The List: A Novel

The British cultural journalist Yomi Adegoke wrote The List (2023) and has used her experience with online content and activism to parody and seriously explore the ways in which the internet shapes people’s lives. The novel follows the actions of an internet-famous couple, Ola and Michael, in order to examine issues of justice surrounding the #MeToo movement and the impact of the internet on real-world developments.

This guide refers to the 2023 HarperCollins e-book edition.

Content Warning: Both the source text and this guide contain descriptions of sexual assault and harassment, as well as racism, suicide, panic attacks, and anti-gay bias.

Plot Summary

Olaide “Ola” Olajide is an activist and journalist for the online women’s platform Womxxxn, and Michael Koranteng turned a cult podcast, Caught Slippin, into a job at the online men’s platform CuRated. Ola and Michael’s wedding is in less than a month, and they are planning a lavish Nigerian-Ghanaian wedding featuring their personalized hashtag, #TheKorantengs19. Because Ola and Michael have a relative amount of online visibility, their romantic relationship is public. They have become symbols of “#BlackLove,” and their photos regularly appear alongside famous Black couples such as the Obamas and Jay-Z and Beyonce.

On the morning of Michael’s first day at CuRated, The List appears. A product of the #MeToo movement, The List allows women to anonymously name abusive men in the media and entertainment industries. Michael is number 42 on The List and is accused of physically assaulting a woman at an office Christmas party. He is also accused of harassment and threatening conduct. The accusation states that someone has obtained a restraining order against Michael.

Michael maintains that the allegations aren’t true, but Ola, whose career is focused on exposing the actions of predatory men, remains unsure. Celie, Ola’s best friend, thinks that Ola should break up with Michael and call off the wedding. Ruth, another of Ola’s friends, thinks that Michael might be innocent; she reminds Ola that both women and men can exhibit problematic behavior, so not every allegation on The List is automatically true.

Ola hires a private investigator named Luke, who finds no evidence to support the allegations against Michael. However, he does identify the creator of The List as Rhian Mcintosh. Ola meets with Rhian, who discloses that @mirrorissa92 submitted Michael’s name. Michael believes that @mirrorissa92 is a woman named Jackie Asare, with whom Michael had a sexual relationship when his and Ola’s relationship status was still unclear to him. After he promised Ola that he would never see Jackie again, Michael and Jackie reconnected online, but not in person, after Michael lost his job.

Frankie Webb, Ola’s eccentric boss at Womxxxn, wants Ola to write about The List, but Ola does not want to bring further attention to Michael, so Frankie gives the assignment to her coworker Kiran. Ola convinces Kiran to delay the article, telling Kiran that her future husband is on The List. Beset by anxiety and online criticism, Ola does not know what to do, so she somewhat mindlessly continues with her wedding preparations.

Lewis Hale, a former famous soccer player and current media star, is also on The List and has been accused of anti-gay behavior and abuse. Lewis reaches out to Michael and reveals that although he is married and has two daughters, he is gay. Lewis’s family holds strong anti-gay biases, so Lewis doesn’t feel comfortable disclosing his orientation in a public setting.

Ola sneaks into Michael’s house and accesses his laptop. She discovers that Michael has been communicating with @mirrorissa92. Pushing aside her mistrust, she and Michael go through with their wedding. At the reception, they feel like they’re on the “same team” for a moment, but their online critics take over #TheKorantengs19, turning their celebration into a traumatic experience. As a result, Ola has a panic attack and spends days in bed. Michael sneaks out and takes an Uber home. CuRated fires Michael, and Ola quits at Womxxxn after Frankie tries to convince her to write about her wedding ordeal. Michael starts drinking and attempts death by suicide. In the hospital, he learns that Lewis died by suicide.

Time passes, and Ola and Michael reunite in a park. Michael is now completely offline, and Ola limits her social media consumption to a private Instagram account. Michael is a tutor, and Ola plans to write about up-and-coming female rappers. Their tranquil time together becomes volatile when Ola spots Jackie. As Ola marches toward Jackie, a young person on a scooter knocks her down, and Michael takes Ola aside. Ola doesn’t want Jackie to remain unpunished for the false accusations that she has made, but Michael admits that Jackie likely won’t face consequences for putting his name on The List.

The narrative reveals that Jackie did not put Michael’s name on The List; her romantic partner, Aaron, submitted Michael’s name. Aaron believed that Michael treated Jackie with “cruel indifference” by ignoring her messages. To defend Jackie, Aaron sent Michael menacing texts from Jackie’s phone, and he put Michael’s name on The List. Jackie has two daughters, and she and Aaron are about to have a son.