Yomi Adegoke’s The List Is A Cautionary Tale For The Chronically Online

I first met the British journalist and author in New York City and we were both a long way from home — Adegoke from London and me from Manchester. Adegoke’s book had just gone global, evidenced by the huge LED billboard advertising The List’s distinctive book cover (lilac with a single hush-face emoji) in Times Square New York. Earlier this year, it was announced that The List is being adapted to TV by HBO Max, BBC & A24, meanwhile, the US release of her book also formed part of Spotify’s launch of the app’s expansion into audiobooks with more than 150,000 titles now available as part of users' Premium subscription — an exciting development for Adegoke who surprisingly believes the audiobook, narrated by Woman King actor Sheila Atim, is even better than the novel. As debut novels go, The List on every account is a hit. “I do think it’s fostering a lot of conversation right now,” she says. “Conversation [for this subject] is key.” 

Adegoke, 32, is acutely aware that her first fictional novel has struck a nerve with readers — on social media or otherwise. The List is described as a “cautionary tale” for the chronically online igniting necessary discussions about our online identities, cancel culture, and the flaws within social media justice. The novel follows British-Nigerian high-profile feminist journalist, Ola Olajide and her fiancé, Michael, a British-Ghanian podcaster. Young, Black British, successful, and objectively attractive the couple are featured frequently with the Blacklove hashtag on Instagram, in the same way we may obsess over Love Island’s Indiyah Polack and Dami Hope. Yet, Ola’s entire worldview is forced into question when, just one month before their wedding, Michael’s name is included in an anonymous list accusing prominent men in the media of sexual abuse, harassment and other predatory behaviour. 

As the couple’s relationship unravels through a series of plot twists (is Michael guilty or innocent? Should Ola say yes?) readers are compelled to ask themselves, what would you do if your loved one was accused? Controversially, the answer to this question isn’t remotely black and white but entirely grey. As Adegoke admits, the very fact the book doesn’t take a clear side is exactly what makes it controversial. 

“Writing The List felt like walking on a tightrope,” Adegoke confesses.“I felt like with just one wrong move, I might veer too strongly into one side of the argument,” she explained, admitting that especially now, as more sexual abuse allegations regarding a celebrity come to light in the UK, she’s still treading carefully. “I took a nuanced stance but simultaneously, it wasn't a very extreme view in any direction. I think that’s what makes it more controversial because people are really looking to be told [which stance to take].”

Adegoke first found inspiration for The List in 2017 when working as a journalist and broadcaster. The Me Too movement was just gathering momentum when several lists (where users submitted names to a spreadsheet anonymously) surfaced on social media accusing multiple men in the media of sexual assault. While Adegoke initially supported the circulation of these lists, the writer began to question whether this was the best way to seek justice. 

“When various lists were being disseminated around at the height of Me Too my knee-jerk reaction as a feminist woman was, ‘this is amazing’,” she clarifies. “And, in many ways, I still feel that way. We're finally seeing [predominantly] men being held accountable in ways that we haven't seen historically. We’re finally seeing the voices of survivors being amplified, and we’re able to see other women protecting each other which made me think this is a net positive.”

But she admits she soon felt “torn” about the effectiveness of these lists. “I just think that the internet is a very scary place and deeply flawed,” she says, especially considering how anonymity can be “weaponised” on social media. “I had questions about the ethics. Whether this was the best way in order to sort of seek justice, even if it was simultaneously an understandable way to seek justice.”

 “When I was first writing it, I was looking for answers, and maybe even quite selfishly like answers for myself,” Adegoke reflects, admitting that the book wasn’t easy to write and she cried “beginning, middle and end.” “I knew I didn't have the answers. And I don't know if anyone's provided answers yet.” 

Throughout Adegoke’s career, the journalist from Croydon has been searching for answers for the Black British people at the heart of much of her acclaimed work. With co-author Elizabeth Uviebinené, Adegoke wrote the bestselling guidebook Slay In Your Lane: The Black Girl’s Bible as a means to help find solutions in the workplace for Black British women and was widely applauded for centring Black women’s perspectives in a way not seen previously. The List also overtly centres the lives of Black British people and makes no apologies for its use of London slang and dialect and very specific experiences of second-generation immigrants living in the UK’s capital — even if it meant some non-Black listeners are lost in translation (“It irritates me when someone writes, ‘he put on his durag, which is a cloth that you put on…’ I don’t think you should have to explain what a durag is, you know?”). Overall, the book is a vivid and extremely accurate representation of Blackity-Black Britain and it’s a world I understand very well; I know many Michaels and in many ways, as a Black British feminist journalist, I am Ola. With that said, reading the book has also meant confronting the uncomfortable subjects of sexual abuse, incel culture and toxic masculinity within our own community — leaving us exposed. 

In The List, we are introduced to Black and minority women who are either privately or publicly dealing with the aftermath of sexual abuse. For Adegoke, it was important for her book to pull apart the idea of the “perfect victim” and highlight the survival stories of Black women who are disproportionately at risk of sexual violence. “It was important to bring [their stories] to the fore, to understand why people contribute to lists like these, and why in many ways [these lists] have been important in terms of holding men accountable. But also, it was important to highlight the reality for so many survivors who aren’t believed and are undermined by the system. They are routinely let down. And lists like this are in many ways, sometimes the only sort of route to justice that they have.”

In a move that may seem counterintuitive to the above messages, The List also compassionately details the perspective of Michael, the man accused of assault at the heart of the plot (with commentary from his mandem who are more problematic than he is). He’s what Adegoke would describe as a “fuck boy” who isn’t “morally pure” but not entirely unlikeable. “It was an intentional thing to write a character who wasn't immediately likeable, and wasn't immediately empathetic,” says Adegoke. “But I thought, regardless of how this ends, the question that we're grappling with throughout the whole book is even if Michael is problematic… if he is innocent of what he’s been accused of, are we allowed to feel empathetic towards this man?  Are we permitted to feel sorry for him? Do we feel like he deserves what's happened to him, even if he's innocent?”

Adegoke understands the magnitude and seriousness of writing a character like Michael — a young Black man being accused of something heinous. “When it comes to allegations made against Black men, historically there’s assumed guilt,” explains Adegoke, referencing the real-life experiences of Scottsboro boys and Emmett Till in the US and the Oval Four in the UK, Black men accused and convicted of crimes they didn’t commit. “But then what you also see is a lot of men within the community weaponise these stories to defend Bill Cosby to defend Tory Lanez,” she adds. “Two things can be true at once. It can be true that Black men are routinely assumed deviant and are therefore held to very different standards of criminality. And also, Tory Lanez shot Megan Thee Stallion and Bill Cosby needs to be in prison forever.”

The more Adegoke delved into the complicated themes in her book, the more I understood why she is still, despite The List’s evident success, nervous. “It wasn't an easy book to write and many people have told me it was brave to write this for my debut.”

Adegoke is fully aware that asking for more nuance, grace and balance on social media in a time where the algorithm favours extreme views is a stretch (after all, she came up on Twitter writing lengthy threads like every other millennial in media) but she’s asking anyway. “It's not always exciting or fun to take a moment before engaging with things you see online… but I think the responsible thing to do is wait for the facts before adding to a developing story,” she says. “But also, as a final lesson, the internet is fucking terrifying so we probably should put a little less trust in it.”