Not sure how I felt about this one. From the get go, you know it's going to be hard for the author to write a complete story, which way to go, will it be a cliche etc. I felt that the author did a good job of showing the grey and the middle ground reaction and action of the characters. The last chapter was such a random plot twist, not sure how I felt about it 

Really intriguing listen! I was hooked at the beginning, but then didn’t really see how this book was going to carry on for so much longer. And the end?  Wow, did the last part really surprise me!

Genuinely fuck this. You can write about evil and morally bad characters without making them all severely insufferable. I wasn’t rooting for anyone or any thing other than the percentage bar to continue creeping further towards 100%. The cultural pieces were touched on and then fully abandoned instead of properly delved into and considered- do the characters even care about their own ethnicities? Or are they just using them for instagram followers… Does the author even care about their ethnicities? She certainly didn’t honor them or hold any sort of cultural context within the story she chose to write. 

Do you want to know what happens in this book? Read the synopsis and then the final 10% for the lack of resolution or accountability from every single person involved in this shit show. Nothing else happens other than one self-righteous fight and one bit of drama at an event. the ONLY bit of additional drama that occurs at the single defined event of the entire book. 

If you want fanfiction of AD and Clay from Love Is Blind: here it is. The “I can fix him” and the “She’ll stand by me no matter what harm I do to her” thinking they can successfully have a marriage between them. 

This book was entirely one-note and the ending wasn’t the end of anything or an ending marked by change or growth or accountability or even fucking acknowledgment of inciting events. The plot holes were jarring and entirely unforgivable and every side character was interchangeable with eachother. Petty points off for the chapter titles being huge spoilers as well. 

The only compliment I can give is that it was an accurate representation of a shithead man but I already knew PLENTY about that from dropping my own last year. Beat for beat they had similar thoughts and excuses. The audiobook narrator did well wresting and differentiating all of the different one note characters and their accents. The content was truly enraging but her job was very well done.  

In the Q&A between the voice actor/narrator and the author I found the jokes about cancelling *them* over tiny things to be wildly tone deaf. Do you truly think a self deprecating joke about your own work is equivalent to date rape/kidnapping/assault/ coercion/etc etc etc etc listed in your own fucking book? Now who’s trivializing things? The lack of proper content warnings is abhorrent considering the thing I’ve chosen to spoiler over below. 

Maybe it’s cold but the only thing I was rooting for was

for michael’s suicide attempt to have been successful. It really would’ve saved everyone the hassle of knowing him and dealing with his bullshit. He couldn’t even off himself correctly and then couldn’t even take accountability for the fact that he even attempted it??? Mans can dodge every single thing in his life including cars I guess. I wanted to hit him again hearing that. 

Also why the fuck did he wake up with a feeding tube. That makes no sense. the science in this book sucked shit too but now I truly am being petty.

This was an intriguing premise for a book and it wasn't difficult to read but did I like any of the characters? No. Did I sympathise with them? Mostly no. Michael was still an asshole, it's hard to know why Ola liked him but Ola was quite vapid herself. Sadly, nothing really landed with me or packed a punch. I don't even really see the point the author was trying to make. Are we defending men for the small percentage where allegations are false? Are we excusing another man's actions because his girlfriend cheated on him? I kind of liked the twist at the end and liked that it resolved but it could have also not given us a definitive answer and for once, I would have been ok with it. Like, why are we focusing on the very few falsely accused? This book just made me dislike men even more. 

 

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.