On Oct. 14, Goodreads released a list of their member’s top books from the past five years. The list includes 60 novels, ranging from romance to horror to nonfiction and more. Goodreads first released one of these lists in 2021, albeit in a different format than the 2024 list. Instead of being ranked overall, the 2021 titles were ranked by their popularity per year.
Books found on both lists include The Love Hypothesis by Ali Hazlewood, Daisy Jones & The Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid, The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V.E. Schwab, and several others. Some of these books even placed higher on the more recent list than on the one in 2021!
Some notable titles that exploded on BookTok within past years that are featured on the 2024 list include Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros, ranked third; It Starts With Us by Colleen Hoover, ranked No. 11; and The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides, ranked first. Popular authors on BookTok, like Sarah J. Maas, Rebecca Yarros, Colleen Hoover, and Emily Henry, even have multiple titles on the list.
It’s no surprise that these and other authors are on the Goodreads list. Lots of these titles are extremely popular on BookTok, and some of them have only been published recently.
The list, however, is facing controversy in the comments of the post that Goodreads made. Some users are commenting on the lack of diversity in the authors on the list, some are making arguments about novels that were included and shouldn’t have been and vice versa, while others are talking about the lack of “good” literature on the list.
I disagree with the idea of “good” or “bad” literature because books are subject to personal opinion, and anybody can read whatever books they want. However, I have to agree with some of the commenters on the contents of the list that Goodreads posted. The lack of diversity within Goodreads’ list points to the bigger problem on BookTok.
The list is no doubt a reflection of what’s trended on BookTok and what’s currently trending. Books that trend on BookTok are the most popular books on the internet. The list is comprised of the “top” books on Goodreads, and whether that means popularity or most read, Goodreads often reflects BookTok because it records what people are reading.
Just giving the list a glimpse, there is a notable lack of BIPOC authors or LGBTQ+ representation in the books on the list. There are only a few books that fall under those categories, but they fall within the minority of the titles included.
Diverse books are important, but they’re not the ones you typically find promoted widely on BookTok. TikTok tends to promote whatever’s popular online and doesn’t often lift new or underrepresented voices online. If a video about a book goes viral, there’s a chance that it’ll gain traction on the platform. The problem with BookTok, however, is that Tiktok’s algorithm only presents what’s popular, and most of the books promoted online have a lack of diversity, both in the authors who write them and the characters and themes in the books themselves.
BookTok, in this way, also reflects the problems of the publishing industry; there is an underrepresentation of minorities in both BookTok and the world of publishing. A book’s success can highly depend on its virality online and how it’s received by audiences over the Internet.
I haven’t read most of the titles within the top ten of the list (or in its entirety). I was shocked when books such as Babel by R.F. Kuang, Delilah Green Doesn’t Care by Ashley Herring Blake, and Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo didn’t make it on the list.
Yellowface, another novel by R.F. Kuang, actually made it on the list, which is a novel that tackles the idea of racism and underrepresentation in the publishing industry. However, Babel, arguably one of her most popular novels, wasn’t on the list.
Not all on this list is bad, though! A few of my favorite authors are on the list, such as V.E. Schwab, R.F. Kuang (who I already mentioned), Fredrik Backman, and Kiley Reid. Some of the novels I would recommend that I’ve read on the list are The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V.E. Schwab, Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin, Yellowface by R.F. Kuang, and Divine Rivals by Rebecca Ross.
The best way to advocate for your favorite books to be included in lists like Goodreads’ is to review them online. Also, post about them on social media! The books that gain traction on BookTok can end up becoming extremely popular, so promoting your favorite books online is a great way to lift underrepresented voices.
Even if you do or don’t like some of the books or authors on the list, at the end of the day, reading is reading. I won’t hate on anyone for their taste in books, because reading of any kind is important! However, I would encourage you to go out and find diverse books to read. The world of literature is broad, so there’s a book for everyone!
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