Michael and Ola are killing it - both have incredible jobs in New Media, Ola as the editor of a feminist magazine, Michael at a hip media agency - and they are counting the days until their dream wedding. And then The List is published. The List is a crowd-sourced document of alleged abusers in UK media dn celebrity circles, "the UK's #MeToo moment". Accusations vary from harassment to rape, and Michael's name is included. Ola, normally the first to tackle something like the list, sees her meticulously planned life crumbling as Michael races to find an explanation for why he's on The List.

The good: the debut fiction outing from Yomi Adegoke is timely, sharp-eyed and clever, with an excellent premisee. The writing is excellent, if a little long-winded, and there are parts of this novel that are quite funny. I loved Adegoke's sharp-eyed look at intersectionality, and her satire of well-meaning white women (Frankie!! You terrible bitch!!) and how Black men and women are treated in relationships and in abuse cases. The book is divided into Michael's POV and Ola's and while I found Ola significantly more compelling, Michael's sections were a fascinating look into how a "good man" navigates a culture of toxic masculinity, and how these good men can become apologists without even realising. I think it will slap as a TV show - which is already in the making I believe - but as a book it felt too drawn out.

It reminded me of publishing satires like The Other Black Girl and Yellowface, but taking in a larger scope. The List isn't as razor-sharp as either of those novels; indeed, it suffers for coming after them.

I think The List would have been a stronger novel if it was more satirical, less grounded in reality - keeping things firmly tethered to the ground meant it became predictable and a little dry. I didn't feel it had much new to say on the topics of abuse, harassment, and the men who get away with it. This detracted from the overall plot, too - which could have only ever really gone one way - and left the story a little lacklustre. I wanted this to be unputdownable and instead it felt like a slog after a very exciting beginning.

Tbh,. a good 100 pages of this book could have been cut - Adegoke does a great job of tackling tricky themes that require nuance and illustrating that this nuance doesn't exist on social media. But it doesn't quite excuse the pacing. the telling the reader bits of important information but not showing it, and the lack of biting satire I was promised. I think it will slap as a TV show - which is already in the making I believe - but as a book it felt too drawn out.

This was a confusing read - not to my personal taste, and a little all over the place in terms of social commentary. But it clearly has a huge PR/Marketing campaign and is a diverse read, so would still recommend as a book club book as will provoke plenty of discussion.

Whilst this book appealed in the first instance, the book didn’t really do much for me. It had a great “baseline” and plot but just seemed drawn out. The writing was fine but unfortunately was not a book I particularly enjoyed. However, each to their own as I know people who would love this.

What an interesting and thought provoking book. Ola and Michael are the black power couple of Instagram. Michael a semi-famous podcaster and Ola a prolific feminist writer. But when The List, an anonymous list of black men in the media industry who are being accused of abuse, is published their world falls apart. Michael’s name is there. Ola would usually be the first person to retweet The List, calling out the men and backing their victims, but she is left in an impossible position, does she believe the victims or does she believe the man she is set to marry in just one month?

This book really makes you question absolutely everything. The whole book sits in that morally grey area that leaves the reader feeling uneasy throughout. The situation Ola is presented with is so complex and I think Yomi really captures Ola’s turmoil throughout. I thought this book was gripping, if a little slow in the middle, the end certainly brings the reader right back, it was brilliant. What I loved the most about this book is the way it makes you really think about the internet’s ability to spread information so quickly whether its true or not. Overall, this is a pretty complex book when you start to peel back the layers and I honestly still think about it weeks after finishing.

The List is a highly topical story about performativity, feminism, toxic masculinity and rape culture, and online cancel culture. It forces you to make your own judgements based on the perspectives of Ola and Michael, dangling the reveal of who is telling the truth right until the end.

I found this a very interesting book in terms of how it forced me to confront my own biases and ideas. So often, the woman is called a liar, but even as you believe Michael's anonymous accuser you are confronted with the role racism and racist stereotypes can play in these cases and wonder if Michael is the exception - if he has been wrongfully accused. The whole way through, you as the reader are forced to debate with yourself who you ultimately believe as their lives fall apart.

That being said, I found the pace of this book dragged a bit around the middle. The same conflicted debate going round and round again as the wedding got nearer and nearer. I feel some of this section could have been streamlined to keep the story from feeling repetitive. At times, it did feel like the book was trying to tackle too many issues at once, which made it feel confusing as you tried to parse the events through their lens.

I think this is an interesting novel and I hope we see it brought to the screen at some point - I think it would work very well in that format, which would potentially fix some of the pacing issues.

There were elements of this book that I really enjoyed. However, I feel it dragged a little in the middle, and the ending was a little silly.

I thought the characters were well written and relatable. The book raises really good points about the dangers of social media while The List names violent and abusive men, there is the potential for innocent men to be named and have their lives turned upside down. I definitely think women should be believed but there is a small percentage of women who do lie for whatever reason so if something like the list happened hoe do you ensure justice for real victims and not ruin innocent peoples lives?

I must admit I skimmed a lot in the last 30% of the book as I was not enjoying it anymore as I felt it was dragging. I feel a lot of the "filler"could have been left out, and the story wouldn't have lost anything.

Actual rating 2.5☆

Thank you to Netgalley, 4th Estate, and William Collins for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I enjoyed this, to begin with I couldn't see how the author could have filled that many pages as it felt fast moving but it didn't drag or feel forced at all. It touches on so many interesting themes through some great main characters with the wedding providing a dramatic countdown. The twist at the end was very clever too!

Unfortunately this book wasn't for me. The beginning felt promising with its initial The List premise. After this it seemed slow and i lost interest. The author can write. It just wasn't a book I gelled with.

The List has such a good premise: feminist journalist Ola is appalled when The List – an exposé of abusive men working in the media – is released and her fiancé Michael is on it, just a mere 27 days from their wedding. This had such a juicy and gripping beginning and although it raises some interesting questions, for me it ended up falling flat.

I'm not sure if was an expectation thing – if a book has that immersive a beginning, you kind of expect it to be fast-paced – or if it was a situational thing – I anticipated it was going to be an unputdownable read, which it wasn't, but because I read it on the plane and by the pool, I was kind of forcing myself to finish it even though I wasn't really in the mood. There's a lot of intriguing themes being dissected here – culpability, incel culture, race, good vs sloppy journalism, the difference between being abusive and being a bit of a dickhead. Yomi Adegoke also created a very realistic portrait of the modern world; the texts and internet comments were particularly great. But for me the pace was uneven, lagging a lot in places, and some of it felt quite heavy-handed, especially the ending. There are some inconsistencies which I found quite jarring: in the one example I can share without spoiling the plot, we're told that Ola and Michael are an insta-famous couple but that never actually feels true; and if that's the case, just how does Ola manage to be so private in work? I also found Ola quite annoying, I'm not going to lie x

I would still recommend this if you're intrigued, but ultimately the beginning hyped up this book for me in a way that it didn't follow through on. Thanks to 4th Estate for letting me read it anyway!

Nigerian-British Ola is a journalist on the trendy, consciously feminist Womxxxn magazine (white editor Frankie admits she saw 'womxn' on Twitter and thought it sounded cool; she isn't quite sure how to say it, but has leant in by 'declaring it was pronounced 'Wo-minx' in a bid to encourage women to embrace their "inner minx".') Ola's fiance, Ghanaian-British Michael, is an influencer who's just started a new job at CuRated, a company that needs to prove they aren't entirely staffed by white people. When Michael's name appears on The List, a list of anonymous accusations against famous or semi-famous men, Ola is horrified. Can she believe Michael when he says there's no truth to the accusations? Should she?

I thought from the blurb that The List, Yomi Adegoke's first novel, might take a satirical, slightly skewed view of this high-powered media world, like Rebecca Kuang's Yellowface or Zakiya Dalila Harris's The Other Black Girl. But it treats its subject much more straightforwardly, although there are traces of satire in the depiction of characters like Frankie and Ola's colleague Sophie (who, I have to say, is an entirely unnecessary lesbian stereotype). It feels more like modern chick lit in the vein of Lizzie Damilola Blackburn's Yinka, Where Is Your Huzband? although it's much more unwieldy, as Adegoke strives to treat her subject with nuance. I understand why she felt she had to include so many subplots, wanting to show different sides of this story; but it makes the book feel like it ultimately isn't saying anything new about cancel culture, where it could have been much bolder and sharper.

There were aspects of this novel I liked; I believed in Ola and Michael's relationship, I cared about Ola, and I thought the choice she makes near the end of the novel is brave, both on the part of the character and the author. However, even this was undercut by a final twist that I felt was a real cop-out, like many a final twist at the end of a thriller (though this book isn't a thriller, at least not up to this point). It offers too neat a solution to the novel's central dilemma, and forecloses some of the interesting questions that it does raise. I think there will (and have already been) better things written on calling out and cancellation.

This is an excellent read and a powerful exploration of the benefits and pitfalls of online life. Where a person is 'outed' as an abuser by an anonymous source in a fit of jealousy, it rocks the world of the victim and fiancee. It causes an examination of the role and purpose each person holds in life and goes as far as questioning their moral integrity, motivation, even life itself. In a society where It is so easy to have a cheap shot at a person, yet one where there is still gender inequality and the real prospect of violence towards women in particular, the issues explored here have a real resonance. It brings to mind the old adage about going out, 'Be good, and if you can't be good, be careful'. Yet we are only now beginning to understand what good and careful mean in out modern, tech orientated world. Scary stuff.

A scathing, satirical take on the dark side of social media - I COULD NOT put this down!

📄 'The List' by Yomi Adegoke is about a young black couple, Ola & Michael. They're engaged, finally making progress in their dream careers, and mildly famous on Instagram. That is, until it all comes crashing down around them when one morning, a mysterious list appears on Twitter, naming & shaming alleged abusers within the UK media industry. And Michael's name is on it.

💻 Yomi Adegoke tackles some really difficult themes in this, and makes it look effortless. The story seems heavily influenced by the 'MeToo' movement & recent debates about cancel culture, but she manages to add a lot of nuance to the situations the characters find themselves in. Nothing is ever clear cut, and it's both terrifying & fascinating to see Ola & Michael trying to find the best solution of a bad bunch.

🇬🇧 Loved the London setting. Everything was written in such incredible detail - it felt alarmingly believable!

✍️ This book had all the horrific inevitability of a classical tragedy - we watch the Ola & Michael struggle to regain control as their lives spiral rapidly downhill. Having the chapter names counting down "X days until the wedding" really added a sense of heightened drama & time pressure.

📖 What I really loved about this book was the ambiguity which loomed over the whole story. For the majority of the book, we have no idea whether Michael is guilty of what The List has accused him of. The dual Michael / Ola point of view was fantastic because he is so convinced of his own innocence, and she is so conflicted about whether to believe him or not.

📚 Overall, I would highly recommend 'The List' to anyone who enjoy novels about thorny moral dilemmas or books which examine the damaging effects of modern technology.

🎁 Thank you to @netgalley and @4thestatebooks for my advance reader copy!

🗓️ 'The List' is out on 20th July 2023!

- Katie

[Review posted to Instagram @katiespencebooks, review to be posted to Twitter @katiespencey on Friday]

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.

It’s hard to empathise with the characters of this book. They are so self-centred that sometimes it seems like they can’t see beyond the end of their nose - yet at the same time, their entire lives are dictated by people they have never met.

The List captures the modern experience of social media well. What if someone you know and loved is called out for something they did in the past? What if they claim it’s not true? What if *everyone* cancels them?

Would you call off a wedding to the man you love because he was accused?

Ola and Michael are labelled are just a few weeks before their wedding and are known as #blacklove but someone has complied a document of men who are all deemed toxic and called it "The List" and it's been shared on Twitter.

Ola wakes up to discover Michael's name is on the list too and can't find any evidence that he's innocent or guilty and doesn't know what to do.

As a feminist journalist she always believes the voices of women, but this is a new territory for her and doesn't know how to walk it which leaves her so confused as she feels a traitor to the female population and her fiancé

She doesn't want to be known as the wedding that went viral for all the wrong reasons

I thought this was such a thought provoking story and it really got under my skin. It showed the dangers of social media and the impact that the negative angles it can have but also highlighted sexism, racism and sexual violence.

This was a great fun read. I really enjoyed the concept and the characters. I found it to be well written and a nice story line. Recommend

With news this is to be made into a TV series, it’s hard to believe this novel is a debut, so succinctly does it sum up life for the generation who think they have it all. Ola is engaged to Michael, she’s almost at the top of her career game – and well respected – and life is going really, really well. The duo seem to be the definition of couple goals… until The List emerges, and his name is on it. What began as a crowdsourced collection of names morphes into a space where allegations are made. It puts Ola in a tricky position, even though in theory, she’d know what to do. But now her fiance’s name is on a list, things aren’t as clear cut. Yomi has created an entertaining, fiercely insightful look at the challenges faced by many when placed in unpredictable dilemmas. What would you do?

WOW! This is easily one of my top reads for 2023. This is so well written and heartfelt. It handles some very sensitive areas in just the right way and I could not put this book down. I would give it six stars if I could!

The premise was intriguing and I did rip through the first 30% as I was fascinated to see how it would pan out. However I found the book dragged out the plot for too long and I found Michael very unlikeable which made me less invested in the storyline.

1.5 stars
When this book first started I wasn't sure this would be for me. Mainly because of the writing style and the language/slang used (most of which I didn't understand). I also had a feeling that it was going to be a little political (something I HATE reading about in books) and could be a bit preachy. Luckily I only found it to be a bit political. It is however a very 2023 book and by that I mean it is incredibly inclusive.
But unfortunately I really didn't like this. By the 20% mark, I was getting bored and had to force myself to read it. As this plot is saying things were put out in a tweet, I would have liked there to be some mixed media added in to this.
I never once cared about the characters or the story. It all felt so incredibly slow, boring and dull.
It was far too drawn out, with barely anything happening over nearly 400 pages and could have been done in half that time. I was left with the feeling of is that it? What is the big deal?
If this hadn't been an ARC I probably wouldn't have finished it.
So, what did I like? I liked that we got a dual POV, in fact I found Michael's chapters to be the more interesting ones.
I do think there will be an audience for this, but unfortunately I'm not it