Ola Olajide is a Nigerian-British journalist with a reputation for breaking hard-hitting feminist stories. She’s working at the dubiously named but otherwise well-regarded Womxxxn, an online women’s sexual health and lifestyle platform. Ola is best known for two things: her major investigative journalism on #McsToo, which exposed a list of men in the music industry for inappropriate and/or abusive behaviour, and for being one half of the accidental poster couple for #BlackLove and #CoupleGoals on social media among the young London set.

The other half of this couple is Michael Koranteng, the Ghanaian-British co-creator of a cult pop-culture podcast, and media company CuRated’s newest hire. Presenting their culture and lifestyle show on YouTube is the breakthrough role for which Michael has been waiting, even if he is cynical about the timing.

One month before their wedding, and on Michael’s first day at CuRated, Ola and Michael wake to a bombardment of messages. Overnight, they’ve become associated with a horrifying new hashtag: #TheList. Michael has been named on a spreadsheet of mostly well-known men in the media who are now accused of vile acts ranging from harassment to kidnapping and rape. The list is gaining attention in certain circles on Twitter; it’s only a matter of time before it is reported in the mainstream media.

It is a nightmare scenario. Michael’s life as he knows it is on the brink. For Ola, whose baseline position in any situation like this is to believe all women, the predicament is acutely distressing, and professionally diabolical. Does she cancel her wedding immediately and cut off all communication with Michael? One of her two best friends seems to think so. Or should she trust that she knows him and believe him when he says this is a malicious and baseless smear campaign? But don’t all men protest their innocence when accused of terrible things? Her dilemma is profound – personal, professional, moral, and ethical – and there’s the ticking timebomb of their wedding.

Yomi Adegoke is an award-winning British journalist known for co-writing Slay in Your Lane: The Black Girl Bible and for her writing about the intersection of race, feminism and popular culture, themes that expertly inform her debut novel. The List is one of the most anticipated books of the year – witty, knowing, and fast-paced, it’s a tour de force that has already been slated for TV adaptation. I could not put it down.