During Covid, when the world was in total lockdown, people needed to find something to keep them occupied. People did puzzles, went on walks and started reading books. The latter, I also fell victim to. With the rise of reading, teens and young adults took to social media to discuss some of their beloved books. Along with reading, the use of the TikTok app increased, so readers and users combined their hobbies, creating what is now widely known as “BookTok.” This, in turn, got more and more people reading and paying attention to books. With new releases and trends, new books grow in popularity in the BookTok community. Here are some BookTok favorites and simply popular books at the moment.
Readers can agree that movie adaptations often don’t do the books justice. To experience a superior story, people tend to read the book before seeing the movie. This is why “Dune” makes it onto this list. With the release of “Dune II” a couple of weeks ago, people have been diving into the fictional world through the text first. Written by Frank Herbert, “Dune” is a multi-book series that encompasses six books that will become six movies. With actor Timothée Chalamet in the lead role of Paul Atreides, young fans of his are ecstatic to read the book and then see it on the big screen. Read the Common Sense review HERE.
Another popular book is “The Idea of You,” by Robinne Lee. This book is also being turned into a movie, which is why sales have recently skyrocketed. Starring Anne Hathway and Nicholas Galetzine, the film is being released on May 3. This book, in its simplest form, is a Harry Styles fanfiction about a pop star and a single mom meeting, falling in love and working through their different lives. Starring major actors, and attracting fans of Styles, his previous band One Direction, fans from the book and curious bystanders, this movie should be extremely successful.
A book series that has blown up on TikTok recently is the Magnolia Parks series, by Jessa Hastings. This series follows an elite society of people in London and their messy lives. You follow Magnolia and BJ and their back-and-forth toxic relationship as well as their friends and the secret societies of London. It reads similarly to a reality TV show, bringing drama and exciting scenarios to life. Part of the series also follows characters Daisy Hates and Christian Hemmes who are friends of Magnolia, which provides even more drama and character building. I binged these books so fast and then had to wait patiently for the fifth one to be released on Feb. 13, once again binging it.
“If He Had Been with Me” and “If Only I Had Told Her,” both by Laura Nowlin, took BookTok by storm when they were released. These two books tell the same story of Autumn and Finn from each character’s perspective. “If He Had Been with Me” is written from Autumn’s point of view and “If Only I Had Told Her” from Finn’s. As a heartbreaking story about young love, tragedy and complex emotion, it’s no wonder people loved this book.
