Reviews with content warning for Sexual content - The List

Genuinely fuck this. You can write about evil and morally bad characters without making them all severely insufferable. I wasn’t rooting for anyone or any thing other than the percentage bar to continue creeping further towards 100%. The cultural pieces were touched on and then fully abandoned instead of properly delved into and considered- do the characters even care about their own ethnicities? Or are they just using them for instagram followers… Does the author even care about their ethnicities? She certainly didn’t honor them or hold any sort of cultural context within the story she chose to write.

Do you want to know what happens in this book? Read the synopsis and then the final 10% for the lack of resolution or accountability from every single person involved in this shit show. Nothing else happens other than one self-righteous fight and one bit of drama at an event. the ONLY bit of additional drama that occurs at the single defined event of the entire book.

If you want fanfiction of AD and Clay from Love Is Blind: here it is. The “I can fix him” and the “She’ll stand by me no matter what harm I do to her” thinking they can successfully have a marriage between them.

This book was entirely one-note and the ending wasn’t the end of anything or an ending marked by change or growth or accountability or even fucking acknowledgment of inciting events. The plot holes were jarring and entirely unforgivable and every side character was interchangeable with eachother. Petty points off for the chapter titles being huge spoilers as well.

The only compliment I can give is that it was an accurate representation of a shithead man but I already knew PLENTY about that from dropping my own last year. Beat for beat they had similar thoughts and excuses. The audiobook narrator did well wresting and differentiating all of the different one note characters and their accents. The content was truly enraging but her job was very well done.

In the Q&A between the voice actor/narrator and the author I found the jokes about cancelling *them* over tiny things to be wildly tone deaf. Do you truly think a self deprecating joke about your own work is equivalent to date rape/kidnapping/assault/ coercion/etc etc etc etc listed in your own fucking book? Now who’s trivializing things? The lack of proper content warnings is abhorrent considering the thing I’ve chosen to spoiler over below.

Maybe it’s cold but the only thing I was rooting for was

for michael’s suicide attempt to have been successful. It really would’ve saved everyone the hassle of knowing him and dealing with his bullshit. He couldn’t even off himself correctly and then couldn’t even take accountability for the fact that he even attempted it??? Mans can dodge every single thing in his life including cars I guess. I wanted to hit him again hearing that.

Also why the fuck did he wake up with a feeding tube. That makes no sense. the science in this book sucked shit too but now I truly am being petty.

Content Warnings

magicinwords23's review against another edition

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dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

Ola Olajide and Michel are the hot couple right now and they are all over social media. She is a journalist for Womxxxn magazine, he is about to start a new job at a production company called CuRated and they are about to be married.

One morning they wake up to a list on the internet containing anonymous allegations towards several high profile men accusing them of a variety of abuse against women. Michael’s name is on The List.

Ola’s world has been turned upside down. Did he do what they’re accusing him of? Can she trust him? Does she know him at all? So many questions but she is running out of time as the wedding draws near.

This was a very thought-provoking story and I was persistently thinking“What would I do in this situation? My heart broke for Michael in one way as everything was falling around him but in another way, I thought he brought some of it on himself. I felt Ola was so quick to judge him and gave no consideration to what he was going through.

This gave me Caroline Flack vibes with the hatred that was being shown and the intensely horrifying bullying on social media towards the men. Some very sad scenes where Michael felt so lost he just broke down and had no idea what to do or where to turn.

There was another name on the list, a professional footballer, Lewis Hale. He was struggling with who he was and who the public wanted him to be. His story was a sad one and my heart broke for him and his family.

A eye opener story and very apt for the world we are living in today where everything happens on social media.

Content Warnings

steppenfreak's review against another edition

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funny lighthearted mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Content Warnings

emilyandthewhippet's review against another edition

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dark emotional tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

Content Warnings

ghazalg's review against another edition

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challenging emotional reflective tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

I enjoyed this book. It gripped you from the start until the end and was an enjoyable read. I also think that they dealt with the subject matter well, showing the difficulties in Ola's reaction and response to the allegations, how she had to toy with all the scenarios and decisions to make.

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