Reviews with content warning for Alcohol - The List

Couples Ola and Michael are embroiled in a scandal involving a “list” of perpetrators that draws much of its inspiration from the MeToo movement. It shows the consequences of trial-by-public with social media, cancel-culture, and how little regard many of us have for online credibility. While I liked how the author included different perspectives in this book, it also felt strangely mechanical.

The final chapter made the story somewhat uncharacteristically removed. It’s as though it spent so much of the first chapters building up this believable set of characters only to turn them cartoonish at the end (I wouldn’t fault the author for this as they did mention that they’d considered writing nonfiction first)

This is the kind of book I’m not certain I could rate. It raises important topics that are normally scoffed at and shrugged off, but I wouldn’t say I enjoyed it, nor would I read it again.

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aunticles's review against another edition

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dark reflective medium-paced

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

3.75

This was a definite page-turner and very thought-provoking. Very skilfully written. Making the chapter headings a countdown to the wedding really helped keep the stakes high. I could feel Ola's sense of being on a runaway train she couldn't stop. Clever switching between the 2 main characters' pov, managing to keep both voices strong. Excellent dialogue and depiction of online discourse. Michael was far more sympathetic than I'd expected. I wanted to feel he was the villain but it was more nuanced than that. An uncomfortable read that puts the reader firmly in a moral grey area and dares them to judge. I can see lots of book club arguments coming out of this!

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oz2021's review against another edition

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dark emotional funny medium-paced

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

3.5

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princessdeia's review against another edition

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fast-paced

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

3.0

Ola and Michael and the poster couple for #BlackLove, planning their dream wedding and living their best lives as one of London’s favourite InstaCouples. Ola is a successful journalist with a celebrated feminist magazine. Michael is about to start his dream job. That is until someone publishes The List.

The anonymous account posted a spreadsheet to Twitter, a crowdsourced document of men’s names. All the men worked in the media and were accused of harassment, abuse and even rape. Normally, Ola would have written hundreds of words about The List, only this time Michaels’s name is included in the document.

This book is a modern-day thriller, drawing on historical events of Black men accused of crimes, like Emmett Till or the Central Park Five, but giving it a very contemporary twist. Told from several people’s points of view, we see the effect The List has on both Ola, Michael and even the victims of the crimes.

This is a page-turner, as you are drawn into Ola and Michael’s world. However, at times I found the storyline difficult to follow, suddenly there are new characters with little introduction making it awkward to keep up.

I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

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frombethanysbookshelf's review against another edition

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challenging emotional reflective tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated

4.0

"It's just interesting that you've been more than happy to talk about 'believing women' until the one tmie it actually requires personal sacrifice. And by 'interesting' I mean 'total hypocritical fuckery.'"

The List is a highly topical and timely story with a bold voice that fearlessly jumps into the complexity and absurdity of modern life. Our main character explores the way our online lives have the power to improve or destroy lives, and how different a curated image of life can be to reality. And aside from the whip-smart commentary, it tackles the need for abusers to be held accountable and visible, for women to believed and the way abuse and sexism is so normalised some people don’t even recognise themselves as abusers — as well as discourse about intersectional feminism especially for black women and women of colour.

Ola is wickedly funny and relatable at times, endearing and inviting as a narrator — an woman who knows what she wants but really isn’t sure how she’s meant to do everything. I felt her deep confusion, being torn between ‘innocent till proven guilty’ and believing victims without discrimination. It asks us how we’d act in a situation that forces us not only believe in solidarity and feminism, but take action for it. She leads this story with a personal and emotive voice as she tries to find the truth and wrestles with her love for Michael and her love for her fellow women. Hearing from Michael was interesting and at times unsettling — someone who hasn’t always been a good person and might be deserving of hate, but doesn’t think he’s guilty of the crimes he’s being accused of.

There’s some villains in this story that are clear cut, there are some that are more complicated and make us wonder if redemption is ever truly possible when you’ve hurt people. While the story may be about these two people, as the pages go by we watch as this incident ripples out into the world with catastrophic effects, bringing unsaid truths to the surface for all to see.

Every single character in this story was a vibrant, complex person — although I had a particular soft spot for Olas’ colleague Kiran and their personal bland of honesty and sarcasm. We get to know everyone intricately, at times the story slows to a stroll, just spending time trying to figure out how our characters are feeling before we pick up another piece of the puzzle.

A fiercely feminist triumph of a novel — this is the first time I’ve had the pleasure of reading Adegokes work but I don’t think it’ll be the last.

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