Whether you are an avid reader or forced to consume literature through English class, #BookTok may have come across your “for you” page in recent months. For those unfamiliar, “BookTok” is a rather large community on the app TikTok. Users typically rate and/or recommend novels they consider five-star reads.

“I used to just pick one randomly from the library, but in the past year TikTok has actually brought me to some of the books I love the most,” an anonymous student said.

What about these particular books is drawing in new and old readers alike? The common verdict is that they are generally easy reads. A good portion of #BookTok novels get into the details and drama fast to hook the reader early on. These novels are not only relatable but also follow many of the love tropes that we just can’t seem to get enough of. 57 percent of CHHS students and staff surveyed attested to buying books solely because they saw them on TikTok. This can also be similarly seen on the nationwide scale through book sales data.

“Helped by Hoover and other BookTok favorites, sales of adult fiction rose 4.6 percent in the first half of 2022,” Publishers Weekly reported.

Luckily, I am going to save you the time and trouble of sifting through hundreds of video clips or comment sections to find the next, or first, book for you. Not only that, but you can start saving your book-buying funds because our wonderful librarians, in an effort to meet students’ needs, have agreed to a BookTok addition to the library. Presented below, in no particular order, are the most popular BookTok authors and their bestselling novels.

Colleen Hoover
BookTok lovers know this one too well! Hoover is a New York Times bestselling American author and gained her popularity through writing in the romance genre. Her novels typically include perspective switches from both male and female perspectives. Her novels often seen as cliche, do also include heavier topics of abuse, miscarriages, and sexual assault before reaching the happy endings.
Top Pieces:
It Ends With Us (sequel to be published in Oct.)
Ugly Love
Reminders Of Him
Verity
Hopeless

Taylor Jenkins Reid
Another New York Times bestselling American author, Jenkins Reid is also known for being a romance author. She often writes about women’s issues, relationships, and marriage.
Top Pieces:
The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo
Daisy Jones & The Six
Malibu Rising
One True Loves
Maybe In Another Life

Celeste Ng
Harvard Alumni and New York Times bestselling American author, Ng (pronouced -ing) is newer to the author game with only two finished novels. However, quality beats quantity in her case. Her novels have themes of discrimination, the nature of justice, family, and mental health.
Top Pieces:
Everything I Never Told You
Little Fires Everywhere
Our Missing Hearts (to be published in Oct.)

E. Lockhart
Emily Jenkins, also known as E. Lockhart, is an American writer of children’s picture books, young-adult novels, and adult fiction. Her books often include topics of greed, competition, lies, loss, and romantic love vs. family love.
Top Pieces:
We Were Liars
Family of Liars
The Boyfriend List (series of three)
The Disputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks
Again Again

Kathleen Glasgow
Glasgow is a New York Times bestselling American author. She addresses topics like abuse, loss, addiction, mental health, self-harm, recovery, etc. Glasgow also dabbles in the mystery genre.
Top Pieces:
Girl in Pieces
The Agathas
You’d Be Home Now
How to Make Friends with the Dark

Haruki Murakami
Murakami is a Japanese writer with novels, essays, and short stories that have been bestsellers in not only Japan, but internationally. He is known for surrealism, and you can expect themes of love, loss, spirituality, redemption, and fate in his works. His stories never fail to have an underlying message.
Top Pieces:
Men Without Women
Kafka on the Shore
The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle
Norwegian Wood
Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage

Karen M. McManus
A New York Times bestselling American author, McManus made her name through her works of mystery and tragedy. She includes topics of love, loss, LGBT+, betrayal, and more.
Top Pieces:
One Of Us Is Lying (sequel One Of Us Is Next)
Nothing More To Tell
Cousins
Two Can Keep A Secret
You’ll Be The Death Of Me

Tiffany D. Jackson
Jackson is a New York Times Bestselling American author of young adult fiction and a horror filmmaker. Her books often cover abuse, grooming, trauma, racism, the justice system, and many other heavy topics.
Top Pieces:
Monday’s Not Coming
Grown
Allegedly
The Weight of Blood
Let Me Hear A Rhyme

Adam Silvera
Silvera is an American author of young adult fiction novels. He often tackles subject matters such as love, sexuality, mental health disorders, and loss. Silvera is also known for his witty dialogues and appeal to the LGBT+ community.
Top Pieces:
They Both Die In The End (sequel to be published 2023)
What If It’s Us (sequel Here’s To Us)
History Is All You Left Me
More Happy Than Not
Infinity Son

Rachel Lynn Soloman
A New York Times bestselling American author, Solomon is known best for writing romance. Her books do touch on mental health and many raw emotions, but typically are more low-angst.
Top Pieces:
We Can’t Keep Meeting Like This
See You Yesterday
Weather Girl
Today Tonight Tomorrow
You’ll Miss Me When I’m Gone

Honorable Mentions: Singles
A Breath Too Late by Rocky Callen
A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara
Everything I Know About Love by Dolly Atherton
Into the Drowning Deep by Seanan McGuire
Punk 57 by Penelope Douglas
The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides
The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller
Traces of Guilt by Dee Henderson
Stolen by Lucy Christopher
Where The Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens

Honorable Mention: Series
A Good Girls Guide to Murder by Holly Jackson (series of three)
The Inheritance Games by Jennifer Lynn Barnes (series of three)
A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas (series of five)
Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas (series of eight)
Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi (series of eleven)

We want to hear how you feel about these reads! Leave your BookTok takes or any other recommendations in the comments!