BookTok is a community on TikTok made predominantly of young women, dedicated to books and everything related to them. The popular genres include young adult fiction, fantasy, and romance. BookTok now has over 203 billion views and can be intimidating to get into, so this article is here to break the TikTok subcommunity down, from its creation to now.
Origin
Bookstagram and BookTube have been around for years, and when TikTok came out, small creators began posting bookish videos on the platform. However, it wasn’t until 2020 that BookTok really broke the app. Eventually, authors like Chloe Gong, Alex Aster, and Ali Hazelwood joined the community to promote their books, and the hashtag #BookTok could be found in bookstores, like Barnes & Noble. Some books are even labeled “BookTok books” because of their popularity on the platform.
Romance
Romance is an exceedingly popular genre in the BookTok community. Within it reside the Emily Henry lovers, known for her books Beach Read, Book Lovers, and People We Meet on Vacation, and the Colleen Hoover fans. Some beloved romance tropes are grumpy x sunshine, academic rivals to lovers, and fake dating, and other books include Better Than the Movies, The Love Hypothesis, The Spanish Love Deception, and Red, White, and Royal Blue.
Fantasy
The fantasy side of BookTok has changed a lot. Old BookTok fantasy included novels such as Six of Crows, The Cruel Prince, The Poppy War, The Song of Achilles, the Mistborn trilogy, and The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue. Modern Booktok fantasy, however, seems to be characterized by an increased prevalence of romance as romance readers have begun shifting over to the fantasy genre. There are two main genres that have been produced as a result of the collision between romance and fantasy: romantasy and fantasy romance.
Romantasy vs. Fantasy Romance
Some people tend to group these genres together, but they house drastically different books. Fantasy romance novels are fantasy books based around love, in which the romance is at the heart of the story. Think of them like romance novels set in a fantasy world. Examples include Once Upon a Broken Heart, Divine Rivals, and Heartless. Romantasy books, one the other hand, are fantasy books with heavy amounts of romance. Examples include Fourth Wing and A Court of Thorns and Roses.
Book Boyfriends
BookTok’s boyfriends can generally be categorized into two categories: the morally grey dark-haired ones and the blond boys. The brunet boys include Rhysand from A Court of Thorns and Roses, Cardan Greenbriar from The Cruel Prince, Thomas Cresswell from Stalking Jack the Ripper, Will Herondale from The Infernal Devices, and Jameson Hawthorne from The Inheritance Games. Despite there being significantly less blond counterparts, Aaron Warner from the Shatter Me series is still the reigning king of BookTok with over 1.9 billion views, and recently, a new blond male character has claimed the hearts of the community. His name is Jacks from the Caraval and Once Upon a Broken Heart series.
Enemies to Lovers
There are plenty of bookish tropes in the world, but the one that has BookTok by the throat is enemies to lovers. Now, this isn’t just two characters disliking each other. They must be enemies and absolutely loathe each other. The readers love some good banter, a knife-to-the-throat scene, excruciating slow burn, and an angry love confession. This is why the trope is most common in the fantasy genre. Some books to read with this trope are Powerless (fun fact, the author is a BookToker who wrote a novel), We Hunt the Flame, These Violent Delights, and Dance of Thieves.
Silent Reviews
Silent reviews are a brand new trend overtaking BookTok. Making use of Tiktok’s purpose as a short video platform, creators review a handful of recent reads without speaking. Common gestures include squeals, silent screams, wide eyes, and violent shaking of their books.
Dark Academia
Perhaps due to the aesthetic nature of the genre, dark academia has increasing popularity on BookTok. Classics have their place in the community, but dark academia classics, such as The Secret History and The Picture of Dorian Gray, are considerably more prevalent. Aside from that, other gothic novels include If We Were Villains, Babel, and The Atlas Six.
Annotations
Expanding on the love of aesthetics in the dark academia community, many members enjoy making detailed annotations in their books. The act of beautifying novels has transitioned to countless other genres as well.
Controversy
It is impossible to discuss BookTok without mentioning the controversy around it. Many claim it is promoting the overconsumption of books as people see creators with their home libraries and large book hauls. People also claim that the quality of books is going down since they are being marketed around tropes and “what will sell” on the platform, rather than what would make for a satisfactory story.
Like anything on social media, BookTok has its faults to be improved, but it also has its gifts. Despite the many subgroups, specific references, and constantly changing trends, at the end of the day, it is simply a community of readers who come together to bond over literature and the like.