If you’re a frequent reader, or even someone who picks up a book on occasion, you’ve probably heard of the online phenomenon ‘BookTok.’ It is exactly what it sounds like: the bookworms of TikTok making videos on the topic they know most about.
However, there is some controversy surrounding the stories that are ‘trending’ online, and some even think these popular books shouldn’t be considered literature.
Reading had a resurgence in popularity in 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic.
During the shelter-in-place order, people had free time, and lots of it. It was the perfect time to begin a new hobby, and many people took up reading.Content creators on social media immediately jumped on the trend.
Book content, particularly on TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube, became especially popular.
Many of these people began sharing their favorite books on their platforms, and the book market rapidly increased.
From 2020 to 2021, book market sales increased by $3.1 million, about a 12.3% jump from the year prior. They only continue to rise, as some statistics from 2023 to 2024 show us – with sales increasing by about 10.3% and making over thirteen billion dollars in less than twelve months.
However, while the book industry has only gone up, many think the quality of the books being released has gone down. Some of the names of BookTok’s most popular titles may be familiar to you; books such as Fourth Wing, Powerless, Lightlark, It Ends With Us and more owe a majority of their success to TikTok.
Lauren Roberts, the author of Powerless, shared on TikTok how she wrote her novel, as did Alex Aster, who wrote the Lightlark series.
Roberts’s novel was so successful that after it was initially self-published in 2023, big name publishing brand Simon & Schuster picked it up.
Colleen Hoover’s books got especially hyped in the early days of ‘BookTok’, and her novel, It Ends With Us, even got a movie adaption that can be found on Netflix. Another of her novels, Verity, is apparently in the works for a film, as well.
Freshman Kyli Sherlock has read two of Hoover’s books and thoroughly enjoyed them, saying she would personally recommend It Ends With Us.
It’s the BookTok effect — after less than six months, Rebecca Yarro’s Fourth Wing sold 2 million copies globally after going viral. This was a big jump from Yarro’s last few novels, which were a series of relatively unknown contemporary novels, her first being published in 2014.
BookTok may not seem like a bad thing – and it isn’t, necessarily. It gives many great opportunities for aspiring authors, libraries, and smaller bookstores to expand and get more recognition.
However, there are some downsides. Some authors, wanting to capitalize on the fame, have started taking tropes and trends that they think people like, and focusing on content rather than quality.
Some examples of these trends are the romance and fantasy genres, specifically the two together. The “romantasy” genre has taken off, thanks to popular series like the Caraval trilogy and A Court of Thorns and Roses.
Enemies-to-lovers’ is a micro-trope that is very popular in beloved fantasy novels, and one that has been replicated quite often recently.
Many people online have complained about authors taking these tropes and filling their books with what they think the readers want, with no other substance.
Of course, being a writer is a job — if it sells well, authors can write it to pay the bills. But some readers are tired of reading the same recycled tropes, and fear that there is no originality left in the book industry.
At Bear River many of our favorite genres aligned with what was ‘trending’ online.
The most popular BookTok genres are romance, fantasy and young adult (sometimes shortened to ‘YA’).
Our Bruins’ top genres are romance, thriller and fantasy.
Romance won by a landslide, with about 53 percent of the votes in an informal poll of Bear River students. This isn’t surprising — romance has always been a top-seller in the publishing industry.
When polled, about 58 percent of Bear River students said they got book recommendations online or from social media, such as TikTok, Instagram or YouTube.
You may be curious to read some of these popular books, to see what the hype is all about. Some BookTok books Bruins enjoyed are A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder by Holly Jackson, If He Had Been With Me by Laura Nowlin and the Six of Crows duology by Leigh Bardugo.
These books are much beloved, and are considered some of the best BookTok has to offer.
Whether you love or hate reading, like everything in the world, where we get our information from is ever-changing. Literature will always exist in the world, and while it may be different, change isn’t always a negative thing — it can be pretty great.