TikTok has allowed many niche communities to form—for better or worse.
One of these communities, known as BookTok, has created a space where lovers of a certain kind of book, often of the romance variety, can find common ground. Or not.
With the popularity of this online community, authors have written and published books of all kinds that appeal to its membership. This has led book retailers like Barnes & Noble to curate sections of books that are popular among BookTok creators in stores.
Recently, an author has taken to social media to criticize the move—albeit in a roundabout way.
Augustine Archer (@author.agustine.archer on Instagram), an author herself, criticized the retailer for its curated arrangement of #BookTok titles. Her Reel has drawn over 748,000 views in just over a week.
The video shows a table in the book store, with stacks of a variety of books clustered around a sign that simply reads “#BookTok.”
“I’m so glad that they put warning sign up for these books at B&N!” a text overlay on the video reads.
In the video’s comment section, the poster elaborates that the sign above the books is “like a stop sign.”
The Daily Dot has reached out to Archer via Instagram direct message, as well as to Barnes & Noble via email regarding the video.
What is BookTok?
BookTok is a community of content creators on TikTok that share their love for books and literature. The community has since spilled over the app into retailers, where the label is used to associate books that are popular topics of discussion among these posters. It’s almost like an extended book club.
Why is BookTok controversial?
Over the years, BookTok content creators and titles that fall into this online sphere have been the topic of hefty criticism.
As with many social media-driven industries, critics of the movement have found many faults with books that gain traction in this community. The primary concern comes from the quality of the writing, as authors work to meet the page-turning demands of creators and avid readers alike.
However, the movement has also been praised for its ability to bring readers back to the familiar habit after a dry spell, partially because of a downfall pointed out by critics. That is, books caught in the stream of titles flowing through the BookTok sphere are often thought to be easy to read and simply written.
Other concerns about BookTok include a lack of diversity among characters, the similarity of plot lines between different titles, and the potentially vapid nature of the stories being told.
Viewers weigh in
Several commenters took issue with the framing of Archer’s video, that BookTok and associated titles are inherently worth steering clear of.
“I don’t understand why we’re demonizing people reading,” one commenter wrote. “More people are reading because of booktok! Isn’t that a good thing?”
“Who cares if you think they are ‘bad books’.” another said. “If people enjoy reading them, let them read.”
“Oh, I thought everyone got the memo about leaving the judgey book mentality behind in 2024,” a third said.
Others were in agreement with the poster, viewing the video as more of a joke. They said the intent was more to criticize the quality of the books themselves.
“I think some people don’t realize this is a joke making fun of booktok and booktok users for blowing up the worst books possible,” one commented. “Clearly some popular books on social media are very good and well written (Caraval, Shatter Me, OUABH, Six Of Crows so I’ve heard, etc.)”
“If you feel attacked by a 2 sec reel making a joke for those who choose NOT to read the majority of those books, perhaps that’s a you problem and you should maybe practice some introspection on why you feel that way,” another wrote.
“For people asking why they’re bad it’s because they’re all the same plot with different character names,” a further user said. “There isn’t a single original thought on that damned table there. A handful are good, the rest are badly written smut.”
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