A single video. A few breathless words. A tear-streaked face, and in the alternative, a medieval-themed cosplay, a dedicated summary with a cliffhanger, that is all it takes to determine one’s next read.
In the quietness of her bedroom, Patience Collins wipes her eyes and presses record. It is 2 am, but that is not the point.
Clutching a paperback to her chest, she exhales shakily before whispering, “This book shattered me.”
She shares her raw reaction with her 80,000 TikTok followers, tagging it #BookTok.
In the next couple of hours or days, people belonging with her, will have read the book that “shattered” Patience and more reviews will be coming along.
“It is not a good read unless it shatters me
in one way or another. It is not a good read unless it leaves me wallowing in self-pity
and searching for similar stories,” she says.
Patience adds, “I log in to my Tiktok for the book lovers community every day. Everything I need from the platform is on my FYP (For You Page). Sometimes I’m there to post, others I’m there for recommendations. But all the same, BookTok is my home."
Welcome to the world of BookTok and Bookgram—social media-driven literary movements where readers, not publishers, dictate the next must-read.
BookTok is a community of TikTok users who share their love of books.
BookTokers create videos to review, recommend, and discuss books.
It is a niche for communities of book lovers across the world.
This community consists of authors, readers and at times, an aspiring ‘book dragon” comes by.
With a majority of readers leaning towards fiction, the year began with the trend “What’s the first book you are reading in 2025?”
Jumping to the opportunity to showcase their current read, book lovers took to participate in the trend.
From Sarah J Maas, Leigh Bardugo, Tahereh Mafi, Shelby Mahurin among others, BookTokers talk about the authors whose work has become a safe space for them.
The focus is not just on the books and their contents, the community has grown into showing off their bookmarks.
Some are custom-made, others feature beautiful and encouraging words for the readers.
On BookTok, you get exposed to content including book hauls, reading challenges, book reviews, bookshelf decor and recommendations.
The social media platform has proven advantageous to authors, even as certain genres become more popular than others — romance, fantasy and young adults are leading the pack.
According to Yale News, a particular instance of soaring book sales is Colleen Hoover’s story.
Before the rise of BookTok in 2020, the author sold only 237,000 copies of her books.
By August 2022, the number of copies sold had risen to 2.3 million, surpassing the annual Bible sales in the US.
The total sales of her books reached 7.3 million print copies.
This can be attested by the BookTokers who canvassed bookshops and Amazon books just looking for It Ends With Us by Colleen Hoover.
A Court of Thorns and Roses books series is also among the benefactors of BookTok.
AnneMarie reveals that “I am currently on a reading streak on enemies-to-lovers novels. Where do I start, God, I’m in love with these books."
“He hates her at first. She can’t stand him and the tension builds finally breaking and paving way to the most swoon-worthy romance.”
AnneMarie has been on BookTok for two years now, and it is the best place she would rather be.
As book lovers continue to join the social media communities, popular tropes emerge including “Touch her and you die”, fake dating, slow burn – the story unravels with time -, “mine”, “friends-to-lovers”, “good girl”, “pregnancy” and forbidden romance.
For non-book lovers, for the tropes to sink, you have to envision hidden passion and masculinity with a pinch of vulnerability.
Mary Kole Editorialm defines a book trope as a type of plot or character that appears frequently across various book genres.
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