the ultimate guide to tiktok books 🕮 which ones should you read?

tiktok books are everywhere nowadays, but which booktok book recommendation should you actually read? I hope to have provided a fun little overview for you all in this video :)

🌼 s o c i a l m e d i a
• twitter: @thebookleo
• instagram: @thebookleo

🌺 a b o u t m e
Hi! My name is Leonie and I am a 25 year old girl who loves talking about books! From YA to non-fiction to classics, I read it all (although fantasy will always be my fave). I live in the Netherlands and go to university, but make booktube videos in my spare time :)

🌹 m u s i c
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[val.daffodils]

I TRY not to judge people based on the books they buy (as a bookseller), but gosh, Colleen Hoover, I SWEAR.

[Cevin.]

“Don’t read sally Rooney if you don’t like characters who don’t know how to communicate with each other” THANK YOU. Ugh, I love so much how honest and thorough you seem with these kinds of videos. Saved me so much time & money

[schneggobart]

As a bookseller, this was so helpful. I feel like recommending these books will be sooo much easier now. So thanks for that! 🙇 But, since "Cain's Jawbone" was published, exactly three people have managed to put the pages in the correct order. :)

[FullNesi]

As someone who tries to avoid booktok...I was amazed to learn that apparently my year in books consisted on TJR and Hot Sad Girls recommendations... and honestly it was an amazing book year 😂

[kenziewilson]

I loved song of Achilles not just because of the crying factor bc I partially knew I wasn’t going to cry, but because of the story. Ik it’s not like mythologicaly accurate but it was still such an amazing book that catered to my interests and had some of my favorite tropes

[Sssss-nmhh]

Top 2 things I need more in books:
1. Fun and relaxed female characters
2. Well written romance between two women

[ceciliagundrum]

For Song of Achilles I know you didn’t read it but it should have been expanded. Sure, some ppl read it bc of the crying factor but I know a lot of ppl read it bc it was really good. It blew up bc of the crying AND BECAUSE IT WAS SO WELL DONE. One of my favorites, if not my favorite book ever. So well written, beautiful story and romance.

[sivolia]

Actually Sad Gay Romance is also a theme of my life

[rachelmerrie]

Every time you said “I personally hated this” I screamed THANK YOU. I’ve read 90% of these books this year and had very similar perspectives to you.

[powerpuffever]

It’s kind of hilarious to me because I feel like a lot of Tik Tok books are books that blew up on booktube a few years ago or books that would blow up on booktube if Tik Tok wasn’t a thing. It’s like same stuff, different era/platform yet people avoid one for the other like there’s some huge difference

[micalyiareads]

"Don't judge booktok by its algorithm friendly books" 100% There are so many pockets of creators who are creating content and speaking about more diverse books.

[random]

As someone who read The Song of Achilles, long before it blew up on tiktok, I hate that it's got this tag attached of being popular because of the crying factor, because IT'S NOT TRUE.

Like, yes, it made me cry, but it's also one of the most beautiful books I've ever read, and it's so much more. The writing is so beautiful I literally used to cry because of it 😭 But if you guys are hesitant to try the book because it's a "booktok" book, I still think you should try, because it's been years since I read it, and nothing tops this book for me.

[via]

I absolutely love Taylor Jenkins Reid as an author, not just for a specific book of hers and I'm so glad you mentioned her and agreed!

[mariaadelaidapineda]

The Song of Achilles may be not that historically/mythologically accurate, but it's one of the best books I've ever read, the scenarios and characters are so well built and that's why it is so "devastating" in some sort of way.

[danijones]

TJR consistently creates masterpieces and that is a hill I will die on!!! She writes complex, nuanced characters so well. I also love how she explores different styles/storytelling tools; a biography in Evelyn Hugo, oral history in Daisy Jones & The Six, time jumps in Malibu Rising. I read each of the novels above in less that 3 days and plan on re-reading them once I finish Carrie Soto Is Back.
I’m not active on TikTok but I’m so glad TJR popular on there! If you love the dichotomy of good and evil existing in one person, characters who fuck up and hurt other people but still make you feel for them, her novels are for you.

[mizzbrwneyez]

A CREATOR WHO IS THIS THOROUGH IS *THE* GOAT !

[LunaWho]

So excited to see "S." on here! It came out about 8 years ago, and I got it for Christmas that year and I read it through 3 times in 4 days. To this day, I still think about it constantly and the prose from that novel and some of the statements the two characters have in the annotations in the margins plays through my mind. That book is just SO creative and I'm glad to see booktok is highlighting it to readers even now.

[thewolfandherbooks]

First it was Twilight, next it was Fifty Shades of Gray, now it's Colleen Hoover + SJM. Every few years, a new generation of readers rises up and has questionable taste in books. I say let them have their trashy "romance" novels. (This isn't directed at you, btw. I'm just on a soapbox lol)

[vladabalinsky]

The Secret History feels like an old friend to me every time I think about it because of how long I sat reading it and being immersed in its world. I was quite sad when I finished the book because it was as if I was parting with my friend.. also I read it in digital format so I didn't even notice like 700 pages go by.

[She_Wonders]

So glad you shouted out The Priory of the Orange Tree!! It's fantastic.