Yomi Adegoke
4th Estate
By Laura Borrowdale
The List, a lavender book with a bright yellow shame-faced emoji on the front, is exactly what it shows itself to be.
With overt themes of how to be a good feminist in an era of cancel culture, the designers could not have signalled this more clearly.
It is an overtly modern story, set in a hip London full of influencers, their ubiquitous devices and of course, performative political correctness. Ola, a journalist at Womxxxn, and her partner Michael are about to get married.
They are blissfully in love, until Michael is named in an internet list of abusers. Ola, who has vigorously chased stories such as this in the past, must decide whether she believes the anonymous victims or Michael.
The book holds its feminist ethos dear, which is problematic when it ultimately fails to give the reader trust in either the female accusers or the male accused, leaving one floundering in a sea of people who treat each other all a bit badly.
The List is a pacey book designed to egg the reader on to read just another chapter, but ultimately it is hollow, as hollow as the world saturated with celebrity culture that it is reliant on for interest.
Laura Borrowdale is a writer, educator and former Dunedin resident
