Reviews with content warning for Sexual violence - The List

I’ve been looking forward to reading this for ages but found it a little underwhelming!
The story was good but when speech is in slang/ social media is referenced too much I find I don’t enjoy a book as much as feels more like teen fiction.
Needless to say the topics covered were super interesting and thought provoking- do you ever really know someone/ can trust be rebuilt in relationships/ cancel culture and online witch- hunts/ the cover up of abuse committed by men in positions of power/ how quick people are to preach mental health once their actions have consequences..
I really enjoyed Lewis’ storyline as an older black man

struggling with coming to terms with his sexuality, and his death was so unnecessary and sad but speaks volumes around the dangers of the internet!

Found ola’s difficulty balancing her feminist beliefs with support of an accused partner really interesting too, and the ending was

a great twist!! Men r trash

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laura_clarinets's review against another edition

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dark sad slow-paced

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

2.5

Loved the idea of this book -- did not love the execution. It really dragged and I found myself skimming to hit plot points. I felt like it raised a lot of good questions and answered very few of them, and I was pretty disappointed by the ending. I felt like the intensity of the specific plot points in the last quarter of the book were meant to leave the reader leaning heavily towards a side of the "argument" that I did not appreciate while the opposing side was sort of an afterthought, and the final twist didn't really land with me, which is maybe because at that point I was just wondering why the book was still going...

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ukponge's review against another edition

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challenging reflective sad fast-paced

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

4.75

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gerlinen's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-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? It's complicated

2.75

this was the first time I've ever listened to an audiobook so I'm still assessing if this was to the story's determent or betterment (leaning more towards the latter than former) but it's a relevatively 'safe' storyline; in the sense that I could easily foresee the ending quite early on. Nevertheless, the book is carried by important discussions around 'cancel culture', social media, sexism, romantic and platonic relationships etc — most of which was not that profound to me, but hopefully, spurred some readers to contemplate more about these topical issues.

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maddyhavranek's review against another edition

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emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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kiragreads's review against another edition

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emotional tense fast-paced

Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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k_kay's review against another edition

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challenging emotional mysterious tense slow-paced

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

1.5

I really wanted to like this book, the premise sounds very interesting, but I struggled with the way a number of sensitive topics were handled in the book.
It felt like the author wanted to explore the fragility of internet fame and how fickle it can be when considering cancel culture, rape culture, incels, toxic workplace, our image/ how we are perceived and who we really are, but it was too much to explore.
I liked the cultural references,
but it felt like there was a lot of telling over showing.

We’re told that Ola and Micheal are in love, but from the moment we’re introduced to them it’s hard to understand why. We keep being told how much they love each other, but there’s nothing to show us this which made it difficult to empathise with Ola when the list goes viral. The book also does not explain how they are influencers, the description given felt more like they posted a pic and that went viral once and then you never here about their influence other than we are told once more. The friendships with Ola and her friends does this better, we can see their dynamic but the author then goes in to spell it out which just takes up words and pages unnecessarily. Likewise there is a lot of description of clothes and jewellery which felt like filler.
Micheal is not a likeable character and it’s difficult to empathise with him

even when he is suicidal after Ola breaks up with him - it’s is a very common thing abusers do so I was over that dude in the first few pages

I also didn’t care to know the thoughts of an accused abuser and all the incel chat, it’s everywhere these days.

The book was overall very predictable, times when Ola thought she didn’t know what she was going to do, but I felt like I did 🙄
The pace is jarring as we cut between Ola and Micheal’s perspectives at the most pressing moments.
The twist also felt unwarranted, I get what the author was going for, it just really didn’t work for me.

Really consider the triggers on this one as it comes off more of an apologists or liberal take, (I don’t think that was the authors intention) probably because there was just too little said on soooo many deep topics.

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lhodgson26's review against another edition

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challenging emotional sad 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? It's complicated

4.0

I think this is a really important book which everyone both men and women need to read. It shows the misogynist world which we still live in and the way abusers still continue to get away with the hurt they cause to the victims. The injust world we leave in when the police evidence is hardly ever enough to get a conviction and how wealthy public figures continue to abuse their trust and use money to make the problem disappear. However, it also showcases how trial by social media in the modern age can get out of hand, when rumours with limited credibility can destroy lives such as Lewis ultimately taken his own life. It is a powerful how someone's one lie can cause destruction in both professional and personal life's. I did like Ola and Micheal and they were a good example of how you can think you know someone it can all change in an instant with one piefe ot information and make you doubt everything. I did find it infuriating that Micheal did not come clean in the beginning as the issues which unfolded with the lie were a lot worse and it was such a waste of a good wedding.

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