This was a bit different to my usual reads and I oh so very nearly gave up. Don’t! This is a modern story about how social media and likes can come back and eat you. Lots of twists and I could see this being a tv series. Very good.

The List is a nuanced, addictive moral-dilemma-social-media-zeitgeisty thriller ripped from the headlines. It cleverly explores all sides of the cancel culture and trial-by-online-mob debate and it's also really fun!

This was a mixed bag. I really enjoyed the thought-provoking #MeToo type storyline but sadly not so much the writing style. Possibly because I'm probably not the intended target audience for this, I didn't understand alot of the dialogue between characters (the narrative was ok). One thing I definitely did get however was how conflicted Ola and depressed Michael were - this was reiterated throughout becoming a little repetitive after a while. Similarly with the dual narrative which gave the other person's perspective but by mirroring meaning I found Michael's chapters slightly boring as most of the 'action' was in Ola's chapters. So, overall not my cup of tea but a great storyline and definitely worth a try.

Ooo that was compelling!!

❔Did I enjoy the story? - No, it made me feel uncomfortable and insecure

❔Did you like any of the characters? - No, I thought they made ill decisions and ridiculous life choices which made me unable to connect with them on any level

❔Could you put the book down? - Could I f##k, it was like it was glued to my hand...I read it in one sitting!!!

I literally could not stop reading!!! you know when you want to look away but can't!! This is another hot potato topic book...so many controversial topics touched upon, particularly the detrimental side of social media.
One of my biggest hates of our times is faceless, gutless trolls who relish jumping on a cyber bullying bandwagon and tearing shreds off people without realising the effects it has.
Although I thought this was an uncomfortable read I equally thought it an incredibly clever plot.... Particularly the tide turn of the media after the death of one of the characters.... How true that is. The people that facelessly tear people down will have no qualms switching sides and suddenly love them again because everyone else does. The effect negative social media has on individuals can be fatal. And it's heartbreaking.

I was thinking while reading this.. imagine me handing this book to someone in the past, like my Grandmother back in 1930, it would make no sense....then actually I thought if I handed it to my 21 year old self in 1998 it equally wouldn't have made any sense.... I can't help think the world was a better place without the internet

It's definitely a book that lights a fire inside you and gives you opinions which is a great thing in the world of fiction

a very fun romp that will appeal to anyone who is looking for a satirical, drily humorous take on modern internet culture and gen z/millennial woes

I really enjoyed this book. It was really interesting to see how one post online can cause a whole string of events to happen.
I really wanted to keep reading to see who had posted Michael’s bane to The List and I really enjoyed the twist at the end.
It really showed how lives can be ruined by what is written online.
I haven’t read anything else by this author but I would definitely read their next next novel.
Loved the cover as well!

Loved this book, really great novel. Unpredictable twists and turns that keep you guessing and had the perfect blend of suspense, drama, and unexpected surprises.

Sorry, I have tried, but I just can't seem to get into this story at all and have had to give up. Not sure if it's because I haven't been able to engage with the characters or whether it is the heavily influenced social media scenario.

For me The List has been a classic clash of content vs form. I thoroughly appreciated the ideas covered in it: how social media can make you or brake you. How it can be a tool to enrich the world, but also a tool for destruction. Also a nice exploration of the complexity of human nature and ultimately life. How it is not a good idea to adhere to a black and white frame to conduct your life because good people have questionable sides and bad people can be redeemed too.
But dear me, if I would have read one more line of ridiculous tweeter/social media lingo I would have committed murder, lol! It is beyond me how some people can be slave to this ridiculousness!

"The List," which has got to be the book of the summer. It's a perfect distillation of living a very online life, when you can't be sure what's true or false, who is who, or what you can believe.

It’s zeitgeisty, it’s topical, it’s nuanced, it’ll make you think. I loved it. Go read it!

A tense thriller and exploration of a couple's relationship to #MeToo when one of them shows up on an anonymous 'list' of abusers within London's cultural elite, just weeks before their wedding. A very strong fiction debut even with the "first book" trappings (can you say self-insert character).

Journalist Ola has made her name by sharing her unfiltered takes on sex, relationships and toxic men. She's the first to believe women and call out bad male behaviour, until a post from an anonymous Twitter account names her fianće, Michael, on a list of abusive men working in media. Stricken by the allegations and torn between wanting to believe in Michael's innocence unquestioningly and her hard-won understanding of how many men treat women, Ola gives her husband-to-be an ultimatum: prove his innocence definitively or the wedding, set for a month's time, is off.

Yomi Adegoke's debut adult fiction work is a pacy, darkly funny and shrewdly observed novel about secrets, lies and the power of the internet.

It would have been easy for The List to be a lot less interesting, to be a straightforward story of deciding whether to trust the man you love or a faceless stranger, but it is so much more than that. On every page, Adegoke weaves layer upon layer of context to create a fascinating examination of a particular moment in time - post #metoo - from the perspective of a young Black women living in London and working in the media.

As the story unfolds, the narrative shared between Ola and Michael, Adegoke highlights the ways in which men and women experience the world differently and how this leads them to view the same interactions through contradictory lenses. From the moment she raises his inclusion on The List with Michael, Ola asks him if he could have done anything that might have been perceived as harassment, acknowledging, though not excusing, that men are socialised to blur boundaries and pursue women who 'play hard to get'. This is reinforced by the conflicting ways male and female characters discuss The List: the men are quick to make distinctions between those accused of rape and sexual assault with those named for the more ambiguous crime of harassment, while the women recognise that these acts are all sides of the same misogynistic coin. Key questions the novel asks include why men do not hold themselves - and each other - to a higher standard, and why women are continually expected to take responsibility for (and bear the brunt of) men's poor behaviour. The fact that Michael has to try to prove a negative - that he did not harass or assault anyone - also opens up a much broader question about women's experiences at the hands of men: if you can't prove that something happened, does that prove that it didn't?

The book also explores how rigid ideas about masculinity can harm both men and women, particularly within the Black community. Michael struggles with earning less than Ola and therefore not being the 'provider' he has been told he should be, and he has been taught to supress his emotions rather than acknowledge and deal with them, which accelerates his downward spiral once The List is published. There are clear signs of progress - Ola is generally lauded for being unashamedly ambitious and sexually empowered, and, at least in her circles, there has been a shift away from the expectation that a woman should unquestioningly 'stand by her man'. However, through its depiction of Michael's friends, as well as some of the other Black men on The List, the reader is reminded that Black men and women are still navigating deeply embedded gender norms and casual misogyny; persistent homophobia in the Black community is also touched upon. Indeed, at the core of Ola's desire to believe in Michael's innocence is the need to not replicate her parents' relationship, the failure of which she blames on her mother's submissiveness as much as her father's philandering; if she is able to prove that she has 'tamed' Michael, she will also be proving to herself that she has broken the cycle. Adegoke also alludes to the enduring limitations women face when making decisions about relationships; at one point Ola ruminates on the fact that - at thirty-one - she has limited time to start over if she wants a family.

However, the novel also unpacks the history of society being eager to assume the worst of Black men, imprisoning then and killing them on the slightest of pretexts. Emmett Till and the Central Park Five are referenced, along with other famous cases of miscarried justice. Adegoke isn't afraid to complicate the narrative by underlining Ola's difficulties reconciling her desire to believe women with her need to see the best in Black men, and the responsibility of hers and Michael's relationship being celebrated as a hopeful beacon of Black love.

Another key theme of the story is the role of the Internet in making or breaking someone's life for those of us who grew up as social media was exploding. The book acknowledges some of the many ways in which it can be useful - it affirmed Ola's identity and introduced her to feminism, as well as providing both her job and Michael's. However, the dark side of the online world is also explored through the way online trolls delight in trying to 'cancel' Michael, ignoring the potential harmful real-life implication of their words and actions, and how this culture of schadenfreude is at odds with viral slogans such as #bekind or #ThinkFirst.

While there are aspects of Ola and Michael's story that will be relatable for any millennial, as someone who is married to a man of Nigerian heritage, the cultural specificity is what makes the narrative really sing. From references to wedding favours emblazoned with the happy couple's faces to Michael's chief troll being named after Issa Rae's character in Insecure, every tiny detail is a knowing nod to readers from a similar background to Adegoke, though this should not be surprising from the co-author of Slay in Your Lane.

The ending felt a little contrived for me after how drawn-out the mystery of who put Michael on The List was, but otherwise this was an excellent read and I look forward to seeing what Adegoke does next.

Thank you to NetGalley, 4th Estate and William Collins for the opportunity to read and review an ARC of this book.

Wow!! Yomi Adegoke has crafted a very true to reality outlook on social media and the repercussion of cancel culture.

Soon-to-be wed couple, Ola and Michael, are revered on social media as the prime example for black love. But things take a turn when ‘The List’, consisting of abusers, drops with Michaels name on it. With their wedding around the corner, it’s up to Ola and Michael to find out the truth.

I thought this book would be more satirical but it was quite intense and thrilling. It also does pose many moral questions, as well as twists and turns, that I personally didn’t know what was going to occur next.

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The List - Yomi Adegoke

I've seen a lot of hype surrounding The List on bookstagram, so when I received an e-arc I was super excited to read it. Although I put it off for a couple of weeks I absolutely devoured this book and almost read it on one sitting whilst on the plane.

The List follows black power couple Ola and Michael on the count down to their wedding. After their engagement photo blew up both of their Instagrams they have become something of an iconic couple. All of that changes when The List is released. The List is an online list with names of allegations against men who work in media, and Michaels name is on it. Ola is a feminist journalist who has worked on exposas of abusive men, similar to the Me2 movement. Ola doesn't know whether to believe Michael or the person accusing him, whom is anonymous. We follow them in the lead up to the wedding and the aftermath of it as well.

As I said I absolutely devoured this book, I thought the premise was incredible. I also liked that we could observe the accusation from Michael's point of view, I feel this was also quite a brave POV for the author to explore. I enjoyed the lead up to the wedding however I would have quite liked the story to continue and have more of the aftermath. Especially after the shock ending, it kind of made me hope for a sequel so we can find out more about the why. Definitely pick this one up if you see it.

Enjoyed the book however some parts of
It didn’t seem to feel realistic to me. I think there were too many topics that were discussed which got a little overwhelming and the ending just wasn’t for me
All in all good book

I enjoyed the plot and discussion of the realities of the internet (the unchecked spread of information, etc) but found the characters 2-dimensional and under-developed.

DNF! An unknown source on Twitter produces The List accusing a list of men as a variety of rapists, predators and harassers that then disappears after a few hours. It comes as a shock for Ola and Michael, who are days off getting married when Michaels name appears on The List. Immediately and without verification, most of Michaels friends, family, his fiancé Ola and her friends all question/accuse him and create distance. This book is creating a voice for women in abusive relationships, which I was interested to read about from that angle but what happened to innocent until proven guilty? Not only that, Michael’s life descends into disarray from a Twitter post- not the most reliable source to trust.
I was interested to read a well written book on this topic as we’ve seen in the news that some men, particularly in the public eye, can be accused of horrific allegations and if proven innocent, can have lasting and damaging effects. This book felt man hating and was unbalanced for me to the point I couldn’t read anymore.

Ola and Michael are heading towards their wedding date when his name is published on a list that details the alleged crimes of many men in the media towards women. This obviously throws up a lot of questions for Ola, and the book focuses on Ola's mission to find out the truth as the wedding looms.

There were lots of interesting points regarding social media, race, white guilt, feminism. But then sometimes it felt like the book was trying to make too many points?

The characters were well developed, and I was keen to know how this would all turn out, however it took a while to feel like I was into it, and at times was a bit of a slog.

A countdown to a wedding with an insta famous couple. A perfect couple. Michael has just landed his dream job, and Ola has a successful job at a feminist news site. But then a list is published which names and shames abusers in the media industry. Michael is given an ultimatum to prove he is innocent, or there will be no wedding.

The book was okay, I found it a bit frustrating and annoying in places. I think it was trying to pull out different themes which got lost within the plot. What I always like is a twist at the end, and this has one.

Overall I wouldn’t rush out to buy it, it was okay and I did find myself wanting to find out the ending because of the countdown.

Sorry but I just couldn't get into this book. I think the characters in it were just too cool and hip for me and I didn't understand the language. I understand what the author was getting at,that everyone believes what they read on the Internet and people are quick to judge. Sorry not entertaining for me.