The List set out to be a thought-provoking read on internet culture, sexual violence, and romantic partnerships – but ultimately, it felt to me like such clumsy storytelling that it ended up erasing any potential impact.

Ola & her fiancé Michael are #BlackCoupleGoals all over Instagram, and she couldn’t be more ready for the big day. Until one morning, an anonymous account drops The List: a crowdsourced collection of men in media who have been accused of various forms of abuse. Ola would typically be the first to share - and maybe even write a headlining article through her feminist journalist job at Womxxxn - but this time, it’s a bit different. Because Michael is named.

I think the book hops all over the place without a clearly directed message – online toxicity, racism, sexism, homophobia, accusations and their impact on both parties, how quickly things spread in online spaces, performative activism, and so on. It uses a lot of buzzy language, but isn’t sharp enough to do anything with the heavy topics it addresses.

The language was so aggressively modern & quippy that it was a bit hard to read at times. Many characters were flat stereotypes with nothing to make them seem like fleshed-out humans.

The two leads made nauseatingly poor decisions, and while their inner thoughts were spiraling, I didn’t feel like either had any growth. Honestly, most of the scenes made me sick to my stomach – I didn’t understand why we were witnessing page after page of horrifying behavior without any interesting narrative framing or redemption. The ending was deeply disappointing. 

I also didn’t fully believe either Ola or Michael acted like influencers. Their grasp on social media was tenuous at best (and still their wedding was filled with brand deals?), they had little to no care or awareness of how they presented themselves, and it seemed like the viral post was only tossed in so they would have somewhere to fall from. It would have been way more interesting to me if they were full-blown influencers, with the knowledge of the internet and the sneakiness of curated content and lifestyle that comes alongside that. 

I hate to say this, but it almost comes across as a rape apologist story … and I’m sure the intent was far from that. Such an important topic needs to be handled with skill (and care for real life survivors).

CW: rape, sexual assault/harassment, suicide, misogyny, sexism, homophobia, racism, alcoholism, infidelity, bullying, toxic relationship, self harm, gaslighting, death, emotional abuse, pedophilia, panic attacks, car accident

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(I received a free copy of this book; this is my honest review.)