Topical, heartfelt, provocative and wise, Yomi Adegoke’s characters are tenderly realized . . . the entire cast of this ultimate millennial novel springs vividly to life.” — Bernardine Evaristo, Booker Prize-winning author of Girl, Woman, Other All of this is important material but I found the writing foggy and messy at times with extraneous exposition and descriptions that could have been cut or better integrated. There are also holes in the characterisation as people do things for the convenience of the plot: jarring instances are the opening scene where Ola and Michael are club-hopping, drinking champagne to celebrate their upcoming wedding, don't get home till 3 am... and then he doesn't stay the night as he's starting a new job the next day? All this just to separate the two protagonists when The List drops on social media. Compulsively readable, wildly entertaining, and filled with sharp social insight, The List is a piercing and dazzlingly clear-sighted debut about secrets, lies, and the internet. Perfect for fans of Such a Fun Age, Luster, and My Dark Vanessa, this is a searing portrait of these modern times and our morally complicated online culture. The reader gets to see how these allegations spectacularly blow up this happy couple’s relationship and the trust between them is shattered. Can Michael prove that he didn’t do the things that put him on the list? Can Ola find the evidence that supports Michael’s innocence? Who’s story do you believe? Challenging the discourse of victim blaming and online witch hunts, The List doesn’t promise any answers – and it needn’t. What it does do is ask provocative questions, and does so fearlessly, unafraid to wade into the grey, murky waters of abuse and its victims, the annihilation of abusers left at risk to themselves, and unsightly acts of revenge.

The List by Yomi Adegoke | Goodreads

I’d always wanted to write about whisper networks and anonymous online lists that made allegations of abuse, basically since 2017. That was when I first saw one—there were several different lists at that time that came out concurrently and affected different industries, from journalism to music. As a feminist, I was like, this is amazing and important and people are speaking truth to power. It means women can get their stories out there and protect other women, in a way that HR and the legal system often hasn’t when it comes to abuse in the workplace. Then, on the other hand, being a journalist—I used to work at Channel 4 News, so there are regulations and you’re very cautious of liability and you need the facts before you can report on something. So, I always felt really conflicted and uneasy about those lists. I thought I’d write a long read on it at first, but the issue felt a bit fraught. About a year later, I thought I’d write a play, but that didn’t really work. Then, I thought maybe if the story around it was fictionalized, it would create more fruitful conversations. There’s so much that went into this novel that might not have gone into a non-fiction piece.The premise of this felt really interesting to me, so I was disappointed when it personally just did not live up to the hype. The List is, in many ways, a social media novel, and it looks at the idea of people, and women especially, feeling pressure to be “consistent” online. Why was that something you wanted to explore? Halfway through the book I felt it should be rounded up and got bored. I had to force myself through a lot of things I thought were unnecessary. Throughout this book I truly couldn’t figure out if any of these characters were meant to be likeable which I must admit kept taking me out of the flow of the book; the pacing was also off with the story lagging at some points. But most importantly, I found that the book at times teetered on feeding into very harmful rhetorics about women making false accusations for vengeance purposes and that last chapter didn’t help my feelings about this at all! From ambiguous faux pas to unequivocally abysmal transgressions, we’ve all sat in the peanut gallery, casting aspersions on those who have let us and others down, or callously abused their power, or in some cases, those we couldn’t wait to see take a fall.

Yomi Adegoke - Wikipedia

This is a book that takes our basest emotions and looks at how we deal with them when pushed to our limits. Though the conflict may not be our own, it is a story so engaging and so relatable that readers can’t help but become emotionally invested. I’d like to do a Normal People-esque Paul Mescal and Daisy Edgar-Jones type thing – I want to find people who’re incredible and not that famous. Sheila’s too famous and Arinzé has an MBE [laughs]. I haven’t asked yet, but I’d love to involve them in some way because they’re phenomenal, but I really want to launch two new actors, too, and then maybe get someone more established to play Frankie or their parents or something. And finally, I know you’re also working on your next novel now. What can you tell us about it? Much of the inspiration has come from her own conversations around social media and sexual abuse in recent years, around the power of the internet and the divisions that have become entrenched, online and off, when it comes to racial, sexual and cultural politics. I absolutely loved how Adegoke explored Ola's situation. Does she trust her fiance or an anonymous list? There's always a grain of doubt in one's mind after such an issue blows up. How to deal with being a feminist and being accused of being a pseudo feminist? How to balance her job and personal life?

Caster Semenya’s The Race to Be Myself made me gasp

It’s true! Compared to nonfiction, where you’re transcribing and stating things more plainly, I struggled with it. I did end up having fun,” she adds, “but it took me a while.”

The List by Yomi Adegoke review – a gripping social media

Ola Olajide, a high-profile journalist, is marrying the love of her life in one month's time. Young, beautiful, successful – she and her fiancé Michael seem to have it all. It began as a crowdsourced collection of names and somehow morphed into an anonymous account posting allegations on social media. Ola would usually be the first to support such a list—she’d retweet it, call for the men to be fired, write article after article. Except this time, Michael’s name is on it. Reading through her columns, watching her successfully debate at the Oxford Union (arguing against the rise of hookup culture) and absorbing her many podcast appearances, it’s obvious Adegoke’s perspective is sorely needed in the culture. Nonetheless, today she claims that she’s actually a perennial “fence sitter” devoid of spicy opinion. A persistent fear of being turned into a meme or cancelled has, she says, made her shrink away from social media while admitting she needs it to “curate” her online self.Yes and no. It would be intellectually dishonest to say one or the other. It’s more diverse than it was when I made that statement, so it has changed in that regard. We are seeing a push towards more books written by, say, minoritised authors. But does that mean those authors are necessarily given the freedom to write about anything, or is there a push for writers of a particular identity to write to that identity?” When you read the book you realize what an addictively bingeable TV show it would make. I know you’re creating and executive producing the series. What’s that been like so far?