Featured Image Credit: TikTok/Getty Stock Image
Topics: Social Media, TikTok, Books
Niamh Shackleton
Since the invention of social media, the number of people choosing to read has drastically fallen.
Many of us fall victim to doom-scrolling through TikTok when we climb into bed at night instead of reading a book, but could the video sharing app now be helping the world of literature?
Something known as 'BookTok' has being increasingly more popular on TikTok of late. This is where people share their reviews of books they've read and give a short synopsis on what its about.
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Some of the most popular books on BookTok at the moment include Colleen Hoover's It Ends With Us (which was recently made into a movie), Onyx Storm by Rebecca Yarros, Atomic Habits by James Clear and Riley Sager's Home before Dark.
The popular trend has been applauded by publishers as its helping get more books noticed.
Kat McKenna, a marketing and brand consultant specialising in children’s and young adult books, told The Guardian: "The pool of people who are guaranteed to buy young adult books is limited to a few thousand dedicated lovers of the genre, but BookTok is exciting, with its short, entertaining videos bringing a new, powerful opportunity to reach and engage non-readers, to create more book lovers."
"Romantic books and sad books seem to be really big," McKenna continued. "If it tugs at a heartstring, it’s likely to retain the user’s attention."
But not everyone sees BookTok as a good thing.
In one video that's been shared on social media, a TikTok influencer discusses Leigh Bardugh's book Six of Crows after being recommended it by her followers.
In clip the influencer proceeds to 'talk sh*t for a second' about the book and complains about how long it is.
It turns out that the book, which was first published in 2015, has almost 500 pages (which is less than some books in the Harry Potter series).
With this video in mind, some book-lovers fear that the trend has now 'lost the plot', while others think the wrong books are getting publicity.
One person penned on Twitter: "I fear booktok has lost the plot because why are they shocked that book pages have… words?"
Another person ranted: "I feel like booktok influencers like her are part of the reason the market is saturated with bad books rn. Bear with me. I know 'trash' lit has always existed, but ever since booktok blew up, it feels like books with bad writing yet high ratings are constantly in my face?"
They went on to call out BookTok influencers for giving 'shallow and stupid' reviews.
"You’re sending the message to future writers & ESPECIALLY AGENTS that maybe readers will prefer 'dumber' books," the Twitter user continued.
Dozens of people went on to agree with such sentiments and noted that some books they've purchased because of BookTok weren't actually very good.
What are your thoughts?