Article & Graphic by Harriet Sherlock
This piece was originally published in ‘Chimera’, Bossy’s 2022 print edition.
If you are anything like me, you spent your childhood consuming all the books you could get your hands on: the Rainbow Magic series (I was devastated when the fairy with my name was the Hamster Fairy) led to an intense dystopian and fantasy obsession (cue Chosen One tropes and questionable romantic age gaps), with plenty of Archive of Our Own (an open-source FanFiction site) in between. You called yourself a bookworm, until one day you realised that despite your bursting bookcase, you hadn’t actually read anything other than international political theory in years. While my collection of books has never stopped growing, I have only recently gotten back into consistently reading fiction—and honestly, I have TikTok to thank for that. Despite my initial resistance, I have been an avid TikTok user since the lockdown of 2020 (please don’t ask to see my screen time), and a big part of my For You page has by now been taken over by BookTok. This “side” of TikTok is full of book hauls, commentaries, micro-reviews, book memes, and people showing off their beautifully curated bookshelves.
I’m not the only one whose love for reading has been newly revived by the app. In recent months, BookTok has drastically driven up the sale of print books and sent many older titles to the top of the bestseller list: you don’t have to look further than your local Dymocks to find specially curated #BookTok displays. Reading culture and communities on social media are not new—BookTube, a space on YouTube similarly dedicated to reviewing and discussing books, has existed for years—so why has BookTok taken off in a way that other corners of the Internet never did? TikTok’s algorithm, I suspect, plays no small part in its success. The curated environment of TikTok users’ feeds, based on their interests and content consumption, means that people who are curious about reading do not have to exert much effort to find relevant content; it is simply fed to them in a never-ending stream. The bite-sized nature of TikTok content often means that creators will choose to focus on specific themes or aspects of a book, which further bolsters the algorithm’s ability to pinpoint readers’ tastes within a genre. Not only can you find broader Romance recommendations, but books containing enemies to lovers or the “one bed” trope. Other social media platforms such as YouTube, Instagram, Facebook—and even Tumblr—require users to manually search for and follow creators, and typically provide much longer content to consume. Being able to exist in select subcultures of like-minded people, without the need to search for them, allows users to easily discover new authors and books that are tailored to their most specific interests, and enter into conversations that may otherwise feel unavailable to them. Similar to swiping left and right through your Tinder feed, every slide of the finger leads to that sweet, sweet dopamine hit from each new video. This intense yet effortless immersion invites people to take up the identity of the insatiable reader they may have once been in their youth, and is a large part of the platform’s appeal.
Many of the books that are popular on BookTok fall into the category of Young and New Adult. Young and New Adult books—in particular, those in the Romance genre—have long been stigmatised as “lowbrow”, immature fiction, or even disparaged as “chick lit”. The condemnation and belittlement of young women’s interests as superficial is not new nor exclusive to reading; yet today, it is these young women who are skyrocketing book sales and altering the publishing industry as we know it. Part of my reading hiatus may have had something to do with my internalisation of these associations: in favouring “intellectual” types of books, I wasn’t allowing myself to just enjoy what I was reading. Many other TikTok users have similarly admitted to feeling as though limiting their reading to the “classics” is considered an intellectual imperative; if not achieved, it indicates a lack of care, attention, or thought. Critically engaging with the content I consume and the world around me is something that I want to do every day—but maybe this ability isn’t limited to the classics. When you read a romance novel, you are watching a person intimately discover just how important and necessary another person or people are to them—it might appear silly, but in times when I despair at the ways humans interact with one another, it can actually feel quite healing.
Not only have I been able to easily engage with works of fiction on TikTok that I already know and love, but I have also discovered many more authors. Because the For You page is rooted in an algorithm where anyone’s video can potentially be seen by thousands of others, it has allowed the voices and interests of individuals who are not usually promoted in the mainstream book market to be elevated. BookTok has proven that stories revolving around more than straight white people with the inability to communicate are wanted—and, in fact, already exist.
But am I just on the “right” side of TikTok? While the design of the algorithm does have the advantage of allowing diverse stories to be discovered, it is not bias free. At the end of the day, people will still choose to watch things that appeal to them, and are more likely to view content by creators whom the algorithm deems attractive. The most viewed BookTok videos typically feature white and conventionally attractive readers. While more diverse content is certainly highlighted, there is still a certain level of success that is unreachable unless the subject matter is delivered by algorithmically desirable individuals—and in some ways, BookTok has become not only a means of discussing and spreading books in a quick, digestible way, but also about capturing the “aesthetic” of reading. Like with many things, it can be easy to become complacent and accept what we are being shown just because it is simpler and more pleasant to do so.
But we don’t have to be slaves to the algorithm. While we can certainly just sit back and scroll, if we want to make BookTok a worthwhile platform and community to engage with, a little active content seeking is required. Whether you want to boost Queer and/or BIPOC authors, expand your reading tastes, or are just tired of seeing Sarah J. Maas and Colleen Hoover recs, actively looking for and reading stories that are about and by people with varied life experiences is important.
The problem with potentially never-ending amounts of content is figuring out where to begin. My suggestion is to start by making use of TikTok’s hashtag system; not only by searching #booktok or #bookish, but also including #translatedfiction, #literarytok, #queerbooks, and #BIPOCbooks. Make an effort to like videos and follow creators who review and enjoy reading diverse books. Once you show the algorithm what you like, it will quickly become the gift that keeps giving. To get you started, though, here are a few spoiler-free reviews of some of my favourite BookTok finds.
The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon
For some, all I’ll need to say is: lesbians, magic, and sentient dragons. At a hefty 848 pages, this book is not for the faint of heart—but Shannon is a phenomenal storyteller and world builder. The Priory of the Orange Tree is an epic high fantasy novel filled with religious feuding, political intrigue, romantic longing, and a cast of incredibly wellwritten female characters.
Iron Widow by Xiran Jay Zhao
Are you sick of love triangles that always end with the protagonist choosing the obvious character and are technically more of a “love V”? Iron Widow not only provides a fully formed polyamorous relationship, but plunges into an incredible sci-fi reimagining of the rise of the only female emperor in Chinese history. While a bit rushed in places, this book is a fantastic read for anyone who enjoys YA dystopian fiction. The novel does touch on some darker themes, so make sure to check the content warnings before diving in.
A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini
A warning: this book will make you cry. And potentially emotionally wreck you, but I swear it’s worth it… A Thousand Splendid Suns is a beautiful and deeply moving book that I’m still thinking about weeks after having finished reading it. The story follows the lives of two Afghani women, and is so well written that at times I had to remind myself that it was not real. Again, please make sure to look up the content warnings before reading.
And what’s at the top of my TBR list, you may ask?
Babel by R. F. Kuang
For all you Dark Academia girlies; I’m very excited to start this one! This book was released in August 2022, and has already begun to circulate with rave reviews on BookTok. Babel is a Dark Academia novel that follows a young Chinese boy who is whisked away to Oxford University, and works to criticise colonialism and elitism within academic institutions. Give this one a go with me and see if it’s worth the hype!
Diversifying your fiction is vital in a world where the stories of white and heterosexual lives are privileged over the narratives of more diverse lived experiences. So, I’m sorry if I or your For You page have just added considerably to your ever-growing TBR list; but for me, that’s half the fun of reading. Despite its flaws, BookTok has led to my personal Reading Renaissance, and a genuine joy in reading anything and everything whenever I can. If your own BookTok content seems to consist of the same five books (trust me, I know the ones), with a little bit of effort and algorithm tinkering, I promise that you will find there is way more out there. And I know you will love it.
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