectations.
Hail Mary is a collection of 10 short stories that are told by or about Nigerian women predominantly set either in Nigeria or the UK. Covering a wide range of themes, the stories represent some unspoken truths that can only be clearly revealed in books and Hail Mary is one of them.
For me, short stories can be a hit or miss, and I found this one to be more of a miss as most of the stories didn’t quite hold me or worse still, were quickly forgettable which is a major yardstick I use. I think my major issue with most of the stories were the unlikable or unrelatable characters and then some of them ended abruptly with no room for the reader to expand their imagination to what could be or could have been (don’t know if I’m making sense here). However, a story that resonated with me was ‘Dodo is for Plantain’ which was thought provoking about several things like how a marriage looks on the outside is mostly not how it really is, or how the passing away of a loved one though devastating can be a passage of freedom for someone, the difficulties people in inter-racial marriages face in their day-to-day lives, and the rebirth of a new life in middle-age. This story I know will stay with me for a long time and it basically informed my rating for this book. For a debut, I think it was okay, and I wish the author the best in her future writing endeavors.
If you like short story collections based on women’s lives and experiences, then you may like this book.
The Author:
Funmi Fetto is a London-based journalist and editor, and is currently the Style Editor at British Vogue. As a digital and print journalist, she has worked and written for numerous publications and organizations including Glamour.com, Vanity Fair, InStyle, Sunday Times Style, Guardian and Tatler.
Funmi is the author of the bestselling book Palette: A Black Beauty Bible for Women of Colour and a columnist at the Observer. Her work largely intersects across art, beauty, culture, race and identity.
Copyright © Biyai Garricks
Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this site’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Biyai Garricks, rovingbookwormng.com with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.
Discover more from Biyai Garricks
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.