The List is a novel that makes you stop and think about the power of social media and those driving it. What is real, and what is fake? How do we discern what to believe and what to reject?

We follow Ola and Michael as they prepare for what is surely going to be the wedding of the year. After all, they are the 'it' couple. But what happens when Michael's name appears of a list of men who are accused of being sexual predators? How is Ola going to work out the truth, and even then what does it mean for the rest of the men on the list?

Whilst not fast paced, this novel is a page turner nonetheless. Thought provoking.

I was actually enjoying the fast paced high stakes action of this one, albeit with some side eye at the initial 'false accusation of SA' narrative. By about halfway I realised there was no way this story could redeem itself.
Basically we were put in a position to side with or at least give the benefit of the doubt to the ACCUSED. Given real world statistics around the prevalence of wrongful accusations, peddling this story line in a fluffy, tongue in cheek beach read was ick at best and actually quite harmful at worst. I would not recommend this book.

✨BOOK REVIEW✨

📚The List - Yomi Adegoke📚

The List is a thought-provoking exploration of contemporary dating and relationships, offering a fresh perspective on the challenges faced in the modern world of social media and cancel culture. Adegoke’s writing is honest and relatable, shedding light on what could be everyday experiences for many people.

Whilst the book explores these important themes, I felt it often lacked nuance and the switch between each POV was quite jarring. I struggled to connect and empathise with the characters and felt they lacked depth and could have been developed a lot more.

What you can expect:
🫢 Dual POV
🫢 Cancel culture
🫢 Influencer relationships

Whilst I found The List a little repetitive and was ultimately underwhelmed, I am sure there are lots of you who will love it and connect with its overall message 😊

⭐️⭐️⭐️

Thank you so much to @netgalley @harpercollinsaustralia and the author for sending me this to review 🙏🏻

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🤩 Okay, so this book has received many mixed reviews. Personally I loved it!

To me, a book that I can’t wait to keep reading, entertains me and makes me ‘feel’, is a winner. The List did all the above and more in spades. Written with razor sharp wit, Adegoke takes us on a colourful exploration of how we deal with our emotions when pushed to ones’s limits. Set in the millennial world where social media is the be all and end all, the #metoo movement and cancel culture lurks on the periphery, we follow Ola and Michael navigating their way through life changing situations.

This was so well written, I laughed and gasped throughout, especially the ending. Highly sensitive and thought provoking with TW’s - message me if you need clarification. I found it totally absorbing, clever, unique and one I highly recommend. I’m not surprised this book is being turned into a TV adaptation - I’ll be watching it!

Many thanks to the wonderful team @harpercollinsaus @bookbuzzau for sending this cracker my way 💌

The List tells the story of Ola and Michael and how their pre-nupital bliss is shattered when Michael's name is published on 'The List' - a list of abusive and predatory men in the public eye shared on Twitter. Ola works for a feminist media company and has in the past spearheaded campaigns inspired by Me Too but is unsure how to move forward with her life after her fiancé is named.

I felt that this book didn't quite hit the mark it could have. The first half was enjoyable (juicy, but I feel like that isn't the right word for this context!), however I wasn't sure where the plot was moving towards. It had a real opportunity to be a nuanced commentary of our society's penchant for cancellation and strive for accountability for bad behaviour, but at the times the intended message felt muddled. I found the characters unlikeable, and any 'twists' the story had didn't have the impact they should have.

Ola and Michael are a glamorous couple in media and popular on social media and are getting married. A month or so before the wedding Michael is named on The List, a list of men working in the media accused of abuse of varying degrees (rape, violence, groping etc). The novel follows what happens after this event, to their relationship, careers and also some of the other men on the list, and women who’ve suffered sexual violence. I found it hard to look away from this, as I’m older I really wonder how young people manage to cope with all the social media pressures of the modern world, it’s crazy to me. The book is longer than it needs to be, it gets a bit repetitive in places but overall an interesting look at social media scandals.

Adegoke’s the list portrays a really important point of view, though I don’t think it was anything groundbreaking.

She has done an amazing job at characterisation, and wanting to know what the Ola and Michael was what kept me reading. I was not a fan of the constant tweets, texts and emoji’s to keep the story going, though I do understand that it operated within that world so was probably necessary, but it did disengage me for this portions and I had to really push myself to keep reading.

6/10

Reading this, all I could think was “this would be great as a TV series” - come to find out it is going to be one!

Oh man. I wanted to love this book so much. I tried, i really tried!

Centred around Ola and Michael’s chaotic relationship, ‘The List’ is the debut novel of Yomi Adegoke. It just missed the mark with me.

I found the way in which Adegoke presented the negative anonymous side of the internet and social media very interesting and how easily trolls can cause people to have increased stress and pressure simply via their keyboard! The way this effected characters in the book was eye opening.

However, I found all of the characters very unlikeable. Throughout the book i felt disconnected to Ola and Michael and potentially this caused me to become disinterested in the book!

Please be aware for themes of SA and Suicide.

Thank you Harper Collins for the ARC COPY via Netgalley

Interesting novel on social media and the impact it can have on people’s lives. Allegations posted on Twitter lead to ripples and repercussions across many. Enjoyable read and great premise. Thank you to #netgalley and the publisher for the advance copy

27 days to the wedding, Ola wakes up and finds that her phone has gone crazy with hundreds of messages. Ola's fiance, Michael, made it to The List.
It's not a good thing that the man she meant to be marrying in less than four weeks named as someone did harassment/threatening behaviour, alongside date rapist and domestic abusers.
On top of that,  when she arrives at the office, her boss asks her to write a piece on The List.
Ola is also a journalist at a well-known feminist magazine where their morals stand firmly on "believing women"
The day The List comes out in Tweeter is also Michael's first day in his new job at The CuRated. It's actually the best job that he's been wanting.

Michael couldn't possibly do that kind of thing...or did he?? How will Ola handle this s*it in less than a month? Who put Michael on the list? Will the wedding still happen?

This book highlights the impact of unregulated social media. It also covers topics of relationships, secrets, homophobia especially within the black community.

This was a compelling read and was difficult to put down; I couldn’t wait to finish it to find out about The List. This novel asks a lot of important questions about the role that social media plays in our lives, and how easily it can turn against us. While an interesting story, it did feel a bit exposition-heavy at times. The List brings up many important issues, but perhaps too many, as not all of them are addressed thoroughly enough- it felt like too much was trying to be covered, at times. Overall an enjoyable read.

'Would you be okay with other crimes being handled via the court of Twitter?'

Ola and Michael are just a month away from being married. As a socially prominent, hashtag-worthy couple, their partially sponsored wedding will be the talk of the social media world. Instead, The List is published on Twitter, and they begin to be talked about for all the wrong reasons. Michael's name appears, accused of harassment and assault at a Christmas party - sandwiched between other men accused of much more heinous crimes against women. The List goes viral before it is quickly deleted. The damage has already been done. Who created it? Who published it? And just who is Michael, the man Ola had dreamed of marrying?

Yomi Adegoke does a great job highlighting the paradoxical nature of social media: it can make you and just as quickly break you; it's a forum to have a voice, yet the 'voices' aren't always honest; you can spread messages widely and rapidly, but they start morphing as they lose their context. Ultimately, the anonymity of social media facilitates people to act in a different way as if they were face to face, 'it was an anonymous, immediate way to settle a score. However, so many issues are contended with, within the story, I felt it fractured any one, particular, message. Overall, it was an ok read for me.

The List—it'll keep you hooked and pummel you from all sides.

In discussions about abuse, it's often asked, what if it were your sister? or your mother? Yomi Adegoke flips the narrative, asking, what if the accused was your partner?

Ola Olajide, an editor of the feminist publication Womxxxn, navigates complex emotions and a minefield of public opinion when her almost-husband, Michael, is hit with assault allegations on social media.

Yomi Adegoke doesn't hesitate to throw shade on established viewpoints as the story twists and turns. I resonated with Ola's perspectives—a lot of head nods—but it was vexing being in the head of Michael, a 'not all men' kind of man.

Michael's Ghanaian background adds nuance to the discussion, given the historical context of false rape accusations against black men. However, personally, entertaining the wider idea of women making false reports made me uncomfortable, considering how rare it is.

While some descriptions are clunky, the social media chats are piercingly accurate. I actually felt like I was in a bros' group chat!

The chapters end in exaggerated cliff- hangers, and some elements weren't to my taste, like planning a lavish wedding. That said, The List is a compelling read—the kind of book that ignites rich conversation.

⭐⭐⭐.5

This novel tackles the topic of abuse and cancel culture in an incredibly nuanced way, leaving no stone unturned. we get to see the rippling effects this can have on a person's life, whether the accusations are true or not. The main character, Ola, has to decide between standing by her fiancé, trusting that she knows him fully enough to believe him when he claims it isn’t true, or practising what she preaches and believing all victims. From the get-go, i was hooked. It’s such an interesting and relevant premise to today’s society, and had me thinking, what would i do in that situation? Given the topic of the novel, i was expecting it to be super fast-paced, and the latter half was, but i felt the paced lagged in the middle a smidge. Other than that, I thought it was a fantastic read. I loved the characters and their dynamics, getting a look at Black culture in Britain, and the ending had my jaw on the literal floor. I rated it 4 stars.

Thank you Netgalley and HarperCollins/Fourth Estate for this ARC

Ola and Michael are an Instagram-famous couple who have it all. Love, youth, success, and they’re getting married in a month. Until the morning they wake up to an absolute bombshell. Michael has been named on The List; an online document compiled by victim-survivors of abuse, assault and harassment naming the perpetrators. As a journalist at a feminist magazine, Ola would normally be the first person to side with the accusers and write articles calling for justice. But what about when it’s her own fiancé?

This book was an intriguing concept, exploring the private aftermath of a public accusation and what that does to a semi-famous couple. There were some interesting reflections on how race plays into such an allegation, particularly given the history of Black men being murdered based on false testimony.

However, I felt let down by the story the author chose to tell; that of the case of a man wrongfully accused by a scorned ex-lover. Its especially curious given that it seems to have been written from a feminist perspective on the surface, but presents a narrative which deflects from the issue of gendered violence by asking “but what about the people who lie?”. Without completely spoiling the ending, there was a twist, but it felt a bit too neat to satisfy me completely.

In saying that, I found this book very readable and at points couldn’t put it down because I needed to know what happened next. It was an easy and mostly light read with enough going on to keep me pretty entertained.

Thank you very much to @harpercollinsaustralia and @netgalley for this review copy.

The List is a contemporary fiction novel about a journalist, Ola Olajide, who is set to marry her fiancé Michael when he appears on a viral industry list of men alleged to have engaged in abusive practices. The premise instantly hooked me. However, I felt the execution was superficial and lacking. I wished for a deeper exploration of the protagonist and sensitive themes, and more careful weaving of the character's backstories and personalities instead of infodumps. Thank you to NetGalley and HarperCollins/Fourth Estate for this ARC.

Our main character, Ola, is a journalist and avid feminist. Her finance, Michael, is the love of her life and is just starting a new job. Their life together gets flipped on its head when Michael's name is on the 'List' - a collection of names containing allegations against those named.

Ola's boss wants her to write an article on 'the List', which Ola struggles with. Ordinarily, she would do it without hesitation. But, Michael's name features and she is concerned - What if the allegations are false, and she's spreading misinformation about Michael? Worse: What if the allegations are true?

We spend a lot of time in the characters' minds throughout the story. The allegations are untrackable. Not even the creator of the Google Doc the names feature in knows who contributed to it. Michael has his suspicions, but it would mean that he has to come clean about secrets he had been hiding from Ola. Ola, meanwhile, is understandably very concerned about whether or not the allegations are true and spends some time trying to find out the truth.

The story does touch on some very important issues, like believing women who come forward about SAs (which society has issues doing). Has social media infiltrated our lives to a point of no return? Can the internet absolutely ruin people's lives, and should it have that unchecked power? It was rough to see Ola struggling between 'innocent until proven guilty' and believing the victim that made the accusations. The characters are all very complex and feel very real as they struggle to keep up with this life changing event.

I found the very last chapter to be a bit of a cop-out - I feel as though it wasn't needed and the story could stand alone without it. That is my only gripe with the book, so I still really enjoyed this story.

Loved the start of this book and the conflict between the main female character deciding what to do. The second half wasn't as good as I felt like it was the trope of blaming the crazy ex.

The List was a thought-provoking and topical read. I found it especially interesting as it mirrored many thoughts I'd had in light of the MeToo movement. While I absolutely want to see women believed when they come forward, as they should be, and get the justice they deserve, I have concerns on whether innocent people could be caught up in it all, falsely accused as revenge over something else entirely. I worry that we need to get the right balance to ensure the correct people are punished, and that's exactly what this book looks at in its narrative. I thought it offered a realistic portrayal of people viewing the incident from a range of different perspectives, creating a grey area where we are forced to confront our own opinions on who is in the wrong, or if anyone can ever fully be in the right in such a situation. It also offered a scathing look at the power of social media and how trolling can ruin people's lives, which is also a timely topic. All up, I think this is a book that will generate a lot of discussion upon its release, with readers possible breaking into two very distinct camps regarding their views on the stance it takes. I felt it was a very worthwhile story that gave me plenty to dwell upon even after I'd turned the final page. I am giving it four stars.

(My review will go live on my blog and Goodreads at the links provided below on Mon 24 July 2023. At that time I will also share on social media.)