BookTok is a fan community that is trending on TikTok and Instagram. BookTok is about people discussing about reviewing books and recommending them to new readers, and since I am a new reader to the community, I’m glad I’ve found a variety of books that I can find that I never discovered before. I like having categories or multiple genres together, such as having fantasy, sports or dark romance, crimes and thriller with mystery.
There can also be pros and cons to the community, for this reason, is that BookTok can give authors who are less-known opportunities to get chance of recognition and get free advertisement for their published novels, and capture new readers’ attention. Specifically for young adult readers, it helps them discover more about themselves and their identity of who they are or what they like, to feel and relate to a character, and helps readers to express their feelings that they don’t know how to explain.
However, many people on BookTok recommend romance books very often. The genre is so popular everywhere that this makes non-romance readers upset since most book reviewers on BookTok don’t have enough recommendations for diverse books. They either gatekeep them of what others are looking for. Many readers claim that the genre or the author is ruining the ethics of literature and that it is a “fake book”.
That being said, my personal opinion on a book to recommend, if you’re a poetry lover, this one is for you. “Letters to a Young Poet“ by Rainer Maria Rilke. An Austro-German poet, who explains his wisdom and insights into the art of poetry. The book is a collection of ten letters written by Rilke to a young aspiring poet, Franz Xaver Kappus, who hears Rilke’s advice on his poetry. The letters, written between 1903 and 1908, are not just about poetry but also about life, love, and the human experience.
Next, if you like YA crime thriller series, there is “A Good Girl’s Guide To Murder” by Holly Jackson. Five years ago, Andie Bell, a high schooler in Pippa’s village, was murdered by her boyfriend Sal Singh, but the body was never found. Pippa suspects it wasn’t an open-and-shut case and chooses to make a study of it for her final year project at school. Many readers love this one!
Junior Viviana Cruz Lozano has read the novel “Mexican Gothic”, by Silvia Moreno-Garcia. “It takes in all the aspects of Mexico City in the 1950s,” Cruz Lozano said. “I personally recommend it since it’s a good horror about a girl named Noemi Taboada in a haunted family mansion.”
Another book called “Night” by Elie Wiesel is an informative biography and nonfiction novel about Wiesel’s personal experience in the Holocaust. It is based in Germany and Romania and is a perfect literary book. “Personally, it is a good book because it gives information to people who don’t believe in the Holocaust or have no knowledge of it,” Cruz Lozano said. “It also represents all of the survivors during that time, and to forget that time is like killing all those prisoners again.”
However, there are always overhyped books.
Freshmen Araleece Garrett recently read a popular book that I have also been recommended from BookTok. “If He Had Been with Me“ by Laura Nowlin is a sad-emotional romance novel. “I liked it, but it wasn’t really a good ending,” Garrett said. “It kind of seemed rushed and very disappointing.”
Overall, give BookTok a chance but don’t be afraid to find recommendations from other sources.
