The Popularity of BookTok 

Reading books was always tied with intelligence and considered a nerdy niche hobby. However, with the rise of BookTok, an online community on the popular social media TikTok, reading has become the ideal leisure activity, with cases overflowing with books.

This craze has taken the online world by storm.  

There is no definite date for the rise of Book Tok. However, an increase in literature-related content boosted in 2020. The epidemic COVID-19 lockdown had a profound effect on this subject. It provided the perfect opportunity to take up a new pastime. TikTok became an effective tool for communicating book recommendations.

BookTok is diverse and offers many different genres that cater to every palette. For instance, Good Girl’s Guide to Murder by Holly Jackson is a quintessential teen murder mystery with a bit of an edge. A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas is a fantasy novel with romance and a dash of politics. The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid is about an old Hollywood starlet who shares the tale of her scandalous career and the seven lovers she met along the way.  

With so many popular options, it is invertible that some will not cater to readers. Readers of Hannah Grace’s Icebreaker complained about the female lead as an annoying and dumb decision-maker. Some complain that Zodiac Academy by Susanne Valenti doesn’t have the best writing or editing. While these books were considered unsatisfactory, others were titled problematic. These Reviews are on diverse platforms like Goodreads and Barnes & Noble’s website.

In the book Haunting Adeline by H.D. Carlton the main male lead behaves in violent and obsessive ways,  framed as romantic. This book falls into the “touch her and die” category, with several problematic titles. Colleen Hoover’s Slammed displays a teacher/student relationship as aspiring rather than highly inappropriate. Many of Hoover’s novels have come under fire for romanticizing toxic relationships.  

With so many different books coming out daily, it’s hard to find one that suits a reader’s taste. With communities like BookTok however, that search becomes much less troubling.

Written by Mackenzie Cobbler  | Graphic Designed by Mackenzie Cobbler

Published September 9, 2024 | ePathfinder | Feature