The List: A Novel

Michael spends his days on his couch watching TV. After Ola’s panic attack at the wedding, Michael escaped and ordered an Uber from a “back road.” He ignored countless phone calls and texts, but he texted Kwabz and his mother. When he tried to call Ola, she didn’t answer.

Michael is now in a group chat called The List Eleven, which features athletes, actors, and creators on The List. The name of the group chat alludes to the Central Park Five. In the chat, the men deride The List, and although Michael finds their comments “nauseating,” he wonders if there are other men like him on The List—men who aren’t guilty of the accusations leveled against them.

On Medium, Nour El Masri publishes a viral post about what happened between her and the sports journalist Mathew Plummer. Nour’s story helps Michael understand the mindset of women who have been harmed by sexual assault and abuse. Lewis screenshots an apology on his Notes app and then posts it. Because the apology coincides with Nour’s article, the timing is perceived as crass. His soccer fans rush to his defense, but his detractors continue to revile him online and offline. People harass his daughters online, and someone spits on him on his way to the grocery store. Lewis worries that his wife will leave him, and he continues grieving for his mom, who died of leukemia in February. Lewis’s agents want him to stay offline, and Michael compares this restriction to being on the lam. 

Ola Skypes with her sister and calls her mother. Celie stops by with two bags of Ola’s favorite foods. They watch the sitcom Friends and discuss Sophie’s recent actions in Ola’s former position at Womxxxn. Sophie has gained visibility by creating #CastrateTheStraights, and Ola wonders if she and Sophie are both “caricatures” with a “pixelated pitchfork.” Ola and Michael should be in Barbados on their honeymoon right now, and Ola wonders why she said, “I do.” Celie asks Ola why she went through with the marriage, making her feel worse. Celie claims that she is helping Ola be sensible and says that the Ola she knows wouldn’t “shrug” at the allegations facing Michael. Ola reminds Celie that she hired a private investigator and states that no one can verify every allegation about the men on The List.

Celie says that she can testify to The List’s veracity. She was sexually assaulted by Papi Danks, whom she has known since she was little. At an afterparty, he asked Celie to come to his car so that he could give her brother a mixtape. He then threatened to hurt her if she didn’t give him oral sex. Celie went to the police, and although the police didn’t act dismissive, they also didn’t take action. Hearing this, Ola feels guilty; she went to the afterparty in question with Celie, but Ola got drunk, and the two became separated.

Select members of The List Eleven meet at Ben Abbassi’s penthouse to “strategize.” Ben was on The List, and he hosts a YouTube show where women compete in “X-rated challenges” to win a luxury bag. Ben is white, but fans of his podcast believe that he has a different skin color. Recently, Ben has been emphasizing his “Iranian heritage.” Amani accompanies Michael to the meeting and reminds Michael that Papi Danks, who is also there, just put out a successful mixtape. The accusations against Dank include kidnapping, rape, and sexual battery. Like Danks, most of the men’s careers have not been negatively impacted by the accusations on The List. An Olympic runner did lose a brand partnership, and editors stopped replying to a film critic, but such men are in the minority.

A man in a beanie hat compares their situation to the Central Park Five and the Cardiff Five. The man also brings up Bill Cosby and R. Kelly. The man wonders if The List is supposed to “emasculate” Black men. Amani loudly agrees with the man. Ola calls Michael, and Michael tells her about Lewis Hale and states that The List is “manipulated.” Ola says that Papi Danks sexually assaulted Celie, and Michael confronts Danks, who claims that the oral sex was consensual. Amani congratulates Danks, but Michael calls him a “rapist.” They fight, but people intervene. Amani annoys Michael by fawning over Danks and points out that if the allegations against Michael aren’t true, then maybe the allegations against Danks are also false.