#at least popular booktok

[toss-a-coin-to-your-stan-account]

the absolute Experience of hearing booktok describe one book as THE best five star read you've ever seen that you'll wanna read over and over and over again and then actually trying it and realizing you'd literally eat glass if it meant you got back everything you wasted on it

[themoonking]

the fact that a little life and cmbyn are at the top of barnes and noble's pride month queer literature page... the 700+ page trauma porn novel written by a woman with a reputation for fixating heavily on the suffering of queer men and the novel about a gay man dating a teenager written by a straight man who has openly and casually admitted to finding 12 year old girls attractive. wow! happy pride!

[harrowscore]

my brother just told me my book would probably be popular on tiktok and. ngl i almost strangled him lmao

[artemismatchalatte]

What if my booktok was just a front to get people to read Anne Bronte? :)

[starswallowingsea]

someone released a booktok themed album and i'm. one song in and it's very bad!

[cruelsister-moved2]

this is not untrue but it is kind of funny coming from someone that freely chose to pitch their book as like neon genesis evangelion meets the hunger games or whatever it was and i dont feel like the practice is a problem (in private query letters sent to agents/publishers) because it's literally just a shortcut to discussing the types of audiences it might be relevant to and proving that people would be interested in it. it can be about like themes or style or whatever as much as like ‘these stories both have robots in’ and also does not mandate that books are marketed in this way. also no one in the history of reading has ever been annoyed at the ‘if you like this you also might like this due to some shared similarity between them’ style of recommendations, i think people just object to like artlessly cobbling together as many gimmicks from popular media as you can without any attempt to replicate the meaningful storytelling elements that made the originals popular so they read your book and get disappointed when they realise you didn’t mean it was in the storytelling tradition of the hunger games or nge you just mean its a sci-fi dystopia with a girlboss in 

[annafromuni]

Tropes and Cliches I Am Tired of Seeing

Here is the only side of the coin for you all for my favourite tropes and cliches discussion post. This is where the tea is, the goss, the smear campaigns. Not really, but of course my opinions feature heavily in this discussion and a lot of what I will be including are popular tropes and very much so beloved, especially in some of the examples I will be giving to accompany my points. I don’t…

[azulaaaaaaah]

rating every zuko ship (cause that mf is shipped with everyone)

CLICKBAIT!!! this isn’t every zuko ship just the main ones i immediately lied lol. idk if any of these are hot takes or not but please don’t crucify me (might do a part 2 where it’s azula ships)

Jinko - Zuko/Jin

6/10

awwww it’s cute (for what it is)

and what it is was one singular date that was never really mentioned again

i really appreciate how jin is so unperturbed by zuko’s awkward angst and just genuinely likes him

howevvver she’s kinda one dimensional (as she’s only in like an episode) and i just don’t see this going anywhere longterm

less a ship, more a vehicle for zuko’s character development lol

Jetko- Zuko/Jet

3/10

jet being zuko’s first gay encounter is canon in my eyes

don’t ship them however cause i hate jet with the fire of a thousands suns

similar issues to jin as well where their interactions are extremely limited so personally have no clue how this could be a long term thing

Maiko- Zuko/Mai

5/10

i am so impartial on this ship it’s not even funny.

i get that it’s canon. i get that izumi looks suspiciously like mai so it’s endgame. i just don’t see HOW?? it feels as if the writers realised zutara was becoming popular and were like ‘OH SHIT WE GOTTA DEFUSE THIS SITUATION SOMEHOW’

their relationship is basically just mai being a cold asshole and zuko being an angry asshole and there’s no change or development between EITHER OF THEM

however when they’re cute they’re cute !!!!

‘i love zuko more than i fear you’ COLDEST LINE EVER

however again it’s like - you had a crush on him as a kid. he was BANISHED. you dated for like a month as teens. you argued the whole time. he left again- and shortly after you saved him from prison, but then you were imprisoned partly due to his actions. you get back together again, he becomes the ruler of a country, and then you’re surprised it’s isolating him/making him even more of an asshole???

on the other hand we as a society need to admit that zuko is weirdly possessive of her (ig that’s a positive if ur a booktok romance girlie but im not). like if i was mai i wouldn’t put up with that toxic shit either

at the end of the day, i honestly don’t care that they’re canon lol- but i think they’d probably best as a bitchy best friend duo

Zukaang - Zuko/Aang

1/10

not round here partner. not round here

my first issue is the age gap is objectively extremely weird if examined in canon. leaving it at that

i get that this is grumpy x sunshine in a way the other ships aren’t to me- but we’ve only ever seen these two characters interact with each other when there’s (again) A WEIRD AGE GAP

they are bros in the least homosexual way possible

the cherry on top of this situation is: isn’t aang the reincarnation of his great grandpa? isn’t that giving slight, uh, inc*st vibes??? imagine if people shipped korra and jinora isn’t that just WEIRD???

Zuki - Zuko/Suki

8/10

is this my most controversial take ???

i am a sucker for bodyguard x royal family dynamics guys

and the fact that this is girlboss x malewife is even BETTER

suki seems the most competent at handling his pissy ass in a way the other people on this list aren’t

like she’s real. she’s not sugarcoating his situation, BUT SHES COMPASSIONATE !!

i don’t like throuples typically but suzukki is even eliter than this, which removes the whole ‘going against the bro code’ element that arises from them being together

also i feel like if you haven’t read the comics this doesnt make sense At All so please do

-2 points for the lack of tangible reason to ship them lol

Zutara - Zuko/Katara

7.5/10

okay this one makes the most logistical sense to me within canon (solely examined as a zuko ship not overall)

it really seems as if they were gonna make this canon and swerved circa book 2

LIKE CMONNNN OG ENEMIES TO LOVERS WHERE THE GUY ACTUALLY HAS CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT AND ISN’T JUST EVIL? FIRE X WATER? ITS INTRIGUING

something about this makes me uncomfortable though. (despite the age gap which again a little weird)

something about katara potentially becoming the fire lady is so… icky. she’s a waterbender. the fire nation tried to systematically erase her kind. her mother is killed by the fire nation because they think she’s a waterbender. and katara…. what, becomes part of the royal family? it just seems wrong, and like something she wouldn’t be into

also i feel like their arguments would be a little too NUCLEAR. there’s like, a 50% chance of divorce

she deserves a better ending than that is all i’m saying

to paraphrase the hunger games: katara has plenty of fire herself. SHE NEEDS THAT DANDELION IN THE SPRING MAN

(i’m a kataang truther)

Zukka - Zuko/Sokka

9/10

my zuko related otp!!!

bros to lovers guys, where zuko falls first but sokka falls HARDER !!!

ik this will never be canon and im happy with that. i know there’s not even a whisper of romance between them in the show, but i just think it’s c u t e .

sokka (like suki) is very likely to call zuko out on his shit, but less likely to lose his own shit (like katara)

this in my heart of hearts is 10/10 however is still problematic in a similar way to zutara

his mother is killed by the fire nation and he (presumably) becomes consort ?

however though, i would still say it’s not as ruhroh as zutara bc firstly, sokka isn’t a waterbender, and secondly, ‘consort’ is a lot more open to interpretation than i think fire lady is. in my opinion a consort ≠ a fire lady, just like irl a consort ≠ a queen. it kinda means he can still be ambassador to the southern water tribe/a leader of his own people, while just so happening to be married to the fire lord.

overall i can’t help but stan a friends to lover ship cmOn now

[ofbreathandflame-archive]

With the rise of booktok/booktwt, there's been this weird movement against literary criticism. It's a bizarre phenomenon, but this uptick in condemnation of criticism is so stifling. I understand that with the rise of these platforms, many people are being reintroduced into the habit of reading, which is why at the base level, I understand why many 'popular' books on booktok tend to be cozier.

The argument always falls into the 'this book means too much to me' or 'let people enjoy things,' which is rhetoric I understand -- at least fundamentally. But reading and writing have always been conduits for criticism, healthy natural criticism. We grow as writers and readers because of criticism. It's just so frustrating to see arguments like "how could you not like this character they've been the x trauma," or "why read this book if you're not going to come out liking it," and it's like...why not. That has always been the point of reading. Having a character go through copious amounts of trauma does not always translate to a character that's well-crafted. Good worldbuilding doesn't always translate to having a good story, or having beautiful prose doesn't always translate into a good plot.

There is just so much that goes into writing a story other than being able to formulate tropable (is that a word lol) characters. Good ideas don't always translate into good stories. And engaging critically with the text you read is how we figure that out, how we make sure authors are giving us a good craft. Writing is a form of entertainment too, and just like we'd do a poorly crafted show, we should always be questioning the things we read, even if we enjoy those things.

It's just werd to see people argue that we shouldn't read literature unless we know for certain we are going to like it. Or seeing people not be able to stand honest criticism of the world they've fallen in love with. I love ASOIAF -- but boy oh boy are there a lot of problems in the story: racial undertones, questionable writing decisions, weird ness overall. I also think engaging critically helps us understand how an author's biases can inform what they write. Like, HP Lovecraft wrote eerie stories, he was also a raging racist. But we can argue that his fear of PoC, his antisemitism, and all of his weird fears informed a lot of what he was writing. His writing is so eerie because a lot of that fear comes from very real, nasty places. It's not to say we have to censor his works, but he influences a lot of horror today and those fears, that racial undertone, it is still very prevalent in horror movies today. That fear of the 'unknown,'

Gone with the Wind is an incredibly racist book. It's also a well-written book. I think a lot of people also like confine criticism to just a syntax/prose/technical level -- when in reality criticism should also be applied on an ideological level. Books that are well-written, well-plotted, etc., are also -- and should also -- be up for criticism. A book can be very well-written and also propagate harmful ideologies. I often read books that I know that (on an ideological level), I might not agree with. We can learn a lot from the books we read, even the ones we hate.

I just feel like we're getting to the point where people are just telling people to 'shut up and read' and making spaces for conversation a uniform experience. I don't want to be in a space where everyone agrees with the same point. Either people won't accept criticism of their favorite book, or they think criticism shouldn't be applied to books they think are well written. Reading invokes natural criticism -- so does writing. That's literally what writing is; asking questions, interrogating the world around you. It's why we have literary devices, techniques, and elements. It's never just taking the words being printed at face value.

You can identify with a character's trauma and still understand that their badly written. You can read a story, hate everything about it, and still like a character. As I stated a while back, I'm reading Fourth Wing; the book is terrible, but I like the main character. The worldbuilding is also terrible, but the author writes her PoC characters with respect. It's not hard to acknowledge one thing about the text, and still find enough to enjoy the book. And authors grow when we're honest about what worked and what didn't work. Shadow and Bone was very formulaic and derivative at points, but Six of Crows is much more inventive and inclusive. Veronica Roth's Carve the Mark had some weird racial problems, but Chosen Ones was a much better book in terms of representation. Percy Jackson is the same way. These writers grow, not just by virtue of time, but because they were critiqued and listened to that critique. C.S. Lewis and Tolkien always publically criticized each other's work. Zora Neale Hurston and Langston Hughes had a legendary friendship and back and forth with one another's works which provides so much insight into the conversations black authors and creatives were having.

Writing has always been about asking questions; prodding here and there, critiquing. It has always been a conversation, a dialogue. I urge people to love what they read, and read what they love, but always ask questions, always understand different perspectives, and always keep your mind open. Please stop stifling and controlling the conversations about your favorite literature, and please understand that everyone will not come out with the same reading experience as you. It doesn't make their experience any less valid than yours.

[artbyblastweave]

Thinking about that thread I've seen doing the rounds of everyone dunking on the booktok whipping-book du jour about the quote-unquote "forbidden romance" between the ballet dancer and her physical therapist, and independent of the fact that apparently what everyone is dunking on is a mocked-up screenshot meant to make the book look way worse than it is, the thing that gets me is that I'm like at least 70 percent sure that there actually would be meaningful professional-ethics concerns in a ballet-dancer/therapist relationship? I feel like I've heard about this kind of thing on the news a couple times? I've got no illusions that the specific text under fire is going to be a nuanced deep-dive into the inside baseball of professional Ballet and the power dynamics between its participants, we aren't looking at Black Swan or anything akin, but there is some there there, and I feel like you're gonna have to dig deeper than the object level premise to find something genuinely conceptually stupid to attack. And if you dig much deeper, you quickly hit the bedrock reality of "It's a potboiler romance," and like. Fine. Those are a known quantity. They're popular and ubiquitous and not very good. Have you hit upon some novel angle of attack or is it just Two Minute Hate Time On Twitter Again

[twobitlover69420]

MODERN DAY ponyboy hcs since u guys voted for them 😇😇 (under cut!)

- HATESSS booktok with a passion. he would 100% hate those middle aged booktok gooners that constantly sexualize stalking, abuse, etc

- his fav vape flavors are chocolate and coca cola

- secretly listens to panic! at the disco but specifically pre-split shhh dont tell anyone

- he DEFINITELY owns a kindle, or at least wants one

- this isnt just modern day but just a random hc i have of him but he probably has some form of dissociation (shhh im self reflecting dont judge me)

- has tiktok but is VERY private on it. he doesnt even have his name on it it just says “user7383383892920” or something along those lines

- also has tumblr and is semi-popular on it (like 5k followers). he mainly posts poetry and writing stuff

- also not a modern day hc just a random hc i have of him but he prefers cats over dogs

ok thats all!!!

[yandere-romanticaa]

I'm so fucking tired of seeing this big yandere blogs everywhere. All you people do is decimate and destroy beautifully crafted characters in favor of making them fit into the cheap yandere archetype.

18k followers is a big number but I don't know why so many people stick around.

I could answer this ask in so many ways, but I'll be nice and humor you.

Yes, there definitely is a surge in dark romance/yandere content these past few years, particularly on Booktok where the most popular books typically have a very messy and morally grey male lead, typically followed by an insane level of smut. Some of the criticisms on there are valid and I even find myself agreeing with them, this also includes yandere fanfiction.

However. The beauty of fanfiction is that you are allowed to ignore the canon. But, in order for fanfiction to work properly, the author needs to be familiar at least somewhat with the canon, accept that canon and then throw it out the window because why not.

The point of fanfiction is to have fun. Dark romance received a boom because people (god I hope so) understand that this shit would not fly in real life, and it's just easier to indulge in it in various forms of media.

You probably won't care for my answer because I have a suspicion that you're just here to be a hater. Regardless, I hope this ask perhaps helped you understand why people like this stuff so much.

[yandere-yearnings]

Hello! I just had an interesting thought while scrolling through BookTok lol

What if Sun just learned that the reader is secretly a popular dark romance author? He only just learned late into the relationship because you were somewhat embarrassed and scared of his reaction

hiii!! that's such an interesting concept nonnie, thank you for sharing such a wonderful thought from your booktok scroll🥺🩷

Before everything, before he's begins to pout at the secret being kept, before he asks you questions, before he gets excited that he can finally talk about the woes of writing with someone who'll actually understand — the first thing Sun does is read. Perhaps it may come as a surprise, but he's never even glanced at a standard romance before, so you're going to be his introduction to the entire genre.

He's pouring over every book you've ever written, holed up in his room with the lights dimmed to a comfortable orange. Every time you walk in, he looks up at you briefly and tries to say something but then just goes back to reading. He thinks the way you write is so pretty, but more than that, he's absolutely obsessed with the fact that he can see you and him playing out in every scene. These books were published long before you met, so he wonders if you felt serendipity in him like he did you.

If you have any newer releases, or titles you've worked on during the course of your relationship with him, he picks apart the prose like it'll keep him alive. Sun swears some of the things your characters say have been plucked right from conversations between the both of you. It makes his heart swell. He feels so proud. There's some sort of validation he gets from it, thinking that maybe you don't mind as much as he thinks you do when he gets a bit overbearing or loses his temper, you'll see him become a little less guilty and spaced out after arguments.

It's only when he's read every book at least seven times from cover to cover, that he finally starts to address the issue at hand. He understands the embarrassment, because sometimes he feels the exact same way with his works, but why were you scared? Do you really think you could ever do something that Sun wouldn't immediately praise you for? He's your number one fan, in every walk of life, and he'll make sure you know that well from now on.

Also, make no mistake, you and him are writing your next novels together.

[soracities]

hii! do you ever get into a huge reading slump? i would say ive been in one for about 3 years now and im desperate to escape it and read again but i cant find anything that's 'popular' enjoyable and have no idea where to start in finding content and books i actually enjoy by myself without tiktok or booktube 😭

Oh I've been in a particularly bad slump for at least 2 years so yes, absolutely! I think the key thing here is to try and remove the pressure off yourself as much as you can: don't look at every book you approach with the mindset of "THIS is will be the antidote to my reading slump" or "THIS novel will save me" because it will most likely stop you from actually enjoying the book: when you go in with such high expectations, you're also bringing a very distracting form of hyper-vigilance with you, waiting for the magic moment to hit, counting the pages until it does, being too conscious or worried when it doesn't in the way you envisioned it. It will turn reading into a chore, an endurance test which you either succeed or fail at, and this will only cement the slump further.

Everyone is different and I don't know what kind of books you like most, but the best thing I can advise is to go back before your slump and see what some of your favourite reads were. One way to ease back into reading is to revisit books you loved and read them again--this eliminates some of the pressure and I think it can also help rebuild that excitement because you know you're returning to familiar ground you've enjoyed before. That, or find other works by those same authors whose writing / style you liked and slowly expand from there. I don't log my reading through apps or websites anymore (and I stay away from booktok like the plague but that's a whole other conversation)--I have an ask on how I find my books here and I hope that helps too--but I've heard really good things about The Storygraph so if tiktok and booktube haven't done it for you, this might be a much better way to move towards books you actually enjoy because it's based on your preferences, not an influencer's or what an algorithm is pushing.

Whatever book you decide to try next, I would also advise you to start slow and / or small if that's what you need (more here)--don't force yourself to plow through several hundred pages in one sitting or 2 days. Sometimes breaking a slump is far more sustainable when you do it chip by chip, slowly, but consistently in a way that makes it less daunting than thinking you have to finish 2 novels every week. Something as simple as setting aside 15 minutes to read in bed before you go to sleep each night can do it. You can also look at audiobook versions, or short story collections in whatever genre it is you enjoy most!

Best of luck, anon, and I hope some of these answers will help 🤍

[lessnearthesun]

I think one of the problems with booktok (and there are many) isn’t that they’re reading YA books, it’s that they are 1) reading BAD YA books and 2) not reading anything else that challenges them. Because reading YA isn’t bad or doesn’t make you stupid. The problem is when you have grown adults who ONLY read books meant for teenagers and then go around proclaiming them literary masterpieces. I am a well-read young women who reads a wide variety of books, but you know what, I adore Six of Crows and The Hunger Games. I’d say that those are both genuinely well-written YA books with something to say, (especially THG) but even if they aren’t, that’s fine! Not everything has to make you contemplate life. But—and you can call me pretentious here if you want to—you should be at least occasionally reading things that make you think/match your level. Because no shit that people have bad reading comprehension skills and impose an absolute black and white morality on everything when they’re only reading Coleen Hoover or ACOTAR or whatever YA book is popular right now. And this isn’t to say that there aren’t good YA books, because there are. (SOC, The Hunger Games, and The Book Thief come to mind). The problem is just that those books are still for teenagers at the end of the day. You do need to challenge yourself just a little bit. Pick up Wuthering Heights or something. I don’t know! Maybe I’m just a pretentious bitch, but I’ve said my piece.

[bogkeep]

[now entering: the OPINION ZONE]

the way i feel about Booktok(tm), as a phenomenon, or maybe more as a weird miasma that is seeping through every bookstore i enter, is that we don't see eye to eye. i'm sure it's got a lot more variation and diversity than whatever weird takes bubble up to the surface for my tiktok-less self to stumble upon - mostly i just feel like my motivation for reading books is different than theirs. there is the occasional overlap in the Books I Enjoy / Big On Booktok venn diagram (which makes me feel very weird about those books but that's for me to sort out), but i cannot personally Trust a booktok recommendation, if that makes sense. either way, it's none of my business what other people like to read, and i think me and booktok can peacefully coexist in each our own spheres. (if all of this is completely incomprehensible to you i salute you and envy your peace of mind.)

anyway, a very fascinating discussion that keeps showing up recently is the phenomenon where popular booktok influencers admit to skipping paragraphs that are too long, or only reading the dialogue of a book, or performing shock at a printed book containing Too Many Words Per Page. what fascinates me is not so much that it is happening (though it DOES fascinate me), but how much people reacting to this struggle to explain exactly Why it's so aggravating.

like, i feel like the obvious takeaway is that these people are monetizing their alleged joy of reading, and then... don't? even like to read? that the consumerist aesthetic of Being A Reader is more profitable on a video platform than doing the due diligence of reviewing books properly? that the content machine marches on and if you're too slow you'll fall behind??

INSTEAD the discussion seems to center around the good old "oohh nooo people read BAD BOOKS instead of GOOD BOOKS and IT'S IMPORTANT TO CHALLENGE YOUR BRAINNN or else the MEDIA LITERACY....." and i'm sorry but i think this has been a moral panic for as long as we've had literature. media literacy has never had a golden age that i'm aware of. there's always been trashy romances that authors pump out on the monthly for easy consumption. capitalism is gonna value profit over quality for as long as it's in charge. people who read for fun are gonna read what they're gonna read, and they're gonna read it in the way they enjoy reading. i agree that reading Good Books is deeply fulfilling! but that is my personal and subjective experience that not everyone is going to share.

i think the reason i feel weird about the insistence that you Must, at least occasionally, Challenge Yourself while reading is that... i'm exhausted in my brain. too exhausted to challenge myself for fun. maybe it's a burnout thing. i really really get looking at a paragraph and finding it simply too much to absorb right now. my main method of getting through books these days is in audio format, even if i would personally prefer to read them visually (they'd stick to my brain better, i would see how names are spelled, sudden POV switches between paragraphs would be less confusing). but reading a book in text form is taking me weeks at best - unless it's a special kind of book that i can't help but devour immediately, sleep schedule be damned (which is another toll to pay). some books are just too complex and need too much focus for me to enjoy right now, so i keep having to goldilock my way to what feels Just Right. some books, i'm sure i'll get back to later. some i've made my peace with never picking up despite the fact that they feel Obligatory (my apologies to lord of the rings. i've Tried and i just can't do it). so like i GET IT. sometimes reading is too much.

what i Wish the discussion was more about, was instead finding ways to read that's enjoyable for you. there is literature and screen plays that are Only Dialogue. there's graphic novels. there's audiobooks and e-readers that let you change the font sizes. there's lots and lots and lots of fanfiction that's literally just banter and smut. there's no shame in reading what you enjoy! there's no shame in spending months on the same book! but i suppose it's not as ~Aesthetic~ as purchasing 10 editions of the same book series on amazon dot hell!!!!