Celebrity culture and the power of social media to make and break reputations is the subject of Yomi Adegoke’s 2023 debut novel.
The issue is seen through the perspective of social media darlings and Michael, AKA “the king and queen of #BlackLove”. She’s a big talent at Womxxxn magazine and he’s just landed a plumb job as content creator for a big media company. So the future looks rosy. But one month before their wedding, Twitter explodes when a list surfaces identifying high profile men as sexual abusers and predators. Michael is one of the men named in the list.
As a journalist who has built her reputation with hard-hitting exposés of harassment and abuse, this is the kind of story that Ola would normally relish. Her editor expects an in-depth piece but this story is too personal for Ola to tackle. As time ticks down to the wedding day, the big question is whether Ola will believe his protestations of innocence and chose to stand by Michael.
The List is grounded in a world where people pay attention to the activities and thoughts of online “influencers” like Ola and Michael. The premise is a bit weak however since we never really get to find out why they’ve attracted a following or why anyone would be interested in what they do and say.
The novel also tackles issues like the speed at which reputations can be made and broken in a media space where it’s easy to make allegations behind a cloak of anonymity. Truth and evidence don’t matter once the bandwagon starts rolling and more and more people believe what they read and see. Once outed it’s nigh on impossible for the accused to counter the allegations.
It’s an interesting idea but Adegoke doesn’t do it justice. The novel treatment of the key issues felt shallow while her characters were similarly under-developed. I never felt drawn into their crisis to the point where I really cared much what happened.
It’s a shame because as a journalist and commentator on popular culture topics from a black British female perspective, Adogoke is well placed to delve deep and authoritatively into this world. She co-wrote the bestselling self-help manual Stay in Your Lane: The Black Girl Bible in 2018. She currently works as a columnist for The Guardian newspaper offering commentary on race, feminism, and pop culture.
It appears that I’m out on a limb with my reaction to her first work of fiction. Vogue magazine called it the “book of the summer” in 2023 and The Times considered it “gripping”. The List is now being adapted for television. I can’t see me being in a great hurry to tune in for that.
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