Book Review: The List
- Amazing Grace L. Danso
- Feb 27
- 2 min read
Author: Yomi Adegoke 🇳🇬🇬🇧
Type of work (Genre): Fiction (novel)
Number of pages: 367
Own or Borrowed: own, purchased from The Word Playce Bookstore
Overall Impressions: This was honestly a mixed bag for me. On the one hand, I get and appreciate the author’s intent with this story. It’s an important one that warrants attention. On the other hand however, I believe her intent was undermined by her execution. The central theme of the book is on false allegations of abuse in the internet era and how it ruins lives and can compromise self proclaimed feminists when they become directly affected. As a feminist, I really struggled to relate to and empathize with the main character Ola. The way the feminism and also journalistic integrity and ethics just flew out of her body when it was her man being accused was quite disturbing and appalling to witness especially since the man in question had done her dirty throughout their relationship. I would have understood her perplexing actions to a degree if the man, Michael, had been a near saint. By the time I was done with the book, I wasn’t sure if Adegoke had advanced or helped the discourse on the #MeToo movement. In some ways, it felt like she had undermined the movement even though it clearly was not her intention to do that. You could tell she herself was struggling with the theme and trying to tread carefully. It is risky to tell the side of the falsely accused because you could end up overemphasizing their experiences above those who have been abused and had their lives ruined. In the end, I found myself indifferent to the story overall.
Something that stood out: the author’s knowledge of Ghanaian culture was quite refreshing although I was a bit irritated when she called the style in which men wear Kente cloth a toga. African writers must resist the temptation to describe our culture in Eurocentric terms.
Overall Rating:🖋🖋.5 (out of 5 fountain pens).
Recommend or nah: I’m honestly indifferent. I won’t endorse it but won’t also discourage you from reading it yourself.
Follow my @agsbookadventures 🤓📚IG & Facebook accounts dedicated to books & reading☺️ Also find me on TikTok via the handle @agsbookadventures.
Comments