Lets Talk About Booktok

Sara Bradecich

I have been an avid TikTok user since 2020, and for most of that time I’ve had a lot of book content on my “for you” page. I’ve loved reading longer than I’ve had social media, but with social media I have been able to find a place online where I feel happy because I am able to see relatable videos, get great book recommendations and engage with content about my favorite books. However, as with almost all online spaces, there can be a lot of toxicity, and in BookTok it has become a big issue.

A big problem with books now is that many authors are writing stories that use tropes and stereotypes that are popular only because the best way to get your book out to a big audience is to have it trending on social media. This causes a lack of diversity in new books. Authors are no longer focused on making interesting plots and intriguing literature, they are more focused on writing books that they think will have a plot trendy enough to catch the eye of BookTok. Then you go to read one of these books and you find that they are a blatant copy of another popular series with different character names and slightly different plot points.

Another huge problem within literature today is the romanticization of abusive and misogynistic male characters, and labeling it as a “dark romance.” There is a popular controversy surrounding the genre with Colleen Hoover's book “It Ends With Us,” which in 2024 was made into a movie. The story follows Lily Bloom who is in an abusive relationship, and while she does not end up staying in the relationship, readers have expressed concerns because they believe that the book simplifies the complexities of the disturbing dynamic, and in the end the abuser does not face any consequences for his actions. This genre’s simplicities with main characters who are murderers or mafia bosses, glorify and normalize abusers. These types of books are all over BookTok and young people read them and are made to believe this is what relationships look like.

Furthermore, BookTok has created a competitive feeling within the community, making people feel like they absolutely need the newest book series because they don't want to fall behind. BookTok has coined many popular acronyms, one of them being TBR, meaning to be read, referring to whatever books someone has already bought or owns but has yet to read. BookTok creators online sometimes have TBR’s of over 100 books, and books are not cheap. This gives readers the feeling that they need the newest popular book and makes them care less about reading and more about being able to share the amount of books they have which can become very expensive, when it's free to get a book from the library. These expectations are placed on readers when reading should be a process that is individual to you, then later you can talk about your experience with a book without receiving hate for having a different opinion on a book than someone.