BookTok

In 2020, a phenomenon known as booktok became popular and was all over TikTok. It has now leaked onto other platforms like Instagram (where it is known as ‘bookstagram,’ I believe that bookstagram was a thing from before but just became more popular recently), and YouTube (known as ‘Booktube’). Well, for the most part, I am not complaining

So, what is booktok?

It is basically a community on Tik-Tok where people discuss, recommend, and describe. Their favorite books. It could be any genre and any age- usually, they recommend fantasy and young adult books. It includes all types of content in books. I am not too sure who exactly started this trend but it became a hashtag and started trending around tik tok

So booktok brought us many things but here are the holy trinity of authors who became famous thanks to booktok-

1. Colleen Hoover

If you haven’t heard of her by now, you are probably living under a rock. Thanks to booktok, her fame skyrocketed and her books published all the way back in 2016 became famous. The most well-known book by her is ‘It Ends with Us.’ It is a book about Lily Bloom who falls in love with Ryle but he starts to mistreat her and this book highlights the topic of the cycle of abuse. Once I read the dedication of this book, I was in tears and I totally get why she wrote this book but TikTok takes it a little too far. There are so many videos that romanticize this kind of relationship or they make it seem like anyone can read this book. If you’re advertising a book at least make it known what age group this book is for and what topics this book deals with. It is being made into a movie as we speak (can I just say- the casting is not right and from what I’ve seen, the costumes are throwing me off). Other books by Colleen Hoover which were popular because of TikTok are- Ugly Love, Verity, November 9, and Reminders of Him. So, as you can see Colleen is Booktok royalty and her books are really what made this whole phenomenon take off to another level

2. Taylor Jenkins Reid

I will accept zero slanders against her because I love her writing so much. The book that really became a Booktok staple from her was, ‘The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo,’ and I am glad that it did. The book follows Evelyn Hugo, a Hollywood royalty, who agrees to give an interview and recaps her life and reveals a lot of truths and secrets. This book is also getting adapted into a movie. She became popular for another book called Daisy Jones and the Six. This book follows a band recounting their experiences together and exploring the reason why they broke up. This is now a TV show and I absolutely love it. Other books of hers that became popular are Malibu Rising, Carrie Soto is Back and One True Loves. (I am trying to read almost all the books she has ever written- so blog coming on that soon?)

3. Emily Henry

She is the third and final author is the holy trinity of booktok authors. I actually like her writing- I think it’s such a fun vibe and easy to read. So, the book that got her famous (and got me into my reading era) is Beach Read. It follows two authors who go to their respective beach houses and are struggling to write a book. They each have been instructed to write the genre, the other writes. This book was the cute, fun romance that everyone was looking for. Her other books that got famous because of booktok are- People we meet on Vacation, Book Lovers, and most recently Happy Place. From what I understand- All of her books are becoming movies and it’s only a matter of time till her newest book- Happy Place will be adapted too.

Some honorable mentions are Sarah J Mass, Alice Oseman, Lauren Asher, and Ali Hazelwood.

I want to talk about some of the pros and cons of booktok

Some of the Pros:

1. Discover a lot of new books

For the most part, this is a pro because a lot of the books that are “booktok staples” are good for sure. Obviously, you can end up with some of the worst books also (I will get into that list a little later in this blog). There are a lot of authors whose books take off due to booktok- and they genuinely deserve the hype. Small authors get the recognition that they deserve. It’s a great place to discover your new love for a particular book/ genre, who knows it may become your favorite.

2. Brings people together

So, to a certain extent, this phenomenon brings people together- whether you are hating on a particular book or simply discussing your love for your favorite book. There are so many times when I have gone on book tube (since I don’t have tik tok) to see what some of my favorite YouTubers think about the books I like. There are many discussion forums on good reads and also for certain books. It is kind of nice to see people put their differences aside and come together for a book

3. A great place for Authors to grow

A lot of authors nowadays make use of booktok to market their new books. In the case of Colleen Hoover- she used booktok to market the release of her new book, “It Starts with Us,” which is a sequel to her most popular book- ‘It Ends with Us.’ Even Emily Henry’s new book- ‘Happy Place’ is currently gaining a lot of traction and has caused her sales to spike. I’ll admit, I was heavily influenced to buy her book because of booktok/book tube. It can be a great place to promote your books and build up hype before the book is released.

Cons:

1. You tend to just go along with the crowd

Sometimes, people feel compelled to read certain books because everybody is reading them. You see everyone’s opinions on certain books and feel the need to have the same opinion or feel the same way about the book and you never end up thinking for yourself. Or, it could be the complete opposite- you could feel that since there are so many people who like a certain book, you feel the need to hate it. You never get to judge the book for yourself

2. Booktok can take it too far

Romanticizing toxic relationships, topics that require maturity, and things that need to be taken seriously is something booktok specializes in and it can be taken too far. sometimes people don’t consider the influence they can have on people viewing their videos and say things that either provide misinformation or teach people wrong things. They glorify things and topics that are really serious and it should not be taken lightly

3. People judge books by their covers

Sometimes, people portray books in their videos simply because they are pretty and not for the content. This can be very misleading to viewers and they can end up spending their money on books that may not be worth it. People also mindlessly take people's book recommendations.

I want to also talk about Booktube/Bookstagram

I personally love the book tube community. I enjoy watching people talk about books that they are passionate about. I don’t have tik tok but I think YouTube has my favorite book community. It allows you more than 60 seconds to talk about a book and I love the challenges that people come up with (like the 24hr reading challenge). I love bookstagram because of the aesthetic but I tend not to take recommendations because you don’t get much about a book by looking at its picture. I do love looking at the annotations that people have made in their books.

Here are some of my favorite book tubers and the links to their channel:

1. Haley Pham- https://www.youtube.com/@haleyphamvlogs

2. Jack Edwards- https://www.youtube.com/@jack_edwards

3. Steph Bohrer- https://www.youtube.com/@StephBohrer

4. Sara Carrolli- https://www.youtube.com/@SaraCarrolli

5. Destiny Sidwell- https://www.youtube.com/@whatsdesreading

6. Alexa Raye- https://www.youtube.com/@alexaraye

Here are some of my favorite bookstagram accounts and their link:

1. Ellies Library- https://instagram.com/_ellieslibrary?igshid=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==

2. F.D Reads- https://instagram.com/fd.reads?igshid=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==

3. Elle read some books-https://instagram.com/ellereadsomebooks?igshid=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==

4. Erias library- https://instagram.com/eiraslibrary?igshid=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==

Okay, here are some books that were huge on booktok and my take on them in the context of booktok (I am only doing the ones I read)–

1. It Ends with Us (Colleen Hoover)- Overhyped- I initially really liked the book but as time went on I felt as if I have read better books I love the dedication she wrote

2. Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo- Taylor Jenkins Reid- Appropriately Rated- An absolutely amazing book. The story was beautiful and so was her writing.

3. Beach Read- Emily Henry- Appropriately Rated- such a beautiful book and such a cute romance story

4. Six of Crows- Appropriately Rated- the beginning was slow but I ended up enjoying it (Full thoughts coming in the reading wrap-up)

5. Song of Achilles- Appropriately Rated- I sobbed so much reading this book and I don’t think that I ever recovered from it

6. Red White and Royal Blue -Appropriately Rated- A very cute love story, it had my absolute heart

7. A Court of Thorns and Roses- Appropriately Rated- at least the first book was very much enjoyable but through the series, I felt they were okay

8. They Both Die at the End- A little overhyped-a lot of people hate this book but I think it’s good- a little slow and does not have much plot but I did enjoy reading it

9. We Were Liars- Overhyped- there were too many characters and it was too confusing

10. The Inheritance Games- A little overhyped- I enjoyed the book to a certain extent but I feel that people hyped it up a bit too much so my expectation was high

So, I hope you enjoyed reading this blog. I do think that books in general have changed my life for the better and it would not have happened if one fine day I had not seen Haley Pham’s video of book recommendations, and not picked up Beach Read.

Thanks for reading,

XX Mahika

(Ps: follow my Instagram: @blogbanterandbigwords where I share polls and put teasers for my upcoming blogs, you might also find some nice quotes in there)