Reviews with content warning for Suicide attempt - The List

What a roller coaster of a read this was! Yomi is definitely clever in the way she asks questions and gets you to think about cancel culture, SJWs, and how the internet handles problematic behavior. So many aspects to consider. Such relatable people with relatable feelings. Although the characters’ decisions were frustrating at times, I enjoyed reading this. Great paving as well - I finished this in 3 reading sessions.

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hanwoz93's review

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dark emotional funny mysterious sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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aseel_reads's review

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challenging dark reflective tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Not sure how I felt about this one. From the get go, you know it's going to be hard for the author to write a complete story, which way to go, will it be a cliche etc. I felt that the author did a good job of showing the grey and the middle ground reaction and action of the characters. The last chapter was such a random plot twist, not sure how I felt about it

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pianokeys's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

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peachani's review against another edition

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challenging mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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ashcanpete's review

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emotional reflective tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

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jsprenk's review

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dark tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

Should have been 100 pages shorter. It tried to explore the complexities of anonymous accusations but ended up feeling quite victim-blaming and both-sides-ey. Left me dissatisfied.

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njohnson2018's review

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reflective slow-paced

Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

You can’t really say that this book is plot driven, since the plot is bare bones and hardly meaty enough to carry a full 320-page book, but it isn’t character driven either, since neither main character experiences much of a character arc, and most everything that we learn about them is told to us directly in the narration. I got to page 300 where Ola blames her inability to ever trust Michael for the failure of their relationship, and all I could think was, it would have been nice if we could have seen some examples of her not trusting him before the text tells us and hopes we believe it. All the important qualities of every character are told in narration, actually: in dialogue with a new character, the characters will suddenly stop speaking and the narration will simply tell us what the characters might be speaking about and what it tells us about them. It’s jarring, and really lends itself to characters that are one-note: the prudish one, the pansexual one, the two indistinguishable asshole friends of Michael’s.

I feel bad for being so harsh, but the execution of this novel was so disappointing. I love the ideas behind the story. Adegoke clearly has things to say about the topic, and I was eager to take part in the discussion. I loved the setting of Black British culture, the way the novel focused on the specific cultural norms and attitudes of the Black British community. However, the whole book was far too flat and uneventful to create any kind of tension. Not to mention the ending: a reveal which would have been much more impactful if it hadn’t occurred in the last two pages. Seriously, what was Adegoke thinking?

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