Futility by Nuzo Onoh review: A fever dream of female rage
You’ll never read another book quite like this.
Futility by Nuzo Onoh: The key details
- Publish date: 14 October 2025
- Genre: Horror
- Publisher: Titan
- Available formats: Paperback, ebook, audio
- Series/standalone: Standalone
- Length: 288 pages
Blurb: Crackling with wit, this is a monstrous, gleeful, bitingly funny tale of murder, body-swapping and bloody vengeance from the recipient of the Bram Stoker Award ® for Lifetime Achievement and ‘Queen of African Horror’.
Betrayed by the men in their lives, two women seethe with rage and bitterness. When a trickster spirit offers them the gift of revenge, they cannot resist.
Chia runs one of the best restaurants in Abuja, Nigeria, and is renowned among the male clientele for her captivating beauty and delicious hot pepper soup. But her hot pepper soup has a secret ingredient, and her beauty is not what it seems.
Claire is a 50 year-old British woman living in Abuja with her young Nigerian boyfriend and his beautiful cousin, Shadé. Consumed by jealousy and resentment, Claire’s carefully organised life spirals into chaos after a night out at Chia’s infamous restaurant.
Futility by Nuzo Onoh: The review
Have you seen that weird KFC advert where a fully-grown man gets coated in breadcrumbs and fried in a river? Imagine that, but turned up to 1,000, and you’re some way to imagining the chaos that is Futility by Nuzo Onoh.
Yeah: men getting murdered and fried up like a giant chicken wing is something that definitely happens here. Alongside other grizzly murders of no-good (and sometimes probably OK) men. Before anything else, Futility is a tale of female rage and feminism, mixed in with Nigerian folklore, tales of old gods, and spirits that can carry out your dirty work — for a price, of course.
This is a tale of revenge, of dangerous desire, and of deities. It’s absolutely crazy from start to finish, and while it is far from my usual read, I’m glad to be able to say I’ve completed it.
The two protagonists here, British-born Claire and Nigerian Chia, are both awful beyond redemption. Certainly don’t expect to empathise with them in any way. Chia’s reasons for being angry become more clear as the book progresses and you learn about her family life. Claire, though? She’s the irredeemable white woman who gets what she deserves. You’ll be privy to the inner thoughts of both women — deliciously foul and laughably over the top. Sexism, racism and ageism are all rampant here, making this a very colourful read that is sometimes a little tough to get through.
But if you’re not afraid to read something a bit different, if you don’t mind swathes of swear words and want an unsettling horror that deals with feminism, beauty standards and revenge, please do give Futility a go. It’s a story that will stick with you for a long time to come.
And that cover — that cover! It’s one of the best book covers I’ve seen in a long time.
Thank you to Zooloo’s Book Tours and Titan Books for providing me with a copy for the purposes of this review.
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