Interesting premise but ended up falling flat after the first 50 pages. It felt pretty messy, way too long, I didn’t care about a single character (they all felt pretty one-dimensional and underdeveloped), and the ending came out of nowhere with no time to process it and it cheapened the whole book. Also, writing stories about false SA allegations can be pretty harmful and disrespectful unless they’re handled in a nuanced, understanding way - which isn’t the case here as some of the conversations surrounding SA victims made me very uncomfortable. Overall, not a great experience. I should’ve listened when people said not to read this book. 

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.

The List has a topical premise that could alienate readers during its process but holds complexity in its realism. It could be read as a capsule of different abuse apologist perspectives. The way the main characters' self-justifying script is portrayed through a critical lense but the journey is a bumpy ride. I think the majority of the book is directed towards those who entertain simplistic perspectives on interpersonal violence. It was a little exhausting to read about a build-a-boyfriend corporate feminist dithering ad nauseum about her hypocritical personal politics. It was also tiring to read the perspective of the aforementioned unbuilt boyfriend, the petty misogynist podcaster. 

The main characters are both deeply self-interested and morally grey from the beginning. The book is obsessed with what the List means for the main couple's material circumstances: reputation and money. The input they receive from side characters is also focused for the majority of the book on the social and professional consequences of the accusations. Many of the characters come across as unprincipled and disappointing. The brief guilty conscience scenes asides, the cast do not think of reaching out to potential victims, healing community harm, or ensuring the safety of friends and family - mostly distasteful masticating over damage control. That being said, the book is very aware of the characters' flaws and illuminates them.

It felt like reading a social horror.