The influence and activities of recent times have proved time and again how the use of social media platforms has exploded into everyone’s lives, becoming a major part of them. It takes into its bright light of screens the happenings and occurrences of everyday lives, turning them into something greater by connecting people beyond borders and nations. But if this connectivity turns trivialities into broader horizons, or rather narrows them down, it is an interesting yet difficult question to answer because none of those involved in such groups and communities have their virtual weapons ready to defend themselves. Which is to say, social media trends have taken a huge consumption of life and activities that define life’s perspectives.

One of the major sides of social media has been occupied by that of the reading community, or what is popularly called “BOOKTOK,” which has quite crucially glorified reading, a once silent habit, and has brought into the limelight many new books along with new authors and even new techniques of reading. 2025 till now has seen the highest BookTok posts, being 56 million in its total count till the month of July across various platforms. Which is quite high already in comparison to last year’s unspecified data of a total collection of 29.5 million posts under the BookTok hashtag, according to the Times Now reports. This huge jump is visual and statistical proof of how BookTok has only intended to grow rapidly, giving new readers and new writers an equal space to grow along.

BookTok was a popularized trend during the very claustrophobic times of lockdown. Yet, ever since the lockdown has been lifted, the already cool trend has been welcomed into a mass-approved taste. Against expectations of a decline, it is still continuing to grow today. According to Goodreads, the ones that have been received positively in the BookTok community include Onyx Storm by Rebecca Yarros, Sunrise on the Reaping by Suzanne Collins, Great Big Beautiful Life by Emily Henry, The Crash by Freida McFadden, Deep End by Ali Hazelwood, Atmosphere by Taylor Jenkins Reid, Beautiful Ugly by Alice Feeney, Say You Will Remember Me by Abby Jimenez, Fearless by Lauren Roberts, Wild Dark Shore by Charlotte McCoughney, One Golden Summer by Carley Fortune, The Tenant by Freida McFadden, First-Time Callers by B.K. Borrison and My Friends by Friedrich Backman. The 2024 list was a similar kind of popular list.

What this list gives clarity about is that one single genre that has been gathering more and more attention every year, being romance, followed by fantasy. However, the evolution of these genres is only limited to their commercialized aspect more than their literary popularity. For with the growing demand of these popularized genres, authors find it easy to deliver what they have already done, knowing which words and which plotline could keep them hooked. The result? The same kind of storyline with the same kind of characters chasing through a mildly modified plot. Which leads to a lack of freshness in the literary sphere. When demand multiplies, the quality doesn’t. Why these genres are popular could also have a different approach. Because reading them is easier, and they provide a rapid escape for the readers, allowing them to indulge in their comfortable experiences.

Most of the books in that list are also parts of a reading series. The extension of plotlines and the hanging endings of each book from the series make sure that each successive book is read with the same thrill, and that the series gets more vivid attention with each new publication. This marketplace strategy has been in place ever since the division between “highbrow” and “lowbrow” came into existence in literature. But with the rapid popularization of BookTok, this strategy has also evolved into digital platforms. One might have an opinion that a major part of BookTok belongs to the side of popular literary discourse. And it has been glorified to such an extent that commercialization has become the only tool. Another compelling side of BookTok is that it creates weekly and monthly reading challenges to engage the readers, which makes sure that the community keeps growing. These challenges were initially only shaped to keep the reading habit in check, and doubtlessly, it has done so. Until it became a performance to fit in regarding those challenges itself more than the act of reading.

Literature was always meant to reflect on a greater social and individualistic aspect. It was meant to have not just one but various analyses. What BookTok has achieved is the fact that the stories only reflect an escapist attitude and nothing less than that, along with narrowing down the aspects into a single collective of views and reviews. 

Every trait it exhibits becomes a greater characteristic of the popular literary discourse. It is a collective social taste, but the validity of independence there is not justifiable. One reader is dependent upon another, and the whole chain is dependent upon the market, which also drives authors to exhaust the same kind of plots to such a level that they become problematic. It could never be ignored how BookTok had hugely glorified some controversial writers and the famous scandal of dark-romance plotlines as literature. A reader could possibly think that BookTok was meant to preserve literature and the habit of reading. But how far it has succeeded in doing so is unclear because it has all become a never-ending TREND. 

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