Buy from our bookstore and 25% of the cover price will be given to a school of your choice to buy more books. *15% of eBooks. Home > 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.

The List by Yomi Adegoke | Waterstones The List by Yomi Adegoke | Waterstones

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! 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.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 Bizarre [ laughs]. I literally never wanted to do TV again—I had a really difficult experience a couple of years ago with TV, but A24 were so encouraging and supportive and wanted me to be involved. It’s really early days now, but it’s been so exciting discussing it and making a start. I can only describe this book as callous. Geez I’m surprised 11 editors bid for this story. Indeed, publishing is highly subjective. I think the author was trying to make a grand statement or say something important, but mostly, this reads as a defense of ain't-shit men.😩 It’s probably not how Adegoke’s publisher would like their bright young star to be promoting her literary career. After all, The List, due later this month, is arriving with much fanfare and is one of the most anticipated books of the summer. But Adegoke, 31, is refreshingly self-assured, unafflicted by the self-doubt and low self-esteem that has become a millennial tic.

The List: A Novel by Yomi Adegoke, Sheila Atim, Arinzé Kene The List: A Novel by Yomi Adegoke, Sheila Atim, Arinzé Kene

Despite my minor complaints, “The List” is nevertheless a gripping novel that highlights the fact that for every good social media & wide internet access has given us, there is always the darker side where a person can be unjustly persecuted and their life upended (or ended) by a cancel culture that is so dependent on the tendency of groupthink that doesn’t allow for nuanced discussions. Fans of No One Is Talking About This or So You've Been Publicly Shamed will definitely appreciate the fictional takes in “The List”. the list follows ola, a high profile journalist and influencer (along with her fiancé michael), as she grapples with a list that challenges her relationship and her trust—a crowdsourced list of abusers in the uk media industry that contains michael's name on it. the premise and writing style is gripping and compelling (although a lot of times the cliffhangers felt like it was written more for a show instead of a book). it was a pretty easy read and very fast paced while also delving into social commentary and issues that are prevalent in today's society. however, the execution of the book fell short and it strayed into a storyline i couldn't really get behind in the end. 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 have a friend and we both used to say that our biggest fear was being turned into memes, but now, it’s being cancelled. I thought, I’m afraid of this because I’m a public-facing writer, but now we’re all public-facing figures in a way. And in trying to be consistent, I’m quite unlike Ola—I’m unapologetically an inconsistent person. For example, I’m Nigerian and from the Yoruba tribe, and culturally, men in the Yoruba community tend to pay for things instead of women. I love that [ laughs]. I’ve never tried to frame it as a feminist practice, because it’s not. It’s like trying to put a feminist slant on misogynistic elements of hip-hop. I’m like, it is just misogynistic, but it’s okay that you still like it. That’s not to say we should embrace hypocrisy, but we should embrace being flawed people. At the moment, I feel like we’re sleepwalking into this incredibly severe mental health crisis. I'd describe this as a finger-on-the-pulse hot and buzzy book but also as one that could have been more polished as a fictional vehicle to carry the important social commentary and debate. Financial anxiety has fuelled a lot of my decisions,” she admits. “Because of stuff when I was growing up, I have always been really afraid of debt. I know you’re supposed to get credit cards and stuff like that, and there’s good debt, bad debt – but for me, I’ve always just seen it as bad. I’ve literally been saving since my first job when I was 15, very much with the aim of buying a house.” She’s grateful but won’t take it for granted; it’s partly why, I think, she’s prone to speaking like a brand strategist rather than a novelist. “The fiction book isn’t out yet but it’s allowed me to do things I just didn’t think were possible,” she says hurriedly. “Certainly not as a single woman in her 30s.” Yomi Adegoke". The Independent. Archived from the original on 7 May 2022 . Retrieved 10 November 2018. I’m sure those leading roles will be really sought-after. I saw that Sheila Atim and Arinzé Kene are narrating the audiobook?