When it comes to social media influence, most people would say that fashion, beauty products, slang or music taste are the most influenced things. But what some might not think about is literature. There is a side of TikTok called “Booktok,” that many teens find themselves on when it comes to finding a good book to read.
“I think TikTok is a great source and motivator to get people into reading,” sophomore Lilly Vanbruggen said. “If I need a good book [recommendation] I will just search on TikTok ‘book recs’ and look for one that seems interesting.”
Although Vanbruggen enjoys finding books on TikTok she believes that some may not be worth the read.
“Once I started to branch out and get other genres and [recommendations] from friends I realized that people on TikTok heavily over hype books,” Vanbruggen said.
An example of an “overhyped book” according to Vanbruggen is ‘Ugly Love’ by Colleen Hoover; she says it had a predictable plot and seemed to romanticize some controversial themes like drug abuse and toxic relationships.
“I would not say that TikTok is a good primary source for literature because you’re only getting recommendations from a few sources,” junior Cadence Dye said. “It might be hard to get reliable information on the books you’re interested in.”
Just because Dye does not think TikTok is the best place to get great book recommendations, she still enjoys ‘The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo’ by Taylor Jenkins Reid and ‘It Ends with Us” by Colleen Hoover for their “drama filled intense stories,” both of which are very popular on ‘booktok.’
Considering “booktok” is just one small corner of the insanely popular social media app TikTok, one might wonder how someone can come across such a niche aspect of the app.
“I stumbled across ‘booktok’ because I have searched for recommendations on TikTok for romance/drama books or looking at the ratings of novels I’ve been gifted,” Dye said. “After the searches I made, I slowly started seeing more book-related videos on my ‘For You’ page.”
TikTok’s creative touch has made book recommendations and reading a delightful journey of exploration for many including sophomore Nono Mahlangu. She believes that TikTok is a good primary source for book recommendations.
“I started reading a ton from just looking at books from TikTok,” Mahlangu said. “It does depend on what you love to read but you can find anything on TikTok.”
