In recent years, TikTok has had a remarkably significant impact on book sales, and 2024 is no different.
BookTok has the power to make or break a bestseller, has its eponymous display tables at bookstores, and has turned authors into superstars. There’s a constant debate over how to track your reads (Goodreads or Storygraph), whether audiobooks count as reading (they do), and how the most popular book should be cast if adapted into a film. But despite this consistent drama, BookTok stays reading.
Just six months into the year, the TikTok reader community has already crowned their favorite books.
Where Sleeping Girls Lie by Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé
This novel follows a young woman at a boarding school who begins to discover some dark secrets after her roommate disappears. All the while, she’s navigating the friendships and politics of a new school. @earlgreypls, a BookTok creator with more than 44,500 followers, said in her TikTok review of the book that the novel is a “slower-paced mystery” that is really focused on character development.
“The author did a great job creating the characters in this story, in my opinion,” she said in her TikTok review of the book. “My biggest complaint about this book is that I do think it was longer than it needed to be.”
Funny Story by Emily Henry
Romance novelist Emily Henry, the reigning queen of BookTok, managed to keep the community in her grasp with her fifth book released in the last four years. Known for beloved, bookish protagonists and her playful use of tropes, her latest, Funny Story, follows Daphne, whose fiancé leaves her for his childhood best friend. Left stranded by her ex, she moves in with Mike, the woman her fiancé left her for’s ex. After a panicked lie, the unlikely pair pretend to date to keep up appearances in a classic fake-dating story.
BookTok is awash with fancasts, incoherent reactions, and reviews. As one BookTokker, @edensarchives, told her nearly 70,000 followers, “This is some of Emily Henry’s best work, and I can say that confidently.”
The Familiar by Leigh Bardugo
Leigh Bardugo’s most recent book follows a main character in early 1600s Spain who has a small amount of magical ability, which is discovered, forcing her to compete with other people with magical abilities. One BookTok creator with more than 25,000 followers, @greekchoir, said while the book was “slower paced,” Bardugo has a “rich, dark, luscious writing style.”
“I was hooked by the beginning. The middle, however, really lost me in its execution,” @greekchoir said in a video about the book. “As talented a writer as Leigh Bardugo is, and as much as I liked what she was doing with her prose and her characters and her themes, once you started stripping that away and getting to the actual meat of the story, it’s very very tropey.”
But, greekchoir says, “The end of the story redeems it.”
The Husbands by Holly Gramazio
A work of speculative fiction about a young woman named Lauren, whose attic generates a never-ending supply of husbands, each reforming her life in different ways, gives readers a lot to laugh about. In a TikTok video, Finnish author and BookTokker Lottie Saahko called it the funniest book she’s read in recent years.
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One creator who posts under the handle @geminibookish recommended it to fans of rom-coms and Emily Henry.
Blue Sisters by Coco Mellors
Blue Sisters depicts three very different sisters as they confront grief and heartbreak following the death of their fourth sister. It’s a look at familial love and reconnection. It’s a multi-point-of-view novel that goes deep into character development.
“This book was everything I never knew I needed, and it scratched an itch so deep in my brain that I could not put this down,” @samfallingbooks, a creator with more than 51,000 followers, said in a video about the book. “This book shows sisterhood in all of its forms — in all its messiest forms, but also its purest and most beautiful.”
Just for the Summer by Abby Jimenez
Romance writer Abby Jimenez doesn’t just bake up cinnamon roll book boyfriends; she’s also a bonafide baker. But that’s not why her latest romance novel, Just for the Summer, has the BookTok community talking. In the book, a traveling nurse named Emma agrees to temporarily date the romantically doomed Justin, but as is the case with all stories, things get more complicated as feelings get involved.
“She just created the best book boyfriend ever,” BookTokker @emmalouisebooks raved to her audience of over 45,000. “A million stars for this book.”
Perfume and Pain by Anna Dorn
“If you like matching your perfume to your outfit, toxic romantic relationships, and books about writers in the age of social media, then I highly recommend Perfume and Pain by Anna Dorn.”
That’s how @glutenfreeangelfoodcake, a TikTok creator who matches books she reads to fragrances, describes Dorn’s newest novel in a video with more than 46,600 views. The book follows a writer who is lightly canceled and throws herself into some sexy, sapphic distractions, all in homage to the genre of lesbian pulp.
“This does fall into the genre of a woman making bad choices, blowing things up, choosing the wrong people to date, and missing meetings with her editor, but I do feel like she experiences decent character growth, which doesn’t always happen in these novels, and I felt like that was refreshing,” @glutenfreeangelfoodcake says.
Wild Love by Elsie Silver
Elsie Silver’s latest features a love story between Rosie and her brother’s best friend, Ford. The romance writer’s stories are in the same universe, so Ford is the brother of Willa from the Chestnut Springs series. Silver’s books are on the spicer end of the romance spectrum, and her TikTok devotees love them.
“The easiest five stars ever,” BookTokker @yannareads told her nearly 230,000 followers.
Housemates by Emma Copley Eisenberg
Dakota Bossard, a creator on TikTok and Instagram, told Mashable earlier this year that Housemates by Emma Copley Eisenberg was a coming-of-age story she was “most excited to read this year.” TikTok also showed up to support Eisenberg’s newest release. It’s a story about two queer housemates in Philly who travel across the U.S. and create an art installation together.
“This book moved me,” @tellthebeees, a BookTok creator with over 80,000 followers, said in a video about the book. “It was so beautiful, it was so lyrical, it was so tender.”
Fruit of the Dead by Rachel Lyon
Rachel Lyon’s newest release retells the story of Persephone and Demeter, and BookTok was not disappointed.
“I think this is already my favorite release of 2024, even though it was the first book I read this year,” Bossard said in a video about the book. “Perfect for fans of Emma Cline, Raven Leilani, Ottessa Moshfeg, and Megan Nolan.”
